Barb Han - Texas Grit

He must face his own demons

To rescue his childhood friend

Dade Butler’s father ruled with an iron fist. Carrie Palmer was bounced around the foster system. But they found solace as childhood friends. Neither imagined their grown-up reunion would involve the six-foot-four handsome rancher rescuing Carrie from a would-be assault. But when a stalker nearly kills Carrie, Dade will stop at nothing to save her—and turn this friendship into a permanent relationship.

Crisis: Cattle Barge

USA TODAY bestselling author BARB HAN lives 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 basket ball court. She loves interacting with readers and is grateful for their support. You can reach her at www.barbhan.com.

Also by Barb Han

Sudden Setup

Endangered Heiress

Texas Grit

Stockyard Snatching

Delivering Justice

One Tough Texan

Texas-Sized Trouble

Texas Witness

Texas Showdown

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Texas Grit

Barb Han

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07899-3

TEXAS GRIT

© 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.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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To my editor, Allison Lyons, for being a dream to work with—thank you! To my agent, Jill Marsal, for always having the right words of encouragement—thank you!

To my children, Brandon, Jacob and Tori, who inspire me to be the best version of myself every day. I’m eternally grateful. Whether we’re up late carving pumpkins or cheering each other on in our daily adventures (some might say antics) I’m always grateful for our close relationships. Brandon, welcome to the 1m challenge. I’d wish you luck but since you’re one of my competitors...game on, buddy! I love you all so very much!

And to John, for laughing no matter how silly we get and for jumping in with both feet for every challenge no matter how crazy. I can’t imagine a better partner in crime and in life. I love you!

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

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Carrie Palmer planted her shoulder against the back door of her cold-treats shop and, with a grunt, gave it a good shove. The latch could be tricky and required a certain touch. Humidity always caused the solid wood door to swell. It was August in south-central Texas, with the threat of rain hanging in the air. She twisted the key and listened for the snick of the lock.

The heat combined with a successful annual week-long festival had brought another day of fantastic sales to Carrie’s Cold Treats. Aside from an annoying festival worker who seemed bent on dating her, this year’s AquaPlay Festival and Cattle Run had gone off without a hitch. People were laughing again, and everyone in Cattle Barge needed the distraction. The town could use a sense of normalcy after being turned upside down for the past couple of weeks following the murder of a prominent family’s patriarch, Mike Butler, a.k.a. Maverick Mike.

The man who was notorious for living large and on his own terms had made national news after being found gunned down on his beloved ranch.

Every time she thought about his son, Dade, her heart squeezed. She’d heard that he’d been discharged from the military recently and had only been in town a few weeks. She could only imagine what her childhood friend was going through. Not only had his father been killed in a bizarre manner that had caused a media frenzy and an attempt had been made on his sister’s life, but an adult child no one had known about had been summoned to town, bringing with her a murderous ex-boyfriend. Carrie shuddered, because after her recent breakup with Brett Strawn had blown up, he’d made terrible threats—threats she knew in her heart he couldn’t mean. Before she would’ve chalked them up to him being emotional, a temporary reaction to the disappointment of a relationship ending. Now, she worried.

With Brett, it probably was just the heat of the moment that had him saying words she knew he’d regret when he had some time to think about them. And yet her problem was nothing in comparison to Dade’s. Her heart went out to him as she watched his worst nightmares play out in the news, wishing she had some way to contact him. Even at nine years old, he’d had the most serious blue eyes beneath thick, curly, sandy-blond hair.

Theirs had been an unlikely friendship. His family was one of the most prominent in Texas, while she had no parents, moving from group home to a distant relative’s house and then back into foster care through the early part of her life. Funny how little kids never noticed how much or how little money another kid’s family had. Interesting how much that changed later in life. By the time she’d returned to the same high school after being relocated and bounced in and out of another home, everything had changed. Dade had grown into his athletic frame. He’d become popular and, outside of a few glances in her direction, she was sure he didn’t even remember her name.