The MacKades Collection: The Return of Rafe MacKade / The Pride of Jared MacKade / The Heart of Devin MacKade / The Fall of Shane MacKade

The MacKades Collection: The Return of Rafe MacKade / The Pride of Jared MacKade / The Heart of Devin MacKade / The Fall of Shane MacKade
Nora Roberts

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR‘The most successful novelist on Planet Earth’ – Washington PostTHE RETURN OF RAFE MACKADEThe Mackade Brothers - The Embodiment of Tall, Dark, And DangerousThe irresistible brothers are once again stirring the hearts of every female that crosses their path. The bad boy of the bunch has returned home after ten years, appealing as ever. Not even lovely Regan Jones, the town's reserved antiques dealer, is immune to Rafe MacKade.THE PRIDE OF JARED MACKADEFor Jared, Would It Be Cold Pride—Or A Warm Bride?Jared MacKade was used to getting his way—especially when it came to women—but he was getting exactly nowhere with Savannah Morningstar.The lady was drop-dead gorgeous, and she had a drop-dead attitude that was wreaking havoc with his pride. And when a MacKade’s pride got stepped on, there was bound to be hell to pay…THE HEART OF DEVIN MACKADEHe Was The Only Mackade Who Moved SlowlySheriff Devin MacKade had always had his eye on Cassie Connor Dolin. Twelve years of trying to watch over her and her children. Twelve years of being the dependable friend, of seeing his beauty married to a beast. Twelve years of hell.Now that was going to change, though he knew he’d have to be careful, move slow. But if Cassie came any closer, he might just toss her over his shoulder and carry her off! And he wasn’t sure either of them was quite ready for that yet. But soon…THE FALL OF SHANE MACKADEShane MacKade Loved Women.But he hadn’t met one yet who had him whistling the wedding march. Until Dr. Rebecca Knight. Problem was, the pretty lady was too busy hunting legends on the MacKade land to succumb to the MacKade charm. Maybe it was time to pop the old question. ’Cause this was one woman Shane couldn’t live without.To Dr. Rebecca Knight, everything was explainable. Until she started having some very irrational thoughts about sexy Shane MacKade. She didn’t know much about men, but she knew one thing for sure: Loving Shane was dangerous—and Rebecca didn’t like to take chances…Nora Roberts is a publishing phenomenon; this New York Times bestselling author of over 200 novels has more than 450 million of her books in print worldwide.Praise for Nora Roberts'The most successful novelist on Planet Earth' - Washington Post‘A storyteller of immeasurable diversity and talent’ - Publisher’s Weekly

The MacKades Collection (Books 1-4)

The Return of Rafe MacKade

The Pride of Jared MacKade

The Heart of Devin MacKade

The Fall of Shane MacKade

Nora Roberts

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

The Return of Rafe MacKade

The MacKade Brothers Series

Book One

Nora Roberts

Ten years after disappearing from Antietam, Maryland, the bad boy has returned. Cleaned up and successful now—and still dangerously good-looking—Rafe MacKade sets the town on fire, and tongues wagging.

Lovely newcomer Regan Jones is intrigued—what kind of man could cause this sort of talk? She’s just about to find out….

To bad boys everywhere

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Prologue

The MacKade brothers were looking for trouble. They usually were. In the small town of Antietam, Maryland, it wasn’t always easy to find, but then, looking was half the fun.

When they piled into Jared’s secondhand Chevy, they’d squabbled over who would take the wheel. It was Jared’s car, and he was the eldest, but that didn’t carry much weight with his three brothers.

Rafe had wanted to drive. He’d had a need for speed, a thirst to zip along those dark, winding roads, with his foot hard on the gas and his foul and reckless mood chasing behind him. He thought perhaps he could out-distance it, or perhaps meet it head-on. If he met it, bloodied it, conquered it, he knew he would just keep driving until he was somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

They had buried their mother two weeks ago.

Perhaps because his dangerous mood showed so clearly in Rafe’s jade eyes and in the cold set of his mouth, he’d been outvoted. In the end, Devin had taken the wheel, with Jared riding shotgun. Rafe brooded in the back seat with his youngest brother, Shane, beside him.

They were a rough and dangerous group, the MacKade boys. All of them tall and rangy as wild stallions, with fists ready and often too eager to find a target. Their eyes, MacKade eyes, all varying shades of green, could carve a man into pieces at ten paces. When the dark mood was on them, a wise man stayed back eleven or more.

They settled on pool and beer, though Shane complained, as he was still shy of twenty-one and wouldn’t be served in Duff’s Tavern.

Still, the dim, smoke-choked bar suited them. The slam and crack of the balls had just enough of a violent edge, the gaze of the scrawny-shouldered Duff Dempsey was just uneasy enough. The wariness in the eyes of the other customers, gossiping over their beers, was just flattering enough.

Nobody doubted the MacKade boys were out for trouble. In the end, they found what they were looking for.

While a cigarette dangled from the corner of his mouth, Rafe squinted against the smoke and eyed his shot. He hadn’t bothered to shave in a couple of days, and the rough stubble mirrored his mood. With a solid smack, a follow-through smooth as silk, he banked the cue ball, kissed it off the seven and made his pocket.

“Good thing you’re lucky at something.” At the bar, Joe Dolin tipped back his beer. He was, as usual after sundown, mostly drunk, and mean with it. He’d once been the star of the high school football team, had competed with the MacKades for the favors of pretty young girls. Now, at barely twenty-one, his face had begun to bloat and his body to sag.

The black eye he’d given his young wife before leaving the house hadn’t really satisfied him.

Rafe chalked his cue and barely spared Joe a glance.

“Going to take more than hustling pool, MacKade, to keep that farm going, now that your mama’s gone.” Dangling his bottle from two fingers, Joe grinned. “Heard you’re going to have to start selling off for back taxes.”

“Heard wrong.” Coolly Rafe circled the table to calculate his next shot.

“Oh, I heard right. You MacKades’ve always been fools, and liars.”

Before Shane could leap forward, Rafe shot out his cue to block the way. “He’s talking to me,” he said quietly. He held his brother’s gaze another moment before he turned. “Isn’t that right, Joe? You’re talking to me?”

“I’m talking to any of you.” As he lifted his beer again, Joe’s gaze skimmed over the four of them. At twenty, Shane was tough from farm work, but still more boy than man. Then Devin, whose cool, thoughtful gaze revealed little. Over Jared, who was leaning negligently against the jukebox, waiting for the next move.