Barb Han - Bulletproof Christmas

Where there’s a will...there’s murder.

Crisis: Cattle Barge reaches its exciting Christmas finale!

When the Butlers gather for the Christmas reading of their murdered father’s will, tracker Rory Scott is focused on finding the killer targeting his ex, Cadence Butler. He’s shocked to find the ranch heiress pregnant...with his twins. Wild spirit Rory has never “done” love, but keeping Cadence safe on the run threatens to tame his untamable heart.

Crisis: Cattle Barge

USA TODAY bestselling author BARB HANlives in north Texas with her very own hero-worthy husband, three beautiful children, a spunky golden retriever/ standard poodle mix and too many books in her to-read pile. In her downtime, she plays video games and spends much of her time on or around a basketball court. She loves interacting with readers and is grateful for their support. You can reach her at barbhan.com.

Also by Barb Han

Sudden Setup

Endangered Heiress

Texas Grit

Kidnapped at Christmas

Murder and Mistletoe

Bulletproof Christmas

Stockyard Snatching

Delivering Justice

One Tough Texan

Texas-Sized Trouble

Texas Witness

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Bulletproof Christmas

Barb Han

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07956-3

BULLETPROOF CHRISTMAS

© 2018 Barb Han

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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All my love to Brandon, Jacob and Tori. And to all the

grand adventures that lay ahead.

To Babe, my bulletproof hero, for being my great love,

my place to call home. This life is everything.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

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

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Patience. Silence. Purpose. The mantra had kept Rory Scott alive while tracking some of the most ruthless poachers in the country. Belly crawling toward a makeshift campsite on the Hereford Ranch in Cattle Barge, Texas, he adjusted his night-vision goggles to gain a better view and evaluate the situation.

A two-person tent was set up twenty-five feet ahead and slightly to his left. It looked expensive, like it was from one of those stores in the city that overcharged for basic camping supplies, promising to guard people from the elements or turn desk jockeys into outdoorsmen with the right backpack.

A campfire was spitting blue-and-yellow embers into the frigid night air not ten feet away from a brown-and-beige pop-up tent. The light coming from the blaze would be a beacon to anyone who might be traveling in the area. Of course, this was private property so there shouldn’t have been anyone around. The Hereford Ranch was one of the rare few in Texas that was successful enough selling cattle that the owners weren’t forced to lease parts of the land for hunting. The land and mineral rights were owned by one of the wealthiest families in the state, the Butlers. Rory had personal knowledge that no one had been given permission to be there. This campsite was a trespassing violation at the very least, possibly more.

A law meant to crack down on illegal hunting made it a felony offense to poach on someone’s land. And that sifted out the less-experienced thrill-seekers. The pros upped the ante, which also made them more dangerous than ever. Rory didn’t mind putting his life on the line for a good cause since he didn’t doubt his skills and could net a bigger paycheck because of the increased risk. Besides, he had no one at home waiting for him to return and that was the way he liked living life.

This campsite looked set up for a romantic rendezvous but Rory had too much experience to take anything at face value. He wouldn’t put anything past a skilled poacher. This whole scenario could be cover for a scout, someone who fed information to poachers.

Surveying the perimeter, Rory located a small bag of trash tied to a tree roughly ten yards away from the campsite. Every experienced outdoorsman knew to hang his trash far away from his campsite or risk attracting dangerous wildlife searching for an easy meal. By contrast, most didn’t shop at those overpriced stores.

Rory took a breath of fresh Texas air in his lungs. He’d been working on a ranch in Wyoming for the past five months while trying to keep his thoughts away from the woman he’d walked away from. Time was supposed to give perspective. He sighed sharply. Clearly, it would take more than five months to rid his mind of Cadence Butler.

When her brother Dade had called to say he needed the best tracker, Rory wasted no time getting on the road.

Of course, the Butlers didn’t know he was coming. He’d refused the job with his friends because it was best that no one—and that included the Butler family—knew he’d be on-site. Not just because of his past relationship with Cadence. Relationship? That was probably a strong word. More like history. It was their history that had caused him to momentarily lose his grip on reality by spending one too many nights with the off-limits heiress. Keeping the family, and everyone else, in the dark would give him the element of surprise. If one of the Butlers knew he was coming, word could get out.