extra money, but none of them wanted money that badly. The realization of just how serious the situation was finally began to sink in. She hung up from the last one feeling frustrated. She took a long breath and paced in her living room. What did she do now?
She didn’t have an answer, so went to take a shower. Slipping into shorty pj bottoms and a tank top, new energy surged through her. She emailed Steve, requesting all the info he had on the Mortez family. He replied within minutes and she sat in the living room reviewing the Mortez compound in Matamoras. An outsider had no way in. That left no options, except one. She had Marco’s cell number. She’d tried it a couple of times and he hadn’t answered and she didn’t leave a message. But if she left a message saying she was in Matamoras, he might meet with her. And how stupid would that be, meeting him alone on his turf where justice was a foreign word? What did she do?
Her doorbell chimed and she jerked her head up in surprise. Who could that be? Due to her work and prosecuting hardened criminals, she lived in a gated community. She had to buzz people in and no one had rung the buzzer. It might be a neighbor, but then, they usually called.
She went to the door and stood on tiptoe to look through the peephole. She blinked and looked again. Could it be...? No. She took another glance to make sure.
Levi.
CHAPTER FIVE
“MYRA, LET ME in.”
She released the dead bolt and unlocked the door. Levi strolled in wearing worn jeans, a black T-shirt and a backpack. Mystified, she could only stare at him.
“What?” he asked, as if it was natural for him to drop by her home unannounced.
“What are you doing here?”
He shrugged out of the backpack and dropped it to the floor. “Hell, I don’t know. I have a perfectly good life in Willow Creek, and yet I can’t get the picture of you lying dead on the banks of the Rio Grande out of my head.”
A shiver ran through her at the image. “Are you trying to scare me?”
“Is it working? You ready to change your mind?”
She heaved a sigh. “No.”
“God, you’re stubborn.”
“What are you doing here, Levi?”
He dragged the backpack into the living room and plopped onto the sofa. Unzipping the pack, he pulled out his iPad. “I found I couldn’t live with your death on my conscience, so I’m taking you to Mexico to search for the boy, but you will follow my orders and be as docile as possible.”
“Oh” was all she could say. Her heavy heart suddenly felt lighter and she sat cross-legged in a chair facing him. “Thank you.” She felt she needed to say that.
“Yeah” was his short reply. He was already engrossed in the iPad.
“Do you have a plan?”
He glanced up briefly. “Plans are usually shot to hell in these types of situations. We’ll play it by ear. In the morning, we’ll head out for Brownsville and cross the border and see how it goes.”
“I thought it would be easier to fly.”
That drew a dark scowl. “Tourists are easy targets and that’s what you’ll be getting off the plane in Matamoras.”
“Okay. I’m flexible.”
“Yeah. Since when?”
She took a deep breath. “If we’re going to do this, we’ll have to call a truce with the snide comments. To work together, we at least have to be civil to each other.”
His brown eyes held hers and she resisted the urge to squirm. “You’re right. For us to have any success, we have to work closely together. I’ll have to be able to trust you.”
“Is that a problem?”
He didn’t answer for second. “Yesterday, yes. Today, I have to go on faith. I’m here, so that’s about all I can say.”
She swallowed. “I’ll take it.” She pointed to her laptop on the coffee table. “Steve sent over everything he has on the Mortez family. Or at least what he could share.”
“I already have it.”
That surprised her. An agent didn’t share information with outsiders, or maybe Steve didn’t consider Levi an outsider. But she was still curious. “How?”
“I snatched it from his computer when we were at the station.”
Now she was more curious. “How?”
“I have a thingamajig on my phone....”
“Thingamajig?”
“That’s all you need to know.”
“But how did you do it? Steve was in the room with you the whole time.”
“While Steve and Tom were talking to the lieutenant, I laid my phone against his laptop and, in a few seconds, I had everything on the Mortez family.”
“Sometimes you’re scary, Levi.”
“Remember that and this trip will go smoothly.”
“You know what you did was illegal.” Why she was pointing that out, she wasn’t sure. Maybe just to annoy him, like he was trying so hard to annoy her.
He lifted a dark eyebrow. “In the next few days, we’ll be doing a lot of illegal stuff. Are you prepared for that, counselor?”
“Whatever it takes.”
“Mmm.”
Nothing was said for a few minutes as he worked on the iPad. She watched as he was totally focused on the computer. In the old days, he’d grasped things quickly and his memory was phenomenal. She was sure that hadn’t changed. He paid great attention to detail. It drove her crazy sometimes when he could tell her exactly what she wore on a certain day and with what earrings or high heels. And yet the same man had trouble matching up his socks. She would bet that the socks he had on now were mismatched. It was a Levi trademark.
She remembered so many things about him. His gentle touch when she was down about something. His kind heart and concern for everyone. When he loved, there was no holding back. He gave all of himself and there was never any doubt that he loved her. She had failed their relationship.
Her eyes were drawn to the black T-shirt molded to the muscles in his arms and across his chest. As he worked the keypad, his forearms rippled, reminding her of everything she’d lost. And of everything she could never get back—mainly his trust.
“We’ll leave early in the morning.” His words broke through her thoughts. “And try to make it to Brownsville by noon. Do you have a passport?”
“Yes.”
“I have Daniel’s so we’re set to go.”
