Lone Rider

When danger claims her, rescue comes from the one man she least expects

A cowgirl at heart, Bo Hamilton does her best thinking in wide-open spaces. So when money goes missing from the family foundation she runs—meaning one of her trusted ragtag employees is a thief—Bo rides into the Crazy Mountains to figure things out. But a killer hiding among the sawtooth ridges takes her captive…and isn’t planning on ever letting her go.

Bo’s disappearance gets folks thinking she’s the guilty one who’s run off with the money, but Jace Calder would bet his ranch that she’s innocent. Not that he has any reason to trust the beautiful, spoiled senator’s daughter. But she also gave his troubled sister a job when no one else would. For his sibling’s sake, Jace is going after Bo and bringing her home to face the truth. But up in the mountains, he finds Bo at the mercy of a suspected murderer. As her only hope, Jace is about to find out what they’re both made of.

Praise for New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels

“Wild Horses is filled with action, intrigue, mystery and romance, in other words a classic B.J. Daniels book.”

—Fresh Fiction on Wild Horses

“Truly amazing crime story for every amateur sleuth.”

—Fresh Fiction on Mercy

“Daniels is truly an expert at Western romantic suspense.”

—RT Book Reviews on Atonement

“Romantic suspense that will keep readers guessing. If you like Longmire, this is the book for you.”

—RT Book Reviews on Forsaken

“Will keep readers on the edge of their chairs from beginning to end.”

—Booklist on Forsaken

“Action-packed and chock-full of suspense.”

—Under the Covers on Redemption

“Fans of Western romantic suspense will relish Daniels’ tale of clandestine love played out in a small town on the Great Plains.”

—Booklist on Unforgiven

Lone Rider

B.J. Daniels

This book is dedicated to my cousins, Sandy Olinger and Jackie Bowers. Thanks so much for being my first audience. When we were kids, they would sit quietly in the tent at the lake and listen to my stories. Thanks for believing in me.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Title Page

Dedication

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

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE MOMENT JACE CALDER saw his sister’s face, he feared the worst. His heart sank. Emily, his troubled little sister, had been doing so well since she’d gotten the job at the Sarah Hamilton Foundation in Big Timber, Montana.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he removed his Stetson, pulled up a chair at the Big Timber Java coffee shop and sat down across from her. Tossing his hat on the seat of an adjacent chair, he braced himself for bad news.

Emily blinked her big blue eyes. Even though she was closing in on twenty-five, he often caught glimpses of the girl she’d been. Her pixie cut, once a dark brown like his own hair, was dyed black. From thirteen on, she’d been piercing anything she could. At sixteen she’d begun getting tattoos and drinking. It wasn’t until she’d turned seventeen that she’d run away, taken up with a thirty-year-old biker drug-dealer thief and ended up in jail for the first time.

But while Emily still had the tattoos and the piercings, she’d changed after the birth of her daughter, and after snagging this job with Bo Hamilton.

“What’s wrong is Bo,” his sister said. Bo had insisted her employees at the foundation call her by her first name. “Pretty cool for a boss, huh?” his sister had said at the time. He’d been surprised. That didn’t sound like the woman he knew.

But who knew what was in Bo’s head lately. Four months ago her mother, Sarah, who everyone believed dead the past twenty-two years, had suddenly shown up out of nowhere. According to what he’d read in the papers, Sarah had no memory of the past twenty-two years.

He’d been worried it would hurt the foundation named for her. Not to mention what a shock it must have been for Bo.

Emily leaned toward him and whispered, “Bo’s... She’s gone.”

“Gone?”

“Before she left Friday, she told me that she would be back by ten this morning. She hasn’t shown up, and no one knows where she is.”

That did sound like the Bo Hamilton he knew. The thought of her kicked up that old ache inside him. He’d been glad when Emily had found a job in town and moved back to town with her baby girl. But he’d often wished her employer had been anyone but Bo Hamilton—the woman he’d once asked to marry him.

He’d spent the past five years avoiding Bo, which wasn’t easy in a county as small as Sweet Grass. Crossing paths with her, even after five years, still hurt. It riled him in a way that only made him mad at himself for letting her get to him after all this time.