them.
She’d seen sorrow and guilt in too many officers’ eyes to count.
“I’ll go with you,” she said, her voice a ragged, abused thing.
His eyes widened, and he turned fully to her. “You will?” He didn’t bother to hide his surprise.
She was a little surprised herself, but it would get her the thing she wanted more than anything else in the world. Information. “I will come with you and follow whatever your office suggests in order to keep me safe. On one condition.”
The surprise easily morphed into his normal scowl of disdain. “You’re being protected, Ms. Torres. You don’t get to have conditions.”
“I want to know about the case. I want to know what I’m running from.”
“That’s confidential.”
“You’re taking me ‘away from Austin’ to protect me. I don’t even know you.”
He gave her a once-over, and she at once knew he didn’t trust her. While she was sure he was the kind of man who would protect her anyway, his distrust grated. So, she held her ground, emotionally wrung out and exhausted. She stood there and accepted his distrustful perusal.
“I’ll see what information I’m allowed to divulge to you, but you’re going to have to come down to the office right now to get everything squared away. We’ll be leaving the minute we have it all figured out with legal.”
“Will we?”
“You don’t have to do it my way, Ms. Torres, but I can guarantee you no one’s way is better than mine.”
She wouldn’t take that guarantee for a million dollars, but she’d take a chance. A chance for information. If she was going to lose everything, she was darn well going to get closer to finding Gabby out of it.
“All right, Ranger Cooper. We’ll do it your way.” For now.
Vaughn was exhausted, but he swallowed the yawn and focused on the long, winding road ahead of him.
Natalie dozed in the passenger seat, making only the random soft sleeping noise. Vaughn didn’t look—not once—he focused.
The midday sun reflected against the road, creating the illusion of a sparkling ribbon of moving water. They still had another three hours to go to get to the mountains and his little cabin. Which meant he’d spent the past four hours talking himself out of all his second thoughts.
It was the only way to keep her safe and him certain she was innocent. She’d agreed to everything without so much as a peep. He didn’t know if he distrusted that or if she was just too devastated and exhausted to mount any kind of argument.
She stirred, and he checked his rearview mirror again. The white sedan was still following them. There was enough space between their cars; he’d thought he was simply being paranoid for noticing.
That had been two hours ago. Two hours of that car following him at the same exact distance.
He cursed.
“What?” Natalie mumbled, straightening in the seat. “You’re not going to run out of gas, are you?” She rubbed her eyes, back arching as she stretched and moved her neck from side to side.
With more force than he cared to admit, he looked away from her and directly at the road. “No. Listen to me. Do not look back. Do not move. We’re being tailed.”
“What?”
She started to whip her head toward the back—obnoxious woman—but he reached over with one hand and squeezed her thigh.
She screeched and slapped his hand. “Don’t touch me.”
He removed his hand, gripped the wheel with both now. Tried to erase any...reaction from touching her like that. It had only been a diversionary tactic. “Then do as you’re told and don’t look back.”
Her shoulders went rigid and she stared straight ahead, eyes wide, breathing uneven. “You really think...”
“I could be wrong. I’d rather be safe and wrong than wrong and sorry.” He looked at the mile marker, tried to focus on what was around them, where they could lose the tail. What it would mean if they couldn’t.
Natalie grasped her knees, obviously panicking. As much as he knew he could figure this out, he understood that she was lost. Fire burning all of her possessions and sleepless nights on the road with a near stranger weren’t exactly calming events.
“It’ll be fine,” he said, mustering all of his compassion—what little of that was left. “I’ve dodged better tails than this.”
“Have you?”
“Do you know a Texas Ranger has to have eight years of police work with a major crimes division before they’re even qualified to apply?”
Natalie huffed out an obviously unimpressed breath. “So you had to write speeding tickets for eight years? Didn’t mean you had to dodge people following you.”
Vaughn didn’t bother responding. Speeding tickets? Not for a long, long time. But he wasn’t going to tell her about the undercover operations he’d worked, the homicides he’d solved. He wasn’t going to waste precious brain space proving to her that he was the best man to keep her safe.
Maybe when they got to the cabin he could just give her Jenny’s number and his ex-wife could fill Ms. Torres in on all the ways he’d put himself in danger during his years as a police officer.
Frustrated with that line of thought, he jerked the wheel to get off the highway and onto an out-of-the-way exit at the last second.
Unfortunately, the white sedan did the same.
“We’re going to stop at the first gas station we find. We’re both going to get out, go inside and pretend to look for snacks. I’m going to talk to the attendant. You will stand in the candy aisle and wait for my sign.”
“What’s your sign?” she said after a gulp.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
“But...”
“No buts. We have to play some things by ear.” Like what the purpose of an hours-long tail was. If it was to take them out, Vaughn had to believe they would have already attempted something. The hanging back and just following pointed more to an information-grabbing tail.
It took a few miles, but a little town with a gas station finally appeared on the horizon. Vaughn kept his speed steady as he drove toward it, worked to keep himself calm as he pulled into a parking spot.
“We get out. We act normal. You watch me, and you follow absolutely any and all orders I give you. Got it?”
Natalie blinked at the gas station in front of them, and he
