she knew it had to be another attempt to scare them away.
She also knew, no matter how vehemently they denied any wrongdoing, the Devlins were responsible for this. And this time they’d gone too far. Her daddy could have been killed.
A fresh round of tears burned their way up into her throat and she swallowed them back. She’d lost her mother to cancer when she was little, and later lost her older sister Rose to the lure of the big city. Nita didn’t know what she would do if she lost her daddy, too. She would kill any man who tried to hurt him. But this situation was growing too big, too out of hand for even her to deal with.
She’d heard the Texas Cattleman’s Club was a cover for some sort of mercenary group that traveled the globe dispensing justice and fighting for the greater good. She’d asked them for help a couple times already. They’d even sent a man over to look around, her best friend Alison’s new husband Mark. He hadn’t found anything that made him believe the Devlins were responsible, but Nita trusted that family about as far as she could spit. For more than one hundred years they had been trying to get their hands on the Windcroft land—the land they hadn’t already stolen that is.
But like everyone else, including the police, the Cattleman’s Club didn’t want to get involved in the Windcroft-Devlin feud.
Maybe now they would, since people were getting hurt.
“You should be at the hospital,” Doc said.
“Before he went into surgery, Daddy made me promise to come home and see to the horse. You know how he is, the farm always comes first.” It was a quality he’d drilled into Nita from the day she was old enough to walk. She couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t worked the horse farm at his side. And now that he was incapacitated, it was up to her to see that things ran smoothly.
Outside the stable she heard hoofbeats. “Do what you have to do with Ulysses, Doc,” she said on her way out the main door. Outside, Jimmy Bradley, the stable manager, was dismounting his horse. The setting sun cast long, ghostly shadows, and the cool, dry air had her shivering under her heavy flannel shirt.
“Well,” Nita asked. “What did you find?”
Jimmy took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow. “More holes, all through the north and south corral. We’ll check the east and west corrals and the stallion pens tomorrow when we have more light. The boys will work through the night filling what holes we’ve found so far. Until it’s safe we should keep the horses in the stables.”
“You’re sure it wasn’t an animal?”
“No, ma’am, unless this particular animal digs with a shovel and leaves boot prints in the dirt. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say it’s them damned Devlins.”
Having been with the farm since before Nita was born, Jimmy was no stranger to the Windcroft-Devlin feud. “I can’t disagree with you.”
“Something needs to be done, ma’am.”
Frustration tied her insides in knots. She’d never felt so useless. “I know that Jimmy, but without proof the police won’t get involved. When I called them this afternoon, they said it was probably just some kids pulling a prank.”
“This was no prank.”
With the police unwilling to help, she knew she had only one choice left. Even if that meant swallowing her pride, dropping to her knees and begging. The safety of her family and her animals was worth the sacrifice.
She pulled her keys from her pocket and headed for her truck. “I think it’s time I paid another visit to the Cattleman’s Club.”
Jimmy scoffed. “They wouldn’t believe you before. What makes you think they’ll listen now?”
She climbed into the truck and gunned the engine. “This time, I’ll make them listen.”
Connor Thorne stepped from the cool Texas night into the Cattleman’s Club lobby, the scent of leather and cigars washing him over him and settling his soul. The club’s paneled walls displayed oil paintings of members past and present, of whose ranks Connor had only recently joined. So recently, in fact, that he still felt a bit awkward breezing into the building unannounced.
But not for long. He was about to receive his first official assignment.
Considering the late hour the lobby was deserted. He’d come straight from the airport when he got the message from his brother saying an emergency meeting had been called. Connor had been in Virginia tying up loose ends after a very abrupt leave from the army. Of course the men from his platoon had insisted on throwing him an official going-away party. One that had lasted pretty much up until he boarded a plane that afternoon. He was functioning on about two hours of sleep and the remnants of a hangover.
Despite that, when he opened the door to the meeting room, he was filled with an uncharacteristic excitement, a sense of worth he’d not experienced since leaving the Rangers.
His identical twin, Jake, lounged in one of the maroon leather armchairs. Two of the other club members, Logan Voss, a successful cattle rancher, and Gavin O’Neal, the new town sheriff, stood around a table studying a copy of the map recently stolen from the Royal Museum.
“Connor, you made it.” His brother rose from his seat and grasped his hand. “Thanks for coming in so late. We have a bit of an emergency on our hands.”
“Not a problem,” Connor said.
The other men turned to greet him, each shaking his hand, then they all took seats.
“I know you just got off a plane,” Jake said. “You want a drink, something to eat?”
Connor knew his brother was only trying to make him feel welcome, but the gesture made him feel even more the outsider. “Let’s get down to business.”
“That’s my brother,” Jake told the other men with a good-natured laugh. “All work and no play.”
Though Jake’s words annoyed Connor, he couldn’t deny the accusation. He always had been the responsible, serious twin. The worker. Jake had been the outgoing, charming one. The one to have all the fun and to get all the pretty girls.
Although, as a recently—and very happily—married man, Jake’s-girl chasing days were definitely over.
“We got another visit from Nita Windcroft tonight,” Gavin told him. “Looks like the Windcroft-Devlin feud is heating up. Or someone wants it to look that way.”
“She barged right into the club again, demanding to be heard,” Jake said, looking more amused than annoyed. “You’ve gotta admire her determination.”
“I thought we weren’t going to get involved in that,” Connor said.
Jake filled him in on Nita’s visit and the recent disturbances at the farm. “We might have believed she was trying to frame the Devlins but according to Alison, Mark’s wife, Nita would never do anything to hurt her family. We think someone really is trying to scare them off the land, and we’re not sure how far they’ll go. We feel it would be wise to send a man out to the farm to keep an eye on things until we find out who’s behind this. Considering your experience with the Rangers, we think you’re the man for job.”
Connor dashed a kernel of disappointment. It wasn’t the international intrigue he’d been hoping for, the kind he’d grown accustomed to serving in the Special Forces. But no matter what the job, he would give it one hundred percent.
When given an order, he followed it to the letter.
“And Jonathan’s murder?” he asked. “Are we still looking at Nita for that?”
“Alison swears she isn’t capable,” Logan told him. “We want to know what you think. Nita has agreed to let us move a man into the house. While you’re there you can do some snooping around, see if there’s any evidence we’re over looking.”
“Can you get away