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ChapterOne
Jake
Jake Corriente packed his bag for what he hoped would be the last time, at least until after the new year. Christmas was less than a week away, and his job had been taking him away from the ranch more often than he’d hoped lately. Being a DEA agent was something Jake knew he was meant to do, but the trip from El Paso to Houston was a huge hassle, even if it was for the greater good.
Running his hand through his thick, dark hair, Jake perused the guesthouse he’d been living in on his parents’ property, checking to see if he’d forgotten anything. He’d planned to buy his own house this year, but with the crazy market coupled with his equally erratic schedule of late, he just hadn’t gotten to it. When he wasn’t on an active case, he was working the ranch anyway, so it had become a matter of convenience, and at the age of thirty-two, he didn’t really mind living in the small house. He had everything he needed for a bachelor; bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen. What more could he need? Besides maybe someone to share it with, of course.
Being single didn’t really bother Jake much. He’d become content married to his work, whether it be with the government or on the ranch; he loved them both equally. Jake knew his lifestyle could be hard to handle for some women, so he didn’t spend much time pursuing anything serious over the years. Not since college, and Coralee.Ahh, Coralee. I wonder what she’s up to.
Jake shook his head, pushing the past behind him as he usually did and let his thoughts return back to the trip across Texas. The upside to what was to be a short excursion was the opportunity to meet up with a supplier at the rodeo to negotiate the purchase of some sheep he and his brothers had decided to add to the flock they already had. The Corriente Ranch was thriving, and while their herd of cattle was bountiful, they hadn’t focused on the sheep as much and realized growing their flock now was a great opportunity to expand for the future.
The ranch life had always been a part of who Jake was, and so was law enforcement. The son of a cop, and the brother to two other agents in their respective federal posts, he managed to balance the two for years, and didn’t see that changing any time soon. He packed up his truck, said goodbye to his brothers who were starting their day in the stables, and got on the road. It was about a twelve hour drive to Houston, and while flying would have been significantly faster, with the holiday right around the corner, flights were a little expensive and hard to come by. Jake preferred the freedom of having his own vehicle anyway and driving himself meant when his meetings were done the next day, he could head over to the rodeo to talk with the auctioneer about the sheep, then make his way home the next morning. A quick three day trip more or less. Then, a break for the holidays.
Mostly uneventful, Jake made it to Houston, checked into his hotel, grabbed a bite to eat and hit the sack early. He was meeting the next day with his boss and some other agents to go over a case they’d been working on for the better part of a year before they had larger meetings with their Mexican counterparts. There was always work to be done to try to stop the cartel from bringing narcotics in from Mexico, but over the years would be up and coming “cartel-like” groups were popping up all across the southern border, getting craftier with their smuggling techniques.
Jake’s specialty at the beginning of his time with the DEA was technology, and he’d been working from the El Paso Intelligence Center for most of his career, but now he was a supervisor, responsible for several agents working under him. The EPIC, a multiagency intelligence center, worked like a task force comprised of twenty-one federal law enforcement agencies, and he was the head liaison for the DEA. The meeting he was going to Houston for was with the Mexican national equivalent to the DEA, theDirección Federal de Seguridad(Federal Security Directorate, DFS). Essentially, they were the secret police and Mexican intelligence also responsible for working to stop drug trafficking. The two organizations, along with some assistance from others such as the FBI, ATF, and CBP, were working together as often as possible in the hopes they’d dampen the influx of narcotics into the United States.
Most of the time he could do his work and his portion of the investigations he was on from the El Paso office, but quarterly the agencies gathered in Houston, and they’d waited as long as they could. Now with Christmas only a week away, they needed to review where their cases were, how they were connected, and see what progress had been made between the agencies to ensure everyone involved was on the up and up and disclosing an equitable amount of intelligence across the board.
As Jake suspected, everyone in the office, including his counterparts from Mexico were more or less checked out and ready for the holidays. The meeting wrapped up early, everyone said their happy holidays, and made their way out of the office. Jake stuck around to talk to some of his colleagues, including Dana Dewitt, an agent he’d gone to Quantico with years ago.
“Are you going to stick around, or you heading back to the ranch?” she asked.
“I’m actually heading over to the rodeo tonight to see about some sheep,” Jake replied.
Dana was a city girl through and through, born and raised in the northeast, she happened to take the job in Houston out of the academy and enjoyed the weather in Texas, but never truly acclimated. “Sheep? At the rodeo?” she asked, confused.
Jake laughed, realizing she had no idea what he meant. “There’s an auction at the rodeo too. You can buy and sell livestock there. It’s not all just the shows.”
“Oh! That makes so much more sense.” She laughed. “When are you planning to head back to El Paso? You want to grab some dinner? John should be done with work soon.” John Dewitt was Dana’s husband, who also worked for the government, but in a different agency. He was a forensic accountant for the FBI. Jake couldn’t think of a more boring job on the face of the earth, but he’d met John several times over the years he and Dana had been friends, and while his job was boring, he was a nice guy, and he was good to Dana, which was all that mattered to Jake.
“Why don’t you come with me to the rodeo? You’re Texan now. You should be immersed in the culture,” Jake teased her.
“Immersed in the culture? I’m an agent who chases drug dealers on the border. I’m immersed plenty,” she said, laughing. “But that sounds fun. Let me check in with the husband and see what he’s up to, and we’ll head over there?”
“Sounds like a plan. You can pet some sheep. Maybe start a ranch out here of your own,” Jake said, knowing that would absolutely never happen for her. While Dana was an incredible field agent and didn’t mind getting her hands dirty on the job, she was more of a fancy “let’s get dressed up and go to the nicest restaurant in town” kind of girl. Definitely the least likely to milk a cow, clean a stall, or ensnare herself with a flock of sheep.
“Funny guy. That’s a hard pass.”
She called her husband, who as it turned out, would not be getting out of work any time soon.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, and the animals tonight. John’s working late.”
“This close to Christmas?”
“Well, we’re taking off in a couple days to spend the holidays with my family up north, so he has a bunch of work he wants to have done first.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. End of year math. Barf.” She made a gagging gesture, pointing her finger down her throat.
“Sounds terrible.”
“Agreed. Let’s get out of here.”
Jake and Dana both changed their clothes into more casual attire, Jake in boots and jeans of course, and Dana in jeans and what appeared to be a designer sweater of some kind. Jake could tell it wasn’t standard wool like his sheep produced, that was for sure. It made Jake wonder how much the goats who produced cashmere cost. All cashmere was made of was the specific hair from a goat that came from Kashmir, India, but Jake was getting off track. They left the office in separate cars, Dana following him to the rodeo headquarters, where the auction and livestock sales took place.
When they parked, Jakes looked up at the sky and frowned. He’d heard there was a winter storm coming, but normally it didn’t amount to much in east Texas. It had been years since they had any significant snowfall, but something about the way the cool air smelled; it was heavy, and the clouds were ominous.
“You hear anything about the storm coming?” he asked, wishing he’d checked the weather when he was at the hotel that morning.
“You know how it is here. They say it’s gonna be bad. But, like, how bad is bad? People here can’t drive on a normal day, let alone if it rains. So, one inch of snow is reason to freak out.”
