LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter One

      Marshal Declan O’Malley eased the saddle off his chestnut stallion. He tried not to make any sudden moves, and he didn’t look over his shoulder, though Declan was pretty sure someone was watching him.

      That “pretty sure” became a certainty when he spotted the footprints on the partially frozen ground.

      What the heck was going on?

      Since he’d been a federal marshal for nearly six years, he was accustomed to having people want to do him bodily harm, but threats like that rarely came right to his doorstep.

      Or rather to his barn.

      Declan put the saddle on the side of the watering trough and adjusted his buckskin jacket so he could reach the Colt in his belt holster. He gave the chestnut’s rump a gentle slap, and as Declan had hoped he’d do, the stallion headed for some hay in the side corral. If there was going to be a shootout, Declan sure didn’t want his horse caught up in the gunfire.

      He stepped to the side of the barn door. And waited.

      Listening.

      But the only thing he could hear was the bitter December wind rattling the bare trees scattered around the grounds. He didn’t mind the cold when he was on his daily ride, but he minded it a lot when he was waiting for something bad to happen.

      Or maybe not bad.

      He looked at the footprints again. Small. Like a woman’s. He hadn’t been in a relationship in the past three or four months, but maybe this was an old girlfriend come to visit. Still, it didn’t feel like something that simple.

      Or that fun.

      His house wasn’t exactly on the beaten path, not even by rural-Texas standards. He was literally on the back forty acres of his foster family’s horse-and-cattle ranch. A good ten miles from the town of Maverick Springs, and with not even a paved road leading to his place. Besides, there wasn’t much of value in his small wood-frame house to make it a target for thieves.

      Declan glanced around. Kept listening. And when he was finally fed up with the cold, he drew his Colt and moved away from the barn door so he could follow those footprints. From the looks of it, the prints started at the back of his barn, and that meant somebody had probably walked in from the pasture and checked out the barn itself.

      Maybe looking for him.

      Or looking to make sure he’d indeed gone on his daily ride.

      And then the trespasser had made her way to the back of his house. Declan went in that direction now, using the trees for cover.

      Finally, he saw something.

      Or rather someone.

      There was a person dressed in dark clothes and equally dark sunglasses peering around the edge of his back porch. Judging from her size, it was probably a woman, though he couldn’t be positive since his visitor was wearing a black baseball cap slung low on her head, and the brim covered most of her face. Declan expected her to duck out of sight when she spotted him.

      She didn’t.

      She put her index finger to her mouth in a keep-quiet gesture.

      What the hell?

      And just to confuse things even more, she motioned for him to come closer.

      Declan debated it. He debated calling out to her, too, but she frantically shook her head and made that keep-quiet gesture again.

      He looked to see if she was armed. Couldn’t tell. But since she’d had ample opportunity to shoot at him and hadn’t, Declan decided to take his chances. He didn’t put his gun away, but he went closer.

      Yeah, it was a woman all right. About five-six, with an average build. Judging from the strands of hair that had slipped out from the back of the baseball cap, she was a brunette.

      “Inside,” she whispered and tipped her head to his back door. “Please,” she added.

      Well, if she was a criminal, she was a polite

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