Sharon Dunn - Thanksgiving Protector

“Misty. Everything is going to be all right. I will make sure your mommy is okay.”

“Are you the police?” Misty relaxed a little and brushed a strand hair off her face.

“Yes,” Kylie said. “I need you to go back to your room and shut the door. Lock it if you can. Can you do that for me, Misty?”

Misty nodded. Kylie released her. The little girl hurried down the carpeted hallway and disappeared back into the room.

Kylie let out a breath, praying that she would be able to keep her word to Misty.

The conversation in the living room had escalated. The henchman swore in Spanish. Austin tried to placate him. “Put the gun down. We don’t want to do anything that will send you to jail.” Austin spoke in Spanish as he raised his voice.

The words were to let Kylie know that the man was armed.

The woman’s crying and pleading grew louder. Kylie knew once she turned the corner she’d have less than a second to take in the scene and make a decision that could save or end a life.

“Don’t do this,” Austin repeated over and over. Despite the fear he must feel, his voice remained even.

She stepped into the living room as Austin moved toward the goon who held a gun to a woman’s head. She had a clean shot at the man’s leg. She took it.

The goon cried out, pushed the woman toward Austin as he spun and fired a shot at Kylie. Then he dove for the door, gripping his leg and hopping. Austin froze as the door opened and the goon stepped outside. Intense light flooded the front yard. And Kylie heard gunfire. Backup was here.

Kylie ran toward the woman who was trying to get to her feet. “Get down.”

More gunfire outside.

The woman clung to Kylie. “Misty?”

Kylie held the woman in her arms. “She’s all right. Your little girl is okay.”

Seconds later, lawmen swarmed inside the house. Kylie ignored them as she led the woman down the hall. The door burst open, and Misty ran toward her mom.

The woman wept as she held her daughter. “Oh, baby. My little girl.”

Kylie’s heart squeezed tight. There was another little girl whose mom wouldn’t be coming home tonight...or ever again. Mercedes was only six months old. All night Kylie had played her promise to Valentina over in her mind. Valentina had known the risk she was taking by becoming an informant, and had worried about what that might mean for her daughter. Kylie had given her word that she would take care of Mercedes if anything happened to Valentina. Valentina had put together a plan and made sure the paperwork was in order.

Guilt washed through her. Was the lone figure she’d seen crossing the river right before the gunfire Valentina trying to get to safety? Maybe Valentina had slipped over to Mexico gathering the intel that Garcia had changed locations, and she was trying to find the one person she trusted—Kylie—when she died. Kylie would never know for sure.

Austin came around the corner into the hallway. “Our suspect didn’t survive.”

With the amount of gunfire, she wasn’t surprised. Kylie nodded, but already her mind was on Mercedes.

“Thanks for having my back.” Austin’s voice was drenched with appreciative warmth.

She met his gaze. For only a moment, he had seemed almost vulnerable, willing to show who he was behind the badge. “It’s what we do, right?” No one who worked with Austin on the sixteen-member ranger reconnaissance team had a bad thing to say about him. He did his job and did it well. Yet, to Kylie there seemed to be something almost guarded about him, a part of him that was walled off to the world. The other rangers in company “E” had a nickname for him, Lone Wolf.

Austin squared his broad shoulders and the curtain seemed to fall down around his eyes again. “Right.”

The moment of vulnerability had passed quickly.

She’d been drawn to Austin from the first time they’d worked together on another joint task mission. But it was hard to care about a man who buried himself in his work and rarely showed much emotion.

“I guess we get to call it a night.” He leaned toward her. “Want to go get a bite to eat? There’s an all-night diner just up the road. They have great biscuits and gravy.”

On any other night, she would take him up on the invitation. But tonight... “I can’t.”

His brow furled into a look of confusion and maybe disappointment.

“I have to go into Segundo Barrio tonight.”

“Alone, at night? That is a dangerous part of El Paso.”

“Valentina—” her heart ached to even say the name “—the woman who died out there tonight has a little girl, six months old. I promised to take care of her if anything happened to her mother.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“That T on Valentina’s forehead means they know she was an informant. Mercedes might be in danger too. No, it can’t wait.” Kylie knew it would be a fool’s mission to go by herself. That part of El Paso could be deadly even in broad daylight. Even with all her training, Kylie would be risking her life. But that wouldn’t stop her. Already, she felt a strong pull toward Mercedes. The need to protect the little girl seemed to override everything else.

Kylie turned to go.

Austin grabbed her arm. “I smell a trap, Kylie. Did it ever occur to you why Valentina’s information was always so golden? She had to have a pretty sweet connection high up.”

Feeling a surge of anger, Kylie pulled away. Of course she’d thought of that. But she trusted her instincts. However Valentina got her information, she knew the woman’s character. “Valentina was a good person.” Whatever she’d been in the past when she lived in Mexico, Valentina had only wanted a better life for herself and her baby.

Austin stepped closer to her. “You go to that part of town tonight alone and there’s no guarantee you’ll come back.”

The familiar twisting and tightening in her gut ate at her resolve. Austin wasn’t wrong. That close to Rio Grande even on the American side was ground zero for smuggling humans, guns and drugs from across the border, and all the violence and murder that came along with that.

“Valentina told me she had all the paperwork in place for me to be Mercedes’s legal guardian and eventually adopt her,” Kylie said. “I have to keep my word.”

Austin took a step back and lifted his chin. “Legal guardian? I thought you were just getting the kid to take care of her for a few days until permanent arrangements could be made. Doesn’t Valentina have relatives?”

Kylie clenched her jaw. Austin’s resistance to her plan was getting under her skin. What business was it of his anyway? “She had no one she could trust. She cut all emotional ties to her past. She played a part and took risks to gather information for me. She wanted the violence to end as badly as I do.” She was still reeling from Valentina’s death. Her eyes warmed with tears and she turned away. The last thing she needed to do on the job was cry. As one of the few female border patrol agents, she couldn’t afford to get a reputation for being soft.

“I was just thinking that maybe it would be easier on the baby for her to go back to Mexico, be with relatives.”

“Mercedes was born here in El Paso. Valentina was working on her citizenship. She wanted nothing to do with her lawless family or the baby’s father.”

Kylie cleared her throat to choke back the tears. “She was a good person who came from a bad place. She was my friend.”

Austin’s hand cupped her shoulder, warming her through the thin layer of her uniform. His features softened. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

She turned to face him, seeing a softness in his expression. “I have to get Mercedes, and it has to be tonight.” She hurried toward the door. To her annoyance, Austin was on her heels. This was scary enough, she didn’t need him dogging her about her choices. “I’m worried about her safety.”