Praise for Ann Major:
Engaging characters, stories that thrill and delight, shivering suspense and captivating romance. Want it all? Read Ann Major.
Nora Roberts, New York Times bestselling author
Ann Major delights readers with memorable characters, sparkling dialogue and tension that sizzles.
bestselling author Mary Lynn Baxter
Whenever I pick up a novel by Ann Major, I know Im guaranteed a heartwarming story.
bestselling author Annette Broadrick
No one provides hotter emotional fireworks than the fiery Ann Major.
Romantic Times
Compelling characters, intense, fast-moving plots and snappy dialogue have made Ann Majors name synonymous with the best in contemporary romantic fiction.
Rendezvous
Ann Majors SECRET CHILD sizzles with characters who leap off the page and into your heart This ones hot!
bestselling author Lisa Jackson
Dont miss Signature Selects exciting series:
The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion
Starting in June 2005, get swept up in twelve new stories from your favorite family!
COWBOY AT MIDNIGHT by Ann Major
A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING by Marie Ferrarella
IN THE ARMS OF THE LAW by Peggy Moreland
LONE STAR RANCHER by Laurie Paige
THE GOOD DOCTOR by Karen Rose Smith
THE DEBUTANTE by Elizabeth Bevarly
KEEPING HER SAFE by Myrna Mackenzie
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION by Kristi Gold
ONCE A REBEL by Sheri WhiteFeather
MILITARY MAN by Marie Ferrarella
FORTUNES LEGACY by Maureen Child
THE RECKONING by Christie Ridgway
Cowboy at Midnight
Ann Major
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MILLS & BOON
Before you start reading, why not sign up?
Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!
SIGN ME UP!
Or simply visit
signup.millsandboon.co.uk
Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.
Dear Reader,
I hope you are well.
I had so much fun writing Cowboy at Midnight.
I think the most important skill a human being can have is the ability to grow and change and be flexible. We all start off in the Garden of Eden, or rather childhood, where life seems simple and sometimes miraculously wonderfulat least, if we are born into happy homes.
Then something happens, like a tragedy, that forces us to grow up too suddenly, and we see ourselves and our world in a brand-new light, sometimes a darker light. We can get stuck, not wanting to move on or accept ourselves as adults or forgive ourselves for not living up to some childish, untenable ideal.
Amy, my storys heroine, lost her dearest friend at an early age and blamed herself. She has punished herself for eight years.
Then she meets Steve, my hero, and falls in love. She cant let herself have him unless she changes.
I hope you enjoy THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: REUNION.
Happy reading,
We must have the courage to allow a little disorder in our lives.
Ben Weininger
I dedicate this book to Tara Gavin, Patience Smith, Shannon Godwin, Karen Solem, Nancy Berland, and Dianne Moggyall brilliant women! I owe you more than I can say! Thank you!
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Bonus Features
Prologue
Double Crown Ranch
Red Rock, Texas
S omebody was going to die!
Rosita Perez knew this as she threw off her sheets and cotton quilt and sprang out of bed.
The room felt as icy as a meat locker. Even so, her long black hair with its distinctive white streak above her forehead was soaking wet, as was her pillow. Hot flashes, her gringo doctor would say.
Smart gringo doctors thought they knew everything.
Rosita shuddered.
Somebody was going to die. Somebody close at hand.
She was descended from a long line of curanderos. Since birth shed been cursed, or blessed, with the sight. Like her ancestors, whod been natural healers, she saw things. She felt things that other people didnt feel.
Life wasnt lived on a single plane. Nor was the world and its machinations entirely logical, much as her good-hearted bosses, Ryan and Lily Fortune, might like to think. Shed learned to keep her visions to herself because most people, including her beloved husband, Ruben, didnt believe her.
Shed had a strange nightmare that was both a riddle and a warning. In her dream a red moon had broken out of fierce, black whirling clouds and had hovered directly over the Double Crown Ranch. When shed run outside and looked up, the red ball hadnt been the moon but a gigantic human skull floating above Lily and Ryan Fortunes ranch house. Rosita had awakened screaming to the skull, No! Go away!
Feeling too afraid to risk sleep again, she pulled on her robe and tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the dark hall, taking care not to wake Ruben. Just when she thought shed made it, she crashed into her enormous bookcase in the hallway that was crammed with books and jars of herbs. Two books tumbled to the floor with loud thumps.
She prayed silently when she heard Rubens snoring stop in midbreath. She barely breathed until he flopped his heavy, barrellike body onto his other side and resumed his snoring. Her house was too small, and all the rooms were cluttered, even the hall.
The bed groaned. Only when Ruben continued his roaring for a full minute did she tiptoe toward the front windows of her living room.
The ominous red glow that lit the window shades made her shake even more. Sensing evil, she felt her throat tighten every time she thought about going out on her front porch.
Which was ridiculous. Shed faced cougars and bobcats and convicts on the loose while living alone on ranches. Besides, Ruben was right down the hall.
Despite her misgivings, or maybe because of them, she opened the front door and forced herself to pad bravely out onto the porch of her small house.
The dense night smelled sweetly of juniper and buzzed with the music of millions of cicadas.
Summer smells. Summer sounds. Why did they make her tremble tonight?
Help!
She jumped. The plaintive cry had come from nowhere and yet from everywhere. She whirled wildly, sensing a deadly presence. She sucked in a breath and stared at the dark fringe of trees that circled her home like prison walls.
Who are you? she whispered.
A bloodred moon the exact shade of the skull in her nightmare hung over the ranch. Circling it was a bright scarlet ring. She stared at the moon, expecting it to turn into a skull.
She kept watching the moon until it vanished behind a black cloud. She wasnt feeling any easier when a bunch of coyotes began to hoot. Then she heard a mans eerie laughter from beyond the fringe of juniper long after the coyotes stopped.
Whos out there? she cried.
The cicadas halted their serenade. A thousand eyes seemed to stare at her from the silent wall of dark trees.
Stark fear drained the blood from her face. She felt like a target.
With a muted cry, she raced back inside her living room with its dozens of velvet floral paintings and cozy, overstuffed furniture.
Slamming her door, she flipped on all her lights. Then she stared unseeingly at the sofa piled high with her recent purchases from a flea marketmirrored sunglasses, towel sets, childrens clothes and toys, all in need of sorting. Breathing heavily, she triple-bolted the door and sagged against it.
Maybe the moon hadnt been a human skull floating above the house, but one thing was for sureshed never seen anything like that bloodred moon circled with a ring of fire before. Never in all her sixty-six years.
And that cry for help. And the laughterthat terrible, inhuman laughter coming from the trees
Someone was out there. Someone with murder in his heart.
Rosita could trace her blood to prehistoric civilizations in Mexico. She knew in her bones that this moon was a sign.
The Fortunes were in troubleagain.
Shed worked for them for a long time. Too long, Ruben said. He wanted her to retire so she could focus on him. Well move away, not too far, but well have a place of our own.
Ruben had always wanted his own land, but she loved Ryan Fortune and his precious wife, Lily, as if they were members of her own family. She couldnt leave them. Not now! Not when she knew they needed her more than ever. In the morning she would try to warn them as she cooked them eggs and bacon and tamales and frijoles. They teased her because she cooked frijoles with every meal.
They would probably laugh at her for warning them, too. Ryan and Lily had loved each other since they were kids, but theyd had to wait a lifetime to realize their love. They wanted to be happy, and she wanted that for them, too. Why, then, did her heart feel heavy with the thought that they were doomed? Oh, dear. Maybe when the sun was high in the sky tomorrow she would be able to laugh at her fears and believe all would be well.
She made a fist. I have to tell them anyway! First thing, when I go to the ranch house!
When she finally stopped shaking, it was a long time before she felt safe enough to switch off a few of the lights. Even then she was still too nervous to go back to bed or to sort through her flea market purchases, so she curled up in her favorite armchair and clutched the arm-rests as if her life depended on it.
The night seemed endless. If only she could wake Ruben and tell him about the skull and the laughter.
But he would only think her stupid. He would tell her it was nothing and order her to bed. Because he was a man, he thought he knew everything.
Ya verás. Youll see, viejo. Youll see when somebody dies, she whispered, hugging herself as the shadowy forms of the tall furniture in her living room shaped themselves into snakes and cougars and alligators.
Somebody was going to die!
Soon.
As soon as they reached the Double Crown Ranch, everything would be under control again, and he could focus on his plan to get even with Ryan Fortune.
The man who was driving fought to stay calm. He was as unnerved by his passenger as he was by the automatic with the silencer hed concealed under his own floor mat, which felt like a lump under his left heel.
He disliked guns, but he liked order. He had to have everything in its exact place. His slacks were all hung together in his closet; his shoes were in shoe racks. The gun was a tool to help restore order. That was all. That was why hed had plastic surgery, why hed come to Texas.
Neither moon nor stars lit the wild, desolate ranch land that was owned by the man he was determined to destroy. Except for the twin cones of light arcing every time he struck a pothole or an overlarge rock and except for the interior lights of the big car, the passenger and driver were lost in a strange, pink-tinted, black void that seemed as deep and dark and endless as outer space.
What the hell are you doing down here in Texas? his passenger whispered in a low, raw tone from his side of the car.
The driver was tempted to brag about his clever plan. Instead he bit his lips as he whipped down the gravel county road at an even faster speed, sending rocks flying into the dark encroaching walls of cedar and oak. One of his large, perfectly manicured, suntanned hands gripped the steering wheel; the other held a silver flask half filled with vodka. Both fists were white knuckled and shaking.
You shouldnt have run out in the middle of those psychological tests, the passenger said in that cool, kindly voice that sent chills through him.
The hell I need more psychological testing!
What do you know about it? the driver muttered, his body rigid. Im fine. Im just fine.
Then whyd you come here? Whyd you change your face? If I didnt know you, I wouldnt have recognized you. There was anguish and what sounded like genuine concern in his passengers voice.
Not being recognizable was the point, of course. Like I told you, I was in an accident.
Why are you stalking these people?
The driver forced himself to take a calming breath before he replied. You think youre so smart! You always act so nice! What do you know about anything? About me?
I have to try to help youfor your own good.
The drivers mouth went dry. He could taste his fear.
Yes. His unwanted visitor could ruin everythingif he didnt tidy things up fast.
When they rumbled over a cattle guard, every bump seemed to trigger an electric current that snapped up and down the drivers legs and spine. Thoroughly shaken, he could barely control the big car as it raced almost blindly down the narrow road through buttery-thick pockets of Hill Country ground fog before it burst out of the murk into the warm, black night again.
Slow down, his passenger ordered. Are you crazy? You could hit a deer or wrap us around a tree.
The driver lifted his flask and sipped the burning liquor as his silent brain screamed shrilly. Who do you think you aregiving me orders? You? You! Ever since we were kids? And calling me crazy?
Sure, he replied easily as his toe tapped a little harder on the accelerator. Ill slow down. Sure I will. Hey, relax. Were nearly there.
You dont want me here, do you? came that kindly, superior, all-knowing voice. I could tell. Your eyes were colder than chips of black marble when you opened your door tonight. But I didnt come to scare you or hurt you.