Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

they could have, but he no longer felt as if there was a hole in his heart where a father should have been. Everyone said Jim was a good man who’d had some bad luck in his life. Chase couldn’t hold that against him.

When his hospital room door opened, he heard the creak of the wheelchair and practically leaped off the bed in his excitement. He and Mary had been apart for far too long. He didn’t want to spend another minute away from her. What they had was too special to let it go. He would never take their love for each for granted again.

To his surprise, it wasn’t the nurse who brought in the wheelchair. “Mary?”

She looked different today. He was trying to put his finger on what it was when she grinned and shoved the wheelchair to one side as she approached.

Mary couldn’t explain the way she felt. But she was emboldened by everything that had happened. When Chase had first come back, she’d told herself that she couldn’t trust him after he’d left Montana. But in her heart, she’d known better. Still, she’d pushed him away, letting her pride keep her from the man she loved.

Instead, she’d trusted Lucy. The red flags had been there, but she’d ignored them because she’d wanted to like her. She’d missed her friends who had moved away. She’d been vulnerable, and she’d let a psychopath into her life.

But now she was tired of being a victim, of not going after what she wanted. What she wanted was Chase.

She stepped to him, grabbed the collar of his Western shirt and pulled him into a searing kiss. She heard his intake of breath. The kiss had taken him by surprise. But also his shoulder was still healing.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, drawing back, her face heating with embarrassment.

“I’m not,” he said as he pulled her to him with his good arm and kissed her. When she drew back he started to say something, but she hushed him with a finger across his lips. “I have to know, Chase Steele. Are you going to be mine or not?”

He let out a bark of a laugh. “I’ve always been yours, Mary Savage.”

She sighed and said, “Right answer.”

His grin went straight to her heart. He pulled her close again and this time his kiss was fireworks. She melted into his arms. “Welcome home, Chase.”

Stone Cold Texas Ranger

Nicole Helm

Nicole Helm grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.

Books by Nicole Helm

Harlequin Intrigue

A Badlands Cops Novel

South Dakota Showdown

Covert Complication

Backcountry Escape

Isolated Threat

Badlands Beware

Close Range Christmas

Carsons & Delaneys

Wyoming Cowboy Justice

Wyoming Cowboy Protection

Wyoming Christmas Ransom

Stone Cold Texas Ranger

Stone Cold Undercover Agent

Stone Cold Christmas Ranger

Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

To all the episodes of 20/20 and Dateline I

watched with my grandma. They might have

given me nightmares, but they also gave

me a ton of great book ideas.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 1

Vaughn Cooper was not an easy man to like. There was a time when he’d been quicker with a smile or a joke, but twelve years in law enforcement and three years in the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Unit of the Texas Rangers had worn off any charm he’d been born with.

He was not a man who believed in the necessity of small talk, politeness or pretending a situation was anything other than what it was.

He was most definitely not a man who believed in hypnotism, even if the woman currently putting their witness under acted both confident and capable.

He didn’t trust it, her or what she did, and he was more than marginally irritated that the witness seemed to immediately react. No more fidgeting, no more yelling that he didn’t know anything. After Natalie Torres’s ministrations, the man was still and pleasant.

Vaughn didn’t believe it for a second.

“I told you,” Bennet Stevens said, giving him a nudge. Bennet had been his partner for the past two years, and Vaughn liked him. Some days. This was not one of those days.

“It’s not real. He’s acting.” Vaughn made no effort to lower his voice. It was purposeful, and he watched carefully for any sign of reaction from the supposedly hypnotized witness.

He didn’t catch any, but he could all but feel Ms. Torres’s angry gaze on him. He didn’t care if she was angry. All he cared about was getting to the bottom of this case before another woman disappeared.

He wasn’t sure his weary conscience could take another thing piled on top of the overflowing heap.

“How are you today, Mr. Herman?” Ms. Torres asked in that light, airy voice she’d hypnotized the man with. Vaughn rolled his eyes. That anyone would fall for this was beyond him. They were police officers. They dealt in evidence and reality, not hypnotism.

“Been better,” the witness grumbled.

“I see,” she continued, that easy, calming tone to her voice never changing. “Can you tell us a little bit about your problems?”

“Nah.”

“You know, you’re safe here, Mr. Herman. You can speak freely. This is a safe place where you can unburden yourself.”

Vaughn tried to tamp down his edgy impatience. He couldn’t get over them wasting their time doing this, but it hadn’t been his call. This had come from above him, and he had no choice but to follow through.

“Yeah?”

The hypnotist inclined her head toward Vaughn and Bennet. It was the agreed upon sign that they would now take over the questioning.

“It’s not a bad gig,” Herman said,