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  “I’m ‘Boone’s kid sister,’ I believe you said. As such, you should be quite able to ignore me. And you better let go of my braid.”

  “Or else?”

  The challenge hung in the air and they both stared at each other. Isabella knew she should close her mouth and stop flirting and teasing him and settle back. But his gray eyes held desire and invisible, but, oh, so tangible, sparks were flying around them. Why not see what would happen?

  “Or else I’ll be over there in your lap in a twinkling.”

  One dark eyebrow arched, giving him that I-dare-you look. “How can I possibly let go now?” he said softly, and her pulse raced.

  “On the other hand, you have to let go or I can’t get there except to crawl over the table, which I have no intention of doing.”

  He laughed and released her braid and her heart thudded because for an instant the Colin she’d known from long ago was back. And his smile made him even more handsome and appealing. His teeth were white and even; creases bracketed his mouth while a twinkle danced in his eyes.

  She sat back and laughed with him.

  “So, you’re not heading over here.” He pushed away from the table to make his lap more available, and her pounding heartrate speeded up.

  “No. On second thought, I’ll stay where I am. You and I both know this is better and safer, and sitting in your lap might lead to all kinds of unwanted problems.”

  “Chicken, Isabella? I think I can live with any problems that arise from you sitting on my lap.”

  “We’re flirting and you said that it was dangerous. I think I should tell you good-night and get out of here right now. You can lock up and close up and check things out and do all the stuff you do. See you in the morning.”

  She all but ran from the room, leaving her dishes behind and her half-finished iced tea.

  She needed to get away from him right now. His flirting and smiling at her had increased his appeal. He was right: she was pushing him, teasing him, flirting with him far too much. Was it the streak in her that wanted to save strays or was she really drawn to Colin?

  Either way, she needed to stop and distance herself from him. Yet how wonderful to hear him laugh! How great to see him smile. His kisses—her insides heated at the thought.

  She entered her bedroom and closed the door behind her. As she moved across the room, she brushed her lips with her fingers and remembered his kisses. No one had ever touched her the way he had or caused the heated reaction he did. It was instantaneous, the moment his lips touched hers.

  Why, oh, why, was there such chemistry between them when neither of them wanted it? They were poles apart in every way. Not when they touched. His kisses stirred a storm of longing in her, and she suspected it would be hours before she could sleep. Probably hours before he could sleep for a different reason. She knew he had been deeply touched by the generosity of his friends. Maybe that gesture had reached him more than anything else and had caused him to let down enough to actually laugh and smile tonight.

  “Stop trying to save him from himself!” she said out loud. He wasn’t a stray she could feed and pat on the head and expect to keep out in the yard.

  “Colin,” she whispered, desire a fiery longing that she knew she would have to battle more than ever. “Colin Garrick,” she repeated, fighting the urge to go back to the kitchen where she imagined he would still be sitting. Soon he would be gone out of her life. How long would it take to forget about him? Would she ever forget him?

  “I hope you can’t sleep, either,” she said softly, guilty to wish a sleepless night on him, yet wanting him to suffer as much as she was.

  She closed the shutters, changed into a white cotton nightgown that came to the tops of her knees. She climbed into bed, switched off the light and stared into the darkness, wondering how long before she could sleep. Her thoughts jumped to Colin and the memory of his kisses.

  Colin went through the house, closing shutters, checking windows, thankful Mike’s crew would be out in the morning to change the alarm system.

  He was only half aware of what he was doing, because his thoughts were on Isabella. He thought about her constantly and tonight he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her at Boone’s. He groaned. Boone’s kid sister. He had to stop flirting with her. He had to avoid her. He definitely had to stop kissing her. It was like telling himself to stop breathing.

  It was three in the morning before he dozed.

  He went in through a window and moved through the darkened house. He could hear men’s voices, smell stale cigarette smoke. He had about two minutes’ head start. In the dark room, a man was tied to a chair, an old iron bed off to one side. Colin cut the hostage free.

  There were voices.

  Men were coming.

  Colin grabbed the man’s arm to run.

  Chapter 8

  D renched in sweat, Colin sat up in bed. He raked his fingers through his hair as his heart pounded. He remembered! He remembered part of that night before the blast.

  He lay back down to stare into the darkness and run the memories through his mind again.

  Hours later, during their morning run, he told Isabella.

  She stopped in her tracks to stare at him. “Colin, that’s marvelous!”

  He laughed and wanted to grab and hug her. Instead, he stood with his hands on his hips. He was excited to have the stirring of memory. “Yeah. I don’t know if seeing the guys triggered it or knowing you—”

  “Knowing me? How would that affect your memory?”

  “Maybe I’m more relaxed about my past. Maybe I have other things on my mind now,” he said, his voice growing husky as he touched the tip of her nose with his forefinger.

  Something flickered in the depths of her eyes. She turned and began to jog again and he fell into step beside her.

  Later that morning at nine o’clock a private prop jet plane set down on the ranch runway and taxied to a stop. A brown-haired man dressed in jeans and a brown T-shirt stepped out and Colin hurried forward to meet him. Colin had seen Brett Hamilton only once before in his life. The ranch pilot passed the two men, hurrying to the plane and entering to help direct the pilot to the hangar where he could refuel before leaving.

  Colin shook hands with Brett. “Glad to have you here, although you may have stepped into a hornet’s nest.”

  “Frankly, I hope so. We want to catch this guy and be finished.”

  “Come with me. You can stay in the guest house, or if you think it would scare our man away, you can stay in Boone Devlin’s house. He’s agreed to that.”

  “I’ve been briefed that the Agency is sending two people,” Brett said. “Both have impeccable backgrounds and one is an old buddy of yours. Peter Fremont.”

  “I got a call at five this morning from the general about them coming. I’ve worked a couple of times with Tyler Riordan.”

  “I’ve got a dossier on him. I don’t see how either one of them could be the double agent.”

  “Whoever it is has cleared all intelligence hurdles. But then, the traitor would have to,” Colin said. They climbed into a pickup and Colin briefed Brett on Stallion Pass, his three friends and the local situation.

  “We had another agent compromised,” Brett informed Colin. “The blame has to rest squarely with our man,” Brett said. “We’ve got to hope this ploy works and we succeed. I’m your ace in the hole because no one except General Kowalski, you and the pilots who brought me, know that I’m here. That’s it. Who have you told?”

  “Just my friends and Boone Devlin’s sister, Isabella. I’m staying in the guest house with her. Since we’re in the same house, I needed to tell her. Isabella is an excellent shot and knows how to defend herself. I don’t want you shot in friendly fire.”

  Brett nodded. “I’ll probably stay where I draw the least attention and I don’t think the best place is in the same house with you. Actually, it might be the best cover if I bunk up with the hands who work here.”

  “Know anything about hors
es?”

  Brett grinned. “I brought my belt buckle for saddle bronc riding.”

  “Great. You’ll do fine in the bunkhouse with the cowboys. I don’t know them, but Boone said everyone is friendly.”

  “If I stay there, we need to let them know, but that’s letting a lot of people in on the fact that I’m here.”

  “I imagine you can trust everyone on this ranch. You know the enemy hasn’t got any contact here. Except us. I still think it’s going to be someone all of us who’ve been in Special Forces know.”

  “You’re probably right. It stands to reason.”

  Colin parked near the back door of the guest house. “Watch out for the dogs. They’ll greet you to death.”

  They entered the backyard and Colin tried to shoo away the dogs, but Brett knelt to pet them.

  “You can take them home with you when you go,” Colin said, looking at the tough Special Forces soldier kneeling and scratching one of the dog’s ears.

  Brett grinned. “Who do they belong to?”

  “I think Isabella will foist them off on her brother since this is his ranch, but she’s the one who’s taken them in. They were all strays.”

  “So our hostess is a softie.”

  “Just don’t startle her in the dark. Come on and meet her.”

  Isabella saw the men as she stood at the kitchen window. Colin was dressed in faded jeans and a white T-shirt and looked like one of the cowboys. The man with him was less than six feet tall, much shorter than Colin, thicker through the shoulders and chest and a mass of muscles.

  Grimly, she watched them approach the house. The presence of the soldier made the threat real and imminent. She could move to town and get out of this, she knew, yet she felt compelled to stay. Was that because of Colin? She didn’t want to look too deeply at her reasons. She carried her pistol in her purse daily and she had added ten minutes to her running time and another ten to her workout time.

  Colin opened the back door and met her gaze. He stepped into the kitchen, motioned his friend inside and closed the door.

  “Isabella, this is Brett Hamilton. Brett, meet Isabella Devlin, photographer.”

  She shook hands, feeling hers surrounded with his thick fingers in his strong grip.

  “We talked on the way here and Brett thinks he’ll stay in the bunkhouse.”

  “I may be around on the grounds at night and I might sleep on that porch. I’ll just see how it goes and how much security you have here.”

  “I waited to meet you, but I need to go to work now,” Isabella said. “My brother will be anxious to meet you.”

  “Brett, you can take one of the pickups and follow us into town. I can show you around Stallion Pass or you can look on your own. At eleven o’clock we have an appointment in San Antonio with the other three guys, Mike, Boone and Jonah. They need to know you, and we need a strategy briefing.”

  “Peter and Tyler get in at one o’clock,” Brett said.

  “They’re to know nothing about you. We’ll have to go through another meeting with them, and it’s scheduled in San Antonio at three.”

  “All right. Give me the keys and let’s go,” Brett said.

  As they headed into town, Colin drove Isabella’s car and she rode, watching him, occasionally glancing in the passenger’s side-view mirror to see Brett in the pickup following behind them.

  “Can you trust all these men who are coming to town?”

  “They have the best credentials possible.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” she said.

  He shot her a look and she had her answer. “All of us, Mike, Jonah, Boone and I, have known Peter Fremont for years. We were in Special Forces with him, but he got out long ago to go to work for the CIA. Tyler Riordan is with the Agency and I’ve worked with him on two assignments. Brett is military. Brett is part of this covert operation, so I trust him. I can’t help but trust Peter, but logic says to not trust anyone completely, especially someone with the Agency. We’ve known Tyler the shortest time and the least of the three men.”

  “So Tyler is the most suspect?”

  “Not necessarily. It may not be either Tyler or Peter. It can’t possibly be Brett. It has to be someone in the CIA. Tyler’s record is excellent, but then a double agent’s record usually is or he would never succeed at what he does. Peter, Tyler, someone else from the CIA—I don’t know the answer. But one thing I do know, the CIA has seen fit to send Peter and Tyler to Texas. That in itself sends up a tiny flag of warning.”

  “I’d think so. Boone knows Peter Fremont?”

  “Yep. Pretty well.”

  “There aren’t any ideas about the identity of the double agent?”

  “A lot of them, but nothing that can be proven. He’s damn clever to have lasted so long without detection. He has to be an insider. No one else could have known some of the secrets the killer has been privy to except someone on the inside.”

  She rubbed her arms. “I don’t like the idea of the danger all of you are in.”

  “I don’t like the idea of the danger you’ve put yourself in. Get out, Isabella. You can go somewhere else to stay.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said, watching him. He looked strong, fit and competent. Sexy and appealing. Was she being stubborn just to stay near him? Or was she curious about how their plans would play out and wanted to be close enough to see for herself?

  “You can move or I can move. I’m running that past the guys again when we get together,” Colin said. “I think they’ll want me to stay put because they probably think that will give them the best chance at the killer. There’s no good reason for you to be part of this.”

  “I think I’m part of it now, no matter what I do. I’m not running. I don’t think anything will happen at the ranch. I think it’ll be somewhere else.”

  “How did you come up with that conclusion?”

  “With the new security system that will be put in this afternoon, the place will be a fortress. There are easier spots to get to you and the others than on the ranch.”

  “You’re probably right, but you’re in town, too. I’m still torn between being with you to try to protect you and staying the hell away from you because I put you in danger.”

  “That’s an easy one,” she said blithely. “It’s much more exciting to have you with me. You’re interesting, challenging, and really very sexy. I’d rather have you here with me.”

  “Stop flirting, Isabella,” he said through gritted teeth. “Are you going to flirt with Brett now?”

  “Is that worrying you?” she teased, and Colin shot her a dark scowl.

  “What appointments do you have today?”

  She laughed. “You’re changing the subject. No, I’m not going to flirt with Brett. I was very circumspect in greeting him this morning and I will continue to be that way. Now you, I find exciting to flirt with, but if you want me to stop, I will,” she said lightly and, to her surprise, he laughed.

  “You’re asking for it, Isabella. Okay, I’ll do the smart thing. I want you to stop flirting!”

  “Sure ‘nuff, Colin,” she said lightly, knowing that neither one of them would stop. She settled back and listed her appointments.

  “I’ll take you to dinner tonight to make up for the canceled date last night.”

  “Thank you,” she said, trying to bank a bubbling eagerness to go out on a date with him, “but I think you’ll have to wait longer because Mike’s coming out at two today to install a new alarm system.”

  “He told me that he and his crew will be finished by six o’clock. We can go to dinner at seven.”

  “So you think it’s safe for us to go out?”

  “We’ve got to go on with life as usual. The minute you want out of it, you’re out. If you don’t feel safe going out with me, we won’t, but I’m the target, not you. Also, one of the guys will follow us. Still want to go or not?”

  “Of course, I want to go.”

  “Where’s the best place in Stallion Pass to
eat?” he asked.

  “Murphy’s Steakhouse is excellent if you like steak.”

  “I’ll make reservations.”

  She inhaled, her pulse humming over the coming dinner date that pushed danger a little farther back in her mind. She glanced at Colin. His jaw was set and he looked anything but happy. She wondered why he was taking her out because she suspected he did not want to.

  Or was he just grim because of Brett’s arrival and the others coming in? The wheels had been set in motion. Now it was just a matter of time before the enemy made his move.

  They parked in the alley behind her shop and let Brett into the studio to look over the place. As soon as he finished, he and Colin left for a meeting at Mike’s office.

  At two that afternoon, Colin stood in the sunshine at the San Antonio airport and watched while another private plane taxied to a halt and two casually dressed men emerged.

  Hurrying forward, he shook hands with tall, blond Peter Fremont, three years his senior and someone he had known for years. Looking as if he were on a pleasure trip instead of official business, Peter wore gray slacks and a plaid sport shirt.

  “Glad to have you here, Peter,” Colin said, gazing into cool blue eyes.

  “I hope this is it, Colin. It’s long overdue.”

  Nodding, Colin turned to greet Tyler Riordan. Shorter, sandy-haired and in his early thirties, Riordan shook hands with Colin.

  Colin knew Tyler Riordan’s credentials were as flawless as Peter’s. He looked into hazel eyes as he received a firm handshake and welcomed the agent to Texas. It was impossible to imagine the double agent was either of these two men, yet as they turned from the plane, Colin’s gaze ran over Tyler and he knew that the killer’s record would be impeccable so a flawless record was no guarantee. Nor was it a guarantee with Peter, either.

  Colin had already rented a car for them and they followed him to Mike’s office where Jonah, Mike and Boone waited.

  The men greeted their old friend, Peter Fremont, and then Tyler Riordan. As soon as soft drinks had been passed out, the six got down to business.

  “We’ll stay in Stallion Pass at the hotel, but we both need to be able to come and go at your ranch so we can guard Colin and get in to see him,” Peter said to Boone.