LITMIR.BIZ

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For my grandfather,

       Edward Thomas Cliatt,

       who made childhood an adventure.

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter One

      There were framed black-and-white photographs of Texas Rangers on the walls of the San Antonio Texas Ranger office. Like sepia ghosts of times gone by, they watched over the modern complex of telephones and fax machines and computers. Phones were ringing. Employees at desks were interviewing people. The hum of working machines settled over the office, oddly comforting, like an electrical lullaby.

      Sergeant Marc Brannon was sitting kicked back in his swivel chair, his wavy blond-streaked brown hair shimmering under the ceiling lights as he pondered a stack of files on his cluttered desk. His narrow, pale gray eyes were almost closed as he thought about a disturbing recent mishap.

      A close friend and fellow Texas Ranger, Judd Dunn, had been almost run over by a speeding car a few weeks earlier during a temporary assignment to the San Antonio office. There were rumors that it had something to do with a criminal investigation into illegal gambling that the FBI was conducting on local mob boss Jake Marsh in San Antonio. Dunn had been working with the FBI on the case, but shortly thereafter, Dunn had transferred down to the Victoria office, citing personal problems. Brannon had inherited the Marsh investigation. The FBI was also involved—rather, an agent Brannon knew was involved; a Georgia-born nuisance named Curtis Russell. It was curious that Russell should be working on an FBI case. He’d been with the Secret Service. Of course, Marc reminded himself, men changed jobs all the time. He certainly had.

      Apparently, Russell was knee-deep in the Marsh investigation. Attorney General Simon Hart had spoken with Brannon on the phone not two days ago, grumbling about Russell’s tenacity. The former Secret Service agent was now in Austin giving the local officials fits while he dug into state crime lab computer files on two recent murders that he thought were tied to Marsh. And who knew, maybe he was right. But pinning anything on the local mobster was going to take a miracle.

      Marsh had his finger in all sorts of pies, including blackmail, prostitution and illegal betting, mostly in San Antonio, where he lived. If they could get something on him, they could invoke the state’s nuisance abatement statute, which permitted any property to be closed down if it were used as a base of operations for criminals. Since Marsh was known to be involved in prostitution and illegal betting at his nightclub, all they had to do was prove it to oust him from the premises. Considering the real estate value of that downtown property, it would hit Marsh right where he lived. But knowing he was conducting illegal operations and proving it were two whole different kettles of fish. Marsh was an old hand at dodging investigators and searches. Doing things by the book sure seemed to give career criminals an advantage.

      Pity that you couldn’t just shoot the bad guys anymore, Brannon thought whimsically, eyeing a hundred-year-old framed photograph of a Texas Ranger on horseback with a lariat pulled tight around a dusty and wounded outlaw.

      His lean hand went to the dark wood butt of the Colt .45 he wore in a holster on his hip. Since Rangers didn’t have a specified uniform, they were allowed some personal choice in both dress and weaponry. But most of the men and women in the office wore white shirts and ties with their star-in-a-circle signature badge on the shirt. Most of them also wore white Stetsons and boots. To a Ranger, they were neat, conservative, polite and professional when they were on the job. Brannon tried very hard to adjust to that image. Well, he tried to, most of the time. He was more cautious about his job now than he ever had been before. He’d made the mistake of his life two years ago, misjudging a woman he’d grown to…care for, very much. His sister said that the woman didn’t blame him for the mess he’d made of her life. But he blamed himself so much that he’d quit the Rangers and left Texas for two years to work with the FBI. But he’d learned that running from problems didn’t solve them. They were portable. Like heartache.

      He could still see her in his mind, blond and sassy and full of dry wit. Despite the miseries of her life, she’d been the brightest, most delightful person he’d ever known. He missed her. She didn’t miss him, of course. And why should she? He’d hurt her terribly. He’d ruined her life.

      “Nothing to do, Brannon?” a female Ranger drawled as she passed him. All the women thought he was a dish, lean and slim-hipped, broad-chested, with that square sort of face that once graced cowboy movie posters. He had a sensuous mouth under a nose that had been broken at least once, and an arrogant sort of carriage that excited more than it intimidated. But he wasn’t a rounder, by anybody’s estimate. In fact, if he dated, he was so discreet that even the office gossip couldn’t get anything on him.

      “I am doing something,” he drawled back with a twinkle in his eyes. “I’m using mental telepathy on escaped criminals. If I’m successful, they’ll all be walking into law enforcement offices all over America as we speak, to turn themselves in.”

      “Pull the other one,” she chuckled.

      He sighed and smiled. “Okay. I just got back from testifying in a court case. I’ve got half a dozen cases to work and now I have to decide on priorities,” he confessed. He flicked a long finger at the file stack. “I thought I might flip a coin…”

      “No need. The captain has something urgent for you to do.”

      “Saved by new orders!” he joked. He jerked forward and his booted feet slammed to the floor. He got up and stretched enormously, pulling his white shirt with the silver Ranger badge on the pocket tight over hair-roughened, hard chest muscles. “What’s the assignment?”

      She tossed

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