Jackie Merritt: Hired Bride

THE TEXAS TATTLER

All the news that’s barely fit to print!

CONFESSION!

M ayhem ripped through Red Rock, Texas, late yesterday when Clint Lockhart revealed a sinister secret. The Double Crown ranch hand and brother-in-law to Ryan Fortune confessed to murdering Sophia Fortune and framing Lily Cassidy, fiancée to Ryan, for the hideous crime.

Lockhart delivered another earth-shattering revelation: he and Sophia, estranged wife of Ryan, had masterminded the kidnapping of Bryan Fortune in an evil get-rich-quick scheme. But their hired thugs stole the wrong baby—the child now cared for by Matthew and Claudia Fortune, little toddling Taylor. Tragically, baby Bryan’s disappearance and whereabouts remain a mystery. Looks as if the locked-up Lockhart is in for a dose of justice—Texas style….

An exuberant Lily Cassidy was cleared of all charges soon after Lockhart’s guilt was disclosed. She and Ryan are planning a rush marriage—nothing like shedding prison stripes for white satin!

Even in the midst of tragedy and media chaos…romance sparks. Every-girl’s-dream-man Zane Fortune has plucked Gwen Hutton, struggling single mom, from obscurity—and is parading her around town as his fiancée! Is this setup too quick-’n’-easy to be the real deal…or are Zane’s true feelings as nuclear as those oh-so-public kisses…?

JACKIE MERRITT

is still writing, just not with the speed and constancy of years past. She and her husband are living in southern Nevada again, falling back on old habits of loving the long, warm or slightly cool winters and trying almost desperately to head north for the months of July and August, when the fiery sun bakes people and cacti alike.

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Meet the Fortunes of Texas

Zane Fortune: The marriage-shy executive needed a pretend fiancée to outsmart his family’s matchmaking plans. Would Zane’s scheme backfire and have him setting his sights on his hired bride becoming his real-life wife?

Gwen Hutton: The single mother had her hands full raising her three young children—she didn’t need her charming rogue boss reminding her how it felt to be a woman…or did she?

Baby Bryan: His whereabouts have been a mystery for months. And law enforcement officials are hoping that some new leads they’ve uncovered will help them crack the case of the century.

Ryan Fortune: The patriarch has steadfastly held the family together during their time of turmoil. Dare he hope that he will be reunited with his grandson and that he will soon marry his lady love Lily?

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

“Z ane, I’m so sorry to leave you hanging like this, but I have to fly to Fort Worth this weekend. My sister Glenda just phoned, and our mother is in the hospital again. Apparently she’s had another heart attack. Glenda said Mother’s doctors told her that the attack was rather mild, but Mother is frightened and wants her children around her. I know I promised to attend Mr. Malone’s wedding with you this weekend, but as things stand now I have to back out. I hope you understand.”

Zane Fortune was seated behind his massive mahogany desk, and given his secretary’s plaintive expression and his own compassion for anyone in danger of losing a parent, he had no choice but to say, “Heather, of course I understand. Don’t give it another thought. In fact, leave today.” It was Friday afternoon, and he certainly could manage without Heather for one afternoon, even if she was his right arm at the office.

Zane was executive director of marketing at Fortune TX, Ltd. It was a title of no small importance as the corporation’s ventures were so diversified—real estate development, plastics, computer manufacturing, to name a few—that marketing was a high-priority department. Zane headed a team of marketing experts that were the best to be had, and not just in Texas, either.

Heather was a calming influence for Zane when things got hectic in his department. She was a top-notch secretary who could juggle a dozen important jobs at the same time without becoming unhinged, or even ruffled. Zane felt very fortunate to have Heather Moore for his private secretary, and he would do just about anything to keep her happy with her job. “Really, Heather, I mean it. Leave right away. And please take all the time you need.”

“Thank you, Zane. I was hoping you’d say that,” Heather murmured. “I checked your calendar, and the rest of your day is relatively free.” She laid the papers she’d been holding on Zane’s desk. “If you’ll sign these letters, I’ll put them in the mail before I leave.”

Zane scanned the letters he’d dictated that morning and scrawled his name on each of them. He handed them back with a kindly, “I sincerely hope your mother recovers, Heather.” Zane’s own mother had died when he was sixteen, and every so often that awful, empty sense of loss would still sneak up on him.

“Thank you. From what Glenda told me, I’m sure she will.” Heather took the letters and added quietly, “This time.” She brightened her countenance. “I’ll see you on Monday, Zane. I left a list of Fort Worth phone numbers on my desk, just in case you should need to talk to me during the weekend.”

“Thanks, Heather.” Watching his secretary hurry out, Zane sat back in his chair and frowned. He’d been counting on Heather’s company during the upcoming weekend to throw his matchmaking sisters and sisters-in-law a curve. For some reason the women in his vast family had decided it was time he settled down, and lately they had started parading their single female friends in front of him with what Zane believed was a hope that he would be struck dumb by Cupid’s arrow.

It wasn’t Zane’s nature to tell them with unequivocal conviction to lay off so he’d come up with the idea of attending the most current get-together—the wedding of his friends Parker Malone and Hannah Cassidy—with an attractive woman on his arm. The members of his family knew that Heather was his secretary, of course, but he had explained his predicament to Heather and she had agreed to put on a little show for any of the Fortunes who might be interested in Zane’s love life, to act as though their relationship had gone beyond what it really was. As attractive as Heather was, she’d had a steady boyfriend for a long time, and her relationship with Zane was strictly business.