First Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

down at the package. Turned it over, reading the back. “How’d you know that?”
    “I know tools.” She turned and started through the store.
    Taft dropped the utility knife in the toolbox and grabbed the store keys. “It’s dark. All the stores are closed. I’ll go with—”
    She spun on him, frowning. “What?”
    Taft stopped. “I’ll go out with you while you look—”
    “Would you go out with Rio if he were your partner?”
    “Of course not, don’t be—”
    “Stupid?” she asked, voice level but frustration clear in her tight expression. “Walker, I expect you to treat me the same as you would any partner, because I’m just as competent as any other partner, regardless of my sexual anatomy.”
    Taft put both hands up and backed away. “Didn’t mean to push a hot button.”
    She turned and left the store.
    He shouldn’t have done that. She was right. He’d momentarily lost sight of her as a cop and seen her as merely a woman.
    Taft returned to the counter and opened the camera package for placement directions. The door swung wide and a soft ding sounded deep in the store.
    “You were right,” he said without looking up. “It needs to be—”
    “Baby.” Brooks’s sugary voice called from the front door and raised the hair on Taft’s neck—in a bad way. “These are the managers of the smoke shop next door, Fumar.”
    Taft jerked his head up. Brooks held the door open for two big Hispanic men. With their heads tilted down, the men slowly entered the store, their gazes scanning every surface, every corner. Their dark eyes held on Taft for an extra second before moving on. Both in their thirties. Both big, fit, and rough
    Fuck me.

 
     
     
    Five
    TAFT PUSHED FROM THE STOOL and flattened his hands on the counter. He mentally placed every weapon he’d hidden throughout the store. The small handgun at his ankle suddenly felt heavier.
    Brooks looked incredibly small beside them, creating an unfamiliar and uncomfortable heaviness in Taft’s chest.
    “I’ve arrested thousands of them. Killed several. Taken billions in drugs and weapons off their backs.”
    Even knowing it was true, Taft couldn’t imagine how.
    With a bright smile, Brooks held the man’s arm as they strolled deeper into the store. ‘This is….Cesar, right?”
    “ Si, senorita.” His voice was low and deep, but soft, and he smiled back at her.
    Cesar Cantos.
    She had Cesar Cantos , one of the roughest Diablos this side of the border, purring.
    “Walker, this is Cesar and…” She glanced over her shoulder at the other man who hung back by the door. “Victor, right?”
    “ Si ,” he said, picking up a bottle of silicone lube and looking it over.
    “Victor was telling me that the food court closes at nine like the stores,” she said.
    Taft forced his jaw loose. His shoulders down. His mouth into a smile.
    “Neighbors,” he said. “Cool. Can you tell a guy where to get a beer around here this time of night? Trying to figure out this cash register is worse than programming my phone.”
    Cesar met Taft as he came out from behind the counter with a grin and a handshake. But the man clearly had the guarded shield of every cartel member Taft had ever met. As if their inner landscape were a dungeon, their eyes windows to the outside world that they could close and block everything out.
    “About two dozen great bars just south of the border, amigo,” Cesar said. “Otherwise the closest liquor store is across Highway Five.”
    “Ah, hell. That’s what I thought.” Taft grimaced, then introduced himself under his alias. “Walker Ellis.”
    “Cesar Cantos,” he said, releasing Taft’s hand, then gesturing to his associate. “Victor Vasquez.” He glanced around the store. “Your beautiful lady tells us you’ve taken over the shop from Ms. Cruise.”
    “Living the dream, right?” Taft said.
    Cesar’s gaze paused on Brooks, who’d released his arm and stepped back. She was still smiling, but Taft picked up a