Merline Lovelace - Texas…Now And Forever

CLUB TIMES

For Members’ Eyes Only

Blinded by the Light!

Is there anything more glorious than the sight of Luke Callaghan? Oops, I touched a sensitive spot there, since Luke Callaghan was temporarily blinded on his adventures in Mezcaya. But now he’s back and he’s better than ever! No, I’m not overcompensating for the time in high school when I put hair removal gel in Luke’s shampoo. Believe me, he retaliated. I’ll just say the words “garden slug” and “daddy longlegs” and that’s enough to relay a bad sleeping bag experience during sophomore year camp-out.

Because we’re among friends, I can say that Daisy Parker is more twitchy than Mrs. Pritchett’s squawking parrot. I haven’t been able to get a peep out of Daisy, though she’s appreciated my superfudge brownies (bribery). When I tell her that confession is good for the soul, she laughs in my face (although it could be my new hair color). If anyone knows Daisy’s big secret, please let me know. I’ve had sleepless nights over this one.

And we must keep baby Lena in our thoughts and prayers. She’s gone through so much in the last year, and now to be kidnapped! I’ve been practicing my kickboxing, so, Mr. FBI Agent, Sean Collins, I am ready to be a part of your squad in Operation: Rescue Lena!

Make the Lone Star Country Club your afternoon delight, morning, noon and night….

MERLINE LOVELACE

spent twenty-three years in the air force, pulling tours in Vietnam, at the Pentagon and at bases all over the world. When she hung up her uniform, she decided to try her hand at writing. She’s since had over forty novels published, with more than five million copies of her works in print.

Merline was thrilled to participate in the LONE STAR COUNTRY CLUB series. She served three different tours of duty in Texas, which is where she met her own handsome hero of thirty-plus years. As a result, the Lone Star State will always hold a special place in her heart.

Watch for Merline’s next sizzling, action-packed release. The Captain’s Woman, featuring Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, is a January 2003 release from MIRA Books.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Where Texas society reigns supreme—and appearances are everything.

Danger reaches a fever pitch in Mission Creek….

Luke Callaghan: The Lone Star Country Club elite couldn’t spread the news fast enough that one of their own—international millionaire Luke Callaghan—was baby Lena’s flesh-and-blood daddy! But against all odds could this battle-scarred war hero save his tyke from a deadly foe?

Haley Mercado: After receiving a menacing call from her daughter’s kidnapper to do his bidding—or else!—she had no choice but to come out of hiding and enlist the help of her former flame, Luke Callaghan, if she ever wanted to see her baby alive again. But could their love—and his specialized military training—triumph over peril, heartache…and the ultimate betrayal?

Miracle in Mission Creek: The entire town bands together as explosive revelations send shock waves through Mission Creek…and the search for baby Lena reaches a shattering climax. But will it take a miracle to end the bitter feud between the Carsons and the Wainwrights?

For my own handsome hero, and all the days and nights we spent under Texas skies during our assignments in Fort Worth and San Antonio.

Thanks for the memories, my darling.

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

Epilogue

A shrill buzz cut through the air-conditioned silence, haunting the small farmhouse just outside Mission Creek, Texas. Like a deer speared by truck headlights, Haley Mercado froze. Her glance sliced to the FBI agent who’d acted as her controller for the past year.

Across the living room Sean Collins met her desperate look. They’d been waiting for this call, she and Sean. So had the small army of agents guarding the safe house where the FBI had stashed Haley until they captured Frank Del Brio.

Frank Del Brio. The smooth, handsome head of the Texas mob who’d once shoved a square-cut, three-carat diamond on Haley’s finger and announced that she was going to marry him. The ruthless thug who’d forced her to flee her home in South Texas and to assume another identity abroad. The vicious killer whose horrific acts had brought Haley out of hiding a year ago and sent her undercover, determined to assist the FBI in bringing Del Brio down.

Frank Del Brio, who’d kidnapped the child she’d placed in safekeeping while she worked undercover, the child who only a few nights ago had been spared in a wild shoot-out that had left her father in ICU and Haley under close protection at this secluded farmhouse.

The phone shrilled again, sending a jolt of desperate hope into her chest. They’ve got him! Please, God! Please let this call be from the FBI command center, advising that they’ve cornered Frank and rescued her baby! Her heart in her throat, she wiped her palms down the front of her jeans and kept her gaze locked on Sean as he reached for the cordless phone.

“Collins here.”

When the FBI operative’s face tightened, Haley’s hope shattered into a thousand knife-edged shards.

“How the hell did you get this number?”

It was Frank, she thought on a wave of sickening certainty. It could only be Frank.

Collins confirmed it in the next breath. “No way I’m putting her on the phone, Del Brio. You can damned well talk to me.”

The mobster’s response sent a tide of angry red surging into the FBI agent’s cheeks. His eyes blazing fire, Sean snarled back.

“Listen to me, you two-bit piece of slime. You hurt that baby and there won’t a patch of dirt anywhere on this earth big enough for you to dig a hole and crawl into.”

Haley flew across the living room. “Let me talk to him.”

“I’m warning you, Del Brio—”

“Let me talk to him!”

The agent relinquished the instrument reluctantly, signaling for Haley to string out the conversation as long as she could. She understood. The communications technicians hooked into the line would need a few moments to trace the call. She understood, too, that the events of the past year were rapidly spiraling to a terrifying conclusion.