Mercenary's Woman (11 page)

80

MERCENARY'S
WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

Si

detection," Eb agreed. "They're
efficient and they're mer
ciless. God only knows how many undercover agents the
drug enforcement
people have lost, not to mention those
from other law enforcement agencies. The drug
lords make a religion of intimidation, and they have no scruples about killing
a man and his entire family. No wonder few of their henchmen ever cross them.
But one did, and Jessica knows
his name. I don't expect Lopez to give up. Ever."

"Neither do I.
But what are we going to do about Lo
pez's planned operation?" Cy wanted to
know.

Eb sobered. "I don't have a plan yet.
Legally, we can't
do anything without hard evidence.
Lopez will be extra careful about covering his tracks this time. He won't want
anything that will connect him on paper to the drug operation. From what I've
been able to learn, Lopez has al
ready
skipped town, forfeiting the bond. Believe me,
there's no way in hell he'll ever get extradited from Mex
ico. The only way we'll ever get him back behind
bars
again is to lure him back here
and have him nabbed by
the U.S. Marshals Service. He's at the top of the
DEA's
Most Wanted list right now." He
finished his second cup
of coffee.
"If we can get a legal wiretap on the phones in that warehouse once it's
operating, we might have something to take to the authorities. I know a DEA
agent," Eb
said thoughtfully. "In fact, he and his wife are
neighbors
of yours. He's gung-ho at his
job, and he's done some
undercover work before."

"Most of Lopez's
people are Hispanic," Cy pointed
out.

"This guy could
pass for Hispanic. Good-looking devil,
too. His wife's father left her that small
ranch..."

"Lisa
Monroe," Cy said, and averted his eyes. "Yes,
I've seen her around.
Yesterday she was heaving bales of
hay over the fence to her horse," he
added in the coldest

tones Eb had ever heard him use. "She's
thinner than she
should be, and she has no business trying to heft bales of
hay!"

"When her husband's not home to do it for her..."

"Not
home?" Cy's eyes widened. "Good God, man, he
was standing ten feet
away talking to a leggy blond girl
in an express delivery uniform! He didn't even seem to notice
Lisa!"

"It's not our business."

Cy moved abruptly,
standing up. "Okay. Point taken.
Suppose we ride up to the boundary and take
a look at the progress on that warehouse," he said. "We can take
horses
and
pretend we're riding the fence line."

Eb retrieved
high-powered binoculars from the truck and
by the time he got to the stable, Cy's young
foreman had two horses saddled and waiting.

"Mr.
Scott!" Harley said with a starstruck grin, running
an absent hand through
his crew-cut light brown hair.
"Nice to see you, sir!" He almost saluted. He
knew about Mr. Scott's operation; he'd read all about it in his armchair
covert operations
magazine, to say nothing of the top se
cret newsletter to which he subscribed.

Eb gave him a
measuring glance and he didn't smile.
"Do I know you, son?"

"Oh, no,
sir," Harley said quickly. "But I've read about
your operation!"

"I can imagine
what," Eb chuckled. He stuck a cigar
into his mouth and lit it.

Cy mounted offside,
from the right, because there
wasn't enough strength in his left arm to permit him to grip
the saddle horn and help pull himself up. He hated
the show of weakness,
which was all too visible. Up until
the fire, he'd been in superb physical
condition.

"We're going to ride up to the northern boundary and

82

MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

83

check the fence line for breaks,"
Cy said imperturbably.
"Get Jenkins started on the new gate as soon as he's
through with breakfast."

"He'll have to
go pick it up at the hardware store first,"
Harley reminded him. "Just came in
late yesterday."

Cy gave him a look
that would have frozen running
water. He didn't say anything. But, then, he didn't have
to.

"I'll just go
remind him," Harley said at once, and took
off toward the bunkhouse.

"Who is he?" Eb asked as they rode out of the yard.

"My new foreman."
Cy leaned toward him with mock
awe. "He's a real
mercenary,
you know!
Actually went on a mission early this summer!"

"My God," Eb drawled.
"Fancy that. A real live hero
right here
in the boonies."

"Some
hero," Cy muttered. "Chances are what he re
ally did was to camp
out in the woods for two weeks and
help protect city campers from bears."

Eb chuckled.
"Remember how we were at his age?" he
asked reminiscently. "We couldn't wait for people to
see
us in our gear. And then we found out
that the real mercs
don't
advertise."

"We were like
Harley," Cy mused. "All talk and hot
air."

"And all
smiles." Eb's eyes narrowed with memory. "I
hadn't smiled for
years by the time I got out. It isn't ro
mantic and no matter how good the pay is,
it's never enough for what you have to do for it."

"We did do a little good in the
world," came the re
joinder.

"Yes, I guess we
did," Eb had to admit. "But our best
job was breaking up one of Lopez's
cocaine processing

plants in Central America and helping put Lopez away.
And here he is back, like a bad bouncing
ball."

"I knew his
father," Cy said unexpectedly. "A good,
honest, bighearted
man who worked as a janitor just up the road in Victoria and studied English at
home every
night trying to better himself. He died just after he found
out what his only
child was doing for a living."

Eb stared off into
space. "You never know how kids
will turn out."

"I know how mine would have turned
out," Cy said
heavily. "One of his
teachers was in an accident Not a
well-liked
teacher, but Alex started a fund for him and
gave up a whole month's
allowance to start it with." His
face
corded like wire. He had to swallow, hard, to keep
his voice from breaking. The years hadn't made his
mem
ories any easier. Perhaps if he could help get Lopez back
in prison, it might help.

"We'll get
Lopez," the other man said abruptly.
"Whatever it takes, if I have to call in
markers from all
over the world. We'll get him."

Cy came out of his
brief torment and glanced at his
comrade. "If we do, I get five minutes
alone with him."

"Not a
chance," Eb said with a grin. "I remember what
you can do in five
minutes, and I want him tried properly."

"He already was."

"Yes, but he was
caught and tried back east. This time
we'll manage to apprehend him right here in Texas and
we'll stack the legal deck by having the best
prosecuting
attorney in the state
brought in to do the job. The Hart
boys
are related to the state attorney general—he's their big brother."

"I'd
forgotten.'' He glanced at Eb. His eyes were briefly
less tormented.
"Okay. I guess I can give the court a sec-

84
                             
MERCENARY'S WOMAN

ond chance. Not their fault that Lopez can
afford defense
attorneys in Armani suits, I guess,"

"Absolutely.
And if we can catch him with enough
laundered money in his pockets and invoke the
RICO stat
utes,
we can fund some nice improvements for our drug
enforcement people."

They'd arrived at the
northernmost boundary of Cy's
property, and barely in sight across the high-wire fence
was a huge
construction site. From their concealed position
in a small stand of trees near a
stream, Eb took his bin
oculars and gave the area a thorough scrutiny. He handed
them to
Cy, who looked as well and then handed them
back.

"Recognize anybody?" Cy asked.

Eb shook his head.
"None of them are familiar. But I'll
bet if you looked in the right places, you
could find a rap
sheet or two. Lopez isn't too picky about pedigrees. He
just likes men who
don't mind doing whatever the job
takes. Last I heard, he had several foreign
nationals in his
employ."
He sighed. "I sure as hell don't want a drug distribution network out
here."

"Neither do I.
We'd better go have a word with Bill
Elliott at the sheriffs office."

Cy shrugged.
"You'd better have a word with him by
yourself, if you want to get anywhere, I'd
jinx you."

"I remember
now. You had words with him over Be
linda Jessup's summer camp."

"Hard words," Cy agreed
uncomfortably. "I've mel
lowed since,
though."

"You and the
KGB." He pulled his hat further over his
eyes. "We'd better get out of here
before they spot us."

"I can see people coming."

"They can see you coming, too."

"That should worry them," Cy agreed, grinning.

DIANA PALMER

Eb chuckled. It was
rare these days to see a smile on
that hard face. He wheeled his horse, leaving
Cy to follow.

That afternoon, Eb
drove over to the Johnson place to
pick up Sally and Stevie for their self-defense practice.

Sally's eyes lit up
when she saw him and he felt his
heart jump. She made him feel warm inside, as
if he finally
belonged somewhere. Stevie ran past his aunt to be caught
up and swung around
in Eb's muscular arms.

"How's Jess?" Eb asked.

Sally made a face and
glanced back toward the house.
"Dallas got here just before you did. It's sort of
unarmed
combat
in there. They aren't even speaking to each other."

"Ah, well," he mused.
"Things will improve eventu
ally."

"Do you gamble?" she teased.
"I feel a lucky streak
coming
on."

He chuckled as he
loaded them into the pickup. No, he
wasn't willing to bet on friendlier
relations on that front.
Not yet, anyway.

"How much do you know about
surveillance equipment?" Sally asked unexpectedly.

He gave her a look of
exaggerated patience. "With my
background, how much do you think I
know?"

She laughed. "Sorry. I wasn't
thinking. Can a micro
phone really pick up
voices inside the house? Jess tried to convince me that they could hear us
through the walls and
we had to be
very careful what we discussed. I mentioned
that Lopez man and she shushed me immediately."

He glanced at her as
he drove. "You've got a lot to
learn. I suppose now is as good a time as any
to teach
you."

When he parked the
truck at the front door, he led her
inside, parking Stevie at the kitchen table
with Carl, his

MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

87

cook, who dished up some ice cream for the child while
Eb led Sally down the long hall and into a huge
room
literally crammed with
electronic equipment.

He motioned her into a chair and keyed his
security camera to a distant view of two cowboys working on a
piece of machinery halfway down a rutted path in
the
meadow.

He flipped a switch
and she heard one cowboy muttering
to the other about the sorry state of modern
tools and how
even rusted files were better than what passed for a file
today.

They weren't even
talking loud, and if there was a mi
crophone, it must be mounted on the barn wall
outside.
She looked at Eb
with wide, frankly disbelieving eyes.

He flipped the
switch and the screen was silent again.
"Most modern sound equipment can pick
up a whisper
several hundred yards away." He indicated a shelf upon
which sat several
pair of odd-looking binoculars. "Night vision. I can see anything on a
moonless night with those,
and I've got others that detect heat patterns in the
dark."

"You have got to be kidding!"

"We have
cameras hidden in books and cigarette packs, we have weapons that can be broken
down and hidden in
boots," he continued. "Not to mention this."

He indicated his
watch, a quite normal looking one with
all sorts of dials. Normal until he adjusted
it and a nasty-
looking little
blade popped out. Her gasp was audible.

He could see the
realization in her eyes as the purpose
of the blade registered there. She looked up
at him and
saw the past. His
past.

His green eyes
narrowed as they searched hers. "You
hadn't really thought about exactly what sort
of work I did, had you?"

She shook her head. She was a little paler now.

"I lived in
dangerous places, in dangerous times. It's
only in recent years that I've stopped
looking over my
shoulder and
sitting with my back against a wall." He
touched
her face. "Lopez's men can hear you through a
wall, with the television on. Don't ever forget.
Say nothing
that you don't want
recorded for posterity."

"This Lopez man
is very dangerous, isn't he?" she
asked.

"He's the most
dangerous man I know. He hires killers. He has no compassion, no mercy, and
he'll do absolutely anything for profit. If his henchman hadn't sold him out,
he'd never have been
taken into custody in this country.
It was a fluke."

She looked around her curiously.
"Could he overhear
you in here?"

He smiled gently. "Not a chance in hell."

"It
looks like something out of
Star Wars"
she mused.

He grinned.
"Speaking of movies, how would you and Stevie like to go see a new science
fiction flick with me
Saturday?"

"Could we?"
she asked.

"Sure." His eyes danced wickedly
at the idea of sitting
in a darkened theater
with her...