by B. J Daniels
He could feel the bull moving the sides of the chute with his massive weight. A good ride on Dead Eye Joe would do a lot more than secure his slot in Las Vegas. And, of course, there was the forty-thousand-dollar bounty.
The stands were full. Jack breathed in the familiar scents, a combination of leather, dust, rough stock and concession food. He tried to focus, but he kept hearing Chelsea’s voice. “Jack, the only thing keeping us apart now is your pride. And this need you have to prove something to yourself. You don’t have to prove anything to me. Or to Sam.”
Yes, he thought, he did. He still did. But it wasn’t just about proving himself. It was about doing something he was good at, being his own man, doing it his own way. And yes, damn it, it was about pride—and money. How did you explain that to a woman? Especially this woman.
“It’s about winning, damn it,” he muttered to himself as he straddled the bull and leaned down to wrap the rope around his gloved hand. His ribs hurt bad and he was having trouble breathing, but with a little luck he could ride this damn bull the full eight seconds.
“Here,” Rowdy said, bending over the edge of the chute to tighten the rope for him.
“You still here?” Jack said.
Rowdy grinned. “Didn’t want to miss seeing you kill yourself to prove a point. Not a chance.”
“Don’t listen to him, Jack,” Terri Lyn called as she scrambled up the side of the chute. “You can ride this bull.” It seemed she’d quickly forgotten Ace and set her sights on Jack again.
“The snake was the wrong move,” Jack said. “It wasn’t Roberta’s style. It was the kind of prank that had your name written all over it.”
She pretended innocence, but only for a moment. “I play to win, Jack. You and I are alike that way. That’s what makes us such a great match. We know what’s important and we go after it, any way we can.”
He looked at her hard for a long moment. She thought she’d won. That she’d chased off Chelsea. He’d done that all on his own.
“Yeah, it’s about winning, but it’s also how you play the game.”
She snorted at that. “No one gives a damn about you unless you take home the belt buckle, Jack, and you know it.”
“It looks like Jackson Robinson is about to try his luck on Dead Eye Joe,” the announcer informed the crowd. “This is one rank bull, folks. He looks like he could eat cowboys for breakfast.”
“Good luck,” Terri Lyn said as she climbed down.
Jack glanced to where Rowdy was hanging on the fence, watching him with interest. They’d been friends since Jack first got into bull riding. Rowdy was rodeo. He knew how much this meant, getting to the finals.
“I think he’s about ready, folks,” the announcer said.
Jack glanced up into the grandstands. Chelsea had her arm around Sam, both of them watching him, waiting.
“You going to ride that bull, Jack, or just sit on it?” Rowdy hollered at him. “You’re never going to get to the NFR at this rate, bud.”
Jack looked at his friend. “You’re at least right about that.”
“Wait a minute,” the announcer said. “Looks like there might be a problem here.”
With a certainty Jack hadn’t felt in a very long time, he called to one of the pickup men as he quickly unwrapped the rope from his gloved hand. “Borrow your horse a minute?”
The cowboy seemed surprised, but slid off the horse to hand him up the reins.
“Folks, I’m not sure what’s going on,” the announcer said as Jack climbed over the chute and dropped into the saddle.
He spurred the horse and galloped across the arena toward Chelsea and Sam, barely feeling his cracked ribs. He could hear the voices of the crowd and the announcer, a dull roar over the pounding of his heart. Everyone in the stands rose to their feet.
He rode over to Chelsea and Sam, bringing the horse up to a dust-whirling halt in front of them.
“I have almost enough money for a ranch, nothing as grand as the one you just gave away, but still a fine ranch adjacent to the Wishing Tree,” he called up. “But I’m going to need your help if we hope to make anything of it. It will mean a lot of hard work and, if you still have a few bucks, some of your money.” The words hadn’t been as hard to say as he thought they would be.
For a brief moment he was afraid she might be going to faint. But the next instant a wide smile lit up her entire face.
“Does that mean you’ll marry me?” he shouted up to her. “That is, if Sam agrees.”
Sam let out a very unladylike whoop of approval.
“Well?” he asked Chelsea.
“Oh, yes,” she cried, climbing down from the stands and over the railing.
Jack leaned over and pulled her in front of him onto the horse, just as the crowd broke into a large cheer.
“Jack, the bull is back over here!” Rowdy called from the announcer’s booth, and everyone laughed.
Sam hopped up on the back of the horse and Jack rode around the arena, stopping at the announcer’s booth.
“She’s going to marry me!” he yelled, and tossed his hat into the air.
The crowd went wild as he kissed his future bride. The cheers and applause were louder than any he’d ever gotten bull riding.
EPILOGUE
CHELSEA LEANED against the corral fence, watching Sam ride around the ring on Sam’s Star, marveling at the beautiful summer day and her own happiness.
She just wished her father was here to see how it had all turned out. He would have been happy for her and Jack, and delighted to have a granddaughter like Sam and another one on the way, Chelsea thought, resting her hand on her swollen stomach.
She looked up to see Jack come riding toward her with Cody. It had been Cody’s idea to combine the two ranches and run them as one, with Chelsea doing the books. It did her heart good to see how her brother and Jack had become friends. Jack had insisted they get married at the Wishing Tree, with Sam as her maid of honor. All of Jack’s rodeo family and friends had come, as well as her own friends. Jack had asked Cody to be his best man.
“Are you sure you won’t regret giving up rodeoing?” she’d asked him the night before the wedding.
“My dream was always to have a ranch with you and our children,” Jack said. “I just kept putting it off because I thought I had to do it all on my own.”
“Daddy, look!” Sam cried now as she prodded the colt and trotted around inside the corral.
Jack swung out of his saddle to join Chelsea on the fence, putting one arm around her, the other hand going to her stomach. “How are you feeling?”
“Great.” She smiled at him. “The Garrett clan is coming over for dinner. I’m making my killer enchiladas.”
Jack laughed as Cody joined them. “She’s even got Sam liking Tex-Mex now.” He put his cheek against hers. “Would you look at that girl ride.”
Chelsea thought her heart couldn’t possibly hold any more joy than she felt at this moment.
“Mind if I bring a date to dinner?” Cody asked, almost sheepishly.
A date? Cody? He never took the time to date. And he’d certainly never brought anyone home to dinner.
“Of course,” Chelsea said, trying to keep a straight face. “Anyone I know?”
“She’s the vet’s new assistant,” Cody said, watching Sam. “Her name’s Megan. And don’t try to make anything out of it, all right?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said, grinning to herself. She’d caught that sparkle in her brother’s eye and recognized it only too well. She’d known it had been in her own eye every time she looked at Jack.
She snuggled into her husband’s warm body, letting him envelop her with his love as they watched Sam ride around the corral. Life just didn’t get any better than this.
* * * * *
New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels takes you to the small town of Gilt Edge, Montana in her brand-new Cahill Ranch series!
The renegade cowboy returns in
Renegade�
��s Pride
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“Super read by an excellent writer. Recommended!”
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And be sure to keep an eye out for the next two Cahill Ranch tales:
Outlaw’s Honor
Cowboy’s Legacy
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Can’t get enough? If you love strong cowboys, hot romance and thrilling suspense, then be sure to catch the thrilling Montana Hamiltons series!
Honor Bound
Into Dust
Hard Rain
Lucky Shot
Lone Rider
Wild Horses
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SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
The kidnapping of the McGraw twins devastated this ranching family. Twenty-five years later, when a true crime writer investigates, will the family be able to endure the truth?
Read on for a sneak preview of
DARK HORSE,
the first book in a new series from
New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels,
WHITEHORSE, MONTANA: THE MCGRAW KIDNAPPING
“I want to ask you about your babies,” Nikki said. “Oakley and Jesse Rose?” Was it her imagination or did the woman clutch the dolls even harder to her thin chest?
“What happened the night they disappeared?” Did Nikki really expect an answer? She could hope, couldn’t she? Mostly, she needed to hear the sound of her voice in this claustrophobic room. The rocking had a hypnotic effect, like being pulled down a rabbit hole.
“Everyone outside this room believes you had something to do with it. You and Nate Corwin.” No response, no reaction to the name. “Was he your lover?”
She moved closer, catching the decaying scent that rose from the rocking chair as if the woman was already dead. “I don’t believe it’s true. But I think you might know who kidnapped your babies,” she whispered.
The speculation at the time was that the kidnapping had been an inside job. Marianne had been suffering from postpartum depression. The nanny had said that Mrs. McGraw was having trouble bonding with the babies and that she’d been afraid to leave Marianne alone with them.
And, of course, there’d been Marianne’s secret lover—the man who everyone believed had helped her kidnap her own children. He’d been implicated because of a shovel found in the stables with his bloody fingerprints on it—along with fresh soil—even though no fresh graves had been found.
“Was Nate Corwin involved, Marianne?” The court had decided that Marianne McGraw couldn’t have acted alone. To get both babies out the second-story window, she would have needed an accomplice.
“Did my father help you?”
There was no sign that the woman even heard her, let alone recognized her alleged lover’s name. And if the woman had answered, Nikki knew she would have jumped out of her skin.
She checked to make sure Tess wasn’t watching as she snapped a photo of the woman in the rocker. The flash lit the room for an instant and made a snap sound. As she started to take another, she thought she heard a low growling sound coming from the rocker.
She hurriedly took another photo, though hesitantly, as the growling sound seemed to grow louder. Her eye on the viewfinder, she was still focused on the woman in the rocker when Marianne McGraw seemed to rock forward as if lurching from her chair.
A shriek escaped her before she could pull down the camera. She had closed her eyes and thrown herself back, slamming into the wall. Pain raced up one shoulder. She stifled a scream as she waited for the feel of the woman’s clawlike fingers on her throat.
But Marianne McGraw hadn’t moved. It had only been a trick of the light. And yet, Nikki noticed something different about the woman.
Marianne was smiling.
Don’t miss
DARK HORSE by B.J. Daniels,
available August 2017 wherever
Harlequin Intrigue® books and ebooks are sold.
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Copyright © 2017 by Barbara Heinlein
ISBN-13: 978-1-488-02971-4
RODEO DADDY
Copyright © 2002 by Barbara Heinlein.
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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