Page 37 of Ranger's Justice

Anger flares through me, hot and sharp. “So what? I just pretend none of this is real? Pretend Rush isn’t a…”

Gideon’s gaze snaps to mine, sharp as a blade. “Be careful what you say, Cassidy.”

I close my mouth, biting down on the rest of my words. The air in the SUV is thick, heavy with things I don’t understand. Things they won’t tell me.

Dalton exhales, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, you’re smart. You’re damn good at what you do. But there are things in this world you aren’t ready to handle. If Rush had his way, you’d be sipping a margarita in Mexico right now, blissfully unaware of what’s hunting you.”

My stomach twists. “But I didn’t run.”

Gideon nods, something unreadable in his expression. “Which means you’re already in too deep.”

I shake my head, trying to push past the warning in his tone, trying to focus. “We still have a job to do. Hollister is connected to the cartel’s trafficking routes. We have proof now. That has to mean something.”

Dalton’s gaze flicks to the laptop. “It means we’re running out of time.”

Something in his voice makes my skin prickle. Before I can press for more, my phone buzzes against the center console. It’s not my personal phone—Rush confiscated that already. It’s the burner they gave me.

I grab it, my stomach already in knots. “Yeah?”

Rush’s voice is sharp, all business. “Stop what you’re doing.”

I sit up straighter. “What’s going on?”

“No time. We’ll regroup at the rendezvous point I’m sending you ASAP. We’re on a ridge right above a semi that’s supposed to be transporting cargo—and I use that word advisedly—for the cartel. Let me know when you’re five minutes out.”

Dalton’s expression darkens as he listens. “Bad?”

“No way of telling, but it sure as hell can’t be good.”

A chill runs down my spine. I grip the phone tighter. “Rush…”

“Now, Cassidy.”

The line goes dead.

Silence stretches inside the SUV. I glance at Dalton, then Gideon. Neither of them wastes a second.

Dalton throws the SUV into gear, peeling out onto the road so fast the laptop nearly slides off my lap. I clutch it, heart pounding.

Gideon already has his gun in his lap, checking the magazine, his gaze scanning the road like he expects company.

I swallow past the lump in my throat. “What the hell just happened?”

Dalton’s jaw clenches. “We’re about to find out.”

Something about the way he says it makes the knots in my gut twist even tighter.

Whatever Rush found, whatever made him sound like that?—

It’s coming for us.

CHAPTER 10

RUSH

The SUV rumbles beneath me as I press harder on the gas, gravel spitting up in the wake of the tires. My pulse is steady, my mind locked in, but there’s something burning under my skin—something I can’t shake. The call from our informant was clear: a transport was moving out tonight, tied to Hollister’s operation.

The plan had been to infiltrate one of the ‘weigh stations’—for lack of a better term—for the trafficked women. But on the way, we intercepted information about a semi already moving south. Rumor had it that the semi was just outside the city, parked along the kind of back roads where no one asks questions, and no one hears screams.

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