Linda Warren - A Texas Child

“Stu’s daughter, Natalie, works in my office in Houston.”

“The D.A.’s office?”

“Yes. She’s a secretary and has worked with us for about three years. After her mother died, she came to Houston to get closer to her father. Last year, she got involved with Marco Mortez and we all thought it was great she’d found someone. But he turned out to be a loser. On Monday, he beat her into a coma and took their nine-month-old son. The police haven’t been able to locate him.”

“Were they married?”

“No.”

“Is he the boy’s father?”

“Of course.”

“How serious is Natalie’s condition?”

She bit her lip, something she did when she was nervous. He was probably the only person who knew that, except for her friend Jessie. He’d heard that Jessie had gotten married but he wasn’t in the mood to discuss any details about Myra’s life.

“It’s bad. The doctor said he must have banged her head repeatedly against the wall or a table. They operated to stop the internal bleeding. Now they’re dealing with the swelling of the brain. The doctor said she will either wake up or she won’t. She has a fifty-fifty chance. The baby has to be there when she wakes up or she will be devastated.”

Levi felt himself being pulled into Natalie’s plight, but then, he was always a sucker where a baby was concerned. Still, he wasn’t relenting.

“If the police are on the case, I don’t see why you need a private investigator. And like I said, Stu still has a lot of pull in the police department.” Stuart Stevens had been the police chief in Houston, but he’d retired after a bout with cancer.

She bit her lip again.

“You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

“It’s complicated, Levi.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Oh, really. I don’t do complicated anymore, Myra.”

“Okay.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her black slacks. “When the police couldn’t locate Marco, I did some checking on my own. His family might have connections to a Mexican drug cartel.”

“Might?”

“I don’t have any evidence to back it up. Only what people in the apartment complex told me about Marco and the people who visited with him. I’m waiting on a report from the FBI to confirm.”

“Well, then, I’d say it’s safe to say that baby is in Mexico.”

“Maybe not. Marco’s parents have a home in Brownsville. The police there checked it out, but they said they hadn’t seen their son in weeks. They could be hiding him, though.”

“If he’s wanted in Houston, he’s not hanging around in Texas.”

“Levi, please,” she begged, her eyes dark with emotions he remembered too well. “I know you can track Marco down and find him when no one else can.”

“You have a lot of confidence in me.” Confidence that came just a little too late.

“I always have.”

He lifted a hand. “Let’s not go there.”

“Levi, just check into it. Stu is willing to pay your fee plus expenses and a five-thousand-dollar bonus if you bring his grandson back.”

“You’re asking me to get involved with the drug cartel in Mexico? That’s like signing my own death warrant.”

“All you have to do is locate him. The police will take it from there.”

“In Mexico? I doubt it.”

“I can see you’re not eager to go into Mexico.”

“No. Valerie and I are talking marriage and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that. I’m ready to settle down and have a family. Putting my life in danger is not going to happen.”

She stepped forward and a heel sank into the ground, almost toppling her over. “Good grief, it’s like quicksand in here.”

“You’re in a barn, Myra. It’s called dirt. No one wears high heels in a barn.”

She yanked the heel out and managed to stand upright. “I thought you would be in your office. I didn’t plan on driving way out here to the middle of nowhere.”

He pushed away from the saddle. “You wasted your time. I’ll give you the names of some investigators in Houston. They can do just as good a job as I can.”

“I work in the D.A.’s office. I know investigators all over Harris County, but it’s going to take someone willing to go the extra mile to flush out Marco. I thought that man would be you. So did Stu.”

“Sorry.” He remained firm.

“You’re one stubborn asshole. Do you think it was easy to come out here and face your wrath once again? It wasn’t. A little boy’s life is at stake. You may be able to ignore that, but I can’t.”

Myra was getting revved up, like he’d seen her do in a courtroom. When she was passionate about something, her Mexican lineage came out and she was unstoppable.

“And since you don’t care one way or the other, there’s another sad twist to this story. Did you know Stu had part of one lung removed?”

“Yes. I went to see him at the time.”

“The cancer has spread. He’s very ill. If I have to go to Mexico myself, I will. Stu and Natalie need a break and I won’t turn my back on them.”

Her heels sank into the dirt again and she reached down and yanked them off. “I’m not going to rehash the past with you again. It’s done. It’s over. I was young and stupid. I’m not sure what your excuse was other than being a total asshole with a high and mighty attitude. I’m human. I made a mistake. Get over it.”

She swung toward the door, heels in her hand, and just as quickly swung back. “Good luck with your marriage. I hope she never disappoints you, because you’re one unforgiving bastard.”

Levi drew a sharp breath and slung his hat across the barn. It landed softly on a bale of alfalfa. His horse skittered away and he stroked her to calm her, but nothing was going to calm the churning in his gut. Myra made him madder than anyone. She knew how to push his buttons. Damn her!

He removed the bridles and saddle blankets from the horses, and then opened the door to the corral so they could eat the sweet feed he’d put out earlier. They trotted through and he closed the gate. He always liked to rub them down after a hard ride, but today he feared he might rub through their hides. He was that angry at her.

Leaning on the gate, his thoughts turned inward. Seeing Myra again was like someone touching him in the middle of the night when he was alone. It was startling, jarring and frightening. And he’d responded badly. He was struggling to figure out why.

When they’d met seven years ago, he was a cop with the Austin police department and she’d just joined the D.A.’s office. They’d worked a murder case and theirs was an instant attraction. They’d slept together on their first date and, by the end of that week, he’d moved in with her. Their need for each other was insatiable.

At first, he’d thought it was just about the hot sex, but as the weeks passed, he realized it was much more. He admired her drive, her determination to succeed in a man’s world. And her devotion to her friend Jessie was admirable, too. He liked everything about Myra. Her Latin looks were an added bonus.

He wasn’t a dreaming man, but she’d had him dreaming about a future, babies and a home. And forever. He just hadn’t counted on how much her career meant to her. More to her than he ever would. That’s what hurt the most.

Things had blown up so fast they’d never had a proper goodbye. One wasn’t required. Maybe that’s what bothered him. Maybe he needed closure. Closure? Hell, that wasn’t a word men used. He didn’t. Men just moved on. And he planned to keep on moving. He’d found the woman for him and Myra Delgado was just a bad memory.

CHAPTER TWO

MYRA WAS FURIOUS and she had to let off some steam. The only way to do that was to talk to Jessie, who understood her better than anyone. Myra had never told her why she and Levi had broken up. There was a reason for that. She wasn’t sure her friend would understand.