Page 6 of Lone Star Christmas Mission

Far more.

After all, one of the benefits of working for Ruby Maverick was that the operatives got all the current bells and whistles when it came to security and threat detection.

Despite the exhaustion and pain, Kayla wasn’t sleeping. She was sitting straight in the seat as if on alert. And she probably was. It’d be impossible for her to fully relax after the shit that she’d been through tonight. Cash wished it was over, that shewasn’t still in danger, but Harvin’s phone call had made it clear that she was the target.

Yeah.

Harvin apparently intended to pick up where his father and uncle left off. Or rather try to do that anyway. Cash intended to end the miserable SOB’s life before he could get to Kayla. He’d failed to protect her sister all those years ago, and he had no desire to put her through that kind of hell again.

“What made you move out here to the Hill Country?” Kayla asked, the question cutting through the flood of thoughts and worries going through his head. “I mean, other that the fact it’s beautiful.”

It was indeed beautiful. A Texas paradise with its rolling hills and, in the spring, acres of the famous bluebonnets. Along with that were the limestone bluffs, mineral springs, and a nice side dish of peace and quiet. It was even quieter in winter, especially now with the glistening frost covering the ground.

“Ruby had some houses built out here for her operatives, and I bought one of them,” he explained as he took the final turn to his house. It was a private road with sensors that started to ping the app on his phone.

“Gunner,” Cash instructed the app. “I’m driving through. Keep the sensors activated.”

Despite the annoying pings that jacked up his adrenaline and caused his body to automatically brace for a fight, Cash didn’t want to turn them off in case Harvin was nearby, ready to strike. The asshole could try to use their arrival to sneak onto the property.

“Gunner?” she repeated.

“That’s what I call the app that manages the security system along with pretty much the rest of the place,” he explained. “And, yes, it’s named after the dog I had when I was a kid.”

Kayla smiled. “I remember. A German Shepherd. He once ate my ice cream cone, and I cried.”

Cash remembered that. Remembered, too, using his entire meager savings to buy her another one. He’d enjoyed watching her eat that cone.

Hell, he’d enjoyed most of his time with Kayla.

They’d met when he was eight and she had been seven. That was the summer his folks had bought the house next to her parents, and along with Kira, they’d become fast playmates.

And something else.

Even though Cash had been just a kid, he had felt an instant connection with Kayla. Friendship at first sight, but later, when his brain had been better able to process such things, it had felt more like…well, that she was his soulmate.

Oh, he’d mentally kicked his own ass over that flowery label.

But while he disapproved of the word itself, the feeling remained. And was still there.

It was ironic that he’d never had that kind of connection with Kira despite her being Kayla’s identical twin. Cash had always been able to tell them apart, unlike just about everyone else in the neighborhood, and when he’d become a teenager, it’d been Kayla he’d had wet dreams about.

Then, things had gone to hell when they were fifteen. Virgil had launched that hell by acting on this obsession with them and trying to abduct the girls at knifepoint.

Even now, those images were way too fresh. One week before Christmas. There’d been the threat of frost and maybe even some rare snow with the temps dropping into the low thirties. And there had been the lingering smell of the smoke from the neighbors’ fireplaces. Central Texas didn’t always get winter weather when the rest of the country did, but it had that night.

Christmas lights and decorations were everywhere. Lots of blinking colors and so much anticipation of the holiday. Orrather the Christmas party that Kayla, Kira, and he had been invited to. Their parents were already at one just up the street, but this was a party just for the teenagers in the neighborhood. A costume deal where Cash had been planning to make out with Kayla and ogle her in the fairly skimpy Mrs. Santa costume she’d already modeled for him.

Cash had opted for a Santa suit, a cheap one he’d bought from a party supply store. Staying with the Christmas theme, Kira was going as an elf.

As planned, Cash had dropped by Kayla’s house at eight so Kira and they could walk to the party together. But when he got there, Virgil already had a knife to Kira’s throat and was using it to force both Kayla and her toward his car in the side driveway. Cash had seen the look in the man’s eyes and knew one thing.

They were the eyes of a killer.

Kayla’s head was bleeding, and Cash had learned later that Virgil had clubbed her with the handle of his knife. He’d punched her, too, and broken a couple of her ribs when she’d tried to fight back. She had only surrendered and submitted when Virgil had put the knife to Kira’s throat.

That night, Cash hadn’t paused to think about Kayla’s injuries. The knife. Or anything else other than getting to the girls and saving them. Shouting for help but sure as hell not waiting for it, he’d grabbed a handful of rocks and tried to pelt Virgil with them. When that hadn’t worked, Cash had lunged at him.

And failed at that, too.

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