Page 33 of The Texas Murders

“You can say that again,” Carlos interjects, putting his phone away. “Just got a call from Ryan Logan. The raid’s happening at 5:00 a.m.”

“You’re kidding?” I say. It’s already past midnight. “He’s just letting us know now?”

I check my phone and see two calls I missed from Ryan during all the fuss.

Still, when I was arguing with him a few hours ago, he probably knew then that the raid would be happening the next morning. Or he would have known that it was at least likely. He could have given us some kind of heads-up. I hate to think he withheld the information just to get back at me for standing up to him.

“If we want to be there,” Carlos says, “we need to meet up with the team now.”

“You told him we’re coming, didn’t you?”

“I said I’d be there,” he says, “but I told him you just got beaten up and would probably miss it.”

I stare at him, shocked. I open my mouth to tell him of course I want to be a part of the raid—and I didnotget beaten up!

Then I remember who I’m talking to.

“Got you,” he says, grinning. “Again.”

CHAPTER 26

BEFORE LEAVING, CARLOS and I talk briefly with Ava, who wants to know if she should try to interview Isabella Luna tomorrow without us.

“Might be better if it’s just me,” she says. “Woman to woman. Tigua to Tigua.”

“Just wait,” I tell her. “We only have to put it off one day. Carlos and I will be ready then.”

“The raid’s at 5:00 a.m.,” she says. “Can’t we do the interview in the afternoon?”

Carlos and I discuss this possibility, but both of us worry that we’ll be tied up most of the day.

Ava doesn’t seem thrilled about this but defers to us. I know she doesn’t like being told what to do, especially by outsiders, but I think she can see the benefit in all three of us addressing this interview with a coordinated plan. I stood up to Ryan today on behalf of our investigation, and tonightthe two of them came to my rescue. In a short time, we’ve become a team.

I tell Marcos it was nice to meet him, and he shakes my hand with his steel vise. After Ava and her fiancé walk to their car, Carlos says he’s going to hit the restroom before we leave, which gives me a few minutes alone with Megan in the parking lot.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’ll have to take a rain check tonight.”

“I’m not in a hurry,” she says. “I just want to spend more time with you. That’s all.”

“I want that, too,” I say. “I’m not leaving El Paso anytime soon.”

I stare into her beautiful eyes, sparkling in the streetlights.

“Maybe we’re going too fast,” she says.

She’s right. If we fall for each other while I’m here in El Paso and it turns out she doesn’t get the job at Baylor, where will that leave us? Either what we have here in West Texas will amount to nothing more than a summer fling, or I’ll be right back where I was with Willow—trying to maintain a long-distance relationship.

“Well, isn’t this tender?” a familiar voice says snidely.

Megan rolls her eyes as her professor steps out into the parking lot and eyes us up and down. He doesn’t look particularly bent out of shape, and I realize maybe I was wrong about his intentions toward Megan.

When Carlos steps outside, he says to Neil, “Yo, Doc, make sure and find those authors I was telling you about and read up on them. There will be a quiz next time I see you.”

After we leave, Carlos and I swing by the hotel to changeback into work clothes, then head toward the FBI rendezvous point. The streets are empty. The overcast sky seems to catch the light of the city, causing a soapy grayness to hang over the streets.

Both Carlos and I are quiet, focusing on what lies ahead. The nerves you feel before a raid are like the jitters you feel suiting up for a football game—only a hundred times more powerful.

I ask Carlos again why he joined the Rangers, hoping for a serious answer this time.

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