Colleen Thompson - Lone Star Redemption

Rusted Spur, Texas, is full of secrets…until now

Desperate to find her missing twin, Jessie Layton arrives at the Rayford ranch, the last place her sister was seen. But after meeting Zach Rayford, the reporter is left with only more questions. Like why is the extremely handsome rancher defending his family’s obvious lies regarding her sister?

Zach vowed to protect his family, but it’s become more complicated…especially with his growing attraction to Jessie…. But even as they spar, a lethal danger pursues Jessie. Together they risk their lives confronting secrets that could destroy Zach’s family…if he chooses to do right by the headstrong woman who’s corralled him!

“I know you have good reason to suspect me. But I swear to you, I’m not that kind of person.”

He studied her face, searching its depths for…something. Sincerity, perhaps, but between them, something else ignited, the spark of something far too dangerous to contemplate.

Or so she told herself, but with temptation arcing through her body, her eyes refused to obey. One glance at his lips and it was too late to step back. Too late to do anything but tilt back her head when he whispered, “I believe you.”

To do anything but part her lips when his mouth fell upon hers.

His taste was bittersweet: the mint of toothpaste mingled with the darker notes of coffee. But this sensation submerged completely beneath the unexpected pleasure, her every nerve ending flaring, awakening to his touch.

Some slim margin of her brain warned this kiss, this passion, was too sudden and too needful, flung at her like a net….

Dear Reader,

As I write this morning, I’m remembering some advice my sister, a traveling hospice nurse, has shared. In the end, she tells me, people never regret not having worked more hours, acquired more things or been more successful. Instead, they worry over missed opportunities to mend relationships and spend more of their precious time with loved ones.

Lone Star Redemption is the story of two people doing their best to fix their broken families. For career-minded reporter Jessie Layton, it’s all about finding her lost, chronically troubled twin sister—and honoring her vow to bring Haley home before their terminally ill mother dies. Stung by Haley’s behavior once too often in the past, Jessie is leery of getting caught up in another of her sister’s dramas, but she begins to rethink her position after seeing the sacrifices former marine corps fighter pilot Zach Rayford has made to return to his widowed mother and the sprawling Texas ranch she’s been left alone to run.

As I wrote Jessie and Zach’s story, I ached for these two wounded people, both struggling to find their way through a complex moral quagmire. And I held my breath at times, terrified they wouldn’t survive a killer bent on keeping the truth hidden…no matter who must die.

I hope you’ll enjoy Lone Star Redemption and keep your eyes open for a new tale from the Rayford Ranch at Rusted Spur, coming very soon.

Happy reading!

Colleen Thompson

Lone Star Redemption

Colleen Thompson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

COLLEEN THOMPSON

After beginning her career writing historical romance novels, in 2004 Colleen Thompson turned to writing the contemporary romantic suspense she loves. Since then, her work has been honored with a Texas Gold Award, along with nominations for a RITA® Award, a Daphne du Maurier Award and multiple reviewers’ choice honors. She has also received starred reviews from RT Book Reviews and Publishers Weekly. A former teacher living with her family in the Houston area, Colleen has a passion for reading, hiking and dog rescue. Visit her online at www.colleen-thompson.com.

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To strong and loving families: those we’re born to, those we give birth to, and those we cobble together from the broken pieces of our hearts.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Extract

Prologue

August 1st

If she couldn’t have her son back, was peace too much to ask?

The question reverberated through sixty-eight-year-old Nancy Rayford’s throbbing skull with an intensity untouched by the powerful prescriptions she had taken. Still, the knocking went on, a pounding at her front door. What time was it, anyway? How long since she’d drifted off?

Tossing aside the light throw she’d used as a blanket, she pushed herself up off the soft cushions of a leather sofa before blinking at the television. There, the muted figure of some late-night comedian clowned before his silent audience. All of them laughing up a storm, as though her sweetest boy had not been reduced to ashes in a small urn just two weeks before.

Not a boy; a man, she reminded herself, Ian and his brother both. But she’d never known either one as a grown adult, as a soldier, thanks to her husband’s scorched-earth approach to fatherhood. Now he was gone, as well, leaving her alone here, or as alone as an aging widow could get surrounded by thousands of acres of drought-plagued range and thirsty cattle.

The pounding started again, adding a desperate edge to the insistent rhythm. It sliced through her drugged reality, reaching a part of her that understood there must be something very wrong. Shaking overtook her at the suspicion that she would find another pair of uniformed officers at her front door, somber military personnel assigned to tell her that her surviving firstborn son, her Zach, was gone, too.

With a cry of pain, she lurched through the empty house, her shaking hand reaching for the door before she could wonder if it might be unsafe to do so. Because he was all she had left; if he’d been taken from her now, too—

With her heart pounding in her throat and the world careening wildly around her, she unlocked the door and flung it open so hard that it banged against the entry wall. Staring into the dark August night, she begged the same God who’d failed at every turn to heed her prayers that it not be the news she most feared. Please don’t take him, too.

But tonight’s visitor wore faded jeans and a black T-shirt rather than the dreaded uniform. She was a gaunt and pale young woman, with eyes shadowed by exhaustion and arms that trembled with the weight of the small child she carried. The sleeping girl of three—or was it four?—years, wrapped in a blanket, her tawny hair a matted mess.

“I can’t do this anymore,” the young woman told her, her eyes shimmering with tears. “I just can’t. I need your help, please, Nancy. C-can you take her?”

Drained from days of headaches and weak from dehydration, Nancy felt a jolt of pure energy restore her. Her long trance shattered, and a new sense of purpose moved her forward. She raised thin arms to lift the burden from the taller woman’s arms, to cuddle the child close to her breast.

Rather than weighing her down, the little girl’s weight made Nancy feel lighter than she had since her husband’s death, six months earlier, lighter and younger than she had in decades. And when she looked down into the precious face, so smooth and unblemished and impossibly perfect, the knowledge coursed through her, a swift river of current telling her that this was no accident at all.