Page 13 of Snow in Texas

“Candy,” she tried to protest.

“And I’m sending a security detail with you to work tomorrow.”

“Oh Lord.” She rolled her eyes.

“Fox and the new guy.”

Her scalp prickled. Her mind immediately rejected the idea. “Colin?” she asked, outraged.

He smiled. “I see you two’ve met. Good, that’ll cut down on introduction time.”

“Absolutely not,” Jenny said. “I don’t want that big idiot harassing me at work all day.”

Candy’s smile widened. “Not harassing. Guarding. C’mon, he’s Felix’s little brother. Who’d make a better guard dog than that?”

“Half-brother,” she corrected, remembering Colin’s insistence in the parking lot. “And I can promise you he’s nothing like Mercy Lécuyer.”

Candy chuckled. “Yeah. Sure. Blood always comes through, in the end.” Their father used to say that, and Jenny wondered if he remembered that, if it was an intentional reference, or if the words had just become a part of his vocabulary. “You’ll take Colin tomorrow,” he said with finality. “If a man can hunt an alligator, he can take care of a shithead ex-husband.”

~*~

Colin

Security detail. It beat the hell out of digging for scrap parts and mopping floors. And it meant he’d get to spend all day trying to figure out what the hell was up with Jenny Snow.

“Do you know your way around a gun?” Fox asked, yanking him back to the moment at hand. The Englishman had a matte black semiauto in one hand, the magazine in the other.

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t shoot all that often, but I’m a decent shot.”

Fox passed over the gun and the mag. “Put it in,” he said, accented voice too serious for Colin to piece together a suggestive joke in response.

The little bugger had turned the magazine the wrong way, hoping to trip him up. Colin righted it, slid it home until it clicked, and glanced over with agimme a breaksmirk. “I’m from the swamp. I’m not stupid.”

“Never said you were.” It was eerie how flat and unreadable the man was. “But with an attitude like that, you’ll never get your patches.” Before Colin could respond, he said, “Keep that one, I’ve got others, and let’s go.”

Outside, dawn was just breaking, and Jenny waited for them behind the wheel of her Jeep, face set in an unhappy but resigned expression.

“You ride with her,” Fox said, heading for his bike, “and I’ll follow.”

Colin decided he needed a bike, and soon. Riding shotgun was so not his style.

Resolute, he walked to the passenger door, half-surprised to find it unlocked, and glanced across at Jenny before he climbed inside. “Morning.”

“Morning.” She didn’t look at him.

“Do I get to know why I’m tailing you today?”

“Candy’s orders.” She turned and gave him a halfhearted, crooked smile. “There’s a free lunch in it, though.”

He guessed that would have to do.

Eight

Candy

“You know I’m gonna ask it,” Jinx said, and Candy smiled grimly to himself.

“Yeah, I know.”

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