Read Online Her Cowboy Protector by Roxie Rivera - Free Book Online Page B

her number or email address. We were thrown together for the conference by a roommate matching service on the conference email loop. She was a grad student at UTSA. Finance, I think." Cruz rubbed her forehead. "Of all the times for pregnancy brain."
    Niall frowned at her. "Pregnancy what?"
    "You know, like when your brain is all fuzzy and you forget everything." She snapped her fingers. "Daniela Mendoza!"
    Cruz typed in the other woman's name followed by San Antonio. Before she could hit enter, Niall added a further instruction. "Add murdered or killed."
    Cruz gawked at him. "Niall."
    "I'm serious, Cruz."
    She added the search terms and waited for the results. Her fingers shook as she clicked on the first result. When she swayed in the chair, Niall jumped up and kicked his chair aside to grab her. He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap before taking her place in the chair. Just minutes ago in the kitchen, he wanted space between them and now he desperately needed to hold her close. By the way she gripped his arm, Niall felt sure she needed his comfort too. "It'll be okay, Cruz."
    "Okay?" Cruz could barely find her voice. "Niall, she's dead. He killed her."
    Niall scanned the article. The woman's smiling face hovered mere centimeters over the smoldering remains of her house. The case was labeled as a home invasion gone awry but Niall knew better. El Alacrán had burned the house and body to cover up his sins.
    He squeezed Cruz tighter in the hopes of easing her trembling. "He's never going to touch you again, Cruz."
    She held his gaze and finally nodded. "I believe you. I don't think you're the kind of man who makes empty promises."
    "Never."
    Seemingly calmer now, Cruz sucked in a long, slow breath. "Okay, Niall. Think this through with me. I met Daniela through the conference roommate matching service. We'd never laid eyes on one another before check-in. She was an MBA student focusing on finance. That last night, I was going out with a couple of colleagues for dinner and she was meeting her boyfriend for a night out on the town. She asked for a copy of that program and I gave her my drive." She pointed to the computer. "This drive."
    "So she mixed up the drives when she made the copies," Niall reasoned. "Or maybe it was more deliberate than that, Cruz. Maybe the request for the program was a ruse. She wanted to give you that information."
    "So that if something happened to her, I'd eventually stumble onto the data," Cruz finished for him. "And El Alacrán didn't kill me because he realized I'd never opened the files."
    "How's that?"
    She shuddered in his arms. "After he tied me up and gagged me, he spent half an hour or so going through my things. He was on my laptop. He must have been searching for evidence. When he didn't find any, I guess he decided to show a little mercy."
    "Yeah," Niall said dryly, "he's a real humanitarian."
    "But maybe he's afraid I still have the data, Niall. Maybe that's why he's coming for me now." Cruz chewed her thumbnail. "What do we do next, Niall? I mean, I can't just wipe this data. Daniela died for this. It must be important."
    "Cruz, think about what you're saying, okay? You're talking about sifting through what is most likely the financial evidence of drug cartel bribery. We have to assume this is tied into the De La Garza cartel that pays The Scorpion."
    "He's coming after me regardless, Niall. The least I can do is figure out what this is. Maybe it will prove useful to me. It could be a bargaining chip for my freedom."
    Niall looked away from her. He wanted to argue with her but she made valid points. Still the urge to tell her no was the strongest. The thought of inviting more danger into her life made him sick. He wanted her safe and secure and happy and smiling. He never wanted to see her clutching a knife, ready to fight for her life, ever again. If she started down this path with the information on that flash drive, things could get hairy very fast.
    "If I