Thanksgiving Protector, page 9
More shots were fired at Austin as he exited the building. Austin returned fire. The man who had fought him inside rammed into him again, knocking him to the ground and causing the gun to fly out of his hand.
More shots were fired around Austin as he struggled to get the first suspect under control. The man dug his teeth into Austin’s forearm. Pain shot all the way up his arm. This guy really liked biting.
Austin landed a hit to the man’s face and then to his stomach. The man curled up to protect himself from more blows. Austin scrambled to his feet. He searched the ground for his gun but found nothing.
More shots rang in his ears. Austin sought cover inside the building. He picked up a piece of wood to use as a weapon.
Silence fell all around him like a shroud. He pressed against the wall. The gunfire was from close by. Judging from the sound, the shooter was using a handgun.
The man he’d fought with outside, the biter, groaned and crawled toward the shelter of the defunct car. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t recover and come after Austin again.
Two against one, and he was without a radio or a gun.
Austin breathed in a prayer for protection as he strategized. Running away was not an option. He needed to stand his ground. One way or another, he was going to take in one of these guys for questioning. He didn’t want this night to be a waste.
He slumped down to the floor and raised his head so he could see above the windowsill. The shooter had to be fairly close. This part of the desert provided only a few places he could be hiding.
He peered inside the car. The first man, the biter, was gone. The building creaked as a gust of wind shot across the flat terrain. Metal bent by the wind made an eerie noise that sounded almost like a scream.
Austin settled in. The goons clearly were not leaving until he was dead. He would wait them out until their defenses were down or until Brent and Colt could get here. Or...he could come up with an offensive plan.
His shoulder and his arm stung where the first suspect had bit him. What a dirty tactic. He studied the area by the old car where he must have dropped his gun.
The night vision goggles were across the room, and could easily have been damaged when they were thrown on the floor. He dared not risk giving away his position by crawling around chasing after something that might be inoperable.
He searched for his gun. The moonlight caught no glint of metal in the dust. He wasn’t sure where the biter had gone. What if the biter had found Austin’s gun?
The seconds ticked by.
Austin had a thought. If the shooter was low on ammo, why not make him use it up? Making himself a target would be risky, but each shot would give the man’s position away.
It was worth a try. Austin burst out of the gas station and ran toward the other building. His heart raced as he willed his feet to move faster. A single shot was fired close to his leg. Austin ran into what used to be someone’s home.
A shredded curtain blew in the wind. A mattress lay in the corner of the room. He heard rustling noises that were probably mice scrambling for cover.
He realized now his foolishness in not working with his team. He had a rabid sense of justice when it came to getting the drug runners but in this particular case, something else was driving him even more. This war had become more personal to him. Innocents like Mercedes were caught up in it.
He never liked it when bad things happened to kids. He identified too closely with them because of his own abusive childhood. Thinking of that little girl, seeing Kylie so tortured over the choices she had to make, took his need to put as many of these men in jail as he could to a whole new level.
The one shot had allowed him to pinpoint where the first shooter was. Smart snipers knew to shoot and move, shoot and move. This guy wasn’t the greatest shot. Maybe he didn’t use sniper tactics.
Austin made his way to the back of the house where two old cars, a Jeep and a truck rusted away. He slipped around the side. Once he was back on the front side of the house, he’d be exposed as he ran toward the first bush. The unknowns here were where the biter had gone and if he’d found Austin’s gun.
Austin burst up and ran toward the first cluster of brush. His feet pounded the earth; his whole body was tensed, ready for a fight. Still no shots.
As he drew near the bush, he saw shadows and heard footsteps moving away from him. The shooter was on the run. Austin willed his legs to pump faster. In the dark, he caught flashes of a light-colored hoodie.
Austin leaped through the air and landed on the back of the running man. The impact as they hit the ground jolted him to life. Adrenaline raged through him like wildfire.
The two men wrestled, alternating who was on top. Austin nailed him with a hit to his face that seemed to stun him enough to give Austin the advantage.
“Roll over on your stomach. You’re under arrest.”
“For what? I’m an American citizen.”
“Shooting at a police officer is a crime no matter where you’re from.” He cuffed the man. “And I think that we probably have enough evidence to link you to the drug run we interrupted.”
“Oh, give me a break. I was out enjoying the desert evening. You assaulted me.”
Austin rolled his eyes. Great, he’d just arrested a closet lawyer. “I’m not the one who sorts that out. My job is to take you in. Now get up on your feet.”
He heard a clicking sound off to the side and then a commanding voice. “I don’t think so, my friend.”
Though he was shrouded in shadows, the biter aimed a gun, Austin’s gun, right at Austin’s head.
The man with the gun grinned sadistically. “I fear that it is over for you, amigo. Lights out.”
* * *
Kylie scanned the dark terrain as she sat behind the wheel of the border patrol SUV. Against orders, she’d left the station and gone to search for Austin. She spotted two buildings and an old road up ahead. She pressed the accelerator.
She’d caught up with Colt and Brent who were also searching for their friend. His radio had gone black ten minutes ago. The news had knocked the breath out of her.
Kylie clicked off her headlights as she approached the dilapidated structures. The buildings would be a good place for a fugitive to hide. She killed the engine and slipped out of her vehicle. As she approached the buildings from the back, she saw a rusty Jeep and truck.
Kylie cleared both vehicles as possible hiding places and then slipped inside what appeared to be an abandoned house. Careful to keep her back to a wall to avoid an ambush, she checked the two main rooms.
Gunfire jolted her attention to outside the house. Heart pounding, she raced outside. She couldn’t see anything, but she heard the sound of men wrestling, of blows being struck.
She ran toward the noise, aiming her gun at the moving shadows. “Border patrol. Put your hands up.”
She heard footsteps pounding, at least one man getting away.
“Kylie.”
Austin’s voice was a welcome sound. She ran toward where he was sitting on the ground.
Out of breath, he paused between each word. “Two of them.” He pointed each hand in a different direction. “You take that one.” He pointed to the east and pushed himself to his feet, wobbling a bit. “He’ll be slowed down. He’s in cuffs.”
She took off running, knowing that Austin would chase the other fugitive. She heard the culprit before she saw him. He stumbled and fell to the ground, releasing a string of curses.
She caught up to him, reached down and pulled him to his feet. She led him back through the brush to her SUV. Once he was secure in the back seat, she shone a flashlight on him. Not Ibarra. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
Austin returned, out of breath. “I lost the other one.”
“We’ve got this one to question,” she said.
Austin turned from side to side and then ran his fingers through his hair. “Thanks for coming for me. I could hug you for that.”
His comment caught her off guard. “We’ll save the warm fuzzy moment for later.” Maybe a hug from Austin wouldn’t be a bad thing. She shone her flashlight on him. “You’re bleeding.”
He glanced at his shoulder and his forearm. “The one that got away likes to bite.”
“Weird. Let me fix that up for you.” She circled around the car and pulled her first aid kit out from underneath the passenger seat. When she looked up, the suspect in cuffs glared at her. He sneered at her and made a lewd comment in Spanish.
“I’m not the one in handcuffs,” she said.
She opened up the hatch on the SUV so Austin could sit.
“I was stupid tonight,” he said. “I ran off without Colt and Brent to back me up.”
She placed her hand underneath his forearm, wiped away the dried blood and applied the disinfectant. “That makes two of us. I’m supposed to be watching the monitors.”
His skin was warm to the touch. She bent close enough to see the bite marks. Close enough to feel his body heat and hear his breathing.
He reached out and touched her forearm with his uninjured hand. “Thanks.”
The word seemed to echo in her head, which felt like it was filled with helium. “It’s what we do, right?” She made momentary eye contact as invisible heat sparked between them. More than anything, she wanted him to lean close, to kiss her.
His hand brushed over her cheek.
Letting go of his forearm, she grabbed the bandage from the kit and tore the package open. Feeling the weight of his gaze on her electrified her skin and made her heart pound.
What was happening to her? She shook free of the moment and handed him the bandage. “You can put that on yourself.”
Touching Austin Rivers, being so close to him, had loosened the lid on a Pandora’s box of out-of-control emotions. She wasn’t sure if she liked that or not.
Feeling the heat between them falling away, she scooted the first aid kit toward him. “You can get your shoulder. I want to talk to this suspect.”
“Sure.” He glanced at her and then looked away.
Had he felt the same spark that had ignited her senses?
Kylie grabbed her Toughbook computer and pressed the power button.
“I’m an American citizen,” said the suspect.
“That’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card. You were in the vicinity of where drugs were being trafficked.” She nodded toward Austin. “And I suspect he has a few charges he could add to that.”
She clicked through her computer until Miguel Ibarra’s photograph came up. “Do you know this man?”
Kylie watched the man’s reaction to the photo. Even in the dim light, she caught a flash of recognition.
“What if I do?” The man drew his mouth into a tight hard line.
Anger surged through her. The safety of a little girl depended on her putting Ibarra behind bars. The nerve of this man to toy with her. His sheer arrogance caused the muscles in the back of her neck to knot up.
She swallowed her ire and spoke in a calm voice. “Tell me what you know about him and your life will get easier.”
The man lifted his chin slightly. “How much easier?”
Her muscles tensed with rage as she pressed her teeth together. “Tell me what you know about him.”
“Ooh, somebody is getting upset.” The man grinned, looking maliciously delighted.
Kylie’s grip on the computer tightened. She set the computer down and leaned in close to the suspect. “Right now, I want to shoot you.” She wasn’t lying. All she could think about was the way this man was toying with the welfare of her little girl.
The man drew his head back, clearly surprised and more than a little afraid, but his words still held a note of arrogance. “Police brutality.”
“Tell her what she wants to know.” Austin stood behind her. “We’re not making any deals with you. What you’re trying to avoid right now is the severest sentence we can get a judge to give you.”
Kylie wanted to applaud Austin. The ice-cold delivery of his words made his threat seem very real.
The man licked his lips as though he were contemplating his options. “He stays off and on with a guy named Limey Pete over on Mesa Verde Street.”
“That wasn’t that hard, was it?” Her spirits soared. They had a solid lead on tracking down Miguel Ibarra and ending her personal nightmare.
Austin took a step back. “Looks like we have company.”
He indicated the headlight off in the distance. Kylie stepped out away from her car and watched. Her hand hovered over her gun. She relaxed when she saw the familiar ranger insignia on the side of the SUV.
“I know we have a lot to answer for over the choices we made tonight. But all I want to do is get over to Mesa Verde Street as fast as possible,” she said.
“My thoughts exactly,” said Austin.
TEN
It took Austin only one phone call to the local police to find out that Limey Pete, aka Peter Sullivan, was a transplanted British man who had been busted for selling pot. The Englishman also had some assault charges pending, indicating that he was a potentially dangerous and violent man.
His last known address was indeed on Mesa Verde Street where the stucco-style homes were built into the side of a hill. Kylie and Austin set up surveillance outside his house in an unmarked vehicle.
Though surveillance had to be the most tedious part of his job, he was glad to be working with Kylie again.
Kylie sipped her coffee and stared out at the housing complex. It was early morning and neither of them had had any sleep.
Austin massaged the back of his neck. Squeezed his eyes open and shut. Sleep would be nice, but it wasn’t his priority right now. He wanted to see this thing to the end, to give Kylie peace of mind and reunite her with Mercedes.
Children emerged from the buildings, making their way down the winding paths that surrounded the houses to play in the street down below. A smile graced Kylie’s face as children riding skateboards held her attention. Though Kylie had to be as exhausted as him, there was still such elegance to her. The way she carried herself reminded him of a ballet dancer or maybe a swan on the water. This job required strength and stamina, but Kylie brought a feminine grace to it that he was coming to admire.
One of the boys on the skateboard hugged the other after recovering from a fall. “They’re cute, aren’t they?” Austin asked.
“Yes.” Her eyes darted back up toward Limey Pete’s house where so far there had been no activity.
“Not as cute as Mercedes though,” he said.
She turned to face him; the brightness in her eyes made Austin think of warm sunshine. “Thank you for saying that. I wasn’t sure how you felt about her.”
He flushed from her staring at him, and he was reminded of her touch when she’d cleaned his bite wound. A charge of electricity shot through him at the memory of her fingers warming his skin. “I like her all right.” The short time he had had with the baby in the church had caused a shift for him. He’d always felt awkward around babies. Something about Mercedes’s rich brown eyes so filled with trust unlocked the affection inside of him.
Kylie stared through the windshield again, her gaze darting along the street and up the hillside. “That makes me feel good ’cause I’m falling in love with that little girl. I can’t wait until she is officially my daughter.”
He took a sip of his coffee and studied the hillside. His last mug shot showed Limey Pete with distinct bleach-blond hair, but it could have changed. The rap sheet said he was a tall thin man.
He wasn’t sure what Kylie meant by her comment. It seemed to be important to her that he like Mercedes. That’s how moms were, he supposed. Truthfully, his feelings ran deeper than just liking the little girl. Mercedes had charmed her way into his heart.
Maybe someday down the road Kylie would meet a man who could be a good father to Mercedes, the kind of father she deserved. Despite the attraction he’d felt for Kylie out in the desert, he knew he wasn’t the right man for that job.
Kylie lifted her chin. “Do you suppose those kids would be able to tell us if they’ve seen Ibarra around here? I don’t want to waste the whole day here only to find out this trail has gone cold.”
“Kids are good ones to ask. They notice a lot and they don’t necessarily tell adults who they talked to.”
“I’ll give it a shot.” Kylie clicked open her door. “They are more likely to talk to me than you.”
“I agree,” said Austin. “That’s where working with a female border agent can come in handy.”
“Thank you for seeing that as an asset.” Kylie offered him a smile that warmed him to the marrow. “It’s not always easy being a woman in this job.”
He watched her cross the street and approach the children. She pointed up at the house where Limey Pete lived. Both boys nodded and pointed and a third older boy joined them. Progress, maybe?
He diverted his attention to the hillside and the other houses. A woman at the bottom of the development stepped out and hurried toward the bus stop up the street. He saw movement a little farther up the hill. The door on a balcony on the house next to Limey Pete’s opened and a man stepped out holding a bottle.
Hispanic. Long ponytail. Austin’s heart skipped a beat as he grabbed his binoculars for a closer look. The man took a swig from the bottle.
Kylie continued to converse with the children. One of the boys stepped on his skateboard and pushed past her, flipping the skateboard with his feet and catching it. Kylie applauded. The more the kids trusted her, the more information they’d be likely to give her.
He brought the binoculars into focus. The man was wearing a shirt with a collar. Austin couldn’t tell if he had a tattoo on his neck or not.
