Texas Christmas Defender. Elizabeth Goddard

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      She leaned her head back. “You would have to bring him up. Bad enough you’re here, I had hoped to enjoy the day without thoughts of my particular situation.” She hadn’t forgotten her brother. Would never forget that everyone was after her—including the Texas Rangers—but, for today, she’d needed a reprieve.

      “I don’t want you to relax. You can’t afford to until this is over.”

      Brent stiffened at the approaching footfalls in the hallway and returned to his previous seat.

      Inez held a wrapped package and handed it to Brent. He frowned as though he wouldn’t accept it. Adriana couldn’t let him hurt Inez. She grabbed the package for him and handed it over, forcing it into his hands, not letting him refuse. “Merry Christmas.”

      Pain flickered behind his gaze. What was that about? Reluctantly he took the package. “There was no need,” he said as he glanced to Inez. “I’m intruding here, as it is.”

      “God brought you here today for a reason.”

      Surprise sprang from his eyes. “Well, I don’t have anything to give you in return.”

      “Of course you do,” Inez said. “I know you’re here to protect my Tanya.”

      Brent glanced at the woman. He turned his attention back to Adriana. She saw the question in his eyes. You told her?

      Adriana gave a subtle shake of her head. Inez was extremely observant and had obviously figured out on her own that things were not as they seemed.

      He hesitated another moment, then ripped into the small package. It was a leather-bound devotional filled with God’s promises. The leather carving was similar to that of Inez’s gift to Adriana, obviously purchased at the same craft shop.

      “I had been praying about who to give this gift to,” Inez said. “A few moments ago, I knew.”

      He stared at the gift long and hard before saying anything. For a moment, Adriana feared he would hurt Inez’s feelings with his lack of response, but then she realized she knew better. The woman was tough and her faith in God was strong. If she’d felt led to give this gift to Brent, nothing he said or did would make her regret it.

      “Thank you.” His tone revealed he maintained a tight control over his emotions.

      Brent rose to his feet and set the gift on the side table.

      Adriana thought at first his action meant that he didn’t appreciate Inez’s thoughtfulness and was discarding the gift, but then she saw the emotion boiling up in his gaze. He glanced at Inez, true gratitude in his eyes before he shuttered it away.

      He unholstered and brandished his weapon, surprising them both. “And now, for my gift, I’m going to check the perimeter. Make good on that promise of protection. Double-check the booby traps. You might want to let me know what and where all of them are so I can find and check them.”

      “Let this be a test to let us know how well I’ve hidden them.” For a moment, she felt pleased and proud that he needed to ask. But then a dark thought crept in. “Except,” she admitted, “you got through some of them before on your own.”

      He frowned, his thoughts clearly running on the same track as her own. “Right. If it had been anyone else, you’d be dead right now.”

      * * *

      Brent had to step away from this situation that had grown far too personal.

      “We’ll be eating Christmas dinner in a couple of hours. Don’t be gone too long,” Inez called after him as he shoved through the front door, clomped across the porch and down the steps. He kept his eyes sharply attuned to his surroundings, though his mind remained muddled by the fact he’d found Adriana Garcia and was spending today with her and her friend like they were some kind of happy family.

      He never in a million years could have imagined he would be eating Christmas dinner with the sister of drug cartel head Rio Garcia. She’d disguised herself to look nothing at all like the woman who had saved him. And it would have worked, except for those beautiful eyes. All he had to do was look closely and he saw the Adriana he remembered. Her warm brown eyes had been a dead giveaway. Those had been the same eyes that had signaled a warning to him to stay hidden while she’d distracted Garcia’s men searching for him. It astounded him to think that, even then, he’d had an instant connection with her and been able to read her easily enough to trust her silent offer of protection.

      Then she’d come back for him after leading Garcia’s men away. She’d hidden Brent in her own home until she could safely spirit him out of danger. They’d spent that one day together, two years ago. He would never forget that day or those eyes. The hair and glasses might fool others, but up close and personal, they hadn’t hidden the luster and compassion in her gaze. At least, not from him.

      When he’d seen her before, she’d had long dark hair, but she’d done a great job of disguising it with auburn curls to go with the plain farm clothes that hung loosely off her body. But changing her appearance hadn’t diminished her beauty or hidden away her spirited nature. Brent found himself insanely attracted to the woman. Still. After two years. It was why he’d had to be the one to find her.

      Her disguise and the fake name, Tanya Parker, had worked well enough that the Texas Rangers and Garcia’s cartel had initially gone after the wrong woman—Danielle Segovia, who had been misidentified by a local policeman in El Paso after seeing photos of Adriana. Of course, she had turned out to actually be Danielle Segovia and not Adriana Garcia. Danielle just happened to be a dead ringer for Adriana, that was, before she’d disguised herself.

      The Rangers had received intel that Adriana was hiding in El Paso and running a small crafts shop, Mexican Artifacts and Crafts by Danielle. Though it had seemed odd that she’d attempted no disguise beyond changing her name, they’d thought she was hiding from her cartel brother in plain sight. Ranger Colt Blackthorn, Brent’s close friend, had gone undercover to determine if the woman was actually Adriana. But it had turned out she wasn’t, and Colt, well, it looked like he had fallen in love. Good for him.

      As for himself, attracted to Adriana or not, Brent wasn’t relationship material. At least, he kept telling himself that, but Adriana was causing a war between his heart and mind.

      Confusion about what his next move should be clouded his thoughts. And he needed to focus in case he’d inadvertently led Garcia and his men to Adriana’s llama ranch, as she’d suggested. He couldn’t dismiss the possibility when there were lives at risk, even though he didn’t think that it was very likely that he’d been followed. No one knew he was coming. Only Colt knew that Brent had gone in search of Adriana, following the clues in the letters he’d received. And even if the whole of their reconnaissance unit had come searching for her, how would Garcia know about it? How could he find out? Was there another mole—someone else, like Greg Gunn, who’d been working both sides?

      All this he considered as he carefully made his way to the perimeter of the ranch, vigilant for Adriana’s booby traps even as he thought that Garcia’s men would know to look for them, as well. In fact, the traps themselves had given the ranch away, confirmed to Brent that he had found the right one. Even though the traps warned the occupants of intruders, they also signaled to others that the property owner was someone who expected trouble.

      And this didn’t bode well for Adriana.

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