Outsider (24 page)

“Breakfast at seven,” he reminded her. “I want to get an early start.”

“Suits me. Good-night.”

He wrinkled his nose at her. “Good-night yourself.”

 

H
E DIDN
'
T SLEEP
. It was a shock to find her willing to live with him. He hadn't mentioned marriage, but he was certain she understood that was what he meant. They were still married, and he had yet to tell her. There was time, he decided. Now, there was all the time in the world.

T
HE WIRE
C
OLBY HAD
placed in Brody Vance's car paid off the very next day. Hunter called Colby on his cell phone with news.

“The tip you got was apparently right on the money,” Hunter said, alluding to the young gang leader's anonymous conversation with Colby, who hadn't mentioned his identity to Hunter. “The Dominguez woman's feeling safe,” he told the other man. “She's considering moving the shipment tonight, or tomorrow night, to Jacobsville. We don't know where it is, but we have some idea of where it's going. Was there a honey operation down there at anytime?”

“Cy mentioned one, at the back of his property,” he replied. “He said the holding company still owned it, although it's been derelict since Lopez's operation was shut down here.”

“Bingo!”

“Listen, can you talk to Cobb and tell him to take the surveillance off the warehouse, just for today and tomorrow, and make sure that Vance overhears it?” Colby asked.

“Are you nuts?”

“We don't need to know where it is, Hunter, as long as we know where it's going, don't you see?”

Hunter paused. “I suppose you're right. But it's risky.”

“Not if we have Eb and Cy and Sarina and myself down here waiting for it, with any backup Cobb feels comfortable sending,” he added. “I wouldn't mind having Ramirez along,” he said reluctantly. “I don't like the guy, but Cy says there's nobody better in a tight corner, and I found that out firsthand during the last raid.”

“Cy's right,” Hunter told him. “Okay. I'll send him down to Cy's today. He can get a motel room and be there when the dam breaks.”

“Take good care of Bernadette,” Colby warned. “I don't think Vance would hesitate to have her snatched if he could get to her. She'd be a great bargaining tool. By now, the outfit is sure to know that Sarina is a DEA agent.”

“I spent several years working for the CIA,” the other man reminded him, tongue-in-cheek.

“So did I,” Colby returned, “but it's still better to spell everything out. Isn't it?”

“I guess so,” came the resigned reply. “We'll make sure Bernadette's safe. You and Sarina look to your own backs. This is a dangerous crowd.”

“So are we,” Colby said with a grin. “But just in case, you watch your own back.”

“Got you.”

Colby debated whether or not to tell Sarina that he'd asked Rodrigo to come down and join the operation. Some part of him was still jealous of the attention the other man got from Sarina and Bernadette. He decided, finally, to let it be a surprise. It was safer.

 

C
OLBY RELAYED
what Hunter had told him to Cy and Eb and Sarina as they all sat around the dining room table at Cy's later that day.

“I've made a few phone calls,” Eb added, toying with his coffee cup. “We'll have plenty of local law, as well as the feds. It looks like we're going to shut down one of the biggest drug operations in south Texas sometime in the next forty-eight hours, if Dominguez doesn't get cold feet and change her mind.”

“I hope you're right,” Eb said solemnly. “This is a dirty business. I don't want it in my county.”

“Neither do I,” Cy added. “Did Colby tell you he's buying Hob Downey's place?”

“Are you?” Eb asked with a grin. “Then how about signing on with me? I need someone to teach martial arts.”

“You're as good as I am,” Colby replied, chuckling.

“But I don't have the time to do administration and teaching as well, not with a child to raise,” Eb replied. “I'll pay you double what Ritter's offering, and you can set up your own curriculum.”

Colby pursed his lips. This was more than he'd hoped for. “Autonomy?”

“Complete autonomy,” Eb agreed. He cleared his throat. “As long as you don't try to teach interrogation tactics to any of my students.”

Colby gave him a droll look. “Spoilsport.”

“The deputy director of the FBI had a lot to say about your presence in Africa after the embassy bombings,” he replied. His eyes said more than the words did.

“They sent me home,” Colby said, shrugging. “Beats me why. I was only asking simple questions.”

“It was the way you were asking them, and what with,” Eb mused.

Colby glared at him. “I got results.”

“And the Bureau got lawsuits,” Eb nodded. “No interrogation tactics. Period.”

Colby shrugged. “Okay. But if we ever need information from a hostile force…?”

“You'll be first on my list,” Eb promised. “Well?”

Colby extended his hand and shook Eb's. “Put me on the payroll. I'll need to give Ritter two weeks' notice.”

“All right!” Eb laughed.

Sarina met Colby's searching eyes and smiled so brightly that his heart skipped. No need to ask if she was pleased with his decision. He felt warm inside.

But before he could speak, there was a knock at the door. Lisa opened it to admit a tall, handsome Mexican with laughing dark eyes.

“Was I expected?” he asked when Colby glared at him.

“You were,” Cy agreed, shaking his hand. “Colby asked Hunter to send you down.”

Sarina's eyes widened like plates. Rodrigo lifted both eyebrows at Colby and smiled. “You asked for me?” he queried.

Colby cleared his throat. “Yes, actually, I did. Cy told me about your participation in an earlier…undercover operation,” he said, without letting on that Rodrigo had been a merc. He had to choose his moves very carefully. Sarina might react badly if he ratted on the competition.

Rodrigo's eyebrows lifted even more. “Yes?”

Colby shrugged. “You have an advantage on all of us about the operation in these parts. It would be stupid to leave you out. Especially now.”

Rodrigo tried not to look smug. He couldn't quite manage it.

“And you can drop the smug expression,” Colby added with a glare. “Or something might accidentally slip.”

Rodrigo knew what he meant. But he only chuckled. “I do not think it would matter much anymore,” he confessed quietly, with a knowing glance toward Sarina, who was openly staring at Colby as if he belonged to her. Which he did.

Colby let go of the anger when he saw where Rodrigo was looking. His eyes met Sarina's and she blushed. That amused him and defused the tension. He chuckled along with the older man. “Point taken. Let's get down to business, shall we?”

 

T
HERE WAS
a comradeship in the group of former mercenaries that Sarina envied. She was good at her job. She'd been in life-and-death situations. But she felt as out of place as a turnip in the gathering.

Her gaze went to the small town's police chief, Cash Grier, who looked as out of it as she felt. He was standing on the sidelines while Colby discussed tactics with Eb Scott, Cy Parks and Rodrigo.

Cash glanced at her and grinned. “Feeling out of place? Alone? Unnecessary?”

Her eyes twinkled. “How did you know?”

He shrugged. “I read minds.”

“Nice talent.”

“Actually it's the way I feel myself,” he confessed. “I was never really part of a group.”

“No? What did you do?”

He leaned closer. “Naughty things. Very naughty things. However, I'm reformed now,” he assured her with a grin. “Tippy and I are very pregnant.”

“Tippy?”

“My wife,” he replied. “I want a girl. She wants a boy. But we'll be happy enough with either.”

She smiled. “Congratulations,” she said, wondering how such a lone wolf sort of man had ended up married. He didn't look the type.

A tall, good-looking man in a sheriff's uniform came into the room, grimaced as he saw the group of men and automatically made a beeline for Cash and Sarina.

“I feel—” Hayes Carson began in his deep voice.

“Out of place and unappreciated,” Cash finished for him. “And we know exactly how you feel. This is Sarina Carrington,” he introduced. “DEA.”

“Hayes Carson, Jacobs County Sheriff,” the other man replied, extending a hand for her to shake.

“Hey!” Cash called to the group.

They all turned and stared at him.

“Is this a closed operation, or do you take outsiders?”

They laughed and joined the other three.

“Sorry,” Eb Scott said, extending a hand to first Cash, then Hayes. “We were reminiscing.”

“Don't tell me,” Sarina joked. “You were all together in Africa.”

“How did you know that?” Eb asked curiously.

“Just an educated guess,” Sarina said, and she was giving Rodrigo a very strange look.

He moved to her side, his hands deep in his pockets. He shot a glance at Colby.

“He didn't tell me anything,” Sarina told her partner of three years, with a glare. “But it's hard to miss that you fit right in here.”

Rodrigo grimaced. “I was not always a DEA agent,” he confessed.

“No kidding?” she drawled.

“Don't give him any heat,” Cy told her firmly. “If it wasn't for Rodrigo, we'd never have shut down Lopez. He got a leave of absence from the DEA and actually went undercover in Lopez's operation. He damned near got himself killed in the process.”

Sarina caught her breath. “You never told me!” she exclaimed.

“Well, look who's talking?” Rodrigo shot back. “Did you tell me you'd been married?”

“I would have thought you would assume I was, since I had a child,” she replied.

He glowered at her. “Plenty of people have children without marriage.”

“I don't!” she returned.

Colby stepped between them. “We are all here to fight drug dealers,” he pointed out.

“Are we really?” she muttered.

“And you never told me that you were a DEA agent,” Colby added. “I had to find out during a drug raid!”

“He has a point,” Rodrigo told her.

“You can shut up,” she invited.

“Isn't that your boss?” Cash asked suddenly, indicating a tall, grim looking man with dark hair and green eyes striding toward them.

Sarina and Rodrigo turned immediately, snapping to attention.

“So you're both already here. Good. Good,” Alexander Cobb said. “I assume all of you are part of the deal?” he added, noting the group.

“We know the layout of the land, and at least two of us were involved in shutting down Lopez,” Cy volunteered.

Cobb narrowed his eyes at the other man. “I remember,” he said curtly. “You walked right into my operation without my knowledge, thanks to Kennedy—who is now serving time for conspiracy to distribute drugs!”

Rodrigo held up his hand. “May I intercede? I was working undercover in Lopez's operation at the time, and they intervened to keep your men from killing me.”

Cobb's lips made a thin line. “Obviously they missed. And lucky for you that I've mellowed since then,” he added, and Rodrigo smiled sheepishly.

“Some target practice might not come amiss,” Cash murmured dryly. “
My
men are required to qualify on the shooting range monthly.”

“Your men don't shoot people,” Eb pointed out.

“Well, if they ever have to shoot anyone, we don't want them to miss, now do we?” Cash agreed.

“Who do you have staking out the smugglers' local warehouse?” Cobb asked Cy.

“One of my men with a pair of binoculars and a cell phone.”

“And if they spot him?” Cobb persisted.

“He's wearing a Ghillie suit.”

Cobb blinked. “Where the hell did you get a Ghillie suit?” he demanded.

Cash raised his hand. “I wasn't using it for a day or two.” He glanced down at Sarina's puzzled expression. “I got it at Fort Bragg, years ago,” he whispered. “Army Sniper School. But don't worry, it's just my spare.” He grinned. She didn't know whether to laugh or run. He couldn't be serious, of course.

Cobb gave Cash a curious glance, but he didn't pursue it. “Okay, then, can we assume he'll let us know the minute he spots traffic?”

“We can,” Cy assured him. “It looks like a long night.”

“Or maybe two or three of them,” Colby added. “Hunter's going to tip off Vance unobtrusively. Then we have to hope that Dominguez will take the bait.”

“Absolutely.”

 

T
HEY SETTLED DOWN
to wait. It wasn't long before Cy had a quick communication from Harley.

He chuckled. “It seems the smugglers have just moved in a shipment of bee gums,” he said dryly.