Page 90 of Wyoming Heart

A flash would have been necessary. He wondered why most of the affairs he attended were conducted in such dim light. Probably, he said with a silent chuckle, so that some of the philandering went unnoticed.

He hoped his father was behaving himself. Certainly, Mina could call Parker if she needed help with him. But she seemed very capable of handling Vic, even when he was roaring drunk. It was a revelation, watching her do that, with her traumatic background. A lot of her life had been ravaged by the abuses of drunk people, including her own mother.

He’d called her the night before, just to make sure she was okay. She’d laughed and said that except for morning sickness, things were good. Vic had stopped drinking and was actually talking to his ex-wife. She didn’t add that Sandra was there at Latigo, or that her commando group was due to arrive soon. She didn’t have time, because he was interrupted by another urgent business call and he had to hang up. He was impatient with himself for that. He shouldn’t have cut her off. Well, he’d be home soon, and he’d make up for his absence.

He watched one of the single women present trying to interest a very wealthy married man over martinis, but the man walked away. Her eyes lit on Cort and she moved toward him like a slinky predator. He laughed to himself. That type of woman no longer attracted him. He compared this pretty serpent with his sweet homebody of a wife who liked to knit and read romance novels. Mina would never do something like that. She’d never come on to another man at all. He felt good about that. She was just what he needed; a wife he could leave alone when necessary without having to worry if she was running around on him.

ITWASAgood thing he couldn’t see what was going on at Latigo two days later. Mina and Sandra were sitting in the living room with five men dressed in casual clothes. But they weren’t casual people. They were Mina’s commando group, and their delight in her marriage and pregnancy made her feel very good. Three of them had wives and kids of their own.

“When the baby comes,” Ry said with a grin, “we’ll teach him the fine art of stealth!”

Mina laughed. “I can hardly wait.”

“I want to know all about that stint you mentioned in the Congo,” Sandra said, with an apologetic glance at Mina.

“So do I,” Mina laughed. “But first,” she said, pulling out her cell phone and turning to the Notes Application, “I need to know about drug smuggling on the Texas border and interdiction strategies.”

“That will be my pleasure,” Ry said. His face hardened. “One of my men left to work in the Border Patrol. He was killed by a group of drug smugglers. Most of them are well armed and they have nothing to lose. They don’t mind killing government employees, ranchers or anyone else who gets in their way.”

Mina nodded, having already researched as much about smuggling as she could find on the internet. There was, however, no comparison with men who knew about it from personal experience.

“We’re having problems with drug smugglers now,” Vic interjected, having joined them with Chaca right behind carrying a tray of coffee and cups. “Thanks, Chaca,” he added as she put it down, smiled and left them to it.

“Interesting,” Ry said. “How so?”

“They’re using the southern border of our ranch as a trade route, you might say,” Vic replied. “We have good intel that they’re part of the Zetas. Camo, military gear and weapons, the works. One of our cowboys got shot on my own land.”

Ry pursed his lips and his eyes began to twinkle. He looked at his men and saw the same anticipation on their faces. “This is the sort of thing we truly enjoy interfering with,” he told Vic. “Think of us as a pro bono ex-military group on a stealth mission. Nobody will know except us.”

Vic whistled softly. “My son really wouldn’t like this.”

“Your son really doesn’t have to know,” Ry chuckled.

Mina groaned inwardly. This was going to be one more thing that she’d have to explain to Cort. But if it would help keep the ranch solvent...

“And no, you can’t come with us this time,” Ry told Mina firmly.

She made a face at him.

“How about me?” Sandra asked excitedly. “I went on a SWAT raid once. I can shoot a .45 auto.”

“Not on your life,” Vic said immediately, and gave her a look that could have boiled water. “I’m not risking you. Not for anything.”

Sandra flushed a little and smiled. “Well, maybe I’ll wait to hear all about it when you get back,” she told them.

“Don’t get killed,” Mina said firmly. “It will look very bad in my book.” She grinned.

“Okay,” Ry said, and he grinned back.

“OH,THEPEOPLEyou know,” Sandra said with a sigh, after Vic had called in his livestock foreman to show the men where the trespassers were giving them the most trouble. It was a huge ranch. Even with fencing, it was impossible to watch the border night and day. Well, for the ranchers. Ry had a solution for that. He and his men mounted remote cameras in unexpected places and sat back to wait for results.

Their third night in residence, there was a sudden flurry of activity on the border. Ry and his men, already in sand-colored camo gear, assembled their weapons with solemn faces and went out to meet the threat.

Mina and Sandra monitored the assault on a network of monitors with night vision and audio that Ry and the guys had set up in a spare bedroom.

CORTWASATyet another business party, talking a trade deal with some men from Japan. Apparently, their hostess was another fan of Willow Shane, because she had a copy ofSPECTREon a coffee table, just like another businessman’s wife he’d met days before.

“She’s the most marvelous author,” the woman rattled off to a woman standing near Cort. “She actually goes on missions with this commando group into the jungle. She can use any sort of weapon that exists, and she’s a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. In addition to all that, she runs a ranch of her own somewhere in the northwest.”

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