Standoff at Mustang Ridge
Read Standoff at Mustang Ridge Online
Authors: Delores Fossen
THE SHERIFF’S ONE-NIGHT STAND
When Deputy Sheriff Royce McCall responds to a break-in at his family’s cabin, he doesn’t expect the intruder to be beautiful Sophie Conway—in her nightgown! The last time he saw her, she wasn’t wearing much else, although the details of their New Year’s Eve encounter are sketchy at best. Then she admits that not only has she become a killer’s target, but she also lied about carrying Royce’s baby in order to escape an arranged marriage. With too many unanswered questions surrounding this woman he barely knows, Royce still vows to protect Sophie when the bullets start flying. But when the memories of their one-night stand become clearer, so does the fact that she may not be lying about being pregnant after all.…
“What aren’t you telling me, Sophie? Are you keeping something secret about the night in the motel? You said we didn’t have sex—”
“We didn’t.” She stopped and stared at him.
“Are you sure?” he pressed.
Sophie finally had to shake her head. “I honestly don’t remember.” That required a deep breath. “I have huge gaps in my memory from that night. And that’s never happened to me before…”
“Me, either.”
She hadn’t meant to make a soft yeah-right mumble, but it just popped out. With Royce’s hot cowboy looks, she was betting he’d had a one-night stand. Or a dozen.
“There’s something else you’re not telling me,” Royce insisted.
Good grief. The man had ESP, or maybe his lawman’s instincts were kicking in.
He tapped her right temple. “What is going on in your head? What are you keeping from me? Because I can promise you, it won’t help. I need to hear everything that happened. Everything you remember…”
USA TODAY
Bestselling Author
Delores Fossen
Standoff at Mustang Ridge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why
USA TODAY
bestselling author and former air force captain Delores Fossen feels as if she were genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force top gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.
Books by Delores Fossen
HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
1026—THE CHRISTMAS CLUE*
1044—NEWBORN CONSPIRACY*
1050—THE HORSEMAN’S SON*
1075—QUESTIONING THE HEIRESS
1091—SECURITY BLANKET**
1110—BRANDED BY THE SHERIFF***
1116—EXPECTING TROUBLE***
1122—SECRET DELIVERY***
1144—SHE’S POSITIVE
1163—CHRISTMAS GUARDIAN**
1186—SHOTGUN SHERIFF
1205—THE BABY’S GUARDIAN†
1211—DADDY DEVASTATING†
1217—THE MOMMY MYSTERY†
1242—SAVIOR IN THE SADDLE††
1248—WILD STALLION††
1252—THE TEXAS LAWMAN’S LAST STAND††
1269—GI COWBOY
1314—GRAYSON‡‡
1319—DADE‡‡
1324—NATE‡‡
1360—KADE‡‡
1365—GAGE‡‡
1371—MASON‡‡
1389—CHRISTMAS RESCUE AT MUSTANG RIDGE
1395—STANDOFF AT MUSTANG RIDGE
*Five-Alarm Babies
**Texas Paternity
***Texas Paternity: Boots and Booties
†Texas Maternity: Hostages
††Texas Maternity: Labor and Delivery
‡‡The Lawmen of Silver Creek Ranch
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Deputy Sheriff Royce McCall—
He’s the bad-boy lawman of Mustang Ridge, TX, who finds himself caught in the middle of a dangerous investigation with city girl Sophie Conway, a woman he knows he must resist. But his heart and body say otherwise.
Sophie Conway—
Her attempts to do the right thing for her family put her in the path of a dangerous killer. She knows she can’t do it alone, but Royce’s involvement automatically makes him a target, too.
Travis Bullock—
Sophie’s ex-fiancé who’s under investigation. He claims he still loves Sophie, but actions speak louder than words.
Sheriff Jake McCall—
He wants to help his brother, Royce, but the investigation only gives him more questions than answers.
Stanton Conway—
Sophie’s half brother. Just how far would he go to save his family’s ranch?
Eldon Conway—
Even though he’s Sophie’s father, he’s also a suspect in the attacks that have nearly left her dead.
Special Agent Keith Lott—
He’s deep in an investigation that could have dangerous consequences for Sophie and Royce.
Contents
Chapter One
Deputy Sheriff Royce McCall drew his Colt .45 and stepped behind the ice-crusted cottonwood tree.
Mercy
.
He didn’t need this. It was too cold for a gunfight or even an arrest, but he might have to deal with both.
He glanced out at the hunting cabin and especially at the sole window that was facing his direction. He didn’t see any movement, but he’d seen footprints in the snow that someone had tried to cover up. Those footprints came from the woods and led straight to the cabin.
Hiding footprints usually wasn’t a good sign.
Of course, anyone inside was trespassing since the cabin was on McCall land, but he’d sure take a trespasser over an armed robber.
Normally, Royce wouldn’t have been concerned with suspected felons this far out since the cabin wasn’t near any main roads and a good twenty miles from the town of Mustang Ridge. But a cop from Amarillo P.D. had called earlier to warn him of a bank-robbery suspect who might be in the area. The guy could have found his way here with plans to use it as a hideout.
Without taking his attention off the cabin, Royce eased his phone from his coat pocket. There wasn’t enough signal strength to make a call in this remote location, but he fired off a text to his brother, Sheriff Jake McCall, to let him know about the possible situation.
A situation Royce would likely end up handling alone.
It would take at least a half hour for his brother to respond to the text and get Royce some backup all the way out here. With the temperature already below freezing and with the wind and snow spitting at him, he didn’t want to wait another minute much less an hour—even if it meant he’d get a tongue-lashing from Jake.
Royce hoped that was all he got.
The Amarillo police had warned the fugitive was armed and dangerous.
Royce took that warning into account, pulled off the thick leather glove on his right hand so he’d have a better grip on the Colt, and he inched out from the cottonwood. Thankfully, there were other trees dotting the grounds, and he used them to make his way toward the cabin. He was nearly at the front when he heard something.
Movement inside.
So the person who’d tried to hide those footprints was definitely still around.
Royce used one of the porch posts for cover, but he knew there was a lot more of him exposed than there was hidden. He waited and listened, but the only sounds were the ragged wind and his own heartbeat crashing in his ears.
He’d been a deputy of Mustang Ridge for eleven years and had faced down an armed man or two, but it never got easier. If it ever did, Royce figured that’d be the time to quit and devote all his time to running his portion of the family ranch. Danger should never feel normal.
With his bare hand going numb, it was now or never. Steering clear of the window, he reached over and tested the knob.
It was locked.
Royce didn’t issue any warnings. He turned and gave the door a swift kick, and even though it stayed on the hinges, the lock gave way, and it flew open. Before it even hit the wall, he had his gun ready and aimed.
He took in the place with a sweeping glance. Not much to take in, though. There was a set of bunk beds on one side, a small kitchen on the other and an equally small bathroom in the center back. Since the privacy curtain in the bathroom was wide-open, he could see straight inside. No one was there unless the person was in the shower.
Keeping a firm grip on his gun, Royce inched closer, and he heard some movement again.
Yeah, it was definitely coming from the shower stall.
He took a deep breath and made his way into the cabin so he could get a look inside the bathroom.
“I’ll shoot,” someone called out.
Royce froze. It was a woman—not the male robbery suspect he’d braced himself to face. However, it was hard to tell who the woman was with that quivery voice. Plus, he couldn’t see much of her because the overhead lights weren’t on, and the shower stall was hidden in the shadows.
Usually if threatened with violence, Royce would threaten right back. However, after one glance at her hand, the only part of her he could actually see, he realized a threat might not be the way to go.
Yeah, she was armed all right. She was holding a little Smith & Wesson, and it was possible she was even trying to aim the gun at him. But she was huddled in the tiny tiled shower, and her hand was shaking so hard she would have been lucky to hit him or anything else within ten feet of where she was trying to aim.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw the woman was wearing an unbuttoned coat over what appeared to be a nightgown. No hat, no gloves, and those flat house shoes definitely weren’t cold-weather gear. She had to be freezing.
“You need to put down that gun.” Royce tried to keep his voice level and calm. Hard to do with the adrenaline pumping through him and the cold blasting at his back. She didn’t look like much of a threat, but she was armed.
“I won’t let you kill me,” she said in a broken whisper.
“Kill you?” Jeez, what was going on here? “No one’s going to kill you, lady. I’m hoping you’ve got the same idea when it comes to me and that Smith & Wesson you got wobbling around there.”
She looked up at him as if confused by that remark, and when she took a single step out of the shower, her eyes met his.
Oh, man.
