Tall, Dark...And Framed?

This month, in

TALL, DARK…AND FRAMED?

by Cathleen Galitz…

Meet Sebastian Wescott—millionaire CEO of Wescott Oil…and a murderer? Susan Wysocki, his new attorney, was determined to prove that Seb was innocent, but the sexy lawyer just might find herself guilty—of losing her heart to her client!

SILHOUETTE DESIRE IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE

Five wealthy Texas bachelors—all members of the state’s most exclusive club—set out to uncover the traitor in their midst…and find true love.

And don’t miss

THE PLAYBOY MEETS HIS MATCH

by Sara Orwig,

The fourth installment of the Texas Cattleman’s Club: The Last Bachelor series.

Available next month in Silhouette Desire!

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where you can spice up your April with six passionate, powerful and provocative romances!

Beloved author Diana Palmer delivers a great read with A Man of Means, the latest in her LONG, TALL TEXANS miniseries, as a saucy cook tames a hot-tempered cowboy with her biscuits. Then, enjoy reading how one woman’s orderly life is turned upside down when she is wooed by Mr. Temptation, April’s MAN OF THE MONTH and the first title in Cait London’s hot new HEARTBREAKERS miniseries.

Reader favorite Maureen Child proves a naval hero is no match for a determined single mom in The SEAL’s Surrender, the latest DYNASTIES: THE CONNELLYS title. And a reluctant widow gets a second chance at love in Her Texan Tycoon by Jan Hudson.

The drama continues in the TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE LAST BACHELOR continuity series with Tall, Dark…and Framed? by Cathleen Galitz, when an attractive defense attorney falls head over heels for her client—a devastatingly handsome tycoon with a secret. And discover what a ranch foreman, a virgin and her protective brothers have in common in One Wedding Night… by Shirley Rogers.

Celebrate the season by pampering yourself with all six of these exciting new love stories.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

To Dixie, Peggy, Jackie and especially Sara, for taking me under her wing. It has been an honor working with such talented writers.

CATHLEEN GALITZ,

a Wyoming native, teaches English in grades 6-12 in a rural school that houses kindergartners and seniors in the same building. She feels blessed to have married a man who is both supportive and patient. When she’s not busy writing, teaching or chauffeuring her sons to and from various activities, she can most likely be found indulging in her favorite pastime—reading.

“What’s Happening in Royal?”

NEWS FLASH, April—One of Royal’s sexiest bachelors has been arrested…for murder! His friends at the Texas Cattleman’s Club and Wescott employees we interviewed all agree that while drop-dead gorgeous Sebastian Wescott might be guilty of breaking the hearts of eligible females everywhere, he couldn’t possibly be guilty of murder!

In fact, it looks like Sebastian may be breaking one more heart—rumor has it that Seb and his lady lawyer may be spending more time in the bedroom than the courtroom! Attorney Susan Wysocki has offered no comment to our reporters, other than her conviction that Sebastian is innocent. So what really happened that night? If Sebastian isn’t the murderer, why can’t he provide an alibi?

Folks in Royal are more than a little disappointed that this year’s social event of the season—the Texas Cattleman’s Club Ball—has been indefinitely postponed. Members of the club have decided to wait until after Sebastian’s trial before they consider rescheduling. Things at the club are looking a little grim these days…especially since the last bachelor standing may be behind bars!

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

Chapter Thirteen

Prologue

“Sebastian Wescott has been arrested.”

The news spread through the Texas Cattleman’s Club like a wildfire devouring prairie grasslands during a season of drought. Muted whispers set in motion beneath an array of mounted glassy-eyed animal heads grew in intensity until the gleaming Tiffany chandeliers overhead nearly shook from the force of its membership’s outrage. It didn’t take long for a select group to abandon games of poker and pool where enormous sums of money were at stake to make their way quietly into one of the tasteful private meeting rooms at the back of the club. Here behind closed doors where the lingering odor of expensive cigars was less noticeable, discussions of the most serious nature took place.

A silver samovar with piping hot coffee stood untouched beside a set of fine bone china embossed with the club’s distinctive crest. Nothing less than hard liquor was warranted as the rumors resonated from room to spacious room in the nearly one-hundred-year-old building. Members in this time-honored, elite institution were more than social acquaintances. Few would have guessed from its modest exterior that the club was actually a front for a prestigious social enclave working on covert missions. Placed in situations in which the members were often forced to rely on one another for their very lives, they considered themselves closer than actual blood brothers.

Word of Sebastian’s disgrace hit everybody hard.

His own half brother, Dorian, appeared inconsolable as he related to the group the events leading up to Seb’s arrest. It was no secret to anyone there that Dorian had been deeply worried about Sebastian for the past several weeks. His concern had been the topic of conversation on more than one occasion and had been so overdone that it had put some of the members off. The club was a place where they came to relax at the end of a stressful day, not to wallow in unsubstantiated gossip about one of their own.

Only now it appeared Dorian’s fears were not unfounded.

“If only there were some way of helping Sebastian without somehow jeopardizing the anonymity of the club,” lamented William Bradford. As Sebastian’s partner at Wescott Oil Enterprises, he was fiercely protective not just of the business they ran together but also of his old friend Jack Wescott’s son.

“Sebastian says he was out of town on business the night Eric Chambers was murdered, but I understand he refuses to provide his attorney with an alibi,” Dorian interjected, anxiety deeply etched on features that reminded everyone present of his half brother.

It was only at Sebastian’s insistence that the members of the club had unanimously inducted Dorian a short time ago. As a full-fledged member, he was privy to the workings of their brotherhood, but he hadn’t been there long enough to have knowledge of the details regarding the daring missions that sometimes called club members away for indeterminate lengths of time.

It was all Jason Windover, the retired CIA agent, could do to refrain from explaining to this ninny that Sebastian often used his business as a cover. He had been wary of Dorian from the start, and time, unfortunately, hadn’t improved his first impression of the man. In fact, Jason had only reluctantly agreed to participate in Dorian’s induction ceremony as a favor to Sebastian. Not wanting to endanger a friendship that spanned so many years, he had set aside his misgivings and gone along with his friend’s request without giving voice to his qualms.

Jason supposed his suspicions stemmed from his background as an agent. Looking at Dorian now, it was certainly hard to doubt the sincerity of his feelings.

“I say the least we can do is put up his bail,” William Bradford suggested, not bothering to clear up any misconceptions Dorian might have about his brother’s whereabouts on the night in question. “It’s best if no money from Wescott Oil Enterprises is involved, since those funds are under such intense scrutiny at the present.”

Dorian gasped as William’s intention dawned on him. “Are you suggesting that we somehow come up with half a million dollars in bail money between us?”

“Pocket change,” exclaimed Keith Owen. As the owner of a computer-software firm, he didn’t so much as blink at the amount mentioned. “Count me in.”

“Me, too,” Jason said. As rich as Midas, he would have given everything he owned to support his old friend.

When Dorian sputtered in disbelief at their overwhelming generosity, they assured him that no one was taking an actual risk with their money. No one among them believed Sebastian would forfeit bond by running out on them. For that matter, no one doubted his innocence.

Lamenting that he personally had little money to put up, Dorian told them all, “I wish there was more I could do. I wish I could have somehow convinced that hotheaded brother of mine not to try solving his problems all by himself. Well, you all know how he is—so worried about depending on others. He’d rather take matters into his own hands than accept help from calmer heads even when the situation demands it. Lately he’s been more short-tempered and violent than usual. I swear if I didn’t know better, I might be tempted to believe that—”

Dorian stopped in midsentence as if realizing that he may have said more than he intended. He had the grace to look ashamed.

“I apologize for rambling on like this,” he told the men assembled in the room. “It’s just that I’ve been so worried, I guess—”

Eager to put an end to the conversation, Jason interrupted and quickly changed the subject. “No apology necessary. Unfortunately there is one item of business that we can’t continue to ignore. Considering that the organizer of our annual Cattleman’s Club Charity Ball is under arrest, I think it best if we simply cancel this year’s bash altogether.”

No amount of alcohol could wash away the bad taste that announcement left in everyone’s mouth. Aside from the fact that some very worthy charity would be adversely affected by this vote, none of the men assembled wanted to tell their wives and sweethearts that they were responsible for canceling the event of the year. The number of places in Royal where designer evening gowns and diamonds were standard dress was limited, and the ladies were sure to be disappointed. It was a point not lost on William. As the first member out of the five friends who had made the bet to succumb to the allure of marriage, he didn’t fancy the idea of breaking the news to his lovely new wife. After enduring a period of restricted confinement to keep her safe, Diana had really been looking forward to this year’s ball. With so many club members attending, Will had figured the ball would be a safe enough event for Diana to attend.

“Heck of a way for Seb to avoid paying up on his bet,” Keith volunteered, hoping to lighten the mood.

Of all those present when Sebastian posed his now infamous bet about who would be the last bachelor standing at the ball in question, only three remained in the running.

“You would have lost, anyway,” Jason told him. Recognized as the club’s premier playboy, he had no plans of ever tying himself down.

The ensuing bantering lacked the usual lightheartedness. The thought of Sebastian behind bars put a definite damper on what had started out as a pleasant evening. Beyond posting bail as quickly as possible, there was little any of them could do to help their old friend besides pray.

Each did pray in his own private way, passing one by one beneath the iron-studded sign that hung over the entrance door. It proclaimed the club’s motto for all to see: Leadership, Justice and Peace. Men willing to risk their own lives to promote those ideals were at a loss as to how to help one of their own.

Perhaps, Jason mused, Faith would have to be added to that venerable old sign.

One

Sebastian Wescott looked around the drab law office and shook his head in dismay. Why his half brother would even consider such a second-rate firm was beyond him. He supposed it either had something to do with the petite pretty blonde sitting across the desk from him or Dorian’s grudging attitude toward money. Having grown up without it, Dorian was still uncomfortable with the thought of spending vast sums of money when one could get an item of comparable value at a blue-light special. As touching as Dorian’s gesture was in providing Susan Wysocki a modest retainer out of his own pocket, Sebastian wasn’t at all happy with shopping discount when it came to legal representation.

Especially when his own life and freedom were at stake.

Coming here at all had been against his better judgment. Dorian practically had to drag him here by force. Perched on the edge of the chair next to his own, his half brother looked like he was considering blocking the door to prevent Sebastian from leaving before hearing this lawyer out. If he had been more like his old man, Sebastian would simply have twisted a couple of arms and paid off the judge to prevent this case from ever going to trial. But ever since he was a boy, Sebastian had done everything in his power to ensure he was nothing like his ruthless father. Even after going into the family business and becoming outrageously successful in his own right, he could still feel the cold breath of his father’s ghost on the back of his neck.

His deep-seated need to separate himself from Jack Wescott was partially responsible for his membership in the Texas Cattleman’s Club. The state’s most exclusive fraternity boasted a men-only membership of the richest, most established echelon in the Lone Star State. Few people knew that behind the club’s elegant, polished facade was a secret organization so select, its members could work covertly to protect the lives of the innocent. When they weren’t involved in secret missions, the membership focused their collective energy on keeping their bustling West Texas hometown prosperous and civic-minded.

It wasn’t the sort of organization that Jack Wescott would ever have been invited to join. Jack’s idea of a secret mission was sneaking off to the Pussy Cat Club some fifty miles away. Indeed, Jack had been a man far more interested in pursuing his own twisted desires than in being a father to his children, both those sired within and outside the sacred bonds of marriage.

A fact not lost on poor Dorian, who showed up on Sebastian’s doorstep one fine day not so very long ago claiming they were blood kin. According to Dorian, his mother had given him up for adoption when Jack Wescott refused to acknowledge him as a son and declared that he wasn’t about to provide a single penny of child support. It wasn’t until Jack’s death that Dorian’s birth mother looked up her son and informed him that the wealthy industrialist who’d just died was actually his father.

Had Sebastian had more faith in his father and had Dorian not borne such a striking resemblance to himself, he might well have sent the stranger packing and washed his hands of the whole sordid matter. Instead, he again felt bound to atone for his father’s sins.

As it turned out, giving Dorian a job in computer services at Wescott Oil had been one good deed that had truly come full circle. If anyone had ever suggested to Sebastian that his long-lost brother would be the first to rush to his defense at the lowest point in Sebastian’s life, he would have called him crazy. Recalling the parable about the poor widow giving her last few coins to charity, he wished there was some way of refusing his brother’s gift without seeming ungrateful.

Without somehow offending him.

The circumstances surrounding the accusations leveled at Sebastian only added to his frustration and rage. Aside from a burning desire to clear his good name and secure his independence, he was determined to find out who had murdered his colleague, in the process framing Sebastian for the heinous deed. He vowed the killer would pay dearly for his treachery.

“This is utterly idiotic!” he shouted, landing a large fist upon the desk and causing the woman behind it to jump in alarm. “I don’t need a lawyer. I’m innocent!”

As a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Susan thought wryly.

“That is exactly the reason you need my services, Mr. Wescott,” she assured him with cool poise intended to mask her own misgivings.

The truth was, if the opportunity to represent the virile man sitting on the other side of her desk hadn’t been so crucial to her financial survival, Susan Wysocki would likely have handed back the substantial retainer Dorian Brady had given her and run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

For starters, Sebastian Wescott reminded her a little too much of her ex-husband. He was that sure of himself. Not that Joe had been anywhere near as physically imposing as this man. Truly Sebastian was nothing short of feral in the way he dominated the room. Not even the most expensive, hand-tailored suit in the world could hide a masculine physique that suggested the power and ferocity of a sleek panther.

A sleek, caged panther, she mentally amended.

Every so often her would-be client jumped out of his chair, paced back and forth in front of her scarred oak desk and punctuated the air with another gesture of pure outrage. It was all Susan could do to keep from leaning back in her chair to distance herself from his anger.

At the same time, it was all she could do to keep from leaning toward him as if pulled by a magnet.

She made a mental note to load the jury with women if this case ever actually went to trial. No matter how strong the prosecution’s case, they wouldn’t stand a chance if the jury happened to fall in love with the sexy millionaire accused of murdering his associate Eric Chambers, vice president of accounting for Wescott Oil.

She also didn’t like the way those silver-gray eyes of his made her go all shivery inside whenever he stopped in the midst of his pacing to train them on her. It was difficult to keep from squirming beneath his scrutiny. Susan’s body was still tingling from the perfunctory handshake they’d exchanged when Sebastian had first introduced himself. She assumed that the electrical current that held her as immobile as if she’d embraced a live wire was simply her body’s way of warning her of impending danger.

Painful past experience had taught her to trust her gut feelings.

She had been relieved when Sebastian had finally released that all-too-masculine grip. At thirty, she wasn’t so naive that she didn’t recognize her reaction for what it was—lust, in its most primitive and dangerous form. Fearing the same kind of machismo that had initially attracted her to her ex-husband, Susan reminded herself that finding the right man was a matter of choice better left to a level head than to fickle hormones.

It was unfortunate that Sebastian’s half brother, Dorian Brady, wasn’t more her type. He impressed her as being far less edgy than his sibling. Though strikingly similar in appearance to his brother, Dorian’s appeal was subtler, Susan decided. He was smaller in stature, but his eyes were nearly the same astonishing shade of silver as Sebastian’s. However, for some unfathomable reason, his gaze did not immediately hold her an unwilling captive the way Sebastian’s did. There was a swaggering seductiveness in Sebastian’s demeanor that contrasted sharply with his brother’s more understated nature.

That her body didn’t react in such openly traitorous ways to Dorian was definitely part of his charm to the wary Susan. Once burned… She cut off the thought and concentrated on the legal matter at hand.

Having received an abbreviated version from Dorian of how he had only a short time ago come to locate his long-lost family, Susan wasn’t quite sure exactly how his relationship with Sebastian stood. Other than the fact that Dorian seemed to hold no malice toward his half brother, who had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. By his own account, Dorian—who had been abandoned by Sebastian’s philandering father and put up for adoption by his brokenhearted mother—could barely afford plastic cutlery while growing up. That he had paid Susan’s retainer out of his own pocket, insisting on providing legal representation for his mulish kin, spoke volumes about him. Such loyalty was rare even among siblings raised together from birth. Susan could only assume that being new in town, Dorian knew nothing of her recent string of bad luck.

Losing two close court cases in a row had done more than simply damage her self-esteem. The lack of clients beating down her door was mute testimony of her own dwindling faith in her skills as an attorney. Her once-upon-a-time dream of giving the little guy a voice in the legal system—the same dream that had kept her going throughout law school—was now strained by the necessity of simply supporting herself.

Hadn’t Joe warned her that she didn’t stand a chance of making it on her own? He’d predicted that without his money and influence, she would fold like a house of cards….

Gritting her teeth at the memory of her ex-husband’s parting shot, Susan bolstered her flagging confidence with the desire to prove him wrong. Believing that success would ultimately prove the sweetest revenge, she smiled confidently at the intimidating Mr. Wescott and offered him a cup of coffee. He declined with nothing more than a terse shake of his head.

Trying to calm this man down was like convincing a wild animal to step willingly into a cage.

With her.

Armed with nothing but bravado and determination, Susan assessed her options. Though female intuition warned her to stay far, far away from Sebastian Wescott, she desperately needed just such an incredible opportunity. A high-profile case like this could well be her ticket to a recovery that would be as much emotional as financial for her. No matter how much working with this man might stir a prickly feminine responsiveness that was best left sleeping, it certainly beat chasing ambulances—which was where she feared she was headed if business didn’t pick up soon.

In fact, if things didn’t pick up, Susan feared she might have to lay off her secretary, Ann Worthe. A single mother who had just left an abusive marriage herself, Ann would be as devastated as Susan by such an unfortunate turn of events. Not only wouldn’t she be able to continue the night classes she was taking in hopes of becoming a paralegal, Ann would have trouble feeding her three young children without the help of food stamps—something the proud young mother had vowed never to do. Aside from the heart-wrenching personal aspects of laying off a woman she considered a friend, Susan knew such a move would mark the end of her own hard-fought dreams and aspirations. There was simply no way she could do her job as a lawyer and manage the office at the same time.

Landing the case of such a prominent citizen as Sebastian Wescott would certainly bolster her standing in the legal community. Lately she had been feeling like the local pariah among the elite of Royal, many of whom were aligned with her influential ex-husband and appeared to relish her past few defeats in the courtroom. The thought of seeing those good old Texas boys, some of whom openly believed the law was best left to men alone, turn pea green with envy was enough to straighten her spine.