Second Chance Colton
Scandal leads to death on the Colton ranch in the latest from USA TODAY bestselling author Marie Ferrarella.When murder strikes his family's ranch, Detective Ryan Colton follows the evidence…straight to his sister. Instinct tells him she's innocent. But once her DNA is found at the scene, Ryan goes head-to-head with the forensics expert he'd hoped to avoid. Susie Howard—the beautiful woman he once loved…and left.Seeing Ryan again has Susie doubting everything, especially her resolution to forget the sexy, rugged cowboy cop. If her intuition is wrong, then the real killer is still at large and has the Coltons in his sights. Teaming up with Ryan is the only way for him to save his family—and his second chance with her.
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âExpert storytelling moves the book along at a steady pace. A solidly crafted plot makes it quite entertaining.â
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âA joy to readâ
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âHeartwarming. Thatâs the way I have described every book by Marie Ferrarella that I have read.
In the Family Way engenders in me the same warm, fuzzy feeling that I have come to expect from her books.â âThe Romance Reader
âMs Ferrarella warms our hearts with her charming characters and delicious interplay.â
âRT Book Reviews on A Husband Waiting to Happen
âMs Ferrarella creates fiery, strong-willed characters, an intense conflict and an absorbing premise no reader could possibly resist.â
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Be sure to check out the next books in
The Coltons of Oklahoma series. The Coltons of Oklahoma: Family secrets always find a way to resurface â¦
MARIE FERRARELLA, a USA TODAY bestselling and RITA>® Award-winning author, has written two hundred and fifty books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, www.marieferrarella.com.
To Carly Silver
and Brave New Frontiers
Contents
There was a time when he loved coming up to this ranch. Loved riding through its fields, getting lost in its acreage.
Right now, that time seemed as if it were a million years ago. Back then heâd been a boy and this had been his ranch.
Well, his and his familyâs, Ryan Colton amended silently.
Back then, the only crimes, large or small, harmless or serious, had all been made-up, part of the make-believe games he, his brothers Jack, Eric and Brett, as well as his half brother, Daniel, and his baby sister, Greta, would play.
Playing had been serious business back then.
He wished for a moment that he could go back to that point in time. Back to when innocence had been a major player in all their lives.
But a lot of things had happened since then. Jack had gotten married, become a father and then gotten divorced before he finally got it right and found Tracy. Eric had left the ranch to become a trauma surgeon at Tulsa General Hospital, where he had met Kara, the love of his life. Daniel, along with his wife Megan, and Brett and his wife, Hannah, were still here on the ranch, along with Jack, but Daniel and Brett had ideas about managing the ranch that differed from the direction that Jack had initially wanted to take. All three were currently trying to iron things out rather than clashing over methods the way they had once done.
And Greta, well, Greta was Greta. Her gift for training horses took her away from the ranch a great deal more than it once had. These days found her in Oklahoma City more than here because of her engagement to Mark Stanton. But even when she was gone, her presence seemed to just ooze out of the very shadows, as if unconsciously reminding the others that she, too, was a Colton and every bit as much a part of this ranch as they were.
As for him, well, he had gone into the Marines in search of himself. He came back still looking, except now he did it as a homicide detective with the Tulsa police department.
And it was in that capacity, as a police detective rather than a Colton sibling, that he was here now, standing in one of the Lucky Câs smaller stables, staring at a broken windowpane with blood smeared on the jagged edges.
Whose blood was it and why had they broken in? Other than defacing some of the property, he saw no reason for this. Nothing seemed to have been taken.
But it was obvious that something sinister was going on here at the Lucky Câsomething that seemed to call the ranchâs very name into question.
This wasnât the first time heâd been called up to the ranch to investigate a sinister occurrence. In the past few months there had been a series of âmishaps,â for lack of a better word, Ryan thought darkly as he methodically examined the crime scene.
Thereâd been the fire thatâd started up for no apparent reasonâno faulty wiring, no carelessly discarded matches or cigarette buttsâand several wanton, senseless acts of vandalism. And there was that break-in that had occurred just the other day, also with no particular rhyme or reason to it.
And then there had been that initial break-in at the main house, shortly after Gretaâs engagement party, that had been the start of it all. Someone had broken in and stolen some thingsâand beaten his mother in the process. Beaten her senseless. Jack had been the one to find her that day. Ryan didnât want to think about what the possible consequences of that beating could have been if he hadnât.
As it was, Abra Colton had remained in the hospital for some time, in a coma and all but lost to all of them. Heâd thought his father would come completely apart during that time.
