Come Home To Love (Harlequin Signature Select)
Page 22
MAVERICK
The tingle grew into a sizzle. Damn, it had been a long time since a woman had had such a strong effect on him at first meeting. Come to think about it, no woman had ever had this strong an effect on him.
"Do you have a name?" He injected a droll note into his voice.
"Stewart.. .Brianna," she answered, extending a slim-fingered hand to him."Now may I come in?"
Curious about the woman's courage in entering the apartment of a stranger, and about several other things, he took her hand, repressed a shiver then nodded and stepped back, swinging the door wide as he did so.
"Thank you." Head high, she walked past him into the neat-as-a-pin living room, her stride relaxed, easy looking.The late-afternoon sunrays slanting through the wide window struck fiery lights off her slightly redder-than-auburn hair.
"What can I do for you, Ms. Stewart?" he asked. Other than sweep you up and carry you to my bedroom.Telling himself to grow up, he repressed the errant thought.
"Would you like a cup of coffee? It's a fresh pot." He wasn't about to impart the information that it was the first pot he had brewed since rolling out of the sack a half hour before she rang his chimes...so to speak.
M
JOAN HOHL
"I'd like that, yes, thank you." She smiled.
He suppressed a groan. As slight and polite as her smile had been, it dazzled the senses.
"You're welcome. It'll only take a minute." Telling himself to pull it together, Tanner escaped into the kitchen. Well, he had hoped to escape.
She followed him into the sparkling clean, bright white and canary-yellow room."I hope you don't mind, but we can talk in here just as well."
That's easy for you to say. Keeping the thought to himself, where it belonged, Tanner said, "No, I don't mind. Have a seat." He flicked a hand at the retro, yellow-and-white chrome and Formica kitchen set. "How do you take your coffee?"
Sliding onto a plastic-covered chair, she said, with a smile, "Just milk."
Damned if her full-blast smile didn't cause a ripple along his nervous system. Lord, the woman was lethal. There was no way he'd admit to her that was how he took his coffee, too.
Tanner grabbed two mugs and poured coffee and milk into each. He set the steaming mugs on the table.
"Here you go," he said.
She nodded, causing her smooth red mass of hair to swirl around her shoulders. On the spot, Tanner decided he loved red hair. It was a bit of
MAVERICK
a surprise, as he had always thought he preferred blondes.
Settling his six-foot-four-inch frame opposite her, he bluntly got to the point."Okay, now, what can I do for you?"
"I want you to find a man for me," she said.
"Why?"
Her voice went hard. "Because he needs to be found."
"Why.. .and by whom?"
Her eyes went as hard as her tone. "By my sister, my father, me and the law."
Now they were getting somewhere. "The law?" Right up his alley.. .maybe. "For what?"
She drew a deep breath, as if to contain a long simmering anger. "For rape and murder of one young woman, and attempted rape of another."
"Who sent you to me?"
Brianna raised her eyebrows. "You're a very well-known bounty hunter...with an excellent reputation."
"Uh-huh." He smiled wryly and repeated, "Who sent you to me?"
"Your cousins."
He gave her a bored look."Honey, I have a lot of cousins. Give me some names."
She exhaled a weary-sounding, much-put-upon sigh. "Mathilda and Lisa."
JOAN HOHL
"Ah...the Amazon twins." He smiled fondly at the memory of his six-foot tall, gorgeous, only female cousins, the former cop and the legal eagle. "How do you know them?"
"Lisas my lawyer. She introduced me to Mathilda," she explained. "But I already knew your mother. She was my history professor in college."
His eyebrows rose in question. "You're from Sprucewood?" It was his hometown. His mother, the history fanatic, taught the subject at Spruce-wood College. His father was chief of the Sprucewood, Pennsylvania Police Department.
"No." She shook her head before clarifying. 16 "Not really, I'm from the er.. .suburbs."
Tanner wondered about the slight hesitation, but let it pass, for the moment. "And the man you want found is Jay Minnich. Right?" Before she could respond, he said, "Are you the attempted rape victim?"
"No." She set her hair rippling again with a sharp shake of her head. "My younger sister, Danielle, is.The young woman he murdered was Dani's best friend."
"I read about the cases in the paper," Tanner said nodding.
"Will you find him for us?" Her soft voice held a tinge of pleading. "There's a bounty," she quickly added.
MAVERICK
"I know, ten grand." His tone was dismissive, as though ten thousand dollars was nothing. "Posted by your father, the founder and president of The Bank of Sprucewood."
She frowned at his tone. "Yes, but the bounty has been raised.. .by my father."
"When?" Tanner hadn't heard a word about the bounty being raised, and he would have—if it had been announced.
"Now."
"Ah...say again?"
"Let me explain."
"Explain away," he invited, raising his mug to his lips, and staring intently at her over the rim.
"Dani is an emotional wreck." Her voice was low,sad."Ever since the.. .er, awful events,she has withdrawn into herself. She's terrified that man will come back, find her and kill her. She was the one who identified him. She won't leave the house. Ever."
She paused to sigh before continuing."In fact, she seldom leaves her bedroom, which she keeps locked at all times."
"That's too bad," Tanner said sincerely. "It's a horrible experience for any woman to go through."
"Yes."Brianna paused a minute, then went on. "Although we feel hopeful the law will eventu-
JOAN HOHL
ally track down this monster, for Dani's peace of mind, we want him found and incarcerated as soon as possible. That's why my father entrusted me with finding the best bounty hunter, and offering a higher bounty."
From information Tanner had gleaned, he suspected the felon was holing up somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, a big territory to cover. Although the rumor on the street was that he had been spotted either in Wyoming or New Mexico. Still a lot of ground to cover. Not many bounty hunters he knew would take on the mountains for ten grand. 18 "How much higher?" he finally asked, a thread of skepticism in his voice.
Her soft voice hardened. "A million dollars."
A cool mil was worth a man's time to comb through that rugged mountain terrain, Tanner decided. Maybe it wasn't exactly being the nice guy, only willing to hunt a killer for the highest bidder, but then, nice guys seldom, if ever, wound up catching the badasses.
"Well?" A mixture of anxiety and impatience strained her voice and expression. "Will you accept the job?"
"Yeah," he said flatly. "I'll go scouring the mountains for him."
MAVERICK
"Good." She exhaled the breath he couldn't help noticing she was holding. "I'm going with you.
He let loose a roar of ridiculing laughter.
"I don't think so," he said when his laughter subsided. "I'm not babysitting a rich man's daughter wearing stilettos around those mountains."
Tapping the toe of one stiletto-clad foot, Brianna smiled serenely. "Mr.Wolfe, I don't need a babysitter, thank you. I can take care of myself."
"Yeah, right," he mocked her."In a fine restaurant or an upscale dress shop. Go home to daddy, baby," he advised. "I hunt alone."
"I don't think so," she shot back at him. "This time, there'll be two hunters in the mountains."
Tanner laughed again.
He should've kept his mouth shut.
...NOT THE END...
Look for the continuation of this story in Maverick by Joan Hohl, available in April 2006 from Silhouette Desire^gi
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Joan Hohl
In 2004, Joan Hohl celebrated twenty-five years of being a published writer. She has written over fifty books—she claims she doesn't know the exact number as she gave up counting somewhere between thirty-five and forty! She has been on the New York Times, USA TODAY and Waldenbooks lists, and has won several awards, including the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, two Romantic Times BOOKclub Reviewer's Choice awards and is on Romantic Times' too Best Romances List. She has published works in several genres, including romance, single-title women's fiction, historical and time travel.
Joan lives in Pennsylvania with Marv, her husband of fifty-two years. They have two daughters, Lori and Amy, two grandchildren, Erica and Cammeron, and one great-grandchild.
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