Texas Ranger Colter Blackthorn shifted his borrowed Dodge Challenger into Park and left the engine running, the heater combating the near-freezing temperatures of an El Paso winter evening.
Pulling his neck to one side, he stretched the tight muscles and scanned the front of the small strip mall. The reflection of Christmas lights danced on the windows of the few cars in the lot as the center neared closing time. Somewhere in the distance a speaker piped “White Christmas” to the handful of shoppers rushing along the sidewalk on their last few days of preparation before the holiday hit full force.
He let his gaze linger on the store closest to him, on the end near the main road. Nothing moved in the shadows behind the building, but a figure moved inside by the front window, pausing to reposition a blanket beneath the D in Mexican Artifacts and Crafts by Danielle.
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. It had to be her.
“Colt.” The voice shot through his earpiece. Ranger Austin Brewer’s voice was tight, not with anger, but with concern. “If you need to wave off, then let Major Vance know now, before you go in. We can send somebody—”
“I’m fine.” His voice came out more clipped than he’d meant it to, but really, he didn’t need to be babied. He was no rookie. This wasn’t his first time undercover, and it wasn’t as though he was going deep. All he had to do was confirm that the woman pretending to be Danielle Segovia was indeed Adriana Garcia.
The sister of notorious cartel boss Rio Garcia had been a proverbial thorn in the Rangers’ sides since she’d broken ties with her brother and gone to ground. Intel said Adriana Garcia had stolen an antique watch from her brother before disappearing, one that contained a key to a storage unit housing millions in cocaine and heroin—a storage unit that was empty when the Rangers raided it. When her brother Rio discovered what she’d done, he’d gone on a rampage that had brought in the elite Texas Ranger Reconnaissance Team to bring both Garcias to justice. With their training and undercover capabilities, the team was the best option for the job.
Battling Rio had been more than enough to keep them busy since the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. The man crossed the border at will, always managing to evade capture, and he kept a steady supply of drugs flowing, as well. Intel said he was furious with his sister and would take her back by any means necessary. When crossed, he was a vicious killer, which made finding Adriana even more important and made this mission even more dangerous.
As much as they needed to protect Adriana Garcia—and hopefully convince her to supply evidence against her brother—the Rangers also had to stop her before she started distributing the drugs from that warehouse. If she got a toehold in the drug trade in the States and started trafficking, things were going to get uglier than they already were. West Texans would not only be preyed upon by a new drug kingpin in their midst, but they’d be caught in a blood feud between a sister and brother who’d already proven themselves to be cold-blooded killers.
As far as Colt was concerned, tonight was the beginning of the Garcias’ end.
“You still there?”
Colt had been quiet for too long. If he wasn’t careful, Austin would have him pulled before he could do his job. “Getting into character. Adriana is smart. She’s going to be looking for us.”
“Well, then you’d better stop thinking of her as Adriana Garcia and start thinking of her as Danielle Segovia, or you’re going to slip up.”
True. Colt glanced at the phone in his hand, where a picture of a woman looked up at him, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders. Large brown eyes stared intently at the camera as she posed for a passport photo. The man in him said, under other circumstances, she’d be gorgeous.
The Ranger in him couldn’t stomach the thought. All he wanted was to clasp handcuffs around her wrists and see her carted away. Forever.
Austin, of all people, should realize how important tonight was. This investigation’s violence had personally touched him. Austin’s fiancée, Border Patrol Agent Kylie Perry, had developed a bond with one of her informants, Valentina Hernandez, providing a college education in exchange for information. When Rio had the woman executed as a traitor, Valentina had left her baby Mercedes for Kylie to raise. No one had been ready for the chaos that ensued when the baby’s father, a low-level henchman in Garcia’s cartel, learned who had his daughter. Kylie, Austin, and Mercedes had all nearly paid the ultimate price.
They had survived...but Greg hadn’t, thanks to Adriana. Yes, it was true that Colt’s best friend Greg Gunn had turned his back on his oath as a Border Patrol officer and had aided the cartel—but that didn’t mean he deserved to die.
The evidence of Greg’s death in that warehouse pointed straight back to the woman who called herself Danielle Segovia, standing in a shop across the parking lot, hopefully enjoying her last few days of freedom.
“You’re sure you can handle this?”
Definitely. Colt was as deeply invested in this as anyone. “Who else would we send anyway? She’s seen Brent before. Alvarez is missing...” And if anything had happened to Ranger Carmen Alvarez, who’d recently vanished while undercover in the cartel, the whole team would make sure Adriana Garcia saw prison walls for the rest of her life. “The rest of the team is tied up elsewhere or lacks the experience to pull this off. It’s me or nobody.”
Austin huffed through the earpiece. “Listen. Greg was my friend, too. I nearly lost Kylie. You’re angry. You want justice. We all do. You can’t—”
“I’ll call when I’m clear.” Tapping the small button on the device, Colt ripped it from his ear and tossed it into the cup holder. He was tired of talking about Greg and how he’d sold himself out to the cartel. Tired of wondering when the other shoe would drop.
Tired of second-guessing his own instincts. For years, they’d gotten him where he needed to be. Until recently. He’d blown