THE MEXICAN POLICEMAN TOOK the passports and flipped through them as Luna spoke in Spanish. The officer didn’t acknowledge anything Luna said until he stopped talking. Then he glanced at the men in the first police vehicle and the driver tipped his chin. When the officer looked back at Luna, Luna switched to English.
“One thousand, American,” Luna offered.
“Dos,” the officer countered.
Without taking his eyes off the policeman, Luna spoke to Talon. “How much cash you got, Talerco?”
“Not two thousand,” Talon replied flippantly.
“Fifteen hundred,” Luna offered.
“Mil seiscientos.”
“We got sixteen hundred, Talerco?”
Talon rubbed his chin slowly. “Yeah,” he drawled. “We can probably scrape that together. They gonna escort us through customs too? Get us priority service at the border?”
Luna switched back to Spanish and asked the question.
The policeman nodded once and handed back the passports, but didn’t let go of them.
“Talerco,” Luna prompted.
Talon pulled a roll of bills out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Luna without counting it.
Luna handed the cash to the Federale who gestured to the same men in the front vehicle. The two armed officers standing in the bed of the truck stepped down and got in the extra cab of the vehicle, then they pulled forward. Luna raised his window and fell in behind them. A second police vehicle pulled up behind us, and we headed for the highway.
I glanced at Talon. “You did not count the cash.”
“Nah.” Talon looked behind us. “Two hundred per federale is the goin’ rate, plus another two hundred for their boss.”
I nodded, mentally adding eighteen hundred dollars to the debt I owed Luna.
Talon nudged Emily’s shoulder for the second time. “Lookin’ tired, darlin’. Take a nap. We got this. I’ll get in the front and give you and Cult Boy some space.” He winked at her before climbing over her to get in the front seat.
My jaw ticking, I thought of injuring him the next time he touched her.
She leaned back into the space Talon had vacated.
I moved the rifle to my side opposite her and reached for her.
She stiffened when my hands touched her shoulders.
I lowered my voice so only she would hear. “What is wrong?”
“I smell disgusting,” she muttered, pulling away.
“I do not care what you smell like. I care that you are alive and breathing.”
Irritation and exhaustion filtered into her tone. “So you do admit I smell.”
I moved into her space, turned my back toward the men in front to give us a small amount of privacy and cupped her face. I waited until her eyes met mine. “Do not put a wall between us.”
“There’s no us,” she whispered.
I saw through her defenses. I saw her eyes when she looked at me, and I had tasted her desire when I had kissed her. I was not ignorant, I understood her hesitation. I understood how her family would view this. But we were not related. We had not grown up together as siblings. And there was no denying the attraction. I had spent my twenty-seven years around the sun living with women who were available to me on a carnal level and never once had any of them caught my attention like she had.
I gently brushed my thumb across her bruised cheek and admitted my mistake. “There was an us the moment I laid eyes on you at a gas station, but I was not man enough to make it so. Now I am changing that.” If I had walked away from River Ranch last year, we would not be here.
Her eyes welled. “This isn’t real. This kind of thing doesn’t happen. Not in real life, not in my world, none of this happens.”
It happened. “We are happening.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” she protested.
“In my world, it does.” I did not care about, nor care for, the society she lived in. She would not have been drugged and kidnapped if she had been with me.
“Just because you or I may feel something in the moment, it doesn’t make it right or sustainable.”
Her words were excuses, not reasons. “What is more important than how either of us feels?”
“That’s just it. You can’t make professions of commitment to someone you don’t know. What if a day, a week, a month from now, you decide you don’t like me?”
“That will not happen.” Hunting had taught me many things. Not the least of which was how to read people. Humans were not much different than animals. They broadcast emotions and intent with body language. But humans hid behind actions and they often spoke words that did not match their expressions. Some had secrets they hid, some manipulated, some were overtly obvious. But some were pure of heart and they wore it like a child wears joy. There was no mistaking the pureness in my angel. I would never tire of that.
“You don’t know that,” she protested.
I thought best how to answer. “Did you forget about me in one year’s time?”
“No, but—”
“I did not forget about you.” I thought of her daily. “This is not fleeting.”
“Not for nothin’, darlin’,” Talon interrupted. “He’s right. When a man knows, he just knows. Have a little mercy on the poor bastard and give in.” He chuckled. “Not that I’m listenin’ to y’all fight a losin’ battle.”
“Oh my God,” she groaned, pulling out of my grasp. “How do you know him?”
“Ohhh,” Talon laughed, drawing the word out. “Me and Cult Boy go way back. Six months back to when I was shootin’ shit up at his homestead, filterin’ out the crazy. Mainly that Jesus-complex Stephens,” he spit the last three words out with disgust before turning in his seat to look at Angel. “But don’t worry, Sister Wife.” He slapped me on the knee. “This one’s as solid as they come.”
Her eyebrows drew together as she looked from Talon to me. “He was there when River Stephens died?”
“Right there,” Talon answered, his expression sobering before he turned back around.
She looked at Talon then Luna. “You two knew River Stephens?”
For the second time in my life, I wanted to swear. Instead, I said nothing. Talon stared straight ahead and Luna’s shoulders stiffened.
She looked between all of us. “So that’s it? No one’s going to say anything?”
The tires hummed on the asphalt.
No one said anything.
“Oh come on,” she protested. “All of you came to rescue me, but I’m not allowed to know how you three met?”
Talon shrugged. “Not my story to tell.”
Yet he had already said more than half of it.
“This is neither the time nor the place,” I said quietly to only her.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms and leaned away from me.
I lasted three intakes and exhales of breath. Then I started at the beginning. “When I was eighteen, I was given the responsibility of a young woman.” I did not look at Luna, and I did not say female. “I tended to her for years, until the FBI raided the compound on weapons charges three years ago. As a hunter, I had a duty and a position to maintain if such an occurrence came about. Decima, my charge, was not the only woman on the compound. There were many women and children, and protocol was that they all filtered into one building for safety until the men eliminated the threat.”
Eyes wide, Emily turned to me, but she did not interrupt.
I continued. “The raid quickly escalated and turned deadly, for both my compound brothers and the federal agents. I held my position on perimeter defense until the surviving agents saw River Stephens flee into the woods and retreated, taking the injured and dead compound brothers with them.” None of whom I ever saw again. “When I went to let the women out, Decima was missing. For years, I believed her to be dead. Six months ago, she showed up at the compound with André and Talon and other armed men, offering a trade in exchange for the bounty River had issued on her head.”
My angel’s mouth formed a perfect O. “River Stephens really put out bounties on any escaped member’s head? Like literally, that’s not a made-up story?”
André grunted. “No story, chica.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “So what happened to her?”
“The federal agents had taken her during the raid, then later set her free. She never came back to the compound. She made a new life for herself.” My eyes on my angel, I nodded toward Luna. “She now belongs to André.”
Her mouth opened but no words came out.
Talon laughed without humor. “Small world, huh, darlin’?”
Her mouth closed and she nodded, but she was looking at me with a question in her eyes I did not understand.
“Ask,” I demanded.
She swallowed, turning to face me. “If she never came back, those years she was gone…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Did you, did you ever…?”
I knew what she was asking. I shook my head once.
Her gaze dropped to her lap for a moment, before meeting mine again. “She was your, um…” She swallowed. “Only girlfriend?”
I was not ashamed of my past, but I was acutely aware of my situational circumstances. Traveling on a Mexican highway at ninety miles per hour with my ex-charge’s new man behind the wheel was not the time to discuss my past, but I had learned that life was never aligned with the right opportunity.
I lowered my voice so only my angel could hear. “I did not get to choose the one and only woman I have ever been with.” I gripped her chin. “This time, I am choosing.”