Carla Cassidy – Cowboy Defender (страница 1)
A rancher races against the clock to save the woman he loves
Carla Cassidy’s new Cowboys of Holiday Ranch romance
Clay “Romeo” Madison yearns to find his Juliet. So when Miranda Silver’s life is threatened, the handsome cowboy risks everything to protect the pretty single mom. After all, she might be The One. All he’s got to do is live down his scandalous reputation, persuade Miranda he’s serious...and rescue her from a kidnapper before it’s too late!
CARLA CASSIDY is an award-winning,
A Real Cowboy
Cowboy of Interest
Cowboy Under Fire
Cowboy at Arms
Operation Cowboy Daddy
Killer Cowboy
Sheltered by the Cowboy
Guardian Cowboy
The Colton Cowboy
Colton’s Secret Son
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
Cowboy Defender
Carla Cassidy
ISBN: 978-1-474-09374-3
COWBOY DEFENDER
© 2019 Carla Bracale
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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To the members of Mid-America Romance Authors—
you all make me laugh and make me think. You are my
extended family and I hope to spend many more years
laughing and writing with you all!
Contents
Miranda Silver was in a foul mood and desperately trying to hide it from her two children, who were running ahead of her on the sidewalk. Actually, she was exhausted and that always made her cranky.
Part of her exhaustion came from the fact that the high school students she taught English to had been particularly difficult and rowdy all day, as if in anticipation of the end of the school year that would occur in less than two weeks.
However, the real culprit behind her being beyond tired was her ex-husband, Hank. He had shown up at the house at one-thirty in the morning, drunk as a skunk and thinking that was the perfect time to fix the rickety front porch stairs of the house where he had once lived.
It was only when she had threatened to call Dillon Bowie, the Chief of Police of Bitterroot, Oklahoma, that Hank was finally convinced to go home. Thank goodness he hadn’t awakened the children, otherwise Miranda would have really been angry.
“Slow down,” she called to seven-year-old Jenny and eight-year-old Henry. Right now she wished she had half of their energy. She shifted her shopping bags from one hand to the other and tried not to worry about all the money she had just spent.
Last night she and the kids had gotten out all of their summer clothes and she’d been dismayed to discover nothing from the year before fit her kids now. So a shopping trip had been necessary and she’d spent way more than she intended. The price of new sneakers alone had nearly taken her breath away.
Of course, it would help if Hank would occasionally pay some child support, but at the moment he wasn’t working and she couldn’t depend on or expect any financial help from him. In truth, she’d never been able to depend on him for much of anything. He’d rarely kept a job during the last couple of years of their marriage and nothing had changed since their divorce a little over a year ago.