Page 23 of Texas Hold Em'
Carrie was a strong woman now, and she’d been a strong girl, too. “That couldn’t have been easy.”
“It wasn’t,” she admitted. “But I don’t think my dad and I would have become as close as we are if she hadn’t left. He floundered for a long time trying to figure out how to bond with me. He loved mechanics, you see, and mathematics. I wasn’t interested in any of that kind of stuff. He’d try to find common ground but we didn’t share interests. Until, when I was thirteen, he took me to a gun range for the first time.”
I smiled and leaned back on my hands. “Love at first shot?”
“Love at first shot.” She grinned. “I was a natural, and Dad was so proud. He kept betting other kids, mostly boys at the range, to challenge me. We walked out of there that first day with thirty extra bucks in our pockets, grabbed burgers and shakes, and decided to come back the following weekend. From there Dad took me skeet shooting and entered me in contests.”
“Sounds like a proud father.”
“He is.”
“Does he know what you’re up to over here?”
Carrie shook her head. “Hell no. If he knew the mess I was in? No. I could never tell him. I’d rather he think I’m just sitting behind a desk pushing papers, keeping my head down, being a good employee.”
I wondered what would happen to Carrie’s father if the worst happened to her. What if we couldn’t protect her? What if he got a call in the middle of the night that his little girl had been blown away by a gangbanger with one good eye and a desire to see others suffer?
My stomach tightened.
Carrie drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Everything okay?”
“Hm? Yeah, yeah,” I said, shrugging off the dark thought. “Everything’s fine.”
She stared up at the exposed pipes in my ceiling with a nostalgic smile on her lips. “My dad is the best person I know. He taught me how to stand up for the little guy, you know. Even if it scared the hell out of him to find out what I was doing here, I have to believe he’d be proud of me for holding my ground, even if it is dangerous.” She licked her lips and stared evenly at me. “I’ve never been in a fight this big before.”
“Me neither,” I admitted. “But Jackson has, and I trust him to see us out of this.”
“Jackson,” she mused. “Yeah, I wish I could trust him the way you do, but I’m pretty sure he still hates my guts.”
“It’s not personal.”
“It feels pretty personal.”
I sighed. “Jackson just doesn’t trust easy, and for good reason. Besides, he has a lot on his plate, and technically you were wearing the enemy’s colors up until two weeks ago. You can’t blame him for being cautious.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Do you think he’d care if he found out that we’d, you know?”
“Fucked?”
She blushed. “Yeah.”
I considered it for a moment. “Yeah, I think he would. For now, we should keep it between us. He wouldn’t understand. Getting tangledup with a law enforcer would make things even more complicated than they already are. You understand that, right?”
She nodded. “But you got tangled anyway.”
I chuckled. “Yes, I did. But there’s something you should know.”
She cocked her head to the side.
“I used to be a Ranger, too,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “Come again?”
I laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But it’s true. Born and raised Austin boy right here.” I pressed a hand to my bare chest while she stared incredulously at me. I frowned. “Oh come on. It’s not that hard to believe, is it?”
“A little bit! How did you end up here? Why did you walk away? How long has it been since you wore the badge?” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “I have so many questions!”
CHAPTER 10
