Under Texas Skies

"Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life."

Anne Roiphe

01 - Power Struggle

"Our top story tonight: violence explodes once again just over the border in Nuevo Laredo. Correspondent Ciro Rubio brings us the latest."

"Eric, reports of recent unrest within the ranks of the notorious gang Las Serpientes appear to have finally reached a violent peak today. Sources tell us that long time leader Fernando Mendoza has been found executed along with two of his lieutenants near his palatial home just outside of Nuevo Laredo. One source reports that the sixty one year old was beheaded and his body badly mutilated. At this time neither the Eastern Cartel nor the Pacific Cartel have commented on the deaths and local officials have requested help from the Mexican authorities to help maintain control during what is feared to be a tumultuous struggle for power within the state of Tamaulipas. Mendoza has been the undisputed leader of Las Serpientes for forty years and is credited with being one of the founding members of the gang, notorious not only for being the number one supplier of illegal drugs to the US, but also for human smuggling. In recent months there have been hints that Fernando Mendoza's son Diego Mendoza was assuming some of his father's duties. Now it appears that he may be fully in control of Las Serpientes."

Matt Houston clicked off the TV, removed his feet from the desktop and stood up, the lack of pain in his back still somewhat of a surprise to him even after his three months of recuperation. The surgery to have a bone fragment removed that had unknowingly been in his body since 2003 had been a complete success and he was now medically cleared back to duty with the Harris County Sheriff's Office as a Detective Sergeant. During the time that he had been going through therapy, he had also been working on a couple of other projects, one of which was trying to figure out exactly who all the players were who had gone into cahoots to put out a contract on him. The affair was being handled by Albanian businessman Vasil Barkowski in Los Angeles - someone whom Matt had never even laid eyes on or had any contact with whatsoever. Through a lot of hard work Matt and CJ along with Michael Hoyt, Roy Houston, George McSwain, and Chuck Wylie, had been able to determine that Texas businessman Donovan Biggs Lynch was among those hoping to see him dead. Lynch had a long history of dirty dealings and with the help of private investigator McSwain they had proof of several of his misdeeds since the introduction of some of Matt's "critters" as he liked to call the BugBytes line of spy gear that he had helped design a few years earlier.

As a result of Detective Chuck Wylie's hard work to find the hitman who had attempted to run Matt - his best friend of thirty five years - off of the FM1960 bridge over Lake Houston, they now knew that pornographer Philippe LaSalle was also involved with the contract.

Houston paced around the study. Ever since they had learned that the Albanian had made calls not just to Lynch and LaSalle, he had been trying to determine if in fact the Mexican gang Las Serpientes was also connected since one of the calls had been made to Mexico. It seemed that someone had brought the disgruntled so-called businessmen together in an effort to take him out, and Matt still wasn't clear on just who had started the ball rolling.

What was clear was that he was walking a very fine line: the illegal use of the critters in the home of Lynch was something that he couldn't disclose to the authorities. Fortunately, McSwain had persuaded the maid of the Texas estate to help them out. She could give testimony implicating her current boss when the time came. If he hadn't needed the security of knowing what Lynch was up to, Matt would have had the critters removed.

Glancing at his watch, he decided that he had best call it a night. He was scheduled to qualify on the Sheriff's Office gun range the following morning and had spent the better part of the day practicing.

The house was quiet as he made his way upstairs to the bedroom, stopping to check on Catey Rose and her brothers Vinny and Mike. As usual the half Husky-half Blue Heeler Chantilly was lying in the nursery between the beds of the twin boys who were both fast asleep. "Thanks for taking care of them for me, Tilly." He gave the dog a pat on the head before leaving the room and going into his own where CJ was stretched across the bed reading.

"Did you finally decide to call it a night?" Rolling over she marked her place in the book and placed it on the bedside table.

"Yeah, just catching up on the news a little bit." He sat down on the bed and began removing his boots.

"Did you see the piece about Las Serpientes?"

"Uh huh." He didn't say anything else before heading to the shower and she watched him go, wondering if in fact the brutal Mexican gang was part of the hit that was out on him. The last three months had been tense for the family, but with the upgrades in security for not only the Houston ranch but the Rockin' PH as well as the California ranch, they were as secure as they could possibly get. Now that he would be resuming his duties with the sheriff, LAPD, and returning to Quantico for the final stages of his project for the military she was beginning to worry once again. It had been comforting to have him at the ranch for his recovery and she had begun to relax, not thinking about security every second of every day. Now she wouldn't have that luxury. At least when he was working at Quantico it wouldn't be a problem - as long as he was on base.

While the security upgrades had been in progress Vince Novelli had been staying with them as had Matt's cousin Will, making her feel even safer. They were both back at home as was Roy and over the last few days the fear had come creeping back to her.

She got up and went to the window that looked out over the back of the estate. During daylight hours the view was spectacular: the back lawn with the new playground that Matt and their children had designed and built was there, then it gently sloped down to the bunkhouse and barn, to the beginnings of the pastures that held what Matt referred to as their retirement plan. He along with the carefully selected crew of cowboys had established two herds of cattle that had quickly become a great source of income, much more quickly than they had imagined. He referred to the people working there as the "best damn crew in the state of Texas", but after what they had gone through over the last few months CJ considered them the best in the world. Each man had stepped up to help with security when they were informed of the contract on their beloved Boss Man as they called him.

Her mind was suddenly taken away from those thoughts as a strong pair of arms encircled her waist before he began kissing her neck and then led her to their bed.