24 Karat Ammunition

24 Karat Ammunition
Joanna Wayne

No Collingsworth would ever turn his back on a woman in danger.Langston Collingsworth was a man to be reckoned with, powerful and president of the family oil business. So when the Collingsworth empire was threatened…it was personal.A young girl needed Langston’s help. But her mother was none other than Trish Cantrell – Langston’s school sweetheart. Trish and her daughter were trapped in a blackmail plot and had been on the run since the day Trish gave birth to a Collingsworth heir.Now it’s up to Langston to protect her child – his child – and face down the trouble headed their way.

A solid-gold Texas homecoming studded with trouble.

Langston stared into Trish’s eyes, aware of the feel of his body pressing into hers, aware of his hands still wrapped around her waist, his fingers splayed against the bare flesh of her stomach beneath the loose T-shirt. Aware of her hair, in complete disarray with pine straw jutting from the dark curls.

She stood and brushed herself off. “What are you doing here, Langston?”

“Nice to see you again, too, Trish.”

“I’m not sure it’s safe for you to be here with me.”

Not that he was going anywhere. There was no way he could walk away from her as long as she needed him. But there wasn’t a chance he’d let her sneak back into his heart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joanna was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from LSU-Shreveport. She moved to New Orleans in 1984 and found the mix of cultures, music, history, food and sultry Southern classics, along with her love of reading, a natural impetus for beginning her writing career.

Now, dozens of published books later, Joanna has made a name for herself as being on the cutting edge of romantic suspense in both series and single-title novels. She has been on the bestsellers list for romance, and she’s won many industry awards. She is a popular speaker for various writing organisations and at local community functions and has taught creative writing at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College.

She currently resides in a small community forty miles north of Houston, Texas, with her husband. Though she still has many family and emotional ties to Louisiana, she loves living in the Lone Star State. You may write to Joanna at PO Box 265, Montgomery, Texas 77356, USA.

Dear Reader,

Having moved to the small town of Montgomery, Texas, two years ago, I have fallen in love with Texas and the cowboy lifestyle. When I decided to write a series set in my new home state, I wanted to capture the spirit of the ranching families with their strong ties to the land. I envisioned the Collingsworths as a family bound by the old traditions, men whose word can always be counted on. But the Collingsworths are also on the cutting edge and have made their mark not only in ranching but also in the oil business. They are a family to be reckoned with and the mysteries facing the heroes and heroines are right out of today’s headlines.

Be sure to watch for future stories from the FOUR BROTHERS OF COLTS RUN CROSS mini-series. You’re always welcome at Jack’s Bluff Ranch, where sexy and brave cowboys are the order of the day and where true heroines will settle for nothing less than true love.

Joanna Wayne

24 Karat Ammunition

JOANNA WAYNE

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

Prologue

Trish Cantrell rinsed her stemless wineglass and placed it on the top shelf of her dishwasher. She might as well call it a night. It was only ten, but she hadn’t slept well since she’d been abducted from a restaurant parking lot at gunpoint last week. Fortunately, her teenage daughter was away, volunteering in a summer camp program for disabled children.

The carjacking had left Trish so shaken she hadn’t been able to work for two days. The threatening phone call that followed demanding she return some mystery video had upset her just as much. But that had been a week ago and there had been no more contact. She had to move past this. Carjackings happened in the city. It was the new way of life in America.

She stretched and started back to the bedroom, then went back to double-check the deadbolt on the front door. She seldom went in or out that way, but checking locks had become a habit long before last week’s incident. She’d wait and set the alarm when she got back to the bedroom so that it would sound instantly if a window or door to the outside was opened or the motion detector was set off. Another habit that she’d had for years, though it was on her mind more now.

The floor creaked as she walked to her bedroom. She loved the house, which she’d bought almost on her first day in Dallas. It was almost seventy-five years old, but the previous owner had remodeled it without losing any of its original charm. The hardwood floors and the double fireplace that opened to the den and dining room were a couple of its most terrific features. And all of it cost less than the much smaller flat she and her daughter had in London.

Trish stopped to check the door that led from the laundry room to the garage. Locked, as always. She never forgot to stop and do that when she came in. In fact her briefcase, purse and keys were still sitting on top of the small household toolbox where she’d set them in order to turn the heavy double bolts.

A shuffling sound came from the hall, setting her hair on end. She shrugged. It was nothing but the old house settling. Despite the mental reassurance, a chill slithered along her nerve endings. She waited, and there it was again.

And then she saw him.

Adrenaline rushed her bloodstream as the man stepped closer.

“I told you to give up the video, but you just wouldn’t listen.”

Chapter One

Lenora Collingsworth smoothed her ash-blond locks and noticed the new smattering of gray. At fifty-six, a few gray hairs were to be expected, but that didn’t mean she had to like them. She liked the chaos that was contributing to their arrival even less.

She looked down and let her gaze linger on the picture of her late husband, marveling as always that she missed him after all these years. Things would be different if Randolph were still alive. He’d take the reins of control of his family company from his ailing father. The transition would be flawless and uncomplicated, with no one questioning his authority.

But Randolph wasn’t here, and Lenora was seriously concerned that all hell was about to break loose in the Collingsworth clan. Not that either of her daughters would want any part of running the empire. Her youngest daughter, Jaime, avoided responsibility at any cost, sure it would lead to her immediate demise as a free spirit. And her older daughter, Becky, was far too busy holding a grudge against her estranged husband and trying to raise her twin seven-year-old sons to concern herself with business affairs.

Lenora’s four sons were a different story. Langston, Matt, Bart and Zach each held their staunchly individual views of how Collingsworth Oil and the ranch itself should be run. Now, with their grandfather both mentally and physically incapacitated, she was afraid those differences would tear apart her close-knit family.

She turned at a rap on her bedroom door. “The old fart’s here,” Jaime announced, opening the door and stepping just near enough that Lenora could see that her skimpy blue shorts fit low on the hips, revealing lots of skin between them and the white blouse tied just below her breasts. “He said he’s ready to start the meeting when you are.”

“Thanks. Tell him I’ll be right down.” Nigel Slattery was not only the family attorney but an old and very dependable family friend.

“Don’t hurry. Becky went upstairs to change clothes and she’s not down yet.”

“Speaking of changing clothes, you could exchange those shorts for a skirt or a pair of jeans. This is a business meeting, Jaime.”

“It’s in our dining room. Besides, a bunch of us are going down to the lake when we finish up here. Don’t count on me for dinner. We’ll be back late.”

As usual. Late to bed and late to rise was Jaime’s preferred lifestyle. She had changed majors so often that it had taken her six years to get a four-year degree in sociology, and then she had spent a year traveling in Europe to find herself before she started on a career. She was twenty-five now and the only job she’d pursued with any enthusiasm or longevity was spending the remainder of the trust from her late great-grandfather that she’d received on her twenty-first birthday.

Lenora took a last sip from her glass of iced tea and straightened the front of her denim skirt and white blouse before walking into the hall. Loud voices and boisterous laughter rang in her ears as she descended the winding staircase to the first floor. Her four sons would already be sitting around the massive oak table that overlooked the giant oaks that Jeremiah had planted the year he’d built the house for his wife.

The table, like the house itself, had been built to withstand the hot south-Texas summers and the hurricanes that blew in from the Gulf of Mexico. But it was the winds of change that threatened now, and Lenora wasn’t sure even the Collingsworth blood that ran through all her children’s veins could withstand that.

Langston was the first to his feet when she stepped through the door, and she noted that her older son had already taken over his grandfather’s seat at the head of the table. She wondered what his brothers thought about that.

He kissed her on the cheek. “We thought for a minute you’d run out on the meeting.”

“Now why would I do that?”

Matt pulled out her usual chair at the other end of the table. “Maybe because you hate business discussions.”

“I like discussions. I don’t like arguments.”

“We never argue,” Bart teased. “We just have heated dialogue until these guys come around to seeing things my way.”

“Like that last brainstorm you had about inviting students from A&M out to run the spring roundup and branding,” Matt said.

“Was it my fault they sent us coeds who got sick every time the iron touched the thick hide of a cow?”