Linda Warren - Forgotten Son

Eli raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “You can’t knock me down. I’m much stronger than you. And I’m not fighting a woman.”

Caroline put the boxing gloves on. “Are you chicken, Eli?”

He stood. “I’m not fighting you.”

“Didn’t Pa settle all your fights and disagreements this way? Put the gloves on.”

He shoved his hands into the gloves and held them up. She danced in and out, taking jabs at his stomach, but he didn’t move or respond. This was going to be so easy. She moved close to him, her body touching his.

Glancing up into his stubborn blue eyes, she placed her right foot between his feet, then she wrapped her arms around his waist. Eli tensed. Caroline raised her right foot, turned it, and hooked his left leg and jerked. His leg slid out from under him and he was on his butt in a split second.

He burst into laughter. “That was a trick,” he said, taking off his gloves. “You knew exactly what you were doing.”

“But a deal is a deal—and you’re a man of your word, right?”

Dear Reader,

This book is about a Texas Ranger, Elijah Coltrane. Eli first appeared in A Baby by Christmas (Harlequin Superromance #1167) as a stubborn, hardworking man with a troubled past. He grew up knowing who his father was, but the man denied his existence. He has dealt with this rejection all his life—he feels like the forgotten one, the forgotten son of Joe McCain.

As an adult, Eli finds it hard to accept love, and the love he discovers with Caroline is no exception. He was a very hard character for me to write, but I learned a lot from him. I couldn’t wipe away Eli’s pain with the tap of my computer keys. He had to grow and learn, and it took a persistent green-eyed blonde to make him realize that maybe someone could love him.

So come along and find out if Eli can find his happily ever after.

Warmly,

Linda Warren

P.S. I love hearing from readers. You can e-mail me at lw1508@aol.com or write me at P.O. Box 5182, Bryan, TX 77805 or visit my Web site at www.lindawarren.net. I will always answer your letters.

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While writing this book, I had the good fortune to speak with a real Texas Ranger, Sergeant Frank Malinak, and I’d like to thank him for answering my many questions with incredible patience and understanding. Any errors in this book are strictly mine, and all characters are fictional.

I asked Frank what he’d like people to know about the Rangers, and the following is his response:

“Much has been written about the Texas Rangers of the past, but probably less is known about the modern Ranger. Today’s Texas Ranger is a criminal investigator called upon to assist local, state and federal law enforcement agencies with an array of cases. With the growing population of this state and the increasing complexity of criminal enterprises, Texas Rangers are called upon now with as much necessity and urgency as in bygone eras. The modern Ranger stands ready to protect the citizens of the United States against common street criminals, organized crime, public corruption, identity theft, computer crimes and domestic and foreign terrorism. In short, Texas Rangers have the training, equipment and skills to fight crime in today’s sophisticated society. It has been said, ‘As long as there is a Texas there will be Texas Rangers.’”

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

CAROLINE WHITTEN RUSHED into her apartment with the devil on her heels. She couldn’t be late—mustn’t be late. Not today. How could she forget the layout? She knew it was because she had the jitters at the prospect of meeting her father, U.S. Congressman Stephen Whitten, for lunch. The thought made her angry.

And made her feel guilty. A daughter’s guilt.

Her latest photo layout was on the kitchen counter. She quickly grabbed it and counted to ten to calm herself. At two o’clock, she had an appointment with the writer and an editor for the article on Texas wildflowers. The shots she’d taken in the Texas Hill Country where the flowers grew in abundance were great. At least she thought they were.

She groaned. Now the impending lunch had her questioning her capability as a photographer. Caroline blocked the negative thoughts. She was a damn good photographer and the shots were awesome.

How she wished her parents felt the same way she did about her career choice. But the lunch was sure to be another foray into how Stephen Whitten thought she was wasting her life—and her talent.

Caroline had a law degree, like her father, but she’d done nothing with it. Instead, she’d followed her first love, photography, and she made a good living. She just didn’t understand why her father couldn’t be happy for her.

At least her sister, Grace, would be there to take some of the pressure off Caroline. Grace was a lawyer and worked in their father’s law firm, as he had planned. She was the good daughter, while Caroline was…

Would the guilt ever leave her?

She swung around and her inner skirmish stopped, replaced by a frisson of fear. Two men stood in her doorway, two men with long hair and full beards and brown robes. She’d seen them before…when she’d taken photos of the wildflowers. They belonged to a cult hidden away in the hills, and she’d accidentally trespassed close to the high fence that surrounded their property. She’d been afraid of them then and was afraid of them now.

“What do you want?” she asked as authoritatively as she could.

“You have been chosen,” one man answered.

“Excuse me?”

“You have found favor with the prophet.”

That’s what they called their leader. Caroline had met him briefly while she’d tried to explain why she was there. He’d looked at her in a way that made her skin crawl, and she’d been glad to get away. What were his men doing here? How did they know where she lived? And what did they want?

“If you don’t leave, I’ll call…”

Her words trailed off as one man grabbed her and the other clamped a foul-smelling cloth over her face. She lashed out with her arms and legs, then everything went black.

CAROLINE WOKE UP in darkness. Total darkness. Fear ran along her skin and spread through her body like a virus. It was chilling. Debilitating.

All-encompassing.

Take deep breaths. Take deep breaths, she kept repeating to herself. After a moment, her fear eased and she realized she was on a mattress. She felt its softness, then her hands touched dirt. Cold dirt.

The makeshift bed was on the ground. Getting to her feet, she groped around her with hands outstretched. She was in a small room with wooden walls, she discovered. There was nothing in the space but the mattress…and her. Oh, God. Where was she?