Lone Rider Bodyguard. Harper Allen
“I think the devil looks just like you, Tye,” Susannah said unevenly. “That’s why he’s so dangerous.”
Just for a moment she would have sworn she saw something flash behind those eyes—something that could have been pain.
“What’s that expression about giving a dog a bad name?”
Without seeming to move at all, suddenly Tye had lessened the distance between them to no more than a few inches. Behind her, Susannah felt the hard edge of the counter pressing into her back.
“Give a dog a bad name and he’ll bite?” she ventured.
“That’s it.” He bent his head, obliterating the last of her precious buffer zone. “You can call me off anytime, Suze,” he said, his tone velvety. “But maybe you don’t want to. Maybe after a lifetime of putting the devil behind you, just this once you’d like to be tempted….”
Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,
We’ve got an intoxicating lineup crackling with passion and peril that’s guaranteed to lure you to Harlequin Intrigue this month!
Danger and desire abound in As Darkness Fell—the first of two installments in Joanna Wayne’s HIDDEN PASSIONS: Full Moon Madness companion series. In this stark, seductive tale, a rugged detective will go to extreme lengths to safeguard a feisty reporter who is the object of a killer’s obsession. Then temptation and terror go hand in hand in Lone Rider Bodyguard when Harper Allen launches her brand-new miniseries, MEN OF THE DOUBLE B RANCH.
Will revenge give way to sweet salvation in Undercover Avenger by Rita Herron? Find out in the ongoing NIGHTHAWK ISLAND series. If you’re searching high and low for a thrilling romantic suspense tale that will also satisfy your craving for adventure—you’ll be positively riveted by Bounty Hunter Ransom from Kara Lennox’s CODE OF THE COBRA.
Just when you thought it was safe to sleep with the lights off…Guardian of her Heart by Linda O. Johnston—the latest offering in our BACHELORS AT LARGE promotion—will send shivers down your spine. And don’t let down your guard quite yet. Lisa Childs caps off a month of spine-tingling suspense with a gripping thriller about a madman bent on revenge in Bridal Reconnaissance. You won’t want to miss this unforgettable debut of our new DEAD BOLT promotion.
Here’s hoping these smoldering Harlequin Intrigue novels will inspire some romantic dreams of your own this Valentine’s Day!
Enjoy,
Denise O’Sullivan
Senior Editor Harlequin Intrigue
Lone Rider Bodyguard
Harper Allen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Harper Allen lives in the country in the middle of a hundred acres of maple trees with her husband, Wayne, six cats, four dogs—and a very nervous cockatiel at the bottom of the food chain. For excitement she and Wayne drive to the nearest village and buy jumbo bags of pet food. She believes in love at first sight because it happened to her.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Susannah Bird—On the run from her husband’s killers, can she trust the brooding stranger who helps deliver her son and find refuge at the Double B Ranch?
Tyler Adams—The bodyguard with a past will take on any risk to protect Susannah and her newborn son—but has he put his own heart in danger?
Del Hawkins—The Vietnam vet runs the Double B Ranch, a reform camp for teens in trouble—as Tye Adams had once been. But is the ranch still a refuge for those in danger…or a deadly trap?
Alice Tahe—The Navajo matriarch claims she sees an evil she calls Skinwalker threatening the Double B…and Susannah’s baby.
Vincent Rosario—The two-bit crook has a grudge against Del. He doesn’t care if he has to destroy a young mother and her child to carry out his plan.
Michael Saranno—The mobster may have had a reason for having Susannah’s ex-husband eliminated, but what about her and her child?
Paul Johnson and Kevin Bradley—Can Tye trust the Double B hired hands to keep danger away from Susannah?
Daniel Bird, John MacLeish, Zeke Harmond— Along with Del Hawkins, they were the members of the original Double B—Beta Beta Force, a covert ops organization in Vietnam that was disbanded in tragedy.
To Saint Martha and the menagerie
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 One
Whoever she was, she was in trouble.
A woman’s breathing, harsh and edged, sliced the sudden silence as Tyler Adams cut the engine of the big Harley and brought it to a halt ahead of the sedan by the side of the highway. He still couldn’t see her, but as he strode back to the car the pain-filled gasps came faster. Guilt flickered through him.
He almost hadn’t stopped. Hell, he’d kept going for another mile or so before his conscience had gotten the better of him and he’d turned back to investigate. It hadn’t been much—just a blinding sparkle coming from the far side of the sedan as he’d passed it—but the only reason he could think of for the sparkle he’d glimpsed was that the car’s back door had been open a little. Muttering under his breath, he’d turned the Harley around.
He’d been right, the back door was open. Protruding from it were two slim legs. Two bare feet dug into the hard-packed New Mexico dirt, their heels lifted and the tendons of their high arches standing out against the fine white road dust covering them. Swiftly he began to walk around the open door to get a look at the rest of her, and as he did the gasps turned into a grunt.
“Stay right there, mister.” The words sounded forced. “I—I’ve got a gun.”
Dammit, she’s been attacked. Even as he froze, the sickened thought tore through his mind. She’d been assaulted and she thought he was the bastard who’d done this to her, come back for a second sadistic round.
Tye suddenly wished he was a couple of inches shorter than six feet, instead of a few over, and a little less bulky, less broad-shouldered. Intimidating worked in his job—he’d built up the bodyguard and protection firm he headed into the agency of choice for nervous celebrities, partially on the strength of the don’t-screw-with-me impression he apparently projected—but she didn’t need big and intimidating right now.
“I’m not here to hurt you, lady.” The ground between her raised heels was darkly wet. Blood, he thought with icy anger. “Let me help you back onto the seat so I can drive you to a hospital.”
The gun thing had probably been a bluff. He stepped past the open