Joanna Wayne - Dropping The Hammer

Once a cowboy...

always a hero.

Recovering from a kidnapping ordeal at the Double K ranch, Rachel Maxwell reexamines her life. Is she still the brilliant defense attorney she was before the attack? Before she can decide, an obsessed killer targets her, drawing cowboy Luke Dawkins to her rescue. He, too, is trying to escape his troubled past. Protecting Rachel gives him new purpose—but while their attraction sizzles, the danger grows.

JOANNA WAYNEbegan her professional writing career in 1994. Now, more than fifty published books later, Joanna has gained a worldwide following with her cutting-edge romantic suspense and Texas family series, such as Sons of Troy Ledger and Big “D” Dads. Joanna currently resides in a small community north of Houston, Texas, with her husband. You may write Joanna at PO Box 852, Montgomery, TX 77356, USA or connect with her at www.joannawayne.com.

Also by Joanna Wayne

Riding Shotgun

Quick-Draw Cowboy

Fearless Gunfighter

Dropping the Hammer

Trumped Up Charges

Unrepentant Cowboy

Hard Ride to Dry Gulch

Midnight Rider

Showdown at Shadow Junction

Ambush at Dry Gulch

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Dropping the Hammer

Joanna Wayne

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07878-8

DROPPING THE HAMMER

© 2018 Jo Ann Vest

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.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

To the people in southeast Texas who not only survived Hurricane Harvey but showed amazing gusto in pitching in to help friends and absolute strangers who suffered devastating losses. And to the people around the state, country and the world who supported the relief efforts with their time, money and prayers. Your spirit of love and caring will never be forgotten.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

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

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

Death screamed, echoing shrilly through Rachel Maxwell’s brain as Roy Sales’s large, meaty hands tightened around her throat. His powerful body was stretched on top of hers, pinning her to her bed.

Her chest burned. She couldn’t breathe. She was losing consciousness as fear clawed at her insides, tearing her apart bit by bloody bit. Even as life slipped away, her heart persisted, throbbing erratically.

“Don’t worry, sweet Rachel. I won’t let you die if you do what I say.”

His maniacal laugh crawled inside her as his grip on her throat slowly eased. She coughed, choking as oxygen fought its way back into her lungs.

“Bucking against me is futile, sweetheart. I’ll never let you go. You belong to me. You always will. You know you want it that way.”

“Let me go,” she pleaded, her voice dry and scratchy, little more than a whisper. “Please, let me go.”

“That’s the way, baby. Keep begging.”

She closed her eyes tight so that she didn’t have to see the evil that darkened his eyes. Pleading wouldn’t help. He was heartless, devoid of compassion, his deranged soul as black as the depths of the deepest cave.

She writhed and twisted beneath him, finally getting her right arm free. She fisted her hand and swung wildly.

Blunt pain met her knuckles. There was a crash. She cried out in pain as blood splattered her face and dripped through her fingers.

She managed a scream. Loud. Shrill.

Her body stiffened and she kicked wildly, her feet tangling in the sheets as she escaped his grasping hands. Still screaming, she jerked into wakefulness—not to the sound of her cries, but to her cell phone’s alarm.

Rachel gulped scratchy clumps of air. It was only a nightmare. She was in her own apartment. Alone. Safe.

She fumbled to turn off the alarm. Her phone was wet. Her hands were damp and clammy, but with water, not the blood she’d imagined in the clutches of the terrifying nightmare.

She’d evidently knocked over the glass of water she’d left on the bedside table. The dizziness and cold, hard terror began to subside as she dried her phone on the corner of the sheet.

She stretched her feet out in front of her, staring at the shadows that crawled across the wall in the faint glow of sunrise. She was safe and yet the horror of being kidnapped and held in captivity by the psychopath persisted along with anxiety attacks and sudden bouts of panic.

Something as routine as a strange man walking too close behind her in downtown Houston in broad daylight could set her off. Or a man approaching in the office parking lot. Or even the creepy feeling that someone was watching her when she got out of her car at night.

She had to get her act together and move past her own trauma. But even fully awake and in the safety of her own bedroom, she could feel killing fingers at her throat, choking the life from her.

She could sense danger deep in her soul.

Chapter One

Three months later

“Good morning, Miss Maxwell.”

The firm’s receptionist smiled as Rachel walked through the double glass doors of their fifteenth-floor office.

“You’re here early this morning, Carrie,” Rachel said.

“Yes, but it may be the first time I’ve ever arrived before you. Sometimes I think you sleep here.”

“I’ve been tempted.”

“Mr. Fitch Sr. beat you in this morning, too. He said to have you stop by his office when you arrived.”