Ranger Protection (Texas Ranger Heroes Book 1) by Lynn Shannon

Author:Lynn Shannon [Shannon, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

Nine

Tara had dressed wounds hundreds of times. She’d always been able to focus on the task at hand, but with Grady, it was nearly impossible. He smelled like hay and sunshine. His skin was bronzed from working outside, the muscles of his forearm strong and well-defined.

“I’m almost done.” She opened the overhead cabinet and snagged an extra tube of antibiotic ointment. “I’ll give you this to take home. You need to use it twice a day and change the bandage.”

“Okay.” He shifted in the chair and cleared his throat. “Do you have any advice for my leg? I’ve done everything the doctors have told me, but it aches and I get cramps.”

The admission couldn’t have been an easy one. Grady was a proud man. A slow warmth spread in her chest. She was touched he trusted her enough to ask.

“There are some stretches I can show you. Big ones for when you are at home, but even smaller ones you can do in the car or while at the office. It’ll prevent the muscles from becoming stiff, which should reduce the cramps.”

The need to keep their relationship light, for her own self-preservation, meant she avoided asking Grady deep questions. But this time, she couldn’t help herself. “What was it like? Working undercover.”

“An adrenaline rush. Like riding a rollercoaster without the seat belt.” He half shrugged. “It’s not for everyone. You have to stay cool under pressure and lie with ease. Plus the risks are high. If the information you have is bad or if a confidential informant betrays you, things can go south fast.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

He hesitated, and she wanted to kick herself. Asking for help with his leg didn’t mean he wanted to discuss how the injury happened. She focused on cutting a bandage. “Never mind. We don’t have to talk about it.”

“No, it’s okay.”

Her hands stilled.

“We got some reliable information about a gambling ring that moved from place to place to avoid detection.” The words came out slowly, painfully. As if he were removing porcupine quills one at a time from bruised and tender flesh. “The operators of the ring had multiple streams of income—not only gambling but also drugs. An undercover officer with the local police department had received a tip about the next location. It was decided the two of us would go in together along with his confidential informant. We’d verify the leaders were in-house and then bust the entire group. For this type of operation, backup is down the street and we wear cameras and microphones. At first, things went as planned, but something about the confidential informant felt off to me. I worked my rescue signal into a sentence—”

She frowned, and he caught the expression.

“It’s a word you give when everything goes south. In my case, it was karma. It signals to law enforcement in the truck to move in.” His jaw tightened. “Backup couldn’t get to us fast enough to stop the ambush.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “Your instincts were right.

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