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“Thanks.” She shrugged. “You got it from here?”
He looked at her, surprised. Usually, feds liked to get credit for their collars. But Rachel had never really understood the allure of a fast-tracked career.
Office work?
She’d rather swallow glass.
Agent Santino accepted Camden, who was still cursing, uttering racial epithets at this point.
The feds seemed all too grateful to retreat from the woods. She received a couple of nods of gratitude, but mostly, the feds just hurried off, carrying their suspect with them.
Rachel watched the killer disappear into the dense forest, her keen eyes tracking his movement. The other agents rushed past, distracted by a splash in the murky waters.
She tried not to smile. An alligator was watching them from a stream bed, but none of them had spotted it.
Her pulse quickened as she moved silently through the underbrush, guided by instincts honed since childhood. Broken twigs, displaced leaves, the faint snap of a branch all formed a trail only she could follow.
A far more important trail to her.
One that led back to her white hat with the single eagle feather tucked in the brim.
She was no longer aware of the damp earth beneath her boots or the mosquitoes buzzing about her face.
There. A glimpse of faded white between the trees. She adjusted her course, keeping downwind so nothing ahead might catch her scent.
She approached her hat. Snatched it off her folded leather jacket. The hat settled on her head, fitting snug like a hug.
She smiled.
Her phone was sitting in the pocket of her leather jacket. She wrinkled her nose. She and technology got along like water and oil.
But as she stared at the jacket, she noticed the pocket glowing.
A second later, her phone began to chirp.
Normally, she kept the phone on silent, but only one number caused the device to ring.
Work.
She picked up the phone. “Yes?”
“Blackwood, that you?”
“Mhmm.”
“You done with that side quest for the feds? We got something.”
She blinked. So soon? Normally, it was rare to boomerang a Ranger. Assigning them from one high-priority case quickly to another. But she didn’t protest. Instead, she said, “Now?”
“Yeah. Right now. This shit’s gonna hit the fan soon. News agencies. Online bloggers. That sorta shit. You comin’?”
“Yeah. On my way.”
She adjusted her hat, snatched her scoped rifle, and hurried off through the woods, back toward where she’d parked her rusted-out Jeep.
CHAPTER TWO
Back at the Texas Department of Public Safety, the lobby’s fluorescent lights glared down as Rachel pushed through the glass doors.
