Kitabı oku: «Dangerously Irresistible»

Prologue

MADDIE GRIFFIN STOOD on her tiptoes to peek through the grimy window of the double-wide trailer. She saw green shag carpet on the living room floor, a centerfold hanging on the wall, and a shotgun propped in the corner—right next to the young man sprawled in a recliner with a can of beer in his hand.

He was tall and wiry, with fuzz on his chin that barely passed for a goatee. Not more than eighteen, he wore ragged denim cutoffs and a sweat-stained gray T-shirt with a gaping hole under one arm.

Maddie moved away from the window, her heart racing in her chest as she prepared to put her plan into action.

Retrieving a smoke bomb from her bag, she lit it, then rolled it underneath the souped-up green Chevy Nova sedan parked in the gravel driveway. Plumes of thick grayish-white smoke soon swirled up through the grill and around the front tires of the vehicle.

Crouching behind a dented aluminum trash can, Maddie pulled out her cell phone and dialed up the occupant of the trailer.

After three rings, a sluggish voice came over the line. “Yeah?”

“Hi, this is Tina, your next-door neighbor.” Maddie held her breath, hoping she sounded like the blond bombshell who lived in a nearby trailer. She’d never actually met the woman, though she had nosed through her mailbox to discover her name.

“Hey, Tina,” he said, sounding surprised. “What’s up?”

“Well, I just looked out my window…and I think your car is on fire.”

A moment later, Maddie saw a shadow at his trailer window, then heard a crude oath explode over the line. The telltale squeak of the trailer’s front door told her he’d taken the bait.

Obviously, he fit the young and stupid category, as did most of the bail jumpers who kept the Griffin Bail Enforcement Agency so busy.

She stood up and pulled a canister of pepper spray out of her pocket. Her prey raced down the concrete steps toward the car, completely unaware that his freedom was just about to come to an end.

Suddenly, someone tackled Maddie from behind, knocking her into the dirt. The pepper spray went flying as she gasped to regain her breath. She lay flat on her stomach, the crushing weight of the body still on top of her. Before she could scream, a beefy hand clamped over her mouth.

“Shut up or you’ll ruin everything, you nitwit!”

Tate. Her big brother had lousy timing. White-hot fury rolled through her as she lifted her head just far enough to see her other brother Ben apprehend the fugitive. Her fugitive. The takedown was quick and easy, just as she’d known it would be.

By the time the kid was in handcuffs, Tate had hauled her to her feet and was brushing leaves and grass out of her hair.

Ben strolled up to them, the fugitive in tow. “Damn it, Tate, why did you knock her down like that? You know Dad will chew both our butts if Maddie has even so much as a scratch on her.”

“She was holding pepper spray. If you think I’m taking a chance on her spraying me again, you’re nuts. Besides, you got the easy part. She bit me!” He held up his palm to show his brother the damage. Then he scowled at Maddie. “I thought you were against violence.”

“That’s what you get for sneaking up on me! Which, for your information, is the reason I accidentally sprayed you the last time.” She wrenched her arm out of her brother’s grasp, furious with them both for botching her takedown. Again. “When are you two going to quit following me around?”

“Hey, we’re just following Dad’s orders.” Ben shook his head. “And you’re in trouble this time, sis. Big trouble.”

An hour later, Maddie knew her brother hadn’t been exaggerating. She stood in her father’s office, her ears ringing from the decibel level of his voice. He’d been shouting at her for the past fifteen minutes. Surely he couldn’t hold out much longer.

“This is it!” Gus Griffin banged his fist on the desk. “This is the last straw. If I can’t trust you to stay in the office, then you’re fired. I’ll find another secretary.”

“Good,” she retorted, when he finally paused for breath. “I never wanted to be your secretary. I want to be a bounty hunter, just like you and Ben and Tate. I may not have your brawn, but I’ve got more than enough brains to do the job, plus a degree in criminal justice from Northwestern. I’m ready.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And I’m ready to lock you up until you come to your senses. A lady doesn’t belong in this business. And I’m not letting any daughter of mine out on the streets to confront dangerous felons.”

She leaned forward, planting both palms on his desk. “Then I’ll go work for someone else. Or start my own agency. I’m twenty-five years old, Dad. You can’t tell me what to do anymore.”

A muscle twitched in his grizzled jaw and Maddie knew that her father was still frustrated that he couldn’t control her. That was one of the reasons he’d sent her off to boarding school shortly after her mother’s death when she was twelve. He could handle the rough and tumble world of boys, but the thought of dealing with a little girl clearly hadn’t appealed to him. So he’d shut her out of the family.

Just like he was doing now.

“You’re not working for anyone else,” Gus said. “You’re going back to school and learn how to be a teacher, or even better, a nurse. Then maybe you’ll learn how dangerous it is to bite your brother.”

She refused to feel guilty since she hadn’t even broken the skin. “This is the third time Ben and Tate have interfered with one of my cases.”

His nostrils flared. “You don’t have cases! You’re a secretary. You’re supposed to be filing and making coffee, not shopping for a stun gun.”

A blush crept up her cheeks. “You know about that?”

“Yes.” He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a magazine, tossing it on top of the desk. “I also know about this.”

The flush deepened as she stared at the title. Texas Mail-Order Men. Her friend Shayna Walters had given her a subscription to the magazine as a joke after Maddie had complained that her brothers always scared away any potential suitors. She’d spent more than one lonely Saturday night leafing through the magazine and marking the pages with the best-looking men. She hadn’t intended to actually follow through and send for one—no matter how titillating the prospect of pairing up with a perfect stranger might be.

From the expression on her father’s face, she wisely kept that opinion to herself. Squaring her shoulders, she decided the best defense was a good offense. “Ben and Tate broke into my apartment again, didn’t they? That’s an invasion of privacy. They had no right….”

“They had every right,” Gus interjected, his thick, gray brows crashing together, “especially when I discovered that you were out pursuing another felon. They were looking for some clue to see where you’d gone—only they found this instead.”

Gus opened the magazine to the first dog-eared page and read the caption below the photograph of a half-naked bull rider. “Eight seconds is all you’ll need to know this cowboy is the stud for you.”

He turned to the next dog-eared page. A grinning, naked cowboy held a saddle on his lap, strategically concealing a certain portion of his anatomy. “Let this cowboy take you for the ride of your life.”

“I can explain,” she began, her cheeks hot.

He folded his arms across his burly chest. “I’m waiting.”

“I never had any intention of contacting those men.”

“So why did you mark the pages?”

She couldn’t believe they were sitting here discussing this stupid magazine instead of her career. “It’s not like I’d planned to track them down. Although I could,” she added, tipping up her chin, “if I wanted to. I’m a damn good tracker, Dad. If you’d just give me a chance….”

“Forget it. No daughter of mine is going to associate with the kind of lowlife riffraff who jump bail, especially when you refuse to even carry a gun.”

“I carry pepper spray in case I have any problems. And I’m willing to use a stun gun in an emergency.” She stood up. “Just because I don’t break down doors and wrestle felons to the ground doesn’t mean I can’t do the job.”

He shook his head. “Women don’t belong in this business. Look what happened to Lynette.”

She rolled her eyes. Lynette had once worked as a secretary at the Griffin Bail Enforcement Agency. She’d also broken Gus Griffin’s heart. “Your fiancée ran off with a con artist, Dad, she didn’t die in the line of duty.”

His gaze flicked to the bulletin board on the wall. Straight to the wanted poster of the man who, one year ago, had stolen the woman he’d loved. The only woman he’d ever considered marrying after her mother’s death. But Lynette had dumped him for a man ten years her junior. A man they now knew as the Kissing Bandit. Guilty of fraud and bigamy in three states, the Kissing Bandit had romanced Lynette out of every penny in her savings account, then left her high and dry. He’d been arrested soon after, then jumped bail and disappeared.

Gus Griffin had never forgiven Lynette for jilting him. He’d also vowed to bring the notorious Kissing Bandit to justice. But despite his diligence, the Bandit was still on the loose. And Maddie was still paying the price for Lynette’s weakness.

“Maddie, I’m sorry to say that this magazine is proof that you’re not ready to hire on as a bounty hunter. It shows poor judgment. You’re obviously more interested in romance than recovering fugitives.”

“That’s not fair! Ben and Tate spend every weekend with a different woman, and you never say a word.”

“That’s because Ben and Tate have already proven themselves in the field. They’re not going to let a pretty face distract them at a crucial moment.”

“So give me a chance to prove myself, too. That’s all I ask, Dad. One chance.”

He hesitated, and for one brief moment she let herself hope.

“Madeline…” he began.

She closed her eyes, knowing the answer even before he said it. Her father never used her full name unless he was about to deliver bad news. He’d called her Madeline when he’d told her about her mother’s death in a traffic accident all those years ago. And then again a few months later, when he’d announced that she’d be attending a boarding school in Boston, instead of staying with the family in Chicago.

Madeline had never boded well.

“It’s time to put this silly idea out of your head,” Gus said gruffly. “You’re not going to work for me as a bounty hunter, and you’re not going to work for the competition, either. Everybody in this city knows better than to cross Gus Griffin.”

“Then I’ll open my own business,” she said, mortified to feel her lower lip quiver.

“Nobody in their right mind would ever hire a woman to bring in a fugitive, especially a woman who refuses to carry a gun.” He stood up and awkwardly thrust a tissue in her direction. Gus Griffin could face an armed felon without blinking an eye, but a woman in tears terrified him.

She grabbed the tissue and wiped her nose, aware of the office door closing behind her. She was alone. Again. Despite the tightness in her throat, her eyes were dry and hot. He wouldn’t even give her chance. After all these years, he still wouldn’t let her be part of the family.

She’d grown up trying to knock down the emotional wall that kept her separated from her father and brothers. They loved her and tried to protect her, but they didn’t understand her. And they didn’t want to let her into their world.

She reached across the desk for another tissue, her elbow bumping the magazine onto the floor. With an irritated sigh, she picked it up and scowled at the sexy cowboy who grinned up at her.

“It’s all your fault,” she muttered, though she knew her father would have used any excuse to keep her safely behind a desk instead of out in the field.

She flipped through the magazine, half tempted to place an order just to irritate her father. She knew it was immature and irrational, but so far acting mature and rational hadn’t gotten her very far.

She dropped the magazine into her lap, the pages falling open to the special insert called Grooms-to-Go. She’d never looked at this section before, having no interest in a man desperate enough to advertise himself for marriage. Then she blinked at the picture in front of her. And for one brief, terrifying moment her heart fluttered in her chest.

She held her breath as she looked up at the wanted poster in the center of the bulletin board. The one that had been there for so many months. The one with the picture of the Kissing Bandit. Then she looked back at the magazine.

It was him.

Maddie gulped, trying to breathe normally again. She’d found him. The man her father and brothers had been fruitlessly searching for was right here in black and white. His hair was a little shorter, and dark instead of blond, and he’d shaved off his mustache. But he still had the same square jaw, the same sexy dimple in his chin. She quickly scanned the brief description. Height: Six feet two inches. Hair: Brown. Eyes: Blue. Name: Tanner Blackburn.

Maddie stood up, too excited to remain still. Tanner Blackburn was one of the aliases of the Kissing Bandit. His name and hair color might change, but his m.o. was always the same. He’d dupe lonely women into falling in love with him, then he’d bleed them dry.

Now the Kissing Bandit was here, right in front of her. Or rather, in Texas. And obviously up to his old tricks. If she could bring him in….

If? When she brought him in. Then she’d finally have everything she’d always wanted. The love and respect of her father. The approval of her brothers. The satisfaction of finally proving herself as a full-fledged member of the Griffin family.

She smiled at the photo of the handsome man in the magazine. He’d soon learn that a Griffin always gets her man.