by Barb Han
To protect the love he lost, this rugged Texas rancher will risk everything
When FBI agent Maria Belasco is mysteriously attacked, her soon-to-be ex-husband, Austin O’Brien, is instantly on the scene. Problem is, she can’t remember what happened or the case she was working on. Or how, months before, tragedy had driven her and the reserved rancher irrevocably apart...
Now Austin must pretend that nothing has changed between them to help Maria get her memory back—and discover who wants her dead. But protecting her 24/7 is reigniting desires even more explosive than before. Austin will do whatever it takes to expose the enemy on their trail. But putting his heart on the line a second time could prove the most lethal risk of all...
Cattlemen Crime Club
“What was it, Austin? Is that the reason we don’t talk about anything?”
“Look. I don’t mean to be... It’s just...complicated.”
“So I gathered,” Maria said under her breath. She slipped into her running shoes. Movement still hurt but it felt good to be going outside.
Her hand was on the door handle, ready to go, when Austin placed his hand on the door. His gaze was intense. He looked tormented and…hungry. Before Maria knew what had hit her, her back was against the door and Austin pressed his lips to hers. Her body ached to be touched by her husband. Her hands splayed out on his chest and she could feel his rapid breathing through her fingertips. Her fingers flexed along the smooth lines of his muscled chest.
Austin pulled back way too fast. “That was a mistake.”
“Really, Austin? Was it? You kissed your wife. I don’t think anyone’s going to arrest you for doing what every married couple across the nation does,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to take advantage of the fact that you can’t remember and the doctor says that I can’t bring you up-to-date. It would be so much easier if I could,” he said. “But you’d feel different about me, about this.” He kissed Maria again and her knees almost buckled...
TEXAS SHOWDOWN
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Barb Han
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 basketball court. She loves interacting with readers and is grateful for their support. You can reach her at barbhan.com.
Books by Barb Han
Harlequin Intrigue
Cattlemen Crime Club
Stockyard Snatching
Delivering Justice
One Tough Texan
Texas-Sized Trouble
Texas Witness
Texas Showdown
Mason Ridge
Texas Prey
Texas Takedown
Texas Hunt
Texan’s Baby
The Campbells of Creek Bend
Witness Protection
Gut Instinct
Hard Target
Rancher Rescue
Harlequin Intrigue Noir
Atomic Beauty
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
Maria Belasco—This FBI agent took a hit that scrambled her brain. Will she remember who put her in the hospital before he comes back to put her in the morgue?
Austin O’Brien—The second-oldest O’Brien’s nickname is Ivy League. All the logic in the world can’t seem to bring him to sign the divorce papers sitting on his desk. But can he risk his heart a second time around when Maria’s life is on the line?
Tommy Johnson—The sheriff who grew up at the O’Brien ranch and considers them family.
Special Agent Mitch DeCarlo—How far will he go to win Maria back?
Maintenance Man Dave—Was he careless with his keys or does he know more than he’s letting on?
Garrett Halpern—How much does this ex-cop know?
Tyson Greer—How involved is this neighbor?
Special Agent Cliff Ford—Could he be involved or is he on the up-and-up?
Special Agent Wheeler—He’s taken over Maria’s caseload. Is he missing something that can crack her case wide open?
Ansel Sanders—How far will this suspect go to silence Maria?
Aunt Bea—Has she been hiding information about the deaths of her brother and sister-in-law?
Uncle Ezra—Does he know more about the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law than he’s letting on?
Many thanks to Allison Lyons, who is a dream editor! Also, my thanks to Jill Marsal, who is the best agent! It’s my great fortune to work with both of you.
Brandon, Jacob and Tori, the three of you inspire me in so many ways every day. I love each of you so much and appreciate all of the adventures we share!
Babe, how lucky are we to get to spend every day with so much love and laughter! You’re the best person I could hope to be on this adventure with and I love you with all my heart.
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
Excerpt from Mr. Serious by Danica Winters
Chapter One
“You didn’t have to take a bullet to get me to stop by and see you,” Austin O’Brien teased Sheriff Tommy Johnson as he entered room 119 at Bluff General Hospital. Tommy was more like family and had grown up on the ranch alongside all six O’Brien sons. At six feet tall with light brown hair and eyes that matched, he looked like he could be an O’Brien.
“If I’d known that’s all it would take, I’d have done it years ago,” Tommy retorted. He’d been shot in the line of duty a few days ago. A two-hour surgery later to remove a bullet fragment from a rib and he’d been recovering nicely. At least his sense of humor was returning. That was a good sign. The first day he’d been too full of morphine to crack a smile and no one had felt like joking.
Between Austin and his five brothers, one of the O’Briens had been at Tommy’s bedside since the incident. They’d been taking turns stopping by, making sure he had everything he could ever want.
“I figured you’d be tired of trying to choke down hospital food by now.” Austin opened the container of homemade spaghetti, set it on the tray table next to the bed, and positioned the stand where Tommy could access it. “Just don’t rat me out to the nurses.”
“Janis made this?” Tommy asked with a smile. She’d been employed at the ranch for more years than Austin cared to count. So much so, she was more family than employee and the boys had voted to give her shares of the family ranch and Cattlemen’s Crime Club now that they’d inherited the place.
“You know it,” Austin said, taking a step back and crossing his arms as Tommy picked up the fork and dug in.
“I forgot how good a cook she is,” he said after swallowing th
e first bite.
“Stop by for Sunday supper anytime. Or any other night of the week, for that matter.” Austin took off his white Stetson and set his hat on the foot of the bed. Tommy already knew about Sunday meals being a big deal and they’d become even more important recently. Each of Austin’s brothers could’ve died at different points in the past nine months. As a result, Austin found he had a new appreciation for life and family. It was most likely the baby boom at the ranch that had him feeling soft, or the fact that he couldn’t put to rest his feelings for Maria O’Brien, soon to be Belasco again, that made him resolve to talk to her and see if they could give their marriage another chance. He missed her and he was still scratching his head over what had happened to make her walk out. Sure, they’d been through a rough patch, but wasn’t that true of every relationship? He and Maria had never really had a big fight, a final blow to know they were both throwing in the towel. And then, divorce papers had arrived a couple of weeks ago. With everything going on at the ranch, he’d been too busy to look them over.
“How are you really feeling?” Austin asked Tommy.
“About as good as you look, so like a cow that just spent twenty hours in labor,” Tommy teased.
“That good, huh? Well, some people just take a vacation when they want to lay in bed and watch TV for a few days instead of taking a bullet and rolling in via ambulance here at the Bluff Resort and Spa.” Austin waved his arm in the air. “What time does the massage therapist come?”
“She’ll be here any minute, so don’t get too comfortable. And, by the way, she has the hands of a goddess,” Tommy fired back with a chuckle in between bites, keeping the joke alive.
It was good to see him awake and alert rather than overmedicated and with tubes sticking out of him. None of the brothers, Austin included, could shake a similar image of their parents from nine months ago in this very hospital where they’d died. A later autopsy revealed they’d been poisoned and Tommy didn’t seem any closer to an arrest.
“Found this last night and thought of you.” Austin fished in the pocket of his shirt for the plastic badge he’d worn when they were kids. He pulled it out and tossed it onto the tray table.
“Wow. How old is this?” Tommy picked up the child’s toy and spun it through his fingers.
Austin shrugged. “What age were we when we decided to become sheriffs?”
“Couldn’t have been more than nine years old, right?”
“It was long before either one of us had hair on our chest, that’s for sure,” Austin said with a laugh. He couldn’t imagine being anything other than a cattle rancher, although his childhood had been filled with the usual cop, fireman and Batman fantasies.
“Where on earth did you find this?” Tommy held the badge flat on his palm.
“Been in the top drawer of my desk,” Austin said with a shrug.
“You never could throw anything away.” Tommy examined the toy. “Good thing you went up north to that fancy school instead of law enforcement. I’m pretty sure your accounting skills are needed at the ranch more than your rifle acumen.”
Going to a school in the Northeast had netted Austin the nickname Ivy League.
“Between you and Joshua, I figured the family was well represented in the badge-toting department,” Austin said, referring to his brother who had left the ranch and moved to Denver to pursue a career in law enforcement. He returned over Christmas to take his rightful place alongside his brothers and had the toughest time adjusting.
Austin’s cell buzzed. He fished it out of his jeans pocket and checked the screen. The text from his oldest brother, Dallas, read, Another calf is sick. Putting her in the pen.
“Everything okay?” Tommy asked, his gaze fixed on Austin’s phone cover.
“Fine. Got some kind of sickness moving through the new stock. Half a dozen calves are isolated and under quarantine. Vet can’t figure out what’s going on and we’re taking a wait-and-see approach for now. Hoping it doesn’t get any worse,” Austin stated.
Tommy didn’t look away from the honeymoon picture of Austin and his wife that she’d had made into a phone cover. Soon to be ex-wife, an annoying little voice in the back of his mind corrected.
The look on Tommy’s face sent a thousand fire ants crawling up Austin’s spine.
“What is it?” he asked.
Tommy took a minute to speak and when he did, he fixed his gaze on a spot on the wall behind Austin. More reasons to be worried.
“Hey, Ivy League, do you remember Deputy Garretson?” Tommy finally asked.
“Yeah, sure. Why?” Garretson was a year ahead of Austin in school, so Dallas knew him better. Austin was the second-oldest O’Brien. The former deputy had moved to the capital a couple years back craving more day-to-day excitement than Bluff, Texas, had to offer. He should’ve stuck around, Austin thought, because there’d been more than enough activity in the past year to keep him busy.
“He stopped by to see me yesterday,” Tommy said and then paused.
“Everything okay with him?” Austin asked.
“He’s fine,” Tommy said quickly. “He’s a detective now at Austin PD. Hangs out with his FBI liaison after work sometimes. Both are big Cowboys fans so they catch games together, grab a few beers.”
Tommy was normally a straight-to-the-point guy. That he felt the need to dance around a topic didn’t sit well with Austin. There was also a reference to the FBI, which was Maria’s employer.
“What does this have to do with me?” Austin asked outright. Also a straight shooter.
“This guy, Special Agent DeCarlo, who Garretson buddies around with, is planning his wedding.” Tommy’s gaze bounced from the phone to Austin. He hesitated again before he spoke but he didn’t need to say the words. Austin already knew what Tommy was about to say.
“He’s planning to marry Maria.”
* * *
DENALI, THE FAMILY’S Chocolate Lab, had been working alongside Austin for the better part of the night. Now, the hundred pound dog lay next to Austin’s boots, panting and whimpering in his sleep. Austin would give a nickel to find out what went on in that dog’s brain. Never mind, he thought wryly. Denali probably thought about food, treats and getting his ears scratched.
Austin pushed back from his desk and rubbed blurry eyes, thinking a few hours of shut-eye was a good idea considering how punchy he was getting. Between a record number of calves being born this winter and a bout of some kind of sickness causing him to quarantine half a dozen of them now, Austin had been working overtime for months. After learning his parents’ deaths were being investigated as murders, he wasn’t sleeping, either.
The news about Maria he’d received from Tommy earlier had been as unexpected as a sucker punch in broad daylight. His brain refused to process it, like it somehow wouldn’t exist if he kept it at arm’s length. So far, the only emotion he could strongly identify when he allowed it to surface was anger.
Adding to his sour mood was the fact that there was constant wedding/baby/adoption planning going on at the ranch. All five of his brothers had newborns, newly adopted children and/or wedding plans in the works. He didn’t begrudge his brothers their happiness. In fact, he was over the moon for them and each was the happiest he’d ever seen. They’d found true love, fought for it, and had earned the reward of real partners in life and that was great. Personally, he was on the opposite end of the spectrum as divorce papers stared at him from the corner pile of paperwork on his desk and his wife made wedding plans with another man.
The papers had been sitting there for a while now. Austin had lost track of how many days. A dozen? More? The thought of signing them had proved harder than he’d expected, so he kept putting off the task. He should probably be glad to end that chapter of his life and move on, good riddance and all. Maria had made her decision clear and he wasn’t one to stand in her way.
That familiar mix of anger and heartache cut through his chest as he made a move to pick up the legal document. He stopped midreach. He’d been staring at the laptop so long that his eyes were practically crossed and every letter on the screen was a haze. Numbers ran together like highway signs at a hundred miles an hour, a blurry streak. His brain was toast. He wanted to be in the right mind-set before looking over those papers and make sure he had time to read the fine print.
On second thought, a signature could wait. A few more days wouldn’t make a difference in either of their lives. The annoying voice in the back of his mind said that wasn’t exactly true for Maria. Austin shoved the thought aside. The clock read half past eleven. He’d be up again at four thirty sharp, an unholy hour for a natural night owl like him. He needed a hot shower and a firm mattress. The news from Tommy about Maria had knocked Austin off balance and all he needed was a little rest to get his emotions in check. That little piece of him that had said it wasn’t over between them yet—that they still had a chance as long as they were still married—had been shattered all to hell. It wasn’t Tommy’s fault. He was trying to protect Austin from finding out through a different source. O’Briens were news. The story would be out soon enough. Anything to do with his family made headlines.
Austin picked up his cell that had been sitting on top of his desk and looked at the picture on his phone cover. He and Maria had been so happy, or so he’d believed. How could any of it have been real if she was willing to throw it away so easily? And for what? Because the pregnancy didn’t work out? Yes, it had been a difficult time for both of them. He’d retreated into himself and had shut down. He could be honest and admit that now. Maria had started spending longer hours on her caseload at the FBI. Then, a few weeks later when the doctor had cleared them to try again, she’d said that she reconsidered the timing of having children. The timing was right for her to go for the promotion into the Crimes Against Children program, saying it had been a job she’d always wanted. News to him, he’d thought. She’d pointed out that they were still young and had plenty of time to start their family. In hindsight, he should’ve picked up on the oversell.
