Train Station
Downtown San Antonio, Texas
Braxton Valentine arrived early to make sure he hadn’t been followed and to allow enough time to watch people come and go from the train station. Old habits did indeed die hard. Near the Tower of the Americas, he sat in his RAM 1500 and used his mirrors to give him a three-sixty. No one stood out. No one watched him. His old life wouldn’t be easy to leave behind, tactics that had become part of him and had kept him alive.
Brax raked a hand through his long hair, cocooned in the quiet of his vehicle with the truck engine idling to keep the a/c blasting in the Texas heat. He didn’t mind honest sweat, but not today. After a glance at his watch, he turned off the ignition and climbed out of his rig to retrieve the carryon bag from his backseat.
Dressed in jeans, boots, and a pale blue shirt with a navy sport coat, he walked toward the stucco train station, with its arched portico and red clay tiled roof, wearing sunglasses that hid his vigilant eyes. He strolled into the building, a man with no particular place to go and drifted through the crowd like an agile Mallard afloat on still water—calm above the surface, but everything churned underneath.
He kept his eyes searching for anyone out of place as he fought the urge to picture the only face he wanted to see. He had to stay focused.
Brax removed his dark glasses and glanced up at the departure schedule on the nearest monitor. He confirmed his departure as a boarding announcement for Los Angeles erupted over a speaker. His connecting train from New Orleans had pulled into the station and would be waiting for him to get on. He pulled out his boarding pass from his jacket pocket and hustled for the loading platform.
Although it would only be a matter of time, he couldn’t believe his trip to Los Angeles would finally happen.
He stood on the boarding platform and as he waited for the train to stop, he checked his reservation. When the doors hissed open, he followed the signs to his reserved seat, but as he drew closer, he noticed it was taken. Dropping his carryon bag to the floor, he towered over a beautiful young woman with auburn hair.
“Excuse me,” he said. “I believe you’re in my—”
She didn’t let him finish. The woman stood and fixed her green eyes on him, wearing jeans that hugged her shapely body with a sheer pink blouse and a tailored jacket.
“I’m sorry. Is this your seat?” she asked.
“I have a ticket. What do I have to do to prove it’s mine?”
A man sitting across the aisle looked up from his phone and didn’t hide his newfound interest in their conversation. Another couple did the same. Brax shot a side eye to the people watching him, but the woman in his seat placed her soft fingers under his chin and forced him to stare into her eyes.
“That depends,” she whispered. “…on how good of a kisser you are.”
She didn’t wait for him to scrounge for a clever answer. She pulled him against her body and kissed him, long and deep. Brax held her in his arms with his hands slipping under her jacket and forgot about the audience until someone applauded. The beautiful woman in his embrace grinned and took a bow, while he stowed his bag and slid into his seat with heat rushing to his face.
Brax had lived his life in shadows, but his fiancée, Raine Garrett, possessed a hard to deny playful charm he found impossible to resist. Her laughter always warmed his heart.
“So…are you ready to meet my parents?” she asked.
Afraid to fly, Raine had chosen to take the train from her home in New Orleans and pick him up along the way in San Antonio. The hours of travel would give Brax plenty of time to dwell on everything that could go wrong.
“Does anyone ever answer ‘yes’ to that question?”
“They’re going to love you as much as I do.”
Raine saw the world through her loving eyes, but in Brax’s universe, women didn’t always stick. He’d been told more than once that he had a loner streak and that his years in covert ops with the CIA had left its mark. He didn’t let anyone get under his skin easy, but his fiancée had burrowed into his heart as if she were coming home.
He didn’t deserve her, but he would make amends by spending the rest of his life making her happy.
***
Braxton Valentine had been a puzzle to Raine Garrett since the first day she’d seen him across a crowded bar. He’d come to the French Quarter for Mardi Gras with friends, yet in a crowd he looked utterly alone—a man who didn’t fit in most places. Her fleeting glimpse of him felt like a dream, as if she’d spotted a unicorn in real life.
“Who’s that?” she asked a friend.
“I have no idea, but he’s fine, girl.” Her friend ogled Brax with a brazen gaze that should’ve been illegal. “Go cut yourself one from the herd. That one’s a keeper.”
Raine didn’t need a second opinion, especially as she drew closer to him. When he hadn’t noticed her approaching, it gave her time to memorize everything about him. First impressions only happened once.
Brax had kind eyes and his lips looked utterly kissable. He wore his sun streaked hair long and she imagined her fingers getting lost in the wavy strands. He towered over most people at six feet five inches and under his clothes, his muscled body showed a man who took pride in his fitness, but she didn’t figure him for a gym rat. He looked like a man who did things the hard way and loved a challenge.
Braxton turned to see her for the first time and she would never forget the expression on his handsome face. His eyes grew wide and he nearly choked on his beer, but something in that moment had branded him as hers. She knew in an instant she could love this man. Totally unexplainable yet she knew with certainty—as if they’d loved each other in another lifetime.
Finding one another had been inevitable.
“Hi. My name is Raine.” She held out her hand and he took it. Touching his skin melted her heart and sent tingles down her spine.
“I’m…Brax.” He didn’t take his mesmerizing blue eyes off her. “I wasn’t sure why I came to New Orleans…until now.”
His low sexy voice held a faint Texas accent and heated her insides like fine Kentucky bourbon.
Over the months they dated, Raine got to know Brax, beyond the beauty of his physical appearance. He rarely spoke of his childhood, yet always wanted to know about hers. When she first asked him about his work, he told her there wasn’t much to tell about the import export business. He brokered deals between parties—those who had and those who had not—and he never lacked for money, although he didn’t flaunt it. Raine never met anyone he worked with, but he fully supported anything she got involved with, including her volunteer work.
Brax had a knack for observation of people and when she noticed his constant scrutiny of others, he made a game of telling her stories about the people who stood out. He always entertained her and she loved his ability to make her laugh with his tales. One day when she found him listening to a Spanish speaking television news channel, he admitted that he spoke a few languages, a necessity for his work. He never failed to surprise her.
He had an intensity of purpose to his keen intelligent eyes and his full lips always seemed ready for a smile. Braxton Valentine was a man’s man, yet he always put her needs first and showed his genuine kindness as a human being, in the little things he did that came naturally.
At a special needs daycare where she volunteered, Raine had found him in quiet conversation with a small girl with Down syndrome. She’d seen many adults interact with the kids by avoiding eye contact or pretending they were invisible, but not Brax. He dropped to his knees and truly listened as the little girl spoke and he even asked her questions. When it was time to say good-bye, the child hugged him with a bright endearing smile and Brax held her as if he’d found a long lost friend.
He knew how to ‘stay in the moment’ with anyone and not be distracted, especially when it came to her. Raine had no doubt what kind of father Braxton Valentine would be. Nearly a year after they’d first met, she couldn’t wait to introduce her mother and father to the man who would give her children.
Raine couldn’t imagine her life without him.
***
Hours later
The train jostled along the tracks shedding another west Texas town in its wake. A fiery sunset edged the horizon and cast an echo of its purple and orange onto an impressive sprawl of rippling clouds. Brax didn’t know anywhere that matched a fierce Texas sky.
The sun’s glow came through the train window to touch Raine’s face and it wove through strands of her auburn hair, giving her an otherworldly aura that made her even more beautiful. His eyes traveled down her body, taking in everywhere the sun traced her flawless skin.
He never wanted to forget these moments with her. His sense of urgency to remember every second he spent with Raine felt more like a punishment of self-doubt than a reward of him being worthy of her.
Brax embraced a staunch passion to make a life with Raine—a compassionate woman who had taught him how to love—but with her parents, he had no idea what to expect. Future in-laws didn’t come with instructions. If he washed out with her folks, it wouldn’t be his choice. He’d have no control.
As a distraction, he let his eyes roam the crowd of people who traveled with them. The habit had become second nature. After Raine noticed him staring at people—something that came naturally to him—she slipped her arm through his and whispered into his ear. The intimacy made him wish they were alone.
“Go on. Tell me his story. You know you want to.” Raine pointed a discreet finger and smiled with a devilish twinkle in her eye. “The guy sitting by himself, with the scruff on his chin, down two rows on the aisle.”
Raine thought Brax’s stories were a game, things he made up on the fly to entertain her. If she knew the truth, about how his mind worked and what he’d been trained to do, she might have feared him. Brax had learned to tease her with a fraction of the truth and let her think his stories were games for the idle mind.
Brax spotted the man she pointed to and didn’t hesitate. He’d already assessed him as harmless.
“He’s color blind, is recently divorced. He got the cat, by the way. It’s a yellow tabby…and he’ll be departing in El Paso.”
She scrunched her face, completely skeptical.
“Okay, spill it. Color blind?”
Brax pointed to the man’s socks, one navy blue and the other chocolate brown.
“Men are more likely to be color blind, but his socks gave him away. Either that or he dressed in the dark.” He lowered his voice. “Tan lines on his finger where a wedding ring used to be. Plus he’s got cat hair all over his trousers, the color of a yellow tabby.”
“That’s very impressive, Sherlock. What makes you think he’s getting off in El Paso?”
“He’s wearing a UTEP cap, the University of Texas at El Paso. Call it an educated guess.”
“Consider me schooled,” she said. “Is that our next stop…El Paso?”
She looked up from the note she’d been writing and her green eyes stole his next breath. He would never tire of gazing into her eyes and getting lost in her love.
“Yes. It looks like we’ll be taking on passengers.”
Brax would leave Texas soon. When he thought about being closer to Los Angeles and his future with Raine, a strange feeling touched him, as if it didn’t seem real. Other people did ‘normal.’ Others fell in love and raised families.
He’d struggled with doubt and foreboding before when it came to Raine. He wasn’t convinced that he deserved to be happy—punishment for what he’d done while serving his country—but before he explored the sinister side of his nature, Raine reached for something in her purse.
“Look, I bought this for my mom.” She opened the lid on a small gift-wrapped box and held up a gold locket on a chain. “It’s got our picture inside. See? She isn’t losing a daughter. She’s gaining a handsome son.”
When she held up the opened locket, he grinned.
“I thought we’d be celebrating your birthday with your folks,” he said. “The ritual is, people give gifts to you.”
For Raine, every day was Christmas. If she saw something thoughtful and sentimental to buy for someone else, she did it for the best possible reason—just because.
“I noticed you were writing something. Is that a card for your mom?”
She nodded. Her eyes brimmed with tears when she thought of her family. Living in Louisiana had made her homesick, but after she finished her master’s degree in Education from the University of New Orleans, Raine wanted to work with special needs children. They were planning to move to Los Angeles to live closer to her family. When they had children, Raine wanted them to know their grandparents.
Brax had no family—except for Raine. He’d quit the CIA to turn a new page in his life…with her.
“I’ve got the best parents in the world. You’ll see,” she said. “I feel so very lucky, you know?”
He knew what lucky felt like as he stared into her eyes.
“Yeah, I do.” He smiled and tapped the tip of her nose. “Your mother will love the locket. It’s beautiful.”
Raine finished her note and slipped the card in an envelope and placed her mother’s gift into her large purse. Nuzzling next to him, she entwined her fingers in his and pressed the back of his hand to her lips and kissed it.
“I love you.” The words were out of his mouth and came as naturally as taking his next breath.
“I love you too, honey.” She smiled. “I can’t believe it. In three months we’ll be married. I’ll get to wake up with you in our bed, every day. It’s hard to even imagine being that happy.”
He swallowed, hard.
“Yeah, it is.”
When the train slowed down, Brax looked out the window.
“El Paso, our last stop in Texas.”
As the train eased into the station, new passengers standing on the boarding platform triggered his wariness. He put his arm around Raine and pulled her closer, but he kept his eyes on the crowd—looking for something only he would see.
***
Train Station
El Paso
Dusk
Mia Romeo sat near a window on the inbound train and stared at the crowd who would get onboard in El Paso. From the moment she woke up in her home in San Antonio—rapt in the throes of a disturbing premonition—everything in her being had led her to buy a train ticket downtown, not knowing where it would take her.
She had physically purchased passage to the end of the line in Los Angeles, but her hellish dream sent a dire message that she would never make it to L.A. The Phoenix Agency had the Mateo De La Cruz cartel in their sights. Connected to the cartel, her nightmarish vision had forced her to trust her instincts and get on a train.
Until now, she had no idea why.
When she saw two men standing on the platform, she witnessed flashes of a dark vision that projected from their minds, foresight that scared the hell out of her. She knew what they were. She had come to El Paso because of them. The two men were a hit squad from the cartel and they would board the train to carry out an order. Whoever they came to kill, they were already on the train.
Mia peered over her shoulder at the many faces on the coach. She searched for their victim as if she’d see a sign, but nothing. Her chest heaved in panic. If she didn’t do something, she’d be caught in the middle of a mass killing. These men weren’t here to take out one victim. The cartel always made a violent statement.
She had to alert the others on her team at the Phoenix Agency.
I’m at the train station in El Paso. Two men are getting ready to board the westbound. They’re with the cartel we’re tracking. They’re armed, Faith. I have a bad feeling.
Mia sent her telepathic warning to Faith Halloran.
Faith had taken on duties as her ‘field handler’ because she’d been teaching Mia about sending mental messages. Her training included help from Vivi Alderson. Aunt Vivi was one of the founders of the Lotus Circle, an alliance of gifted ‘sensitives’ that Aunt Vivi and Dr. Olivia Crandall had grown and developed from their belief in a mysterious and ancient practice.
Mia’s gift had centered on premonitions, visions that could invade her mind at any time, day or night. Tapping into a different part of her already receptive mind had not been difficult and she had to use her newfound skill to get better at it, but she didn’t need to be psychic to see the bulge of weapons under the shirts of the two men on the train platform.
Dan wants you to stand down. Get off that train, Mia. You’re not trained for a confrontation with armed men. You’re an art curator. You have a day job. Whatever possessed you to get on that train and leave San Antonio? He’s worried sick.
Faith’s voice murmured in her head as if Faith gave voice to Mia’s own fears and doubts.
Her husband and one of five senior partners in the Phoenix Agency, Dan Romeo, had asked Mia to start up a Psi department of gifted psychics. He wanted to test the added dimension of psychic abilities to aid their organization in protecting those who needed it.
Mia found that the more she used her gift, the stronger she got. It was like exercising a muscle. Her new psychic team could do the same. If they pushed each other to develop other skills, it would make them all more universal when it came to team work.
When Mia woke up that morning, with her head desperately linked to a premonition about a train, she went with her gut. In hindsight, that hadn’t been the smartest thing she’d ever done, but the De La Cruz cartel had ruined many lives and had gotten away with murder. They had to be stopped. If she intended to add value to the agency, she had to fully utilize her skills and expand them, no matter where her gifts led her.
Tell Dan I have to see this through. I can’t let these men hurt innocent people, not if I can do something about it. I have to try.
In truth, Mia had no idea what she would do. She wasn’t armed, except for her psychic ability and her passion for art history.
Once the train doors slid open and the El Paso passengers boarded, she kept her eyes on the two men. Her gift had intensified to cause a tension headache, something she’d never felt before. As her heart pounded and her pulse throbbed in her ears, Mia stood and gave up her seat to follow the men to wherever they would go.
If her instincts were right, she had to get close enough to make a move. She’d never been more scared in her life.
***
As passengers boarded the train in El Paso, Brax kept his gaze drifting over the fresh faces. To the casual observer, he looked bored and disinterested, but his eyes assessed people in fleeting glimpses, sometimes using the reflection in the glass. When two Hispanic men stepped onto the coach together, a warning flare went off in Brax’s brain.
In short bursts of intense observation, he made mental notes on both men—height and weight, skin color, hair, clothes, tattoos and scars. Both were armed. He was sure of it. Brax’s heart beat faster and his blood churned with a surge of adrenaline. His body tensed for action as he pulled his arm from Raine.
With only a subtle nod, the men split up the minute they entered the train. One man had slipped behind him and took a seat in the last row near an exit. The other man mirrored his move and slid into a seat on the far end. Both men worked too hard not to notice him. Nothing about them looked normal.
A sickening feeling welled in Brax’s belly when he recognized a tattoo for the Mateo De La Cruz cartel on one of the men, a reminder of his last covert mission.
These men had come for him.
***
When the two men separated, Mia Romeo knew she couldn’t be in two places at the same time. She claimed an empty seat near one of the men and shut her eyes, mentally searching the man’s mind for images of the victim the cartel hunted. Flashes of his memory flooded her mind in a vision, as if she saw through his eyes. She had to weed out anything unimportant and that took time. Panting, she searched the passengers, desperate to find anyone matching the glimpses she’d mentally picked up from the cartel hit man.
Mia, what’s happening? Talk to me.
Faith invaded her mind.
Not now, Faith. Not now.
Mia searched too many faces and relied on her gift to keep her eyes roving until she landed on one man. It had to be him.
I found him. Their target. I’ve got to warn him. If I do, we can stop them…together.
Mia sent her message to Faith, but had to block her to focus on the big man in jeans and cowboy boots. He looked fit. Former military, with any luck. Mia launched a powerful mind probe to the man who sat ten rows away from her.
She would do all the work as she flexed the muscle of her extrasensory awareness. All he had to do was keep his mind open and receptive to her. Even if she made eye contact, she could warn him, but after long agonizing minutes, she couldn’t make a connection.
No, it can’t be.
In frustration, she let her thought slip out to Faith.
What’s happening, Mia? What are you doing? Do you need the Lotus Circle?
In Mia’s mind, Faith sounded worried. She offered the consolidated power of the Lotus Circle to magnify her gift, but…
No time.
Mia burrowed into her consciousness, deeper into her gift. She dug for something she didn’t know if she possessed, but she had to try. Still, she couldn’t break through the powerful barrier the man had erected in his mind.
With sweat trickling down from her temple, Mia struggled to overpower the man’s mind, enough to get the attention of his psyche. Her chest burned like a heaving furnace. Her fingers gripped her armrests until her knuckles blanched white. She’d never encountered anyone like him. No normal person could’ve resisted her mind probe.
Mia had to be ready. She braced for whatever would come. She’d be on her own.
Faith? Tell Dan I love him.
***
“Raine, honey. I want you to listen to me.” Brax took his eyes off his targets for a second, unsure what he would say to Raine that she’d believe.
“What’s the matter? You look so…serious.”
He had to rely on the trust they shared. He couldn’t tell her the truth. There wouldn’t be time for that.
Too many innocent people onboard, women and children…Raine can’t get hurt—he grappled with his fear and second guesses, but he kept his face calm.
“After I get up, I want you to head down the aisle behind us. You see the college kid with the Dallas Cowboys cap?” he asked.
She glanced back to the kid and nodded.
“When I leave my seat, you get up and grab his rucksack. Argue that it’s yours. Do anything that would cause a scene. If I call your name, I want you to drop to the floor. No matter what you see or hear, you stay down. You hear me? Can you do that?”
“You’re scaring me, Brax.”
He cupped her face with his hands and kissed her. He only wanted to hold Raine, but if the train pulled from the El Paso station, they would be stuck down the track with a potential massacre onboard in the middle of nowhere. He had to force both these men into a confrontation that he controlled.
“I love you,” he said. “You know that, right?”
She nodded with her lips trembling.
“This could be nothing, but do exactly what I said. Pick a fight, loud enough for everyone to hear you. If I call your name, you hit the deck.”
Brax stood and didn’t look back. If he had, he never would’ve left her.
He headed for the exit as the train lurched forward, rolling from the station. He kept his head down, but watched the hands of his target—the Hispanic man in the last seat. Without turning around, he heard Raine. God love her, she raised her voice, loud enough for the whole coach to hear her.
Every passenger had their eyes on Raine and the ruckus behind him. Good girl.
As Brax walked down the aisle, he passed mothers with children and an old man who looked too frail to make a sudden move. Whatever happened, he had to execute his plan on instinct and not make a mistake. He couldn’t miss.
Brax edged closer toward the exit and stayed focused on the dark-skinned man sitting in the end row, pretending not to notice him. The man clenched his jaw as his eyes darted toward the fight brewing between Raine and the college kid, a commotion that had distracted and blocked his number two man. Whatever plan they had, it wouldn’t happen now and the realization hit.
The man finally glared up at Brax in a rage, unwilling to hide his intent to kill him. He slid his hand into his jacket and pulled out a loaded Glock 19 machine pistol, a weapon capable of firing twelve hundred rounds a minute, without leaving a witness.
No one in the coach would be spared once he pulled the trigger. Brax had only precious seconds to make his move.