She raced after him.
Now you really have to go, he said roughly. You promised.
She shook her head. That was only if you kissed me on the mouth. Her voice fell so softly, he had to strain to hear it over the downpour.
Being protective of a Kemble was not a role he felt comfortable with. Not when she was so all-fired beautiful.
Mia
When he turned and saw her backlighted by the porch lamp, he had to remind himself again she was jailbait. Standing there in her wet dress with her big eyes fastened on his mouth, she personified fresh, young sensuality and femininity.
Go, he said.
How come you still wear that turkey feather I gave you in the brim of your hat?
That doesnt mean anything, girl.
His heart thudded. Inside his jeans, he was hard and swollen.
He wanted her. Even though it was wrong.
Before she could answer him, headlights flashed, and he heard a car down the road.
Go to the kitchen. Dont make a sound. If anybody finds you here, I could end up in jail. Do you understand how serious this is?
For once she obeyed, and he shut the door behind her. Scarcely had she hidden herself, than his own father stormed up to the porch.
As usual he was drunk. His thick florid face was set in a mask of hatred as he stumbled up the steps. II lost the ranch tonightor whats left of itto Caesar Kemble. Because of you.
Shanghai sank to his knees and fisted his hands. If someone had slammed a shovel against his spine, he couldnt have felt more broken.
Its your fault.
Right, Shanghai whispered. Blame somebody else like you always do.
His father weaved drunkenly. You had to go over there and stir him up. He came looking for me just like you knew he would. And you just sat here and let him lure me into a game of cards. Entice me with the finest liquor. When it was over and hed won Black Oaks, he told me you went to his house and strutted around like a bantam cock, like you thought you were somebody, like you thought you were as good as him.
I am as good as him.
Youre a loser, born to a loser, whos sprung from a long line of losers.
Ill drive you home and put you to bed, Daddy.
Dont act so damned superior.
It wouldve happened anyway!
The hell it would! Youve got high-and-mighty airs, but youre no better than me. Caesar said it was time all of us Knights got what we deservednothing! But thats not the only reason I came over. Kinky called him and said Mias run off again. Caesar said she was upset because he hit you, and they think she mightve come over here. I dont reckon you know where
Shanghai shook his head just as a pot crashed in the kitchen inside the cabin.
Who the hells in there with you then?
Nobody.
You lyin son-of-a skunk! Caesars on his way over here, you fool!
His father rushed past him, whipped the screen door open and stormed through the house.
Mia screamed from his bedroom. When Shanghai ran inside, his father was dragging her out from under the bed by the hair.
Let go of her, Shanghai yelled, shoving him in the back.
Its not what you think, Mr. Knight, Mia began. He didnt do anything. It was me. All my fault. He told me to go, but I
I got eyes in my head. Hes bare-chested and youre wearing his shirt. You were in his bed.
Under his bed. I told you. I came over here on my own, she said.
How long has this been going on? his father yelled.
Nothings going on, Shanghai said.
Shes here, in your bedroom. Its the middle of the night. Shes underage. Youve got a wild reputation and youre madder than hell at her father. And youre trying to tell me that you didnt touch
What do you care? Youre the one who gambled the ranch away!
His father lunged at him. That was your fault and you know it! You set me up tonight! Laid a trap. I shouldve seen it coming. Youve been a wild un since the day you was born.
Wonder where I get it?
Not from me! Cause youre not mine, boy! The only reason your scheming mother married me was to get a daddy for her no-good bastard.
Youre lying!
His father lunged. Together they crashed onto the floor. When Mia leaned down to try to pull them apart, his father slugged her.
Unconscious, she slumped like a limp rag doll to the floor.
Instantly Shanghai forgot his father and dropped to his knees beside her. Smoothing her hair from her face, he touched her throat.
I didnt mean to hit her, his father gasped, all the meanness going out of him at the realization hed hit Caesars daughter. I meant to knock some sense into you. Not that thats possible.
I think shes okay.
Shanghai picked her up in his arms and laid her on his bed. As he held her wrist and found her pulse, which was strong and steady, he saw headlights on the road outside.
Shanghai glanced up at his father and felt an utter coldness. Somebodys coming. Go see who it is. Ill stay with her.
Her eyes flickered open, and she smiled at Shanghai. This is where Ive always wanted to bein your arms.
Youre gonna be okay, he whispered, stroking her brow.
Its Caesar Kemble. Through the doorway Shanghai could see his father was cowering drunkenly behind the front door. He swore I could stay at Black Oaks till I died, but if he finds you and her here, he wont honor that. Hell have us both locked up for the rest of our natural born yearsif he doesnt shoot us on the spot.
His father had gone so pale and looked so terrified Shanghai felt sorry for him.
You never saw me tonight, Shanghai said. I wasnt here. You dont know where or why I wentunderstand? Youll ask questions and act worried. Youll pretend that youre concerned about your missing son.
His father nodded, as if trying to understand, but his eyes were too glazed with booze.
Shanghai turned back to Mia.
Your daddys outside, he told her, reluctant to leave the brat until he was sure she was okay.
Run, she whispered. Ill catch up to you when Im all grown-up.
In spite of himself he smiled. When youre datin age, youll have every eligible bachelor in Texas chasin you. Youll forget all about the likes of Shanghai Knight.
NoIll find you when Im all grown-up. I swear. And Ill make you love me!
He laughed.
I will. Somehow I will.
You do that then, little darlin. But if I dont gitnowthere wont be much left of me to find or love!
Funny thing. His last act on the way out the door was to lean down and grab that dang-fool rose shed pitched at him.
Then he hightailed it out the back door.
BOOK ONE
Smart Cowboy Saying:
You get used to hanging, if you hang long enough.
L.D. Burke, Santa Fe
One
Fifteen years later
Big Bend National Park, Texas
Where was the damn plane?
Big Bend National Park, Texas
Where was the damn plane?
Where are you, you little shit? Why dont you be a good boy for a change and just come to Daddy?
DEA Division Director John Hart squinted as he lowered his binoculars and shoved on his sunglasses. His pale blue eyes burned from eye strain from searching the skies so long for one tiny airplane.
So far the seizure was going off as planned. Except for one skinny, dark kid in ragged jeans, whod run like lightning, eluding his best agents and their bullets, his men had rounded up Octavo Moraless ground crew. At this very moment the bastards were cuffed and cursing him as they sweated like pigs in a sweltering van parked out of sight in a sharply cut canyon beside the trickle of water that was the Rio Grande.
No way was Hart driving the traffickers to El Paso. Not when the pilot was rumored to be Moraless half brother. It was hard to be patient and wait, but Hart wanted this plane, its cargo, the pilot and the woman. He wanted them badly.
Ah, the woman.
Mia Kemble.
He still couldnt believe it.
Bringing Mia Kemble home to the Golden Spurs Ranch was going to be bigger than the seizure. Way bigger. Just thinking about who she was and what this could mean for him made his pulse speed up. His name would be all over the papers. Hed be a hero.
It was high time. Wasnt he capable and ambitious? Hadnt he worked hard for the agency for years? Hadnt he played it straight? Hell, for the past two years hed worked his butt off on Operation Tex-Mex-Zero, which was an international Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation into the Morales-Garza (MGO) drug organization.
Since the U.S. Mexico border was the primary point of entry for drugs being smuggled into the United States, and he worked El Paso, hed naturally been forced to play a big role. Operation Tex-Mex-Zero involved seventy separate criminal investigations conducted by dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including Mexican and Colombian police officials.
Hart hated working on task forces. There were always too many egos and too much bureaucratic horseshit. When things went wrong, everybody got paranoid. Nobody cooperated. Hed been blamed for mistakes others had made. In the past year hed gotten himself shot at twice by traffickersonce at point blank range. If he hadnt been wearing his vest, hed be dead. He was damn sure hed been set up, too.
Hell, he was nearly as sick of lawmen as he was criminals. Where had his hard work gotten him? Hed been passed over for all the big promotions for guys who knew how to kiss ass or blow their own horns.
Then the Sombra had contacted him, and things had started to change. He didnt know who this guy was or why he had it in for Morales, but if Hart could rescue Mia Kemble, get Moraless half brother and make a major seizure to boot, all in one day, the name John Hart was going to be big on the Texas border. Maybe not as big as Morales, but big enough to suit John Hart. At least for a while. What he really wanted was to get Morales alone and chop him into little pieces.
The Chihuahua Desert was hot, rugged country even in early spring. Harts armpits were ringed with sweat. Watchful for snakes, he grabbed his backpack off the ground and then squatted in the scant shade of a nearby boulder and kept his eyes trained on the sky. A dozen of his men were hidden behind other rocks, but he preferred his own company.
He shook out a cigarette. Lighting it, he inhaled deeply. Then he pulled out a crumpled photograph from his shirt pocket and studied the redheaded beauty on the magnificent, black horse. Next his gaze turned to the tall, sinister-looking man with her, who held the bridle.
Morales.
Hart inhaled again. Even now, having studied the images dozens of times, the picture still had the power to shock him.
What the hell was Mia Kemble doing with that drug-smuggling, murdering son of a bitch, Morales? The bastard had to be balling the panties off her. And she had to have more tricks up those panties of hers than a talented border whore, or why else would he risk keeping her alive?
Her plane had crashed fifteen months ago in the Gulf of Mexico in the dead of winter. Everybody in Texas believed she was dead. Hell, her own father and husband had had her declared legally deadno doubt to get their hands on her money. Her husband had even remarried, her twin sister, of all people.
All John Hart knew about the mystery was that it was lucky as hell for him that the bitch was still alive.
Where the hell was the plane?
Impatient, he lifted his binoculars again.
Two
Chihuahua Desert
Northern Mexico
Be careful what you wish for.
The desert wind was blowing hard outside. Despite the close, suffocating heat, Mia shivered convulsively as little pebbles pinged against the fuselage of the Cessna 206 like buckshot. Her nerves were on fire. She wasnt sure how much longer she could stand being locked up in this tight, dark space.
What was wrong? Had she been set up? The plane, which sat on a dirt runway outside the tall walls of Tavio Moraless immense outlaw compound, should have been airborne for el norte, translationthe United Stateshours ago.
Mia felt faint and slightly woozy as well as nauseated from the marijuana fumes, which reminded her, of all things, of the woodsy, slightly sweet stink of skunk urine back home on the Golden Spurs Ranch. Mopping at the sweat on her brow with her sleeve, she plucked her soaked blouse off her breasts. Then a gust rocked the plane so hard the towering bales shifted in the cargo hold, several of them falling on her.
When they struck her cheek, knocking her down, she screamed. Then she clamped a hand over her mouth. Being locked up was horrible, but being crushed was even worse.
Her heart thudding, she wriggled free of the heavy bales and sat up, straining to listen for the running footsteps of Tavios thugs outside or a nervous spray of machine gun fire. When nobody stomped up with assault rifles or machetes, she fought to calm down, sucking in big gulps of air. All the deep breathing did was to make her grow even woozier from the marijuana.
In the total blackness, the thin walls of the sweltering Cessna felt like they were closing in on her. To calm herself, she tried to imagine that she was loping bareback on one of the Golden Spurs endless green pastures instead of lying here trapped in this airless prison fearing imminent suffocation.
Ever since shed gotten locked in the attic as a child at the Golden Spurs and that big, yellow-eyed rat had bitten her, causing her to have those awful rabies shots, shed been afraid of two thingsrats and being locked up. Then, after this year, her list of scary things had grown much longer.
Now here she was, a stowaway in a coffinlike cargo hold that was as hot as a furnace and getting hotter, and all because she was so desperate to get back to her little girl and her mother and her father and the Golden Spurs.
She wanted her life back.
Would she die here instead? Probably. Her throat tightened. Who would raise her little girl, Vanilla, then? Watch her grow up? Who was raising her now?
Her mother? Lizzy? Had Lizzy watched Vanillas first step? Heard her say her first word? Lizzy. Always Lizzy.
Vanilla would be a feisty toddler now. Was she chubby or slim? Docile or as ornery as a terrible two could be? What Mia wouldnt give to know.