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Sworn to Protect

By DiAnn Mills

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Chapter 1

McAllen, Texas

The Rio Grande River separating Mexico and the US was not just murky. It was
toxic. Danika Morales respected the river’s temperament—lazy and rushing, crystal and
muddy, breath-taking and devastating. To many illegal immigrants, its flowing water
signified hope and an opportunity for a better tomorrow, while others viewed the river
crossing as a means of smuggling drugs or spreading terrorism. But for Danika, the
depths meant death, and it didn’t discriminate among its victims. That was why she chose
a Border Patrol badge and carried a gun.

Shortly after the 8:00 a.m. muster, Danika snatched up the keys to the Tahoe
assigned to her for the next ten hours and checked out an M4. A hum of voices, most with
Hispanic accents and clipped with occasional laughter, swirled around the station. A
labyrinth of sights and sounds had succeeded in disorienting her. A daze. She took a sip
of the steaming coffee in hopes no one saw how the day’s date affected her. Her hands
shook. The twelfth of July. The second anniversary of Toby’s murder. She thought she
could handle it better than this, but the raw ache still seared her heart.

“Tough day for me too,” Jacob whispered beside her. “We can get through this
together.” The familiar tone of voice, as in many times before, nearly paralyzed her.
Jacob sounded so much like his brother.

She stood shoulder to shoulder with her brother-in-law and glanced at his
muscular frame and the silver streaks in his closely cropped hair, everything about him
oddly different from Toby. Gone were the gentleness, patience, and the out-stretched
arms of love.

“Thanks. But I’m all right.”

He frowned, a typical expression. “Well, I’m not, and you shouldn’t be either.”
She was in no mood to rile him today. “I miss Toby every minute of the day, but
we have to move on. He would have wanted it that way.”

“Not till his murderer is found.” Jacob’s jaw tightened. “I’m disappointed in you.”

Danika took another sip of the hot coffee, burning her tongue. Caustic words threatened
to surface and add one more brick to the wall dividing them. “I want the killer found too.
I’m committed to it. I think about him everyday and mourn for our daughter who will
never know her daddy. But I choose not to spend my time harboring hate and
vengeance.”

“You must not have really loved my brother.”

The words cut deep, and Jacob knew they would. No woman could have loved
Toby like she did. “I refuse to be brow-beaten by you any more. Your hate is going to
explode in your own backyard one day.” She stopped herself before she lit a match to his
temper. Actually, she’d rather have been dropped in the bush for the next ten hours with a
shotgun and a can of OFF than argue with him. But the time had come to distance herself
from Jacob.

“Hey, Danika,” an agent called. “Do these belong to you?”

She turned to see wiry Felipe Chavez carrying a glass-filled vase with a huge
bouquet of roses. They remembered. She swallowed a chunk of life. “Oh, guys, you
didn’t have to do this.”

Felipe made his way toward her. The other agents hushed, then one of them
started to clap. She smiled through the tears as he handed her the clear glass vase. The
sweet fragrance no longer reminded her of death, but of life and her resolve to live each
day in a way that commemorated Toby’s devotion to her and their little daughter. Perhaps
this was what the two-year marker meant. She took the roses and studied the small crowd
of agents. Good men, all of them—even Jacob.

“We cared about what happened to Toby too,” Felipe said, with a grim smile.
Danika brushed her finger around one of the delicate petals and formed her words.
Memories had stalked her like a demon since last night. “Don’t know what to say except
thank you. Toby was a soldier for his own cause, and he spent his life doing what he
believed in. Just like all of us.”

One agent shook his head, frowned, and left the room. Far too many reasons for
his disapproval raced through her mind. But Danika needed to put the ugliness behind
her. She set the flowers on the long table in front of her. “Today is the second anniversary
of Toby’s death."

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