Standoff at Mustang Ridge (Harlequin Intrigue, Band 1395) - Softcover

Fossen, Delores

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373696620 ISBN 13: 9780373696628

Verlag: Harlequin Intrigue, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

When Deputy Sheriff Royce McCall responds to a break-in at his family's cabin, he doesn't expect the intruder to be beautiful Sophie Conway—in her nightgown! The last time he saw her, she wasn't wearing much else, although the details of their New Year's Eve encounter are sketchy at best. Then she admits that not only has she become a killer's target, but she also lied about carrying Royce's baby in order to escape an arranged marriage. With too many unanswered questions surrounding this woman he barely knows, Royce still vows to protect Sophie when the bullets start flying. But when the memories of their one-night stand become clearer, so does the fact that she may not be lying about being pregnant after all.…

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

USA Today bestselling author, Delores Fossen, is a former Air Force officer who’s sold over 150 novels. She's received the Booksellers' Best Award for romantic suspense, the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award and was a finalist for the Rita ®. In addition, she's had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines.You can contact the author through her webpage at www.deloresfossen.com

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Deputy Sheriff Royce McCall drew his Colt .45 and stepped behind the ice-crusted cottonwood tree. Mercy.

He didn't need this. It was too cold for a gunfight or even an arrest, but he might have to deal with both.

He glanced out at the hunting cabin and especially at the sole window that was facing his direction. He didn't see any movement, but he'd seen footprints in the snow that someone had tried to cover up. Those footprints came from the woods and led straight to the cabin.

Hiding footprints usually wasn't a good sign.

Of course, anyone inside was trespassing since the cabin was on McCall land, but he'd sure take a trespasser over an armed robber.

Normally, Royce wouldn't have been concerned with suspected felons this far out since the cabin wasn't near any main roads and a good twenty miles from the town of Mustang Ridge. But a cop from Amarillo P.D. had called earlier to warn him of a bank-robbery suspect who might be in the area. The guy could have found his way here with plans to use it as a hideout.

Without taking his attention off the cabin, Royce eased his phone from his coat pocket. There wasn't enough signal strength to make a call in this remote location, but he fired off a text to his brother, Sheriff Jake McCall, to let him know about the possible situation.

A situation Royce would likely end up handling alone.

It would take at least a half hour for his brother to respond to the text and get Royce some backup all the way out here. With the temperature already below freezing and with the wind and snow spitting at him, he didn't want to wait another minute much less an hour—even if it meant he'd get a tongue-lashing from Jake.

Royce hoped that was all he got.

The Amarillo police had warned the fugitive was armed and dangerous.

Royce took that warning into account, pulled off the thick leather glove on his right hand so he'd have a better grip on the Colt, and he inched out from the cottonwood. Thankfully, there were other trees dotting the grounds, and he used them to make his way toward the cabin. He was nearly at the front when he heard something.

Movement inside.

So the person who'd tried to hide those footprints was definitely still around.

Royce used one of the porch posts for cover, but he knew there was a lot more of him exposed than there was hidden. He waited and listened, but the only sounds were the ragged wind and his own heartbeat crashing in his ears.

He'd been a deputy of Mustang Ridge for eleven years and had faced down an armed man or two, but it never got easier. If it ever did, Royce figured that'd be the time to quit and devote all his time to running his portion of the family ranch. Danger should never feel normal.

With his bare hand going numb, it was now or never. Steering clear of the window, he reached over and tested the knob.

It was locked.

Royce didn't issue any warnings. He turned and gave the door a swift kick, and even though it stayed on the hinges, the lock gave way, and it flew open. Before it even hit the wall, he had his gun ready and aimed.

He took in the place with a sweeping glance. Not much to take in, though. There was a set of bunk beds on one side, a small kitchen on the other and an equally small bathroom in the center back. Since the privacy curtain in the bathroom was wide-open, he could see straight inside. No one was there unless the person was in the shower.

Keeping a firm grip on his gun, Royce inched closer, and he heard some movement again.

Yeah, it was definitely coming from the shower stall.

He took a deep breath and made his way into the cabin so he could get a look inside the bathroom.

"I'll shoot," someone called out.

Royce froze. It was a woman—not the male robbery suspect he'd braced himself to face. However, it was hard to tell who the woman was with that quivery voice. Plus, he couldn't see much of her because the overhead lights weren't on, and the shower stall was hidden in the shadows.

Usually if threatened with violence, Royce would threaten right back. However, after one glance at her hand, the only part of her he could actually see, he realized a threat might not be the way to go.

Yeah, she was armed all right. She was holding a little Smith & Wesson, and it was possible she was even trying to aim the gun at him. But she was huddled in the tiny tiled shower, and her hand was shaking so hard she would have been lucky to hit him or anything else within ten feet of where she was trying to aim.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the woman was wearing an unbuttoned coat over what appeared to be a nightgown. No hat, no gloves, and those flat house shoes definitely weren't cold-weather gear. She had to be freezing.

"You need to put down that gun." Royce tried to keep his voice level and calm. Hard to do with the adrenaline pumping through him and the cold blasting at his back. She didn't look like much of a threat, but she was armed.

"I won't let you kill me," she said in a broken whisper.

"Kill you?" Jeez, what was going on here? "No one's going to kill you, lady. I'm hoping you've got the same idea when it comes to me and that Smith & Wesson you got wobbling around there."

She looked up at him as if confused by that remark, and when she took a single step out of the shower, her eyes met his.

Oh, man.

"Sophie?" And he cursed some more when he got a better look at her face. Yep, it was Sophie Conway, all right. A neighbor of sorts since her daddy, Eldon, owned the sprawling ranch next to his own family's land.

Sophie and Royce weren't exactly friends. All right, they were pretty much on each other's bad side, but Royce still didn't think she'd shoot him.

He hoped he was right about that.

"It's me, Royce," he said in case by some miracle Sophie didn't recognize him. He leaned in a little so she could have a better look at him, and he maneuvered himself into a position so he could disarm her.

"I know who you are," Sophie said a split second before she tried to scramble away from him.

He blocked her path, which wasn't hard to do since the rest of her was as wobbly as her aim. "Look, I'm not too happy about seeing you, either," Royce let her know, "but there's no reason for you to hold a grudge and point a gun at me."

Well, maybe there was a reason for the grudge part, but Royce wasn't getting into what'd happened between them four weeks ago.

"Are you drunk or something?" he asked.

She frowned, obviously not happy with that little conclusion. "What are you doing here?" She kept the gun pointed at him. "Did you come to kill me?"

Royce huffed. "No." He drew that out a few syllables. "I'm here because my family owns the cabin."

Sophie glanced around as if really seeing it for the first time. "This is your place?"

"Yeah." Again, Royce gave her a good dose of his smart-mouth tone, something his brother, Jake, had told him he was pretty good at doing. "I was out here looking for a couple of horses that broke fence, and maybe even an armed robber, so I decided to stop by and check on things. Now, care to tell me why you're here?"

Again, she looked around before her gaze came back to him, and while she was semi-distracted, Royce did something about that Smith & Wesson. He lunged at her and clamped his hands around her right wrist.

"No!" she shouted, and despite her shaky hands, she started fighting. "I need the gun."

Sophie kicked at him and tried to slug him with her left hand. She connected, sort of, her open hand slamming into his jaw.

And that's when Royce knew he'd had enough.

He knocked her hand against the sink, and her gun...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harlequin Intrigue
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0373696620
• ISBN 13: 9780373696628
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: HarperCollins Publishers Ireland; enquiries@harpercollins.ie; ; Mayor Street Upper 39/40; Dublin; D01 C9W8; Irland