A Texas Child. Linda Warren

about Stu. He’d like to hire you.”

      “No.” The horses neighed and he turned to them, undoing a cinch on a saddle. “You wasted your time invading my privacy. I’m not working for anyone who has a connection to you. Not even Stu.”

      “If you had answered my messages, I wouldn’t have had to come out here.”

      He threw the saddle onto a sawhorse. “I didn’t answer for a reason. You and I have nothing to say to each other. Most people would have figured that out.”

      “Just give me five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”

      He undid the cinch on the other saddle. “You just don’t give up, do you?”

      “I try not to, especially when a friend is involved.”

      Swinging the saddle onto another sawhorse, he said, “If you were that committed to your love life, you would have been one hell of a woman.”

      “Why are you making this personal, Levi? I’m sorry I hurt you and I’ve apologized, but you couldn’t seem to get past your anger. After all these years, I would have thought you’d have gotten over it.”

      His hat lay in the dirt where Val had thrown it. He reached down to pick it up and dusted it off, giving him time to gauge his next words. “I have. It’s just the shock of seeing you again, so sudden like, brought back a lot of painful memories. I’ve moved on and I’m happy now. I don’t need you complicating my life.”

      “I have, too.” She tucked a flyaway strand behind her ear. “Yes, we have a past, but we’re adult enough to not let it interfere with the present.”

      He leaned against the saddle and crossed his boots at the ankles. “That’s true, but you see I don’t want you in my present in any way. Not because I still have feelings for you. I don’t. I’d just rather not clutter my life with a past I regret.”

      “It’s not for me, Levi. It’s for Stu, who needs a good P.I.”

      “Stu knows just about every private investigator in the state. Besides, if he wants to hire me, why doesn’t he call himself?”

      “His daughter’s in a coma and he’s very distraught.”

      That threw him. Stu was one of the best friends he’d ever had when he was a cop. But Myra had ties to Stu, too. “I’d rather not get involved.”

      “Five minutes, Levi. What harm can that do?”

      He drew a long breath. “Okay.”

      “Stu’s daughter, Natalie, works in my office in Houston.”

      “The D.A.’s office?”

      “Yes. She’s a secretary and has worked with us for about three years. After her mother died, she came to Houston to get closer to her father. Last year, she got involved with Marco Mortez and we all thought it was great she’d found someone. But he turned out to be a loser. On Monday, he beat her into a coma and took their nine-month-old son. The police haven’t been able to locate him.”

      “Were they married?”

      “No.”

      “Is he the boy’s father?”

      “Of course.”

      “How serious is Natalie’s condition?”

      She bit her lip, something she did when she was nervous. He was probably the only person who knew that, except for her friend Jessie. He’d heard that Jessie had gotten married but he wasn’t in the mood to discuss any details about Myra’s life.

      “It’s bad. The doctor said he must have banged her head repeatedly against the wall or a table. They operated to stop the internal bleeding. Now they’re dealing with the swelling of the brain. The doctor said she will either wake up or she won’t. She has a fifty-fifty chance. The baby has to be there when she wakes up or she will be devastated.”

      Levi felt himself being pulled into Natalie’s plight, but then, he was always a sucker where a baby was concerned. Still, he wasn’t relenting.

      “If the police are on the case, I don’t see why you need a private investigator. And like I said, Stu still has a lot of pull in the police department.” Stuart Stevens had been the police chief in Houston, but he’d retired after a bout with cancer.

      She bit her lip again.

      “You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

      “It’s complicated, Levi.”

      He folded his arms across his chest. “Oh, really. I don’t do complicated anymore, Myra.”

      “Okay.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her black slacks. “When the police couldn’t locate Marco, I did some checking on my own. His family might have connections to a Mexican drug cartel.”

      “Might?”

      “I don’t have any evidence to back it up. Only what people in the apartment complex told me about Marco and the people who visited with him. I’m waiting on a report from the FBI to confirm.”

      “Well, then, I’d say it’s safe to say that baby is in Mexico.”

      “Maybe not. Marco’s parents have a home in Brownsville. The police there checked it out, but they said they hadn’t seen their son in weeks. They could be hiding him, though.”

      “If he’s wanted in Houston, he’s not hanging around in Texas.”

      “Levi, please,” she begged, her eyes dark with emotions he remembered too well. “I know you can track Marco down and find him when no one else can.”

      “You have a lot of confidence in me.” Confidence that came just a little too late.

      “I always have.”

      He lifted a hand. “Let’s not go there.”

      “Levi, just check into it. Stu is willing to pay your fee plus expenses and a five-thousand-dollar bonus if you bring his grandson back.”

      “You’re asking me to get involved with the drug cartel in Mexico? That’s like signing my own death warrant.”

      “All you have to do is locate him. The police will take it from there.”

      “In Mexico? I doubt it.”

      “I can see you’re not eager to go into Mexico.”

      “No. Valerie and I are talking marriage and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that. I’m ready to settle down and have a family. Putting my life in danger is not going to happen.”

      She stepped forward and a heel sank into the ground, almost toppling her over. “Good grief, it’s like quicksand in here.”

      “You’re in a barn, Myra. It’s called dirt. No one wears high heels in a barn.”

      She yanked the heel out and managed to stand upright. “I thought you would be in your office. I didn’t plan on driving way out here to the middle of nowhere.”

      He pushed away from the saddle. “You wasted your time. I’ll give you the names of some investigators in Houston. They can do just as good a job as I can.”

      “I work in the D.A.’s office. I know investigators all over Harris County, but it’s going to take someone willing to go the extra mile to flush out Marco. I thought that man would be you. So did Stu.”

      “Sorry.” He remained firm.

      “You’re one stubborn asshole. Do you think it was easy to come out here and face your wrath once again? It wasn’t. A little boy’s life is at stake. You may be able to ignore that, but I can’t.”

      Myra was getting revved up, like he’d seen her do in a courtroom. When she was passionate about something,