Stone Cold Christmas Ranger

It was clear they wanted Alyssa. Whole. She had wanted him to let them take her, so it seemed she knew she wasn’t in imminent danger from these people, as well.

Was she working with them? Was he the fool here?

Except when she finally quit driving, he could only stare from his place farther down the street. She’d led them to the public parking of the Texas Rangers headquarters.

What on earth was this woman up to?

She parked in the middle of the mostly empty parking lot—employees parked in the back and public visitors rarely arrived at night. The car that had been following her stopped at the parking lot entrance. Clearly her followers didn’t know what to do with this.

Bennet made a turn, keeping the parking lot in view from his rearview window. When the car didn’t follow, the occupants instead kept their attention on Alyssa, he knew they hadn’t seen him following them.

He made a quick sharp turn into the back lot and then drove along the building, parking as close as he could to where Alyssa was without being seen. He got out of his car and unholstered his weapon. He crept along the building, keeping himself in the shadows, watching as the car still idled in the entrance while Alyssa sat defiantly on her motorcycle in the middle of the parking lot, parking lights haloing her.

That uncomfortable thing from before tightened in his gut at the way the light glinted off her dark hair when she pulled off her helmet. Something a little lower than his gut reacted far too much at the “screw you” in the curve of her mouth. She looked like some fierce warrior, some underground-gang queen. He should not be attracted to that even for a second.

Apparently some parts of his anatomy weren’t as interested in law and order as his brain was.

“What are you guys? Chicken?” Alyssa called out.

Bennet nearly groaned. She would have to be the kind of woman who’d provoke them.

“How about this—you send a message to my brothers. You tell them if they want me, they can come get me themselves. No cut-rate, brainless thug is going to take me anywhere I don’t want to go.”

The engine revved, and Bennet moved closer. He wasn’t going to let these men take his only lead on this case. Even if she was trying to get herself killed.

But in the end, the car merely backed out and screeched away.

Leaving him and Alyssa in a mostly empty parking lot.

She turned to face him as if she’d known he was there all along. “I bet that got their attention, huh?” she said. She didn’t walk toward him, so he walked to her.

“Yes. How smart. Piss off your criminal brothers you claim to have nothing to do with so they come after you.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“I thought you wanted me to let them take you.” Which he never would have done.

“I was going to, but then I saw what cut-rate weaklings they sent after me. Afraid of a little Texas Ranger parking lot.” She made a scoffing sound. “The only way to really get some answers is to get inside again, but guys like that? Dopes with guns? Yeah, I’m not risking my life with them. My brothers can come get me themselves if it’s that important to them.”

“You’re not going back inside that family.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Since when did you become my keeper?”

“Since I’m the reason you think you need to go back there. We’ll investigate this from the outside. You don’t need to be on the inside.” He’d sacrifice a lot to actually accomplish something, but not someone else’s life.

“Shows what you know. Not a damn thing. I’ve been gone a long time, but I still know how the Jimenez family works. I can get the answers we need.”

“We need?”

She looked at her motorcycle, helmet still dangling from her fingertips. He’d watched her shake and tremble apart after seeing her mother’s picture, but she was nothing but strength and certainty now.

Again, Bennet couldn’t help but wonder if he was the sucker here, if he was being pulled into something that would end up making a fool out of him. But he’d come too far to back out. Gotten the okay on this case, gotten to Alyssa. He had to keep moving forward.

“My brothers didn’t murder our mom,” she said, raising her gaze to his. Strong and sure. “I know they didn’t. I’m going to prove it. To you. And when you find out who really did it, you can bring them to justice.”

Her voice shook at the end, though her shoulders-back, chin-up stance didn’t change.

He couldn’t trust her. She was related to one of the biggest drug cartels in the state. And while Gabby and Natalie had befriended her, and Vaughn thought she hadn’t had contact with her brothers in years, this felt awfully coincidental.

She must have seen the direction of his thoughts. “You don’t have to trust me, Ranger Stevens. You just have to stay out of my way.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” No matter what it took, he had knocked over whatever domino was creating these events. He was part of it, and whether he trusted her or not, he had some responsibility for bringing her into this.

“They must have my office bugged,” Alyssa said, scowling. “The timing is too coincidental, too weird. It’s been two years since the kidnapping rescue, and they’ve left me alone. They had to have heard you questioning me. So, they know. You have to stay out of my way so we can know what’s really going on.”

“How can you think they had nothing to do with it if they’re stepping in now when they supposedly know what I’m after?”

“They didn’t kill our mother, but cartel business is tricky. Complicated. Their never identifying her when she was Jane Doe, it could be purposeful or they feel like they can’t now or... I don’t know, but I have to find out. I’m going in. You can’t stop me, and God knows you can’t stop them.”

He didn’t agree with that. He could put a security detail on her, keep her safe and away from her brothers for the foreseeable future. Even if the Rangers pulled support, he had enough of his own money to make it so.

But it’d be awfully hard to make it so when she was so determined, and it’d make it harder to get the information he needed. It would make it almost impossible to solve this case.

He studied her, looking at him so defiantly, as if she was the one in charge here. As if she could stand up to him, toe-to-toe, over and over again. Some odd thing shuddered through him, a gut feeling he didn’t want to pay attention to.

He’d made his decision, so there was only one way to settle this. “If you’re going in, then I’m going in with you.”

* * *

AND THIS TEXAS Ranger thought she was crazy.

“You think you’re going to come with me. You think in any world my brothers would allow a Texas Ranger into their home or office or whatever without, oh, say killing you and making sure no one ever found out about it?”

“Except you.”

Unfortunately, he had a point. Also unfortunately, her last name might keep her safe for the most part when it came to the Jimenez family, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt, if she outright betrayed her family, she’d be killed.

Like your mother.

She couldn’t get over it, so she just kept pushing the reality out of her mind as much as she could. Still, it lingered in whispers. Murdered. Murdered. Murdered. How on earth could Mom have been murdered? It didn’t make any sense.

Except she left. Betrayed your father. Maybe it makes all the sense in the world.

She couldn’t. She just couldn’t. She couldn’t focus on possibility. She had to focus on truth.

“I can handle this,” Ranger Stevens said resolutely.

“No. You can handle being a Texas Ranger. You can handle being a cop. You can’t handle being inside a drug cartel. Even if they let you, you’d want to arrest everyone. And trust me, that wouldn’t go well for you.”