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“Your helper’s here,” she called.
“Good. I’ll stop and have a word with him before I leave. Maybe he can stick around.”
“Cole, he’s just a kid. I don’t want him in any danger.”
“And I don’t wantyouin any danger.”
“I told you I’ll be careful. That’s a promise. And if anyone tries to get in, I’ll call right away.”
When he was shaved and dressed, his gun and holster in place, she walked him to the door. He wrapped her in his arms, leaned his head down, and kissed her until her toes curled. His tongue touched every inch of the inside of her mouth, and his hands rubbed up and down her body as if imprinting himself on her. Both of them were breathing hard when he let her go.
“I’ll be checking with you during the day, just in case.”
She frowned. “Just in case what?”
“Just in case I can’t wait another minute to talk to you. Also to let you know what’s going on.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “Listen, Dana,” he began. “I want…I feel…that is…”
She smiled. “I know. Me, too.”
“When this is over, we’re going to make plans.”
“Sounds fine to me. Now, get going before the FBI gives you a detention slip.”
He smacked her bottom playfully then jogged to his truck.
“Lock the door,” he yelled as he climbed behind the wheel.
She waved one more time, then closed the door and fastened all the locks. There was no going back to sleep, so she headed for the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
****
When Cole walked into the conference room, every deputy not on patrol was there as well as the five Feds. Gaylen had printed out topographical maps of every sector and pinned them up on the wall. He and Scott and a third man were studying them carefully.
Scott turned just as Cole was helping himself to coffee and one of the leftover donuts.
“Cole, meet our pilot, George Fillipi. Gaylen and I were just going over the different areas with him and trying to decide where to start. Any suggestions?”
Cole looked at each picture carefully. “I’d say these two areas first.” He pointed. “They’re the most remote and stand the least chance of strangers stumbling on them. Mostly, there’s nothing there but herds of cattle that have been moved from one pasture to another. Both places are far away from the ranch houses.”
He took the pencil out of Gaylen’s hand and marked each photo with a number.
“This is the order I’d hit them. Gaylen? What do you think? Should I make some changes?”
“No.” The chief deputy shook his head. “I think you’ve got it pegged.”
“All right.” Scott began pulling the photos off the wall then looked at Cole. “Okay if I get one of your deputies to make several copies of each? We thought we’d do land searches with air cover. That way if George spots something we can be on it pretty quick.”
“Absolutely. How do you want to split everyone up?”
Gaylen cleared his throat. “I don’t want to overstep my bounds here, but Scott and I discussed that. We’ll take our five best deputies and pair each one up with an agent. Give them a route to drive.”
“Good. And there’s no overstepping here. At all. Don’t even think about that.”
Gaylen looked at him hard. “You’re all right, Cole. For a foreigner.”
Scott lifted one eyebrow. “Foreigner?”
Cole gave him a rusty laugh. “Not only not born in Texas but not born in the county. It’s a heavy burden to carry.”
