Free Mercenary's Woman by Diana Palmer Page B

the original knife-in-the-back boy."
    "I know. It
worries me." He sipped more coffee. "He had three, maybe four, of his thugs living
in a rental place near Sally's house. Two of
them attacked her last night when her
truck had a flat tire just down the road from them. It was no accident, either. They've obviously been gathering intelligence, watching her. They knew
exactly where she was and exactly when
she'd get as far as their place."
His face was grim. "I think there are more than four of them. I
also think they may have the same sort of surveillance
equipment I maintain at the ranch. What I don't know is why. I don't know if it's solely because Lopez wants to get to Jessica."
    "Is Sally all right?"
    Eb nodded. "I got to her in time, luckily. I broke a
    couple of bones for her assailants, but they
got away and now the house seems to be without tenants—temporarily, of course. Have you
noticed any activity on your northern boundary?"
    "As a matter of
fact, I have," Cy replied, frowning. "All sorts of vehicles are
coming and going. They've graded about an acre, and a steel warehouse is going up.
The city planning commission chairman says it's going to be some sort of
production and distribution center for a honey concern. They even have a building
permit." He sighed angrily. "Matt Caldwell has been having hell with the planning
commission about a project of his own, yet this gang got what they wanted
immediately."
    "Honey," Eb mused.
    "That isn't all
of it," Cy continued. "I investigated the holding company that
bought the land behind me. It doesn't belong to anybody local, but I can't find out
who's behind
it. It belongs to a corporation based in Cancun, Mexico."
    Eb's eyes narrowed.
"Cancun? Now, that's interesting. The last report I had about Lopez before he
was arrested was that he bought property there and was living like a king in a palatial
estate just outside Cancun." He stopped dead at the expression on his friend's
face. Cy and Eb had once helped put some of Lopez's men away.
    Cy's breathing became
rough, his green eyes began to glitter like heated emeralds. "Lopez! Now what the
hell would
he want with a honey business?''
    "It's evidently
going to be a front for something ille gal," Eb assured him. "He may have
picked Jacobsville for a
distribution center for his 'product' because it's small, isolated, and there are no federal agencies
represented near here."

78                               MERCENARY'S WOMAN
    Cy stood up, his
whole body rigid with hatred and anger, "He killed my wife and son...!"
    "He had Jessica
run off the road and almost killed,'' Eb added coldly. "She lived, but she was
blinded. She came back here from Houston, hoping that I could protect her. But it's going to take
more than me. I need help. I want to set up a listening post on your back forty
and put a man there."
    "Done," Cysaid at once. "But first I'm going to buy a few
claymores..."
    It took a minute for
the expression on Cy's face, in his eyes, in the set of his lean body to register. Eb had only seen
him like that once before, in combat, many years before. Probably that was the way he'd looked when his wife and son died and he was hospitalized with
severe burns on one arm, incurred
when he'd tried to save them from the
raging fire. He hadn't known at the time that Lopez had sent men to kill
him. Even in prison, Lopez could put out
contracts.
    "You can't start
setting off land mines. You have to think with your brain, not your guts,"
Eb said curtly. "If we're going to get Lopez, we have to do it legally."
    "Oh, that's new,
coming from you," Cy said with biting sarcasm.
    Eb's broad shoulders
lifted and fell as he sat down again, straddling the chair this time. "I'm
reformed," he said. "I want to settle down, but first I have to put Lopez away. I need
you."
    Cy
extended the hand that had been so badly burned.
    "I know about
the burns," Eb said. "If you recall, most of us went to see you
in the hospital