“Christ, you’re a pain in my ass.”
Kate had the audacity to grin. She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “But in a good way, right?”
Jase hauled her into his arms and kissed her the way he’d been wanting to, long, hot and deep. Kate moaned. She was trembling when he let her go.
“If...if you think that’s going to persuade me to stay home, you’re wrong.”
Amusement slipped through him. “Actually, I just wanted to kiss you.” Stupid as it was. “But you have to promise to stay in the car, out of the way.”
“I will, I promise.”
He nodded. “Get your gear and let’s go.”
Forty-five minutes later, they pulled up at the rendezvous point, parked in a spot a short distance from a line of patrol cars. The plan was for Jase to gain access to the truck using the password he’d acquired last night. It wasn’t a good idea to risk an unfamiliar guy, and if he could get the door open, the cops could swoop in and take control of the situation with less chance of the women getting hurt.
At least that was the plan.
Jase and Kate both got out of the Yukon. Castillo left his men to walk back and speak to them. The detective was heavily armed and wearing tactical gear, as were the rest of the men. “I didn’t expect to see Kate here.”
“Yeah, well, you ever try to stop a woman whose mind is made up?”
Castillo didn’t see the humor. “You need to stay out of the way, Kate.”
“She isn’t officially here,” Jase said. “I’d like to keep her out of this if we can.”
Castillo turned a hard look on Kate. “Stay in the car until this is over. We have no idea how this is going to go down. We don’t want civilians getting hurt.”
“I won’t interfere,” she said.
Castillo just nodded and returned to his men. Jase took an armored vest out of his gear bag and swung it on over his T-shirt, then shrugged into a blue denim shirt to cover it and the gun holstered in the belt at his waist. Then they settled in to wait.
And wait. And wait. And wait.
At 2:00 a.m., a crusty old sergeant named Mackessey, the man in charge, called off the bust. The truck never showed. Jase was pissed.
He tossed his vest into the back of the Yukon and strode up to Castillo. “This is exactly what I was afraid of. You got a dirty cop on the job. Maybe more than one. By now Los Besos knows exactly who’s been tracking them. Thanks for the help.” He turned to leave, but Castillo caught his arm.
“I had to go through proper channels. You know how it works. If there’s a dirty cop, it isn’t me. I’ll find someone I can trust and we’ll figure it out. You can still count on me. I swear it, Hawk.”
Some of Jase’s anger deflated. Castillo had always been a straight shooter. On the other hand, he couldn’t afford to take chances. “Fine. If I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.” Like hell he would. “I expect you to do the same.”
“You got it.”
But after tonight, Jase’s plans had changed. He might still trust Castillo, but not the cops the detective was working with. Someone was dirty, and a dirty cop could be deadly.
He returned to where Kate stood next to the Yukon. The bad news was, just as he’d feared, they were in deeper trouble than before.
“Take the battery and sim card out of your phone,” he said, once they were inside. “They know who we are now. We don’t want them tracking us.”
Panic flashed in her eyes. “You think they can do that?”
“No idea, but I’d rather play it safe. From now on, we’re using burners. I keep a couple in my gear bag in the back.”
The headlights of half a dozen patrol cars went on as the cops pulled out and headed back to Houston. Jase drove off, but instead of pulling onto the interstate, he circled around and returned to the truck stop.
Drawing his .38 revolver out of his ankle holster, he handed the gun to Kate. “Wait here. Lock the doors.”
She accepted the pistol without a word and settled it in her lap. She’d told him she knew how to fire a weapon. He wished they’d had time to practice, but looking at her, he had a feeling she knew what she was doing. The way things were going, the knowledge might come in handy.
