LITMIR.BIZ

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will want to ask her questions, too. She’s here without papers. She’s not going to be let loose, no matter what her purpose is here.”

      And then it happened. In the blink of an eye, Grace Cordero morphed from a pretty hostess cooking for her guests into a stunning warrior amazon. The gentle, nurturing aura disappeared in a second. She pulled herself to full height and stalked right up to him, a steely expression coming onto her face.

      Yowza. The budding interest his battered body had registered toward her earlier turned into instant, fullblown lust. Whatever blood he had left rushed south.

      All right, then. Looked as if he was going to live, after all, he thought with some amusement and not a little surprise at his visceral response to her. It’d been a while since a woman made him sit up and take notice. He’d been too busy lately.

      Her eyes flashed as she faced him down, her jaw tight, her shoulders stiffening. “She stays where she is.” She didn’t raise her voice, but the hard tone carried plenty of warning.

      While she had a core of kindness, one that would push her out into a storm in the night to save a stranger, one that would have her take in a distraught woman without questions, she also had a whole other side. His instincts said it was a side a smart person wouldn’t mess with. He had a feeling Grace Cordero would make a bad enemy.

      “Do you live here?” he asked her in a mild tone to defuse the sudden tension.

      “I arrived yesterday morning,” were the words that came out of her mouth, but the flash in her eyes said: none of your business.

      “How long are you staying?”

      Her chin came up. “As long as it takes to help Esperanza.”

      And Ryder drew a slow breath. Grace wasn’t staying. Not if he had anything to do with it. Her land wasn’t safe now, and it would be even less so in the upcoming weeks. She needed to leave.

      SOMETHING ABOUT THE UTTER devastation in Esperanza’s eyes reached the grief in her own heart. She knew what it was like to lose family. She had nobody left.

      Grace pulled her cell phone from her pocket and tossed it to Ryder. She’d done the best she could last night, but he still needed medical attention. “Call whoever you need, but leave me and Esperanza out of this.”

      The sooner he left, the better.

      She’d meant to call first thing in the morning, but hadn’t had the chance. She’d ended up sleeping in the recliner to keep an eye on him overnight. She’d woken to Esperanza coming downstairs, and drew the woman into the kitchen so they wouldn’t wake Ryder. Of course, he woke up, anyway, a few minutes later.

      Unconscious, he’d been manageable. Sitting at her kitchen table, he looked fairly intimidating. He was pale and weak, but obviously well-built, a fighting machine on his better days. He had a sharp gaze, a pronounced, masculine chin, straight nose and a mouth that awakened some secret feminine longing inside her.

      Not to be acted upon, obviously.

      “If you work for border patrol, why aren’t you wearing their uniform?”

      Esperanza watched, her face scrunched with worry, probably aware that her fate was being decided.

      “I’m on a special team.”

      If he thought that would impress Grace, he had another think coming. “Can’t say I trust government men as far as I can throw them.”

      He kept his face emotionless as he asked, “Any particular reason?”

      She didn’t mind telling him. All the anger was still there, simmering just under her skin.

      “My brother was in the first Gulf War. Got sick. The government never acknowledged that he’d been exposed to biological weapons. We went through hell to get him proper health care.” She was convinced that if Tommy had gotten better help earlier, he would be still alive today.

      The thought tore open a barely scabbed over wound deep inside her.

      “And here you are, a doctor, unable to help him. That must have been doubly frustrating.”

      She shot him a blank look.

      He gestured toward his injured leg. “You put in some fine stiches.”

      “I was an army medic.” And now almost a veterinarian. She could still save lives, and animals were so much less complicated than humans.

      He looked at her through narrowed eyes, as if he was trying to puzzle her out. Good luck with that. These days her thoughts were such a tangled mess, she could barely make sense of them herself.

      Nor could she make much sense of him, so far. Beyond his name, she still barely knew anything about him. Well, other than he was annoyingly hot.

      Since he was strangely getting under her skin, she decided to go on the offensive. “What were you doing on my land?”

      “That’s classified information.”

      Of course it was. If she had a dollar for every time she’d heard that answer while trying to investigate just what chemicals Tommy had been exposed to…. She returned to the stove to remove the eggs from the fire.

      He was dialing the phone behind her, but said very little beyond his location when the other end picked up. He was long done before she turned around with his breakfast. Maybe he’d be in a better mood to help once he was fed.

      She split the eggs between him and Esperanza, who ate quickly, standing by the counter. She didn’t seem to want to go anywhere near the table and Ryder. Grace couldn’t blame her. Even in a weakened state, the man was pretty intimidating.

      “Much appreciated,” he said and dug in. Whether he was hungry or simply ate because he knew he needed the energy, he did a fair amount of damage in a short time.

      Grace watched him for a minute or so, wanting to give him time to eat in peace, but she ran out of patience too quickly. “Esperanza needs to find her family. I want to help her.”

      “The authorities will help her,” he said between two bites, then spoke to Esperanza briefly in Spanish.

      Tears rolled down the woman’s face as she set her empty plate in the sink. She looked as if she’d just been told that she’d be taken out back and shot.

      “The authorities have done nothing to help her until now,” Grace argued, frustration humming through her. She hadn’t been able to help her brother, but she could help Esperanza. If Ryder didn’t stand in her way.

      He finished his eggs, leaned back in his chair and watched her for a few seconds. Then his face hardened suddenly. “How long have you been aware that you have drug smuggling and human trafficking on your land?”

      The air got stuck in her lungs. “We never had any of that out here.” Of course, she hadn’t lived here for years. Still, Tommy hadn’t mentioned anything. Neither had Dylan.

      But Ryder had gotten shot. Had he been confronting drug runners? And Esperanza was here. What if all this was just the tip of the iceberg?

      “Were you shot by smugglers?” Not that she was ready to believe that, but she couldn’t pretend that it had been a hunting accident, either. She’d known from the beginning that it had been something a lot more sinister; she just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. She sank into the chair across the table from him.

      She’d come to spread her brother’s ashes in the most peaceful, nicest place on earth, in accordance with his wishes. But suddenly, the ranch seemed a much more dangerous place than she’d remembered.

      “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”

      God forbid someone told her what was going on on her land. But instead of pushing for an answer about that, she decided to pick her battles. “Esperanza had nothing to do with whatever happened to you. We both know she didn’t shoot you. How about you give her a break?”

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