âSergeant Cole McKinney, Texas Ranger.â
Joey licked her lips in stunned silence.
This hot-as-all-get-out bad boy was Cole McKinney? The boy whoâd been shunned by the McKinney family?
And he was a law enforcement agent?
âI see the wheels turning in your head, Joey Hendricks.â His husky voice skated over her raw nerve endings. âAnd yeah, Iâm the sum of all those rotten things you were thinking. And a few more you donât even know about.â
What did he know about the investigation? Something the Rangers hadnât revealed to the press?
Her hand trembled.
Was he here to arrest one or both of her parents?
To Mallory Kane and Delores Fossen
for birthing this fabulous storyline and letting me be a part of it. Hereâs to more Rangers stories in the futureâ¦
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author Rita Herron wrote her first book when she was twelve, but didnât think real people grew up to be writers. Now she writes so she doesnât have to get a real job. A former kindergarten teacher and workshop leader, she traded storytelling for kids for romance, and writes romantic comedies and romantic suspense. She lives in Georgia with her own romance hero and three kids. She loves to hear from readers, so please write to her at PO Box 921225, Norcross, GA 30092-1225, USA, or visit her website at www.ritaherron.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Joey Hendricks â Guilt-ridden over her brotherâs disappearance/death, she will do anything to find out the truth about who kidnapped him â even if it means sending her own parents to jail.
Sergeant Cole McKinney â The bastard son of Jim McKinney has always dreamed of confronting the man who sired him, and his half-brothers. But helping exonerate his father is not in his plansâ¦
Lieutenant Zane McKinney and Sergeant Sloan McKinney â Coleâs half-brothers have different theories about their fatherâs guilt.
Jim McKinney â This Texas Rangerâs career and life was ruined when he was accused of murdering Lou Anne Wallace.
Leland Hendricks â Joeyâs father would do anything for money. But would he try to kill his wife and threaten his daughter?
Donna Hendricks â Donna blamed Leland for their toddler sonâs disappearance. Does she know more than sheâs telling?
Justin Hendricks â He was only two when he was kidnapped. Is he alive or dead?
Lou Anne Wallace Hendricks â She married Leland for his money, but couldnât give up her lovers. The police are still looking for her killerâ¦
Rosa Ramirez â The nanny adored both Joey and Justin. Would Rosa have committed murder to stop Lelandâs kidnapping plan?
Governor Clayton Grange â He sent Joey to Justice to handle the media. Why is he so interested in the murders?
Chapter One
Hell must have finally frozen over in Justice, Texas.
That was the only explanation for the phone call requesting his services from his half brothers, Lieutenant Zane McKinney and Sergeant Sloan McKinney, both Texas Rangers.
As was Cole, but they had never met or asked for his help on a case before.
Not himâthe bastard, bad-boy brother they all hated.
Cole traced a proud finger over the silver star heâd earned through his own blood, sweat and tears. He was a sergeant now himself. Heâd made the grade with no help. No financial support or fancy education. No loving, doting parents.
Not like Zane and Sloan.
A bitter laugh rumbled from deep within his gut as he threw his clothes into a duffel bag, stepped into the hot sunshine and climbed on his Harley. Dammit. Heâd been ordered to leave his current case behind, come straight out of the trenches where heâd been working a lead on a smuggling ring along the border, to assist in Justice.
Of course, his half brothers must be desperate to exonerate their father, to finally free him of the murder charges that had hung around his neck like an albatross the past sixteen years. A murder investigation that had been revived because Sarah Wallace, daughter of Lou Anne Wallace, the woman his father had slept with and had been accused of strangling with her own designer purse, had just been murdered in the same hotel room, in the same manner.
And most likely by the same person whoâd killed her mother.
Bitterness swelled inside Cole as choking as the insufferable summer heat. Did his brothers actually think he gave a damn about the outcome? That heâd come running to team up with them to save their father because he wanted to see Jim McKinneyâs good name restored?
Jim McKinneyâthe father whoâd abandoned him and his mother. The father whoâd never acknowledged his existence. The father who had been nothing more than a sperm donor on his behalf.
The man whoâd broken his motherâs heart.
Barb Tyler had never married after her short affair with Jim McKinney. Sheâd claimed Jim had ruined her for another man. And sheâd taken that love with her to her grave no more than a year after Jim McKinneyâs arrest. If Cole hadnât known better, heâd have thought sheâd died of grief for the manâs lost reputation herself.