Joanna Wayne - Hard Ride to Dry Gulch

A DEDICATED DETECTIVE RISKS HIS LIFE TO SAVE A WOMAN AND HER SON IN THIS SPELLBINDING BIG “D” DADS: THE DALTONS NOVEL BY JOANNA WAYNE.

A haunting beauty with mesmerizing brown eyes is in desperate need of Dallas homicide detective Travis Dalton’s help. Faith Ashburn’s troubled teenage son is missing…and may be hiding secrets that could get him—and his mother—killed.

Faith will do whatever it takes to find her boy, even if it means turning to the rugged detective, a man shadowed by his own painful past. When the search reveals a shocking connection to the dangerous criminal Travis has sworn to bring down, Faith has to trust him with her life. And when passion flares, she has to trust him with something she vowed never again to give: her heart.

The desperation in Faith’s voice turned Travis inside out.

He longed to hold her close and whisper that everything would be all right, but it would be an empty promise. And once she was in his arms with her soft body pressed into his, comfort wouldn’t be the only thing on his mind.

He wanted to kiss her, had wanted to since the night he’d first laid eyes on her in the Passion Pit, though he hadn’t admitted that to himself then.

Now the desire was entangled with his need to keep her safe and help her find her son.

Hard Ride to Dry Gulch

Joanna Wayne

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JOANNA WAYNE was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from LSU Shreveport. She moved to New Orleans in 1984, and it was there that she attended her first writing class and joined her first professional writing organization. Her debut novel, Deep in the Bayou, was published in 1994.

Now, dozens of published books later, Joanna has made a name for herself as being on the cutting edge of romantic suspense in both series and single-title novels. She has been on the Waldenbooks bestseller list for romance and has won many industry awards. She is also a popular speaker at writing organizations and local community functions and has taught creative writing at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College.

Joanna currently resides in a small community forty miles north of Houston, Texas, with her husband. Though she still has many family and emotional ties to Louisiana, she loves living in the Lone Star State. You may write Joanna at PO Box 852, Montgomery, Texas 77356, USA.

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CAST OF CHARACTERS

Faith Ashburn—When her 18-year-old son goes missing, she will stop at nothing to find him.

Travis Dalton—Houston homicide detective. Once he meets Faith, he will do anything to help her find her son and keep Faith safe.

Reuben Jackson Dalton, better known as R.J.—Travis’s father and the owner of the Dry Gulch Ranch.

Cornell Ashburn—Faith’s missing son.

Reno Vargas—Travis’s partner.

Georgio Trosclair—Owner of the Passion Pit.

Angela Pointer—Exotic dancer who was involved with Cornell.

Mark Ethridge—Head of the DPD missing persons division.

John Patterson—Border patrol agent and a friend of Travis.

Walt Marshall—Former boyfriend of Angela Pointer.

Alex Salinger—Rancher in Laredo.

Joni Dalton—Best friend of Faith Ashburn, and Travis’s new sister-in-law.

Leif Dalton—Joni’s husband.

Alex and Hadley Dalton—Son and daughter-in-law of R.J., who live on the Dry Gulch Ranch.

Lila and Lacy Dalton—Twin daughters of Alex and Hadley.

Effie Dalton—Leif Dalton’s teenage daughter.

A special salute to mothers everywhere who know what it’s like to love a child unconditionally.

A smile to my grandchildren who bring endless joy to my life. And hats off to my editor, Denise Zaza, who has worked with me through almost sixty books. Here’s to sixty more.

Contents

Prologue

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 Eighteen

Epilogue

Extract

Prologue

Faith Ashburn emphasized her deep-set brown eyes with a coat of thick black liner and then took a step away from the mirror to see the full effect of the makeup she’d caked onto her pale skin. The haunted eyes that stared back at her were the only part of the face she recognized.

Her irises mirrored the way she felt. Lost. Trapped in a nightmare. The anxiety so intense the lining of her stomach seemed to be on fire.

But she’d go back out there tonight, into the smoke and groping, the stares that crawled across her skin like hairy spiders. She’d smile and endure the depravity—praying, always praying for some crumb of information that would lead her to her son.

Cornell was eighteen now. Physically, he was a man. Mentally and emotionally, he was a kid, at least he was in her mind. A trusting, naive boy who needed his mother and his meds.

Faith’s bare feet sank into the thick mauve carpet as she stepped back into her bedroom and tugged on her patterned panty hose. Then she pulled the low-cut, trampy black dress from the closet and stepped into it.

The fabric stretched over her bare breasts as she slid the spaghetti straps over her narrow shoulders. Her nipples were covered, but there was enough cleavage showing to suggest that she’d have no qualms about revealing everything if the offer appealed to her.

Reaching to the top shelf of her closet, she chose the bright red stiletto heels. They never failed to garner the instant attention of men high on booze, drugs and the stench of overripe sex.

Struck by a burst of vertigo, Faith held on to the bedpost until the dizziness passed. Then she tucked a lipstick, her car keys and some mad money into the small sequined handbag that already held her licensed pistol.

Stopping off in the kitchen, she poured two fingers of cheap whiskey into a glass. She swished the amber liquid around in her mouth, gargled and then spit it down the drain. Holding the glass over the sink, she ran one finger around the edges to collect the remaining liquor. She dotted it at her pulse points like expensive perfume.

Her muscles clenched. Her lungs clogged. She took a deep breath and walked out the door, carefully locking it behind her.

Six months of going unofficially undercover into the seediest areas of Dallas. Six months of questioning every drug addict and pervert that might have come in contact with Cornell, based on nothing but the one shrapnel of evidence the police had provided her.

Six months of crying herself to sleep when she came home as lost, confused and desperate as before.

God, please let tonight be different.

* * *

“ANOTHER BACKSTREET HOMICIDE, another trip to see Georgio. I’m beginning to think he gives a discount to killers. A lap dance from one of his girls when a body shows up at the morgue without identification.”

“And the victims get younger and younger.” Travis Dalton followed his partner, Reno, as they walked through a side door of the sleaziest strip joint in the most dangerous part of Dallas. Georgio reigned as king here, providing the local sex and drug addicts with everything they needed to feed their cravings.