Joanna Wayne - Unrepentant Cowboy

“No, thanks, I have my own.”

That surprised her. “Snakes in the big city, too?”

“The worst kind,” Leif admitted. “The nutcases and grief-stricken family members who think I helped free a guilty defendant.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

She stopped at her bedroom door, afraid she was a few heated breaths away from issuing the invitation to join her in her shower and in her bed. She needed a closed door between them, quick.

“Would you lock up once you get your gun?” she asked.

“You got it.”

He leaned in close. One finger trailed a path from her forehead to her lips. Her defenses plummeted. Anticipation curled in her stomach, and wispy waves of heat knotted in her chest.

His mouth found hers and she melted.

Unrepentant

Cowboy

Joanna Wayne

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JOANNA WAYNEwas born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from LSU Shreveport. She moved to New Orleans in 1984, and it was there that she attended her first writing class and joined her first professional writing organization. Her debut novel, Deep in the Bayou , was published in 1994.

Now, dozens of published books later, Joanna has made a name for herself as being on the cutting edge of romantic suspense in both series and single-title novels. She has been on the Waldenbooks bestseller list for romance and has won many industry awards. She is also a popular speaker at writing organizations and local community functions and has taught creative writing at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College.

Joanna currently resides in a small community forty miles north of Houston, Texas, with her husband. Though she still has many family and emotional ties to Louisiana, she loves living in the Lone Star State. You may write Joanna at PO Box 852, Montgomery, Texas 77356, USA.

To my good friend Deedee, who always loves my books, and to my own children and grandchildren, who inspire me to write about loving families.

And a special thanks to my readers, who keep buying my books year after year and still ask for more.

You keep my spirits up and make writing worthwhile even when the going gets tough.

Contents

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

Prologue

Chapter One

Excerpt

Chapter One

“We, the jury, find the defendant, Edward Blanco, not guilty on all counts in the murder of Evelyn Cox.”

A synchronized gasp filled the courtroom accompanied by cries of horror and heartbreak from Evelyn’s family. They knew that justice had not been served.

Members of the defense team pounded Leif Dalton on the back and reached for his hand. Edward Blanco flashed the same innocent smile he’d displayed for the jury through weeks of testimony. Only this time contempt for the trial and everyone connected with it burned in his ebony eyes.

Leif avoided eye contact as Blanco expressed his gratitude in gloating terms. Then Leif turned and managed a nod toward the judge and jury. The handshakes Leif exchanged with members of his defense team were forced and meaningless.

For the second time in his life, he was almost certain he’d helped a killer escape punishment and walk free to likely kill again—unless someone killed him first.

The prosecution hadn’t had a chance. The evidence to convict Blanco simply hadn’t been there. Everything their lead attorney fed the jury was strictly circumstantial, and that wasn’t enough for jury members anymore.

They wanted the kind of proof they witnessed every week in countless TV police procedurals. They wanted a DNA match. They wanted a killer who looked like a killer instead of the handsome, sophisticated man you’d choose for your own daughter to marry.

But he couldn’t fault the jury for being fooled by Blanco. Leif had had his doubts about the man when the firm pressured him to take the case, but Blanco had quickly won him over. Throughout the trial Blanco had given an Oscar-worthy performance.

Until two days ago when the final arguments had been made and the jury had gone into deliberation. Then, confident that he was going to walk from the courtroom a free man, Blanco had let one careless comment slip.

The comment was not an admission of guilt, but it was more than enough to convince Leif that not only was Blanco a psychopath capable of stalking and brutally murdering an innocent woman, but that he’d experienced no guilt afterward.

Leif had done his job. He’d argued his client’s case honestly and effectively. He’d given Blanco what every citizen was guaranteed, the right to legal representation and a trial by jury.

Knowing that did nothing to alleviate the rumblings of guilt and remorse in the pit of his stomach.

“Let’s go grab a drink,” Chad encouraged. Chad was always the first one on his team ready to get down and party.

“Best whiskey in the house on me,” another team member said. “Leif Dalton, still undefeated.”

“I smell a promotion,” Chad said as he offered another clap on the back.

Their enthusiasm failed to generate any gusto on Leif’s part. “Sounds like fun, but I’m afraid you guys are going to have to celebrate without me.”

“You’re surely not going back to the office today. It’s almost five o’clock.”

“Plus, it’s the Monday before Thanksgiving,” Chad added. “Half the staff is on vacation.”

“So am I, as of right now,” Leif said. “But the trial was grueling. I’m beat.”

“That sounds like code for you have a better offer,” Morgan, one of the firms young law clerks, mocked.

A better offer. Damn. He was supposed to have dinner with Serena tonight.

“You caught me,” he said, faking a grin and trying to think of a halfway decent excuse for getting out of his date with the ravishing runway star.

He should have ended his relationship with her weeks ago. It was going nowhere. Probably mostly his fault. Relationship problems usually were. But possessive women made him feel caged, and Serena was growing more possessive by the day.

They walked out of the courthouse and into the bruising gray of threatening thunderclouds. He ducked from the crowd to avoid the flash of media cameras and the reporters pushing microphones at him.

When he looked up he was face-to-face with Evelyn Cox’s mother. She crucified him with her stare, then turned and stormed away without saying a word. He was tempted to run after her, but there wasn’t one thing he could say that would make her feel any better or hate him any less. Her beloved thirty-two-year-old daughter, the mother of her two precious grandchildren, was dead and her killer was free.

When he reached his car, he called and left a message for Serena. She’d be pissed. He’d broken at least a dozen dates during the weeks he’d been working on the Blanco case.

Leif sat behind the wheel of his black Porsche, staring into space while the jagged shards of his life played havoc with his mind. He was only thirty-eight.

He’d accomplished every professional goal he’d set for himself. His coworkers didn’t know it yet, but the deal was already in the works. He’d be named partner in Dallas’s most prestigious criminal defense law firm next month.