Three Cowboys

Chapter Five

“They’re not keeping her on the alpaca ranch.” Elena set a cup of coffee in front of Wyatt and pulled out a notepad. “Are you ready to order?”

If he hadn’t helped her transform herself into the cantina waitress himself, he might not have recognized her. Long, black hair extensions gave her a thick, wavy mane, and dramatic makeup and a low-cut peasant blouse erased almost all resemblance to the ICE agent who spent most of her time in conservative business suits. Inside the purse she wore bandolier style over her neck and shoulders, her Smith & Wesson M&P40 lay nestled in a built-in holster. He’d bought the purse the day before from a gun shop in Serpentine.

He hadn’t liked her suggestion that she get a job in Los Soldados, fearing she’d put herself too obviously in the line of fire. She had chosen this particular undercover setup, and after reading through her copious notes, kept in a password-protected web archive Elena had set up to protect her notes from exactly the kind of destruction that had happened to her house earlier that week, Wyatt couldn’t really argue.

Los Jaguares were known for their womanizing. Who better than a sexy woman to get the goods on them? So far, members of Los Jaguares who’d come through the cantina hadn’t looked any higher than her cleavage. He supposed there was something to the idea of hiding in plain sight.

He was doing a bit of that himself, playing tourist from somewhere up North. The Western shirt he’d bought at one of the shops in Serpentine that catered to tourists was too ornate and obvious to ever pass as authentic Texas gear. His jeans were too new and too tight, and he wore his most expensive pair of running shoes instead of boots.

He’d even gelled up his hair, at his brother Morgan’s suggestion, and borrowed his father’s horn-rimmed reading glasses, though he spent most of his time looking over the tops of the rims because the view through the lenses was a blur.

“I’ll have a Buffalo Burger and Texas fries,” he ordered, mimicking his brother Morgan’s neutral accent and hoping his Texas twang wasn’t bleeding through. Lowering his voice, he added, “Then where are they keeping her?”

“My shift ends at one. Stick around and I’ll pretend I’m taking a tourist home for a little Texas hospitality.” She winked at him and went to turn his order in.

He waited patiently, enduring the badly spiced abomination Avalina’s Cantina called a Buffalo Burger and, more annoying, at least three attempts by customers to grope Elena as she took their orders.

She came back near the end of her shift, bending close enough that he could see right down her shirt. Wicked woman wasn’t wearing a bra, he realized, heat flushing through his body. He looked up and saw laughter in her eyes. “Tip me big, fella, and you might get lucky.” She flashed him a flirtatious smile.

He added a twenty to the bill and caught her hand as she started toward the back of the bar. “You get off any time soon, gorgeous?”

She pretended to consider her answer. “Five minutes. You have something in mind?”

He rose and whispered in her ear. “I’m seeing a whole new side of you, Vargas.”

She laughed softly. “My side isn’t what you were looking at a minute ago.” She patted his cheek. “Stick around till my shift is over and I’ll show you around town, gringo.”

He waited around outside the cantina until she emerged, stuffing something into the pocket of her skirt. She feigned surprise at finding him waiting. “You waited, hermoso!” she exclaimed, loud enough to be heard by passersby. “You have a car? Maybe something big and powerful like you?”

She was laying it on thick, he thought, his concern for her tempering his amusement a bit. He showed her to his father’s Mercedes coupe, which he’d talked the old man into letting him borrow, and opened the passenger door for her.

Once he was safely behind the closed car door, he asked, “Where is Calderón keeping Brittany?”

“There’s apparently some sort of enclave on the Mexican side of the border, about three miles from the packing plant. The people at the cantina say he must have found himself a young concubina, because lately he’s been sending lackeys into town to buy tampons, soft drinks and chocolate bars.”

“So how do we get in there and get my sister?”

“From what I heard just today, the place is always under guard.” As she spoke, Wyatt saw her gaze drift toward the side mirror of her door. He’d been checking the rearview mirror himself, in case they were being followed. So far, he hadn’t spotted anything suspicious.

“Wonder why they shared all this information with you on your first day at work,” he said.

“I was suspicious about that at first, too, but it didn’t take long to figure out most of these people are genuinely afraid of Calderón and his thugs. They were trying to watch out for me, best I can tell. Pointed out the men I’d want to stay away from. I didn’t tell them that I have pictures of most of those bastards hanging on my office wall.”

“You’re either brave or crazy going in there right under their noses.”

“Yeah, their noses never got out of my cleavage long enough to be a threat,” she drawled. “I think we have to go ahead with the plan for the exchange. Tell them you can hand me over and see if you can talk them into letting you see your sister.”

“And then I just hand you over?”

“ICE has been trying to get people on the inside for ages. We might never get a better chance than this.”

“You think he’s just going to hold you there? Let you learn all his secrets?” Wyatt shook his head. “Elena, he tried to kill you two days ago. If he gets you in his sights, he’ll pull the trigger.”

“Not if I offer to be his eyes and ears at ICE.”

“You think he’ll believe you?”

“I made a stink about being put on mandatory vacation. If there’s a mole inside ICE, and I’m pretty sure there is, Calderón already knows I’m crossways with ICE. I might be able to convince him I want payback for how they’re treating me.”

“But the second you go back to ICE and tell them what you’re doing, the mole’s going to know you’re a double agent.”

She shook her head. “Who says I’m going back to ICE?”

She’d lost her mind. Maybe that concussion had been worse than she thought. “You can’t go rogue.”

“Nobody in this part of Texas will ever be safe as long as Calderón’s running drugs through here and sending his murder squads to keep people terrified.” Elena’s expression darkened. “It’s got to stop.”

He wanted to argue with her, to beg her to reconsider. But he knew it would do no good. Elena was right. Calderón’s reign of terror had been going on far too long as it was.

But he didn’t intend to let her make the sacrifice to bring it to an end.

Elena had booked a low-rate room at a local motel for the duration of their plan, giving them a base of operations and somewhere to rest. The room was small but it had two beds, giving Wyatt a place to stay as well.

“I don’t normally pick up guys at cantinas,” Elena said, a smile in her voice, as she unlocked the motel room door to let them inside. “But you were awfully cute, gringo, and you tip well....”

He closed the door behind them. “You enjoy playing with fire, Vargas?”

“Sometimes,” she answered seriously.

“You know I want you. Don’t you?”

She nodded. “I want you, too.”

He shook his head. “You’ve hid it pretty well.”

“I know.” She stepped closer, her finger plucking at the top button of his shirt. “I’ve made mistakes where men are concerned. Very big mistakes. I don’t want to make another one.”

“And you think I’m a mistake?”

She flattened her hands against his chest and looked up at him, her dark eyes shining with a curious combination of excitement and fear. “I don’t know. I don’t trust my instincts about men anymore.” She pushed away from him and sat on the edge of the nearest bed, sliding her shoes off and rubbing her feet. “Been a long time since I waited tables. I forgot what hell it could be on your feet.”

He sat next to her and patted his lap. “Put your feet up here and I’ll see if I can rub out the kinks.”

She shot him a look of pure suspicion but did as he said. “Is this part of your sneaky plan to seduce me?”

He massaged her instep, electricity zinging through him as she threw her head back in pleasure. “Is it working?”

“Yes it is, you bastard.”

He laughed softly. “I hate to bring work into this very promising situation, but we can’t wait much longer. The deadline is approaching quickly. Christmas is the day after tomorrow.”

“Raul Santiago is Calderón’s main enforcer in Los Soldados,” Elena told him. “If you want to talk to Calderón, you have to go through him.”

“You learned a lot in one day of waitressing.”

“Mmm-hmm,” she murmured, her eyes fluttering shut as he started caressing the ball of her foot. “You should really reconsider careers, cowboy. You could make a fortune massaging feet for a living.”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty picky about my clientele. And my terms of payment,” he added, moving his hand up her ankle to her calf.

She opened her eyes and shot him with a scorching look. “Are we going to have sex?”

He couldn’t hold back a soft laugh. “You’re such a romantic, Vargas.”

“I just need to know what you’re expecting from me.”

Her question caught him flat-footed. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t strike me as a guy who does one-night stands, Wyatt. And I’m not sure I can promise anything more than that.”

She was right. He wasn’t a player. And one night with Elena wouldn’t be nearly enough. But could he walk away from the possibility just to hold out for something more, something she might never be able to give him?

“If you have to think about it this hard, it’s probably a bad idea.” Elena swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, pacing to the front window of the motel room. “Santiago’s sleeping with one of the waitresses at the cantina. I might be able to use that to get you a meeting with him.”

“You think she’d be willing to set it up?”

“I could tell her you’re a middle man to the drug gangs in the North and Midwest. You’re willing to be Calderón’s distributor to markets he’d have trouble breaking into otherwise.”

The story might be enough to tempt Calderón, or at least his henchman, into meeting Wyatt in public. He could then make the offer to trade Elena for Brittany. But he still had no intention of letting Elena go so far as to leave Los Soldados with Calderón.

“She’s working through the afternoon,” Elena said, putting a jacket on over her low-cut blouse. “I can see if she’ll set it up. I’ll just tell her the guy I picked up did a little business talking in between the pillow talking.” She winked at him.

Damn, but he wanted her. Right here in this flea hole of a motel room, on the table, on the sink, on the bed, up against the wall. He could already imagine how she’d feel under him, skin to skin. Soft and hard, sweet and tart, difficult and easy. All the things she was outside of bed, all those delicious contradictions that had fascinated him from the moment he’d crossed swords with her on a joint task force border-breach case almost two years ago, she would bring with her into bed. A challenge like none he’d ever come across, with a promise of reward beyond anything he’d ever known he wanted.

But one taste, one brief taste, would never be enough. And if that’s all she had to offer—

“What are you thinking about, cowboy?” She turned to look at him, her coal eyes smoldering.

“What it would feel like to be inside you,” he answered honestly. “And if I could be satisfied with just one night.”

She stared at him for a long moment before she turned back to the window. “I thought I’d found forever once.”

He knew an important concession when he heard one. He prodded carefully, afraid to spook her into silence. “You did?”

She nodded, her throat bobbing as she seemed to search for words. “It was almost three years ago. I was still working undercover for ICE and I managed to get really close to the edge of Calderón’s operation.”

“How?” he asked, surprised.

“Through his brother Tonio.”

“Honey trap?”

She turned to look at him, her expression raw. “I fell in love with him. Or, at least, who I thought he was.”

The pain in her eyes made his gut clench in sympathy. “Oh.”

“I knew trusting anyone connected to Calderón was dangerous, but Tonio was very convincing. He was educated, urbane, charming—all the things Calderón isn’t. He had me convinced he hated his brother’s crimes and wanted to restore honor to his family name.”

“And you believed it.”

She turned away. “Stupid, I know.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid to want to trust someone you care about,” Wyatt disagreed, thinking about his mother, Jeanne. She’d loved his father, even when he’d been fooling around on her. She’d put up with a lot of pain and humiliation to keep the family together. She’d wanted to believe Justice’s promises that he’d stick to the straight and narrow this time.

Who knows, maybe one day he would have. He was certainly a changed man now. Now, when Wyatt’s mother was dead and no longer able to enjoy who he’d become. But if anyone in that scenario was foolish, it was Justice, not Wyatt’s mother.

“It was such a risk to take,” Elena growled. “I never should have been arrogant enough to think I could take it and win.”

“What if you’d been right about him? You might have found the love of your life.”

“But I wasn’t right. And I didn’t. I ended up shooting a man I loved because he was going to kill me and another agent.” She leaned her head against the window. “I can’t trust my instincts where men are concerned. I clearly have no judgment.”

“Because of one mistake?”

“A mistake that ended with one man dead, another wounded badly enough to be forced out of his job, and a dangerous drug lord gunning for me.” She laughed bleakly. “I don’t do things halfway.”

“No, you don’t,” he agreed, pushing off the bed and crossing to stand beside her. He curved his palms over her cheeks and drew her gaze up to meet his. “But maybe that also means when you make the right choice, it’s going to be one hell of a good decision.”

Cocking her head, she grinned at him. “You are entirely too nice a guy to be hanging around with a curmudgeon like me, Wyatt McCabe.”

He grimaced. “Shh, don’t say that. You’ll ruin my bad-boy mystique.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head against his chest. “Are you sure you want to take on Calderón head-to-head? He might enjoy taking out a Texas sheriff just for the reputation it’ll give him.”

“He wants access to my father’s land. If he kills me, he’ll never get it.”

“Are you sure he’ll be thinking that logically? It’s not exactly wise business to blow up an ICE agent.” She rubbed her cheek against his chest, making his heart rate climb. “The world needs more Wyatt McCabes, not fewer. If you’re going to do this, I need to be nearby.”

“Not a good idea. If anyone takes a good look at you, they’re going to see through that makeup and those hair extensions.”

“So I won’t let anyone take a good look at me.” The firm tone in her voice was like a roadblock, Wyatt knew. Nothing would get through her steely determination once she’d made a decision. She’d be there, having his back, whether he liked it or not.

“Okay,” he said, though he wasn’t happy about it. “But you stay under the radar.”

She pulled back and looked at him. “Pretty bossy for sheriff of a tiny little Texas town, cowboy.”

“I just want to keep you alive,” he said seriously, making her smile fade. “When I saw that bomb go off with you inside the house—”

She put her fingers over his lips. “Don’t get all mushy on me. I don’t think I can take it.”

Cradling her face between his palms again, he kissed her lightly, more a promise than a challenge. “Let’s see if we can get this meeting set up today. The sooner the better.”

She squeezed his hands and let go. “Take me back to the cantina.”