Sinclair Justice (Texas Rangers #2)(82)

Now, a few days later, the entire team had been cleared to leave the country, including Yancy, and they were there to travel with her in the van to the DEA jet.

There was only one big question. . . .

“Where do you want to go, honey?” Emm asked, sitting next to her sister to hold her hand. “Ross has asked me to marry him, and he has several guest cabins behind his house, if you’d rather have your privacy, but we’d love for you to stay with us awhile in Amarillo. And . . . there’s a place for Jennifer, too, if you decide to stay, or we can transport her back to Baltimore.”

Fully herself finally, Yancy turned her cool green gaze on Ross. “When Emm loves, she’s Gibraltar. I can be a pain in the ass, and she’s the only one on earth who never gave up on me.”

He shifted his feet a bit, flushing, and said only, “I probably don’t deserve her. But I love her and will spend the rest of my life trying to make her happy.” He caught Emm’s hand. “And we both want a family, so we can pass on what we’ve learned the hard way. We . . . hope you’ll stay with us awhile so we can get to know one another.”

She relaxed a bit, staring over Emm’s head. “I . . . don’t know. I don’t know where I want to go, or what I want to do. Jennifer . . . we both believe in cremation, anyway.”

Emm bit her lip, looked for Ross’s approval. He nodded.

“Yancy,” Emm said, “they’ve arrested Brett Umarov. Inside the compound, they found tons of evidence linking him to Los Lobos. Ross says they have enough to send him away for a very long time. And if he’s an accessory to . . . murder . . .” She tailed off, hesitating to mention Jennifer’s name.

Yancy looked at Emm. “And Curt? Was he involved, too?”

Ross nodded. “It seems Mr. Tupperman is the one who brought the Chechens to Umarov as possible business partners. The funds we found in his account were not from Los Lobos. They were from Eastern European mobsters interested in working with the cartels. Because of his travels and his exposés, plus his fluency in Spanish, he was able to broker the deal and help with money laundering. For a piece of the pie. That’s why Cervantes didn’t know him. Umarov was the contact; Curt was the facilitator.”

“Abby—I mean, a colleague of Ross’s,” Emm said, “found a case of money in the back of the Jeep. Inside was Curt’s Belize bank account and routing numbers. He tried to slip away after everything was over and had just about convinced the DEA he was innocent when Abby brought the case to them.”

Ross finished simply, “The Mexican authorities requested and got the US attorney general’s permission so that Curt can be tried in the Mexican courts. He won’t do his time in a cushy federal pen. He’ll be in a Mexican prison for a long time.”

Yancy smiled, but it was still a wan one.

Emm swallowed. “If you want to go back to Baltimore, I’m okay with that, Yance. I’ll even go with you for a while.”

Ross glanced sharply at her, then away, when assessing green eyes turned in his direction.

Yancy smiled, really smiled, with a flicker of her old mischief, for the first time since coming to the hospital. “Bluffing again, sis? You still suck at it.”

“Hey, I learned from the best . . . You should have seen my ante with that * drug dealer. It was a doozy. We’re both still here, aren’t we?” She carefully caught her sister’s hand. “I’m sorry, Yance. . . . If only I could have come sooner.”

Yancy turned her face away, her voice so soft Emm had to strain to hear her. “It was too late for Jennifer anyway. She never would have been the same. . . .”

Emm squeezed her hand harder. “At least you’re safe.”

Nothing for a long moment, and then a bleak little, “Yeah. Safe.”

And Emm knew it would be a very long time before her sister felt either safe—or whole—again.





About a year later, Yancy, her hair cut fashionably short so it framed her beautiful face, walked into the Hoover building to meet her very pregnant, very busy sister. She’d lived on Ross’s good graces for only a couple of months before she’d insisted on getting a job. She’d decided to give Texas a try because she really had nothing holding her in Baltimore.

She’d dusted off her clerical skills and gone to work for a local law firm, but after the wedding, when Emm had officially been added to the deeds of the Hoover and Draper buildings and started the redevelopment, Yancy had yielded to her pleas and helped her with all the legal and administrative tasks Emm despised.

Sometimes, she even talked a bit about Jennifer.

Emm knew her own pregnancy was a boon, not just to her and Ross, who could scarcely keep their hands off each other, but to Yancy as well. Babies meant a new beginning, even after terrible grief.

Yancy had watched Trey a few times after Emm introduced her to Jasmine, and the three women were now fast friends. Abby occasionally joined them when she came into town for business. She’d arrived today for her first tour of the buildings and had already made a very sensible, logical suggestion to fix one of Emm’s design dilemmas.

Today, three months before her due date, Emm was giving Jasmine and Abby a tour of the upper-floor apartment she was having constructed for her and Ross as a place for them in town.

Yancy was following along with the plans on an iPad. She’d converted the document to digital herself after taking a CAD course, pointing at the area on the plans Emm was struggling with while Abby peered over her shoulder. All three women were discussing the issue when Chad and Ross entered the foyer.