Page 5 of Deadly Vendetta

“I’ve already been out for four weeks!”

“Maybe your concussion symptoms, ribs and wrist will be fine soon, but if you don’t get that shoulder fixed, my guess is that you’ll be lucky if you regain full mobility.”

“I can’t be out of commission that long.”

“Yes, you can, and now I’ve got the right excuse to make you do it. Show up sooner and you’ll be at a desk job for the rest of the year. Got it?”

Zach glared at his cell phone.

“Look, just drop completely out of sight for a while, so El Cazador can’t find you,” Martin continued in a softer voice. “The other agents are as worried about his threats against you as I am, and they’re working hard on this. As soon as we figure out who the guy is, we’ll get him.”

“I need to find him, not go off on some useless vacation. This is a personal vendetta against me, so who would have better odds at getting him?”

“Then think about that little girl. Spend more time with her. I’ll bet her mom’s disappearance has been terrible for her.”

How well Zach knew.

Katie had simply retreated into silence, barely smiling, eating almost nothing. She’d finally allowed Zach to hold her, but last night the hopelessness in her eyes had torn his heart.

I need to keep working and nail El Cazador. But even as he fought the idea of leaving, Zach knew it was the right thing to do. He didn’t know who to trust anymore, and he needed to take Katie to safety.

“If I’ve got to go on leave, then I’m heading out of state for a few months.”

“I wasn’t thinking you should go that far,” Martin protested. “Stay in this part of Texas so we can move quickly if you need help.”

“This guy has information he shouldn’t have, and we don’t know his source. It’s safer to completely disappear.”

“But—”

“I’ve done enough undercover ops in the last ten years to write a book on the subject. I’ll be back in three months.”

After ending the call, Zach searched through his memories, revisiting the dozen or more towns he’d lived in briefly as a kid. All but one were places where he had distant relatives, and where a smart man could track him down.

The one safe place was a town he’d never wanted to revisit, not even in his dreams.

Paul had said, “It’s that same guy again. This time he made it real personal.”

Zach had his reasons for choosing a career in the DEA, and every case was deeply personal.

Now El Cazador had taken it a step further, and in doing so had made a fatal mistake. Zach was going to bring him down if it was the last thing he ever did.

But the next three months of waiting were going to be harder than he could even imagine.

* * * *

“YOU’VE GOT TWO COLTS to geld out at the Michaelson place in Longford at nine. Back to Fossil Hill after that for spring tune-ups on two horses—vaccinations and worming—at Fallow Creek Stables, then twenty calves to vaccinate and dehorn at Bill Swanson’s, eleven o’clock. Then,” Francie added with a smirk, “lunch at the Pink Petticoat Inn with your mother, one o’clock sharp.”

Dana Hathaway groaned as she zipped up her heavy-duty coveralls. “After the calves?”

“You got it. But Bill says he’ll have two guys running calves through the chutes, so you should be done there by twelve-thirty.”

With all the spring rain they’d been having, Swanson’s low-lying corrals and chutes would be a muddy mess. “Can you switch some appointments? I could do them after lunch.”

“Nope. Bill is leaving for Denver with a load of cattle right afterward. He made the appointment weeks ago and called this morning to confirm it. You know how testy he can be—he’ll call the Lakeland Vet Clinic instead if you mess with his plans.”

Dana groaned. “I can’t afford to lose his business. But my mother won’t forgive me if I’m late.”

Francie propped a mirror against the telephone at her desk and fluffed her glossy black hair. “What happened?”

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