Trigger pointed to a map. “That’s how it seems. She’s got a large piece of property. Mostly open land. She lives in the main house. She converted the barn into a kind of communal housing unit with four rooms, a large living space, and kitchen area. Right now, only one guy is living there. Ray McDaniel. Sixty-four. Lifetime criminal. Mostly drugs and minor assaults that amounted to nothing more than bar fights. One sexual assault charge, dismissed due to lack of evidence. He’ll be your roommate if she lets you stay.”
“She will.” To end Iceman’s rein in the Guzman cartel, he’d do anything to get Cara on his side.
“She doesn’t just let anyone stay there. The people who work for her have been with her for years.”
“Seems like there’s space for me at her place if only one guy is using those four rooms.”
Trigger opened another file. “Tandy is Cara’s best friend and works for her as a waitress. She stays in the apartment above the restaurant. Her rap sheet includes possession, pandering, and prostitution with one assault on a broke and doped-up john who couldn’t take no for an answer. She stabbed the guy and was kicking the shit out of him when the cops arrived. She was in and out of jail from sixteen until three years ago when she went to work for Cara.”
“What about the coffee house?”
“Crossroads Coffee.”
“So, not just where the place is located on the map, but a place for people who are at a crossroads in their life. Stay on the straight and narrow, or take another path.”
“I hadn’t really thought about it, but maybe that’s exactly why she named it that.” Tigger closed the file and stacked it with the others. “Everything we’ve gathered on her and Iceman and his crew over the last few months is in these files. Don’t get caught with them.”
King took the stack of papers.
Trigger pointed to the battered pickup parked behind the Camaro. “Ashley and I went to your place, cleaned out your fridge, and packed you a bag. The truck title says Chris Hickman, but trust me, it will be easier if you stick to everyone calling you Flash from now on. One person calls you Chris and you don’t answer, it could raise suspicions with Iceman. You don’t want him digging too deep into your cover.”
King took the advice. Trigger had spent far longer and deeper undercover than King ever wanted to go, but he wanted to see this case against Iceman through to the end.
“I left directions inside the truck cab for a motel on the outskirts of town. Get some sleep, your head together, and eat a decent meal.”
King needed it. He’d bulked up thanks to the hours working out in the prison yard with Scott, but the food sucked and he’d leaned down.
“Head over to the coffee place this afternoon when the morning crowd thins out. You shouldn’t have a problem getting the job. She’s down two employees.”
Suspicious. “Two? Why?”
“They eloped in Key West and decided not to come back.”
King tilted his head. “Did the DEA help out there?”
“No. Love and sex on the beach had everything to do with that. It worked in your favor.”
“A love story for the ages.” Ashley rolled her eyes and yawned.
“I can’t believe you guys drove all the way here to see me off. One of the guys from the local office could have left me the truck.”
“I wanted to see for myself that you’re holding up after being in there.” Trigger notched his chin toward the prison at King’s back. Exactly where he wanted to keep it from now on. “Ashley wanted to see you and check in with Scott. Plus, she refused to let me come alone, too afraid I’d fall asleep at the wheel.”
“Sweet.” King pretended to gag. “You guys make me sick with all your love and happiness. I just got out of jail and you flaunt your gorgeous fiancée and how concerned she is with you. You’re a jerk, you know that, Trigger.” For all his teasing, he kind of meant it, mostly because he didn’t have a woman welcoming him into her loving arms when he walked out of those gates. Trigger had been through hell this past year and ended up with an angel in his bed, his heart, and in his life, forever and ever, Amen! as the Randy Travis song goes.
“Sorry I’m going to miss the wedding.”
“Agent Bennett will be available while I’m on my honeymoon.”
“You guys have fun. I’ll just be here taking down the bad guys.”
Trigger deserved all the happiness in the world.
King just wanted a little piece of it before he went back undercover again for God knows how long. Judging by the fact that Trigger showed up here and sprung him in the middle of the night to give him all this information, he wasn’t going to get any downtime before he headed straight for Cara Potter. And Iceman. He had some payback to dole out to that guy.
But first he needed to get in with his daughter.
About the Author
JENNIFER RYAN is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Hunted, McBrides, and Montana Men series. She writes suspenseful contemporary romances with outrageous plot twists, deeply emotional love stories, high stakes, and higher drama. Her stories are filled with love, family, friendship, and the happily-ever-after we all hope to find. Jennifer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. When she finally leaves those fictional worlds, you’ll find her in the garden, playing in the dirt and daydreaming about people who live only in her head, until she puts them on paper.
www.avonromance.com
www.facebook.com/avonromance
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By Jennifer Ryan
Montana Heat Series
Montana Heat: Escape to You
Montana Heat: Protected by Love (novella)
Montana Men Series
His Cowboy Heart
Stone Cold Cowboy
Her Lucky Cowboy
When It’s Right
At Wolf Ranch
The McBrides Series
Dylan’s Redemption
Falling for Owen
The Return of Brody McBride
The Hunted Series
Everything She Wanted
Chasing Morgan
The Right Bride
Lucky Like Us
Saved by the Rancher
Short Stories
Close to Perfect
(appears in Snowbound at Christmas)
Can’t Wait
(appears in All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy)
Waiting For You
(appears in Confessions of a Secret Admirer)
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Montana Heat: True to You copyright © 2018 by Jennifer Ryan.
montana heat: escape to you. Copyright © 2017 by Jennifer Ryan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-264526-5
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-264525-8
Cover design and photo illustration by Nadine Badalaty.
Cover photographs: © fstop123 / Getty Images (fence and background); © vectorbomb / Getty Images (tattoo).
Avon, Avon & logo, and Avon Books & logo are registered trademarks of HarperColl
ins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Epilogue
An Excerpt from Montana Heat: True to You Prologue
Chapter One
About the Author
By Jennifer Ryan
Copyright
About the Publisher