Bounty Hunter Ransom

“The money had nothing to do with it,” Beau said, his voice dangerously soft. “I brought him in because he was my friend.”

“You don’t shoot friends in the leg. You should have let him go.”

“He’d never have gotten away, Aubrey. And if the wrong cop had found him, he’d have been dead.” Beau literally had to bite his tongue to keep his temper from boiling over. He knew Aubrey would never believe her precious older brother, half-insane with desperation, had fired the first shot.

“You’ve already made up your mind about me. I’m the bad guy. Nothing I could say would change your opinion, so why bother?” He suddenly realized he was on his feet.

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked up at him. “Because I don’t want you to be the bad guy.”

Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

We’ve got an intoxicating lineup crackling with passion and peril that’s guaranteed to lure you to Harlequin Intrigue this month!

Danger and desire abound in As Darkness Fell—the first of two installments in Joanna Wayne’s HIDDEN PASSIONS: Full Moon Madness companion series. In this stark, seductive tale, a rugged detective will go to extreme lengths to safeguard a feisty reporter who is the object of a killer’s obsession. Then temptation and terror go hand in hand in Lone Rider Bodyguard when Harper Allen launches her brand-new miniseries, MEN OF THE DOUBLE B RANCH.

Will revenge give way to sweet salvation in Undercover Avenger by Rita Herron? Find out in the ongoing NIGHTHAWK ISLAND series. If you’re searching high and low for a thrilling romantic suspense tale that will also satisfy your craving for adventure—you’ll be positively riveted by Bounty Hunter Ransom from Kara Lennox’s CODE OF THE COBRA.

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Here’s hoping these smoldering Harlequin Intrigue novels will inspire some romantic dreams of your own this Valentine’s Day!

Enjoy,

Denise O’Sullivan

Senior Editor

Harlequin Intrigue

Bounty Hunter Ransom

Kara Lennox

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Texas native Kara Lennox has been an art director, typesetter, textbook editor and reporter. She’s worked in a boutique, a health club and an ad agency. She’s been an antiques dealer and even a blackjack dealer. But no work has made her happier than writing romance novels.

When not writing, Kara indulges in an ever-changing array of weird hobbies. (Her latest passions are treasure hunting and creating mosaics.) She loves to hear from readers. You can visit her Web site and drop her a note at www.karalennox.com.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Aubrey Schuyler—Even after she is assaulted, the police won’t take her fears for her missing cousin seriously. She’s forced to turn to childhood friend Beau Maddox—the man who shot her brother and sent him to prison.

Beau Maddox—Ex-cop, bounty hunter, Beau believes he might redeem himself in Aubrey’s eyes if he can bring baby Sara home safe.

Patti Clarendon—Aubrey’s flighty cousin has a history of drug addiction. So when she disappears with her baby, Aubrey knows she’s in trouble.

Sara Clarendon—Patti’s six-month-old daughter.

David Clarendon—Aubrey’s cousin vows to move heaven and earth to bring his sister and niece home unharmed.

Wayne Clarendon—Aubrey’s millionaire uncle is dying of cancer. But he’s not so ill that he can’t offer a million-dollar reward for the granddaughter he’s seen only once.

Lyle Palmer—The incompetent detective sees this case as his chance to get his name in the paper.

Greg Holmes—The crooked insurance agent is Patti’s boss, and it’s rumored they were having an affair. How far would he go to protect his secrets?

Summer Deetz—She works with Patti at the insurance agency, and she sure acts as if she’s got something to hide.

Cory Silvan—Bartender at the alternative nightclub where Patti moonlights, he is also Patti’s drug dealer.

Charlie Soffit—Baby Sara’s father is a rough-looking, hard-drinking biker with whom Patti had a rocky relationship.

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 One

“Just please hurry home. I need you real bad.”

Aubrey Schuyler stared at her cell phone. What now? Ever since her cousin Patti had come to live with Aubrey, life had been full of surprises, most of them unpleasant. But today was worse than usual. The phone call had interrupted a faculty meeting, and Patti’s voice had sounded desperate.

Aubrey dared not ignore her cousin’s summons, not when a little baby was involved. Patti tried to be a good mother to six-month-old Sara, but, bless her heart, she had the common sense God gave a squirrel.

As Aubrey pulled up to her sturdy, prairie-style home, she noted that Patti’s battered Escort wasn’t in the driveway. Why on earth would her cousin call Aubrey home, then leave before she arrived? Had the car been stolen? Was that the big crisis?

Aubrey’s bare legs stuck to the vinyl seat as she exited her Jeep Wrangler, and the back of her pale blue T-shirt was damp. She pulled her heavy mass of curly auburn hair off her neck for a few moments, hoping in vain for a slight breeze. But there was none. She dropped her hair, grabbed her keys and headed resolutely for the front door.

It turned out a key wasn’t necessary. Patti had left the front door unlocked again, though Aubrey had asked her many times to be more careful. Payton, Texas, wasn’t the safe little burg it had been during their childhood. The university where Aubrey taught chemistry had grown quickly over the last decade, and the town’s population had exploded.

Aubrey pushed the front door open. “Patti?”

No answer. She headed upstairs and into Patti’s bedroom, which was in its usual state of disarray. Drawers were half-open, clothing strewn over the unmade bed.

Aubrey peeked into the nursery. Sara’s car seat was gone.

Had Aubrey misunderstood the call? As she pondered the puzzle a crawling sensation wiggled up her spine. Something was wrong. Was it an item out of place? A strange odor in the air?

She scarcely had time to think about getting out of the house when the closet door behind her burst open and someone grabbed her with an arm around the neck. She screamed and kicked as panic took over. But her assailant was strong, abetted by his own burst of adrenaline. The arm wedged around her neck was hard and unyielding. She kicked backward, but her attacker avoided the worst of her blows, not that her sneakers would do much damage anyway. His other arm was wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her sides. He was not a large man, but he knew how to fight. He smelled of unwashed male.

The man was trying to drag her out of the nursery—but to where? Aubrey thought frantically back to a self-defense course she’d taken at the University years ago. Use whatever you have at hand as a weapon. Keys, fingernails, teeth.

That was it. Counting on the element of surprise, Aubrey struck like a snake, clamping her mouth down hard on the man’s forearm, the only part of his anatomy she could reach. She tasted sweat and blood. He rewarded her with a grunt of pain, and his hold on her loosened fractionally. She bent her knees and tried to slide downward, at the same time pushing him off balance.

For a brief, exultant moment, she thought she was going to escape. She lunged for the door just as something whacked her on the head. The first blow merely stunned her. She started to turn so she would ward off the next blow, but she was too slow. The next slam to her head knocked her down, and she was out.

When next Aubrey opened her eyes, she knew some time had passed, but not how much. Her head pounded and her stomach roiled with nausea. She was still on the floor of the nursery. She reached for her face and found it covered with sticky blood.

Oh, God, was she badly hurt? Was he still here? She listened, but all was quiet.

It seemed to take forever for her to sit up and get her bearings. She wasn’t seriously injured, at least she didn’t think so. Just a bump on the head and a lot of blood. A broken lamp on the floor appeared to be her attacker’s weapon. The phone. She needed to call the cops. Where were Patti and Sara? Had they fled from danger, or had some more sinister fate befallen them?

Aubrey pulled herself to her feet and walked unsteadily to her own bedroom. It was trashed. Her jewelry box was empty, her portable TV gone.

And her phone. The bastard had stolen her cordless phone.

Outrage gave her strength. She turned and headed down the hall, down the stairs, still a little dizzy but better with each step. He couldn’t steal the old-fashioned wall phone from the kitchen. She grabbed the receiver and dialed 911. After reporting the incident as calmly and clearly as she could, she stumbled to the sink and threw up. She rinsed her mouth, washed the blood off her face. She probed her scalp and found the source of the blood, a goose egg swelling with a small cut. It felt as if the cut had stopped bleeding, so she went to sit on her front porch and wait for the police. Her older brother, Gavin, had been a cop, and she knew enough to not further pollute the crime scene.

She’d hardly sat down when she heard the low rumble of a car engine approaching. She thought it was the police, until the vehicle pulled into view. It was a souped-up black Mustang convertible, and the dark-haired driver didn’t appear the least bit coplike.

When the car pulled into her driveway she jumped to her feet, heart pounding, and wondered whether to find a weapon or dart inside and lock the door. Then something about the man behind the wheel tugged at her memory. The shape of his broad shoulders, the way he gripped the steering wheel…

She froze, her hand on the doorknob as the man got out of the car and she realized who it was. She relaxed only a fraction. Beau Maddox. What the hell was that son of a bitch doing here?

Her palms went damp and her mouth felt full of cotton as he headed toward her, his motorcycle boots crunching against the gravel. Even as her fury rose, another emotion battled it. The sight of his tall, muscular frame had once made her adolescent heart flutter with anticipation. The hard lines of his face, the eyes like chips of ice, the charcoal hair he was forever pushing out of his face, the gesture remaining even when he cut his hair short for the police academy. All of those things had been burned into her brain with the branding iron of young love.

Well, she didn’t love him now, she reminded herself. She hated him. And her silly physiological reactions were nothing but memory, a bunch of misguided chemicals racing around in her body looking for a neuro-receptor to grab on to.

Her hand dropped from the doorknob and she turned to face him. “What are you doing here?”

“Damn, Aubrey, are you all right? I heard the call go out on the police scanner—”

“I’m fine.” But she wasn’t fine. She was shaken to her center, barely holding on to calm. Her home had been invaded, her security shattered, her cousin and precious baby Sara missing. She could have died. Maybe her attacker had meant to kill her. He could have fractured her skull.

Beau took a step toward her and grabbed her arm. She would have shaken loose, indignant, until she realized Beau was all that kept her from crumpling to the ground.

He guided her to a battered wicker chair on the front porch. “Sit down before you fall down. What the hell happened? Where are you hurt?” He began probing her scalp with surprisingly gentle hands, searching for the head wound. She batted his hands away.

“I’m okay. Apparently I interrupted a burglary in progress. The guy bashed me in the head, trashed my house and left. At least, I think he left.”

Beau’s gaze darted to her front door, and she knew he wanted to go in there and check things out. He’d been a cop for three years. But he’d given up the right to be first at a crime scene when he’d turned in his badge.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said. “Cops will be here any minute, and you can be on your way.”

“I’m not budging. You need to go to the hospital. Were you knocked out?”

Aubrey’s memories of the attack were a bit fuzzy, but she didn’t think she’d been unconscious for long. “I’m fine.”

“Fine, my ass.” He pulled a bandana from the back pocket of his black jeans and wiped her face with it. Apparently her wound was still oozing blood. “Don’t worry, this is clean. Here, hold it against the cut.”

She did as instructed, only because she knew he was right. She needed to stop the bleeding before the cops arrived, or they’d make her go to the hospital for sure.

“Tell me what happened,” he insisted. “Did you get a look at the guy?”

“No. He came at me from behind. He was white, and I can make an educated guess about his height, but that’s it. Oh, wait a minute.” She thought for a moment. “I bit him.”

“What?” Beau actually grinned. “You tiger, you.”

“Oh, shut up. I did some damage to his right forearm. I remember tasting blood.”

Beau grew serious. “You might have some biological evidence in your mouth. We should swab it out right away, before your own saliva washes away the—”

“It’s no good. I, um, threw up afterward and rinsed my mouth out.”

“Hell.”

Aubrey felt a bit calmer now, and she had to admit she was actually grateful for Beau’s presence. Whatever he’d done in the past, he’d never intended to hurt her, and she knew he could protect her better than just about any man alive. He’d been good as a cop, and was even better as a bounty hunter. Unfortunately.

A squad car pulled up and a young, lone patrolman got out. Aubrey quickly told her story. He looked at her and took a quick tour of the house to make sure the perpetrator was really gone, then called for an evidence team, a detective and paramedics.

“I don’t need the paramedics,” she objected.

“Let them at least look at you,” Beau said.

The cop, who’d ignored Beau until now, suddenly focused his attention on him. “Who are you?”

“A friend,” Aubrey answered quickly before Beau could smart off. He’d left the force with a lot of bitterness. The whole department, he’d claimed, had been riddled with incompetence and downright corruption. Aubrey’s brother had been only a small part of it but Beau’s superiors were unwilling to go after the big fish. Beau had quit in protest.

“And where were you when all this happened?” the cop asked.

“He wasn’t here,” Aubrey said.

“I can answer for myself,” Beau said evenly. He handed the cop a card that read First Strike Bounty Hunters. It featured a logo of a coiled snake and the motto, Code of the Cobra.

“Beau Maddox,” the cop read aloud. “I know who you are. You’re the one who brought in Gavin Schuyler.” He glanced down at his notepad, then at Aubrey, then back at Beau. “Schuyler?”

“Gavin’s my brother.”

“And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll drop the subject before she gets started,” Beau said, as if she were the one who’d done something wrong.

“Okay, that’s it.” She pointed toward the street. “Go.”

The cop shrugged as if to say, Women. “Better do what she says. She might bite you, too.” The two men shared a look that infuriated Aubrey further. Men were such jerks sometimes.

An unmarked car pulled into Aubrey’s driveway behind the squad car, and a detective with reddish-brown hair got out. He wore a long-sleeved shirt despite the oppressive heat, his tie neatly knotted.

Then she realized she knew him, which wasn’t all that surprising. She’d met lots of men and women from the force when she hung out with her brother and his friends, including Beau, once his very best friend. That seemed a lifetime ago.

The detective was Lyle Palmer. He’d been one of the regulars, along with Beau and Gavin, who hung out at Dudley’s Blue Note after hours. Dudley’s was a cop bar that hadn’t changed one square foot of Formica since the fifties. The cops liked the no-frills atmosphere and the cheap, strong drinks.

Aubrey had spent quite a few hours there, too, during grad school, always hoping Beau would finally notice her. Looking back on it, she found her previous crush on him pathetic. She’d brought Patti with her a couple of times, hoping to get her interested in a higher caliber man than she normally dated. Lyle had taken an instant shine to Patti, but she’d rebuffed his flirtation—rather rudely, Aubrey recalled. Later she’d said there was no way she was dating a cop, especially one that reminded her of Howdy Doody.

“Aubrey.” Lyle treated her to a warm smile. “When I heard your name, I volunteered—” His gaze flickered to Beau, then fixed on him. “Maddox? Might have known I’d find you in the thick of trouble.”

Aubrey recall that the two men hadn’t liked each other, but the specifics eluded her.

“When did you make detective?” Beau asked mildly, not rising to the bait.

Lyle puffed up a bit. “Around the first of the year.”

“Yeah? Whose ass did you have to lick to get the promotion?”

Lyle’s eyes narrowed. “I could make your life miserable, you know.”

Aubrey cleared her throat. “This isn’t helping.”

Lyle returned his attention to her, looking contrite. “Sorry. What the hell happened here?”

So she told her story again, adding little bits as she remembered them, and the patrolman added his two cents before taking off.

“Listen, Lyle, I’m really worried about my cousin Patti. You remember her, right?” She tensed, waiting for a negative reaction. But Lyle remained ultraprofessional.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“I was in a meeting when she called me on my cell phone sounding terribly upset. And when I got here, she and the baby were gone, and some guy was in my house.”

“But you say her car wasn’t here when you arrived home?” Lyle asked.

“That’s right.”

“Maybe she knew bad news was on the way and she cleared out ahead of it. She’s, um, been in a bit of trouble in the past.”

Aubrey glanced at Beau, who was still here just to drive her crazy, she was sure. She pleaded with her eyes for him to keep quiet. “Patti has kept her nose clean for over a year, ever since she found out she was pregnant.”

“Is it possible someone from her past has come back to bother her?” Lyle asked, jotting a few notes.

“I suppose. Oh, wait, maybe that’s it! There’s Charlie Soffit, Sara’s father. He’s a low-life biker. He kicked her out when Patti told him she was pregnant, but then he keeps coming around to harass her. But he’s never been violent. I think…well, Patti’s father is rich.”

“I know who Patti’s father is,” Lyle said, which wasn’t surprising. Wayne Clarendon was one of Payton’s most prominent citizens, a descendant of the town’s founder.

“I think Charlie wants a piece of that,” Aubrey continued, “and he thinks he can get it by using Sara.”

“Does he have any visitation rights?” Beau asked.

Lyle shot him a nasty look. “This isn’t your investigation, Maddox.”

Beau shrugged, unperturbed. “Someone has to ask the right questions.”

“Patti got him to sign away parental rights,” Aubrey answered, hoping to distract the two snarling dogs from each other. “But maybe he wishes he hadn’t done that.”

“Sounds like a suspect to me,” Beau said.

Aubrey pointed toward Beau’s Mustang. “Leave!”

Beau held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, fine. Can’t blame a guy for showing a little concern for an old friend.”

“Make no mistake, that is not what I blame you for.”

It suddenly got very quiet, and Aubrey wished she’d kept her mouth shut. But the words were out now. The ones she hadn’t spoken were especially loud. I blame you for shooting my brother.

Beau’s gaze narrowed. “I saved Gavin’s life. But you’ll never understand that because you don’t want to. You’d rather hold on to that tunnel vision that lets you believe your precious brother could do no wrong.”

Beau turned and stomped off the porch and out to his car. He backed up the Mustang, then drove through her yard as the patrolman had, nearly crashing into the crime scene van as it pulled up.

“You’re not really friends with him anymore, are you?” Lyle asked.

She shook her head. “We’ve hardly talked since he left the force. I don’t even know what brought him here today, unless it was morbid curiosity.” She mentally shook herself. She had more important things to worry about than the lingering animosity between her and Beau Maddox. “So you’ll check out Charlie Soffit?”

“Yeah. It’s possible he’s involved.” Lyle flipped his notebook closed and stuck it in his back pocket. “It could be any number of things, including a random crime. Maybe we’ll find some usable prints in the house, or the stolen merchandise will turn up. I’ll need you to make a list of everything that’s missing.”

“I don’t care about that stuff. It’s Patti I’m worried about.”

“I’ll issue a Be-On-the-Lookout for her car. If you don’t hear from her in a day or two, we can start getting worried.”

Aubrey didn’t like that answer. In fact, she thought Lyle was a little cavalier about the whole thing. But he probably saw burglaries and assaults day in and day out. And people were always getting worried for nothing when their loved ones went missing, then turned up unharmed. She’d heard enough cop talk over the years to know that.

In this case, however, she was entitled to worry.

Beau could find Patti and Sara in a heartbeat. Aubrey might not approve of his methods as a bounty hunter, but it was hard to argue with his results. But his services didn’t come cheap, and since assistant chemistry professors didn’t make a ton of money, she didn’t know how she would pay him. Still, she filed the idea away for further scrutiny.

One of the evidence technicians came out onto the porch. “We’re finished downstairs, if you want to come inside where it’s cool,” he said to Aubrey.

She was grateful he’d been kind enough to think of her, but her gratitude ended abruptly when she saw the condition of her living room. Fine black fingerprint powder coated everything.

Lyle followed her inside. “I know a cleaning service that’s pretty good at straightening up after our guys trash a place. I’ll write it down for you.”

“Thanks.”

The phone rang. Aubrey didn’t feel like talking to anyone, but she couldn’t just let it ring. She went to the kitchen and picked up the wall phone, getting black powder on her hand. “Hello?”

“Aubrey. Oh, my God, are you okay?”

“Patti!”

Lyle looked up sharply.

“Where are you?” Aubrey demanded, relief warring with irritation. As usual, Patti had managed to create some drama. “What’s going on?”