The Sheriff Gets His Lady

Isabella Trueblood made history reuniting people torn apart by war and an epidemic. Now, generations later, Lily and Dylan Garrett carry on her work with their agency, Finders Keepers. Circumstances may have changed, but the goal remains the same.

Lost

The joy of motherhood. Skylar Diamond was a successful fashion designer now, but the regret she harbored at the long-ago decision to give up her baby haunted her still.

Found

A grown-up daughter and an overprotective father. Sheriff Noah Beaufort didn’t appreciate a high-society type nosing around his town, watching his daughter, Lauren. Then Lauren took a fancy to the woman, and in spite of himself, so did Noah. But he was too good a lawman to trust her motives. Something was definitely suspicious....

“You’re free to go, Ms. Diamond, but stay away from Lauren.

“My daughter is engaged to be married this summer. The last thing she needs or wants is a career in modeling.”

Her composure slipped when he mentioned the engagement. He saw an instant of shock before she rallied, blanking her expression completely. The phone rang again as she came to her feet. “Isn’t that for her to decide, Sheriff?”

“You don’t know when to quit, do you?” But she definitely had spunk, he’d give her that.

“This isn’t the Middle Ages, you know. Women do have choices.”

He grabbed his hat, answering his assistant’s emergency call, and closed the distance between him and the woman. Flecks of blue and green shimmered in her eyes as excitement warred with apprehension. While she flinched slightly, she didn’t back up or lower her gaze.

“Go back to New York, Ms. Diamond. You’ve overstayed your welcome in Darwin Crossing. If I find you around town again, I’ll arrest you for loitering.”

“And I thought New Yorkers were cold.” She shot the words after him.

Noah sprinted for the gas station and his leaky truck. So she thought he was cold, did she? Well, cold was the one way Skylar Diamond definitely didn’t leave him.

Dear Reader,

I was excited to be asked to participate in the Trueblood, Texas series with such a talented group of authors. Bigger than life, these bold men and women of the series are ready to tame and be tamed—by the right mates.

Noah and Sky’s story presented a unique opportunity to delve into the complexities of more than simply a man and woman’s relationship. How would it feel to discover that the infant you had to give up at birth was about to marry? What would it be like to fall in love, only to learn the woman you love is the mother of your adopted daughter? And what would happen if you discovered that someone you liked and respected was actually your birth mother?

Writing this story was a challenging undertaking. But watching them struggle to become a family unit and overcome their problems was a voyage of discovery for all of us.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Sheriff Gets His Lady. And be sure to watch for the next installment from Trueblood, Texas. I know I’m looking forward to it.

Happy reading!

Dani Sinclair

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dani Sinclair is acknowledged as the author of this work.

This one is for you, Roger—my helpmate, lover and best friend.

Special thanks to Mary McGowan and Jacki Frank for help beyond the call of friendship.

And for Chip, Dan and Barb as always

THE TRUEBLOOD LEGACY

THE YEAR WAS 1918, and the Great War in Europe still raged, but Esau Porter was heading home to Texas.

The young sergeant arrived at his parents’ ranch northwest of San Antonio on a Sunday night, only the celebration didn’t go off as planned. Most of the townsfolk of Carmelita had come out to welcome Esau home, but when they saw the sorry condition of the boy, they gave their respects quickly and left.

The fever got so bad so fast that Mrs. Porter hardly knew what to do. By Monday night, before the doctor from San Antonio made it into town, Esau was dead.

The Porter family grieved. How could their son have survived the German peril, only to burn up and die in his own bed? It wasn’t much of a surprise when Mrs. Porter took to her bed on Wednesday. But it was a hell of a shock when half the residents of Carmelita came down with the horrible illness. House after house was hit by death, and all the townspeople could do was pray for salvation.

None came. By the end of the year, over one hundred souls had perished. The influenza virus took those in the prime of life, leaving behind an unprece-dented number of orphans. And the virus knew no boundaries. By the time the threat had passed, more than thirty-seven million people had succumbed worldwide.

But in one house, there was still hope.

Isabella Trueblood had come to Carmelita in the late 1800s with her father, blacksmith Saul Trueblood, and her mother, Teresa Collier Trueblood. The family had traveled from Indiana, leaving their Quaker roots behind.

Young Isabella grew up to be an intelligent woman who had a gift for healing and storytelling. Her dreams centered on the boy next door, Foster Carter, the son of Chester and Grace.

Just before the bad times came in 1918, Foster asked Isabella to be his wife, and the future of the Carter spread was secured. It was a happy union, and the future looked bright for the young couple.

Two years later, not one of their relatives was alive. How the young couple had survived was a miracle. And during the epidemic, Isabella and Foster had taken in more than twenty-two orphaned children from all over the county. They fed them, clothed them, taught them as if they were blood kin.

Then Isabella became pregnant, but there were complications. Love for her handsome son, Josiah, born in 1920, wasn’t enough to stop her from grow-ing weaker by the day. Knowing she couldn’t leave her husband to tend to all the children if she died, she set out to find families for each one of her orphaned charges.

And so the Trueblood Foundation was born. Named in memory of Isabella’s parents, it would become famous all over Texas. Some of the orphaned children went to strangers, but many were reunited with their

families. After reading notices in newspapers and church bulletins, aunts, uncles, cousins and grand-parents rushed to Carmelita to find the young ones they’d given up for dead.

Toward the end of Isabella’s life, she’d brought together more than thirty families, and not just her orphans. Many others, old and young, made their way to her doorstep, and Isabella turned no one away.

At her death, the town’s name was changed to Trueblood, in her honor. For years to come, her simple grave was adorned with flowers on the anniversary of her death, grateful tokens of appreciation from the families she had brought together.

Isabella’s son, Josiah, grew into a fine rancher and married Rebecca Montgomery in 1938. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Trueblood Carter, in 1940. Elizabeth married her neighbor William Garrett in 1965, and gave birth to twins Lily and Dylan in 1971, and daughter Ashley a few years later. Home was the Double G ranch, about ten miles from Trueblood proper, and the Garrett children grew up listening to stories of their famous great-grandmother, Isabella. Because they were Truebloods, they knew that they, too, had a sacred duty to carry on the tradition passed down to them: finding lost souls and reuniting loved ones.

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

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

EXCERPT

PROLOGUE

NOAH BEAUFORT CLIMBED into his truck and started the engine while the warden’s warning played in his head.

Francis Hartman was released this morning, Noah. You need to be aware that the last thing he told his cellmate was how much he was looking forward to seeing you again.

Francis Hartman had graduated from armed robbery to paid muscle for a drug distributor in Dallas. Noah’s last undercover assignment with the Dallas P.D. had netted him, along with a number of other people. Unfortunately, Hartman had enough money for a good attorney. Noah wasn’t surprised he was out already.

Threats were something every lawman faced. Noah wasn’t overly concerned, but with his daughter living at home this semester, he couldn’t dismiss the threat completely.

He was thinking about that when he started backing up—right into another car. Braking sharply, Noah cursed his inattention. Putting the truck in park, he stepped out to check the damage. The austere concrete structure of the prison loomed ominously over the parking lot, casting deep shadows despite the afternoon sun.

The man unfolding himself from the sleek, dark-blue Lexus was six-two, maybe two hundred pounds, with jet-black hair worn straight back in a ponytail. He was dressed in a fancy Western-style suit, his expression hidden behind silver-framed glasses with dark-tinted lenses.

A high-priced lawyer type, Noah decided. Just what he needed. “Sorry,” he said, joining the man who stood beside his car’s front bumper. “I never saw you.”

The man regarded his bumper without a trace of expression. The Lexus didn’t appear scratched. There was a small scrape on Noah’s truck but that was all. He took in Noah’s sheriff’s uniform and nodded curtly.

“No harm done.”

“Would you like my insurance information?”

The man gave a quick shake of his head. “That won’t be necessary.”

He turned, ponytail swinging, and returned to his car. Noah frowned. At a guess, the man had a Mexican background that he went to great lengths to hide. Noah wondered if he was effective in front of a jury. There was something cold, almost menacing, about his arrogance.

Noah returned to his truck, fastened his seat belt, and finished backing out. The stranger waited, taking the vacated parking place. In the rearview mirror, Noah watched him step from his car, place a Stetson firmly on his head, and stride purposefully toward the prison entrance.

With a frown, Noah dismissed the man and glanced at the clock. He had several errands to run, but if he hurried he could still make it home in time for his daughter’s phone call. He was anxious to hear how a sheriff’s daughter was making out in the high-society world of her fiancé’s family.

Noah liked Doug Rossiter. The strapping young man with his dark good looks was serious, levelheaded, and unpretentious. More important, he adored Lauren and balanced her enthusiasm for life with a practical side that kept her grounded. Noah was pleased by their engagement, even if his daughter was awfully young.

Maybe he was simply getting old—or feeling a tad overprotective. He dismissed the thought wryly. He didn’t feel old, and if he was overprotective, well, he’d been that way from the moment he and Beth had brought Lauren home. He’d taken one look at that tiny, sweet face staring up at him with large, unfocused eyes and had known he’d move mountains to protect that little baby.

Besides, they’d only had each other since his wife died when Lauren was five years old. Things hadn’t been easy at first, but he hadn’t done so badly. Lauren had grown, becoming a beautiful, intelligent young woman—even if he did say so himself! And he planned to enjoy what was left of their father-daughter time together.

* * *

“WHAT ARE YOU doing here?” J. B. Crowe barked.

Luke Silva let his boss’s annoyance bounce off him. If there was one thing he’d learned over the years, it was how to handle the notorious gangster.

He flicked a bit of nonexistent lint from the fancy trim on his Western jacket and surveyed the prison’s sterile environment. Guards were positioned strategically around the room. None paid him any more attention than they did the other friends and loved ones sitting in front of the glass wall that separated guests from inmates in the open, narrow room.

“It’s Cooper,” he said softly into the phone. “He’s out of control, J.B. He’s decided with you in here, maybe he should be the one running things. He sure doesn’t intend taking orders.”

And that rankled. How it rankled. With J.B. in prison, keeping things running was Luke’s job. Everyone knew it. Everyone except Sebastian Cooper. Luke didn’t intend to tolerate upstarts in his ranks. He wanted to nip this power play now. Permanently.

He’d tempered his urge until he spoke to J.B. It paid to move carefully. J.B. might have some future role in mind for Cooper Consulting Inc. He would be most unhappy if Luke screwed that up.

Though J.B. was in prison, he was still the titular head of the association of Texas “businessmen” they worked with and through. As long as so many of its members remained loyal, Luke wasn’t about to make big waves. Oh, he intended to change the situation, but he knew how to bide his time. Right now it was wisest to move carefully—with J.B.’s sanction.

Prison hadn’t altered the older man’s glare one bit.

“We may want to use him later. Send him a warning,” he barked.

“A warning?” Luke asked softly.

“One he can’t misinterpret,” J.B. said coldly.

Satisfaction rippled through Luke. “I can do that.”

Luke forced himself to remain still, though he was anxious to be away now that he had what he wanted.

J.B. eyed him for a moment, then inclined his head. He set his phone down and stood abruptly, signaling the end of their session.

Luke rose as well, replacing his dark sunglasses. He was happy to be leaving the uncomfortable confines of the prison. Already, he was mentally planning the sort of warning that would get Sebastian Cooper’s full attention.

Killing Cooper outright would have been preferable, but it was messy and there were certain risks involved. A warning lowered the risks.

Luke’s lips edged upward. Perhaps a lesson would serve his purpose better after all. The message would have to be showy and effective in case there were others having visions of grandeur.

He paused by the bumper of his car and checked again to be certain there was no sign of the earlier, minor collision. An idea began to form. Cooper was a wheeler-dealer. He was very fond of money and things. Among the things he favored most was a customized green Jaguar.

Slowly, Luke began to smile. He wouldn’t use one of the regulars on this. He couldn’t afford anything being traced back to him if the job went wrong. Norman Smith was the answer. The mercenary always gave satisfaction and he was good with explosives. He was also totally anonymous. Smith worked through intermediaries. He wouldn’t know who hired him—or care.

He was expensive, and he demanded cash up front, but that was okay. He never screwed up and he never left witnesses. Luke hoped the man was still working out of New York. Importing the talent made things that much safer.

Luke flipped back his ponytail, set his Stetson on the passenger seat, and settled behind the wheel, planning the message he would send Mr. Sebastian Cooper.

CHAPTER ONE

AFTER TWENTY YEARS it felt strange to be standing in the outskirts of the city she’d left behind. San Antonio, Texas didn’t feel like home. Skylar Diamond was pretty sure it never had. She’d moved to New York City when she was only twenty and she’d never looked back. She’d embraced the New York high-fashion lifestyle completely, doing her best to erase any trace of her indigent Texas background.

Yet she’d never escaped the knowledge that here in this city she’d given away a vital part of herself.

Sky coolly surveyed the bustling airport. For weeks she’d been trying to convince herself that the past should stay that way. It wasn’t too late. She could still turn back.

But she knew she wouldn’t.

After all these years of wondering, she was about to find out what had become of the infant she’d given up at birth. Her breath caught as her heart rate speeded up. The concept was as frightening as it was exciting.

Gratefully, she handed her heavy laptop computer case to a skycap. He immediately offered to take her briefcase.

“No, thank you.” She clutched the case a little tighter. “I’ll hang on to this myself.”

Inside were her working files for the new line. She’d already had one set of files disappear. Stolen most likely. Sky wasn’t about to lose any more.

As she waited for the skycap to collect her bags, she noticed a man who’d been in coach on her flight eyeing her archly. Nice enough looking, but she recognized the type. A ladies’ man, probably married with children. He’d be in search of a little action to fill the evening hours before taking care of whatever had brought him to San Antonio. His winter suit was good quality, but off the rack and more suited to New York than Texas. She turned him off with a look Ted had claimed froze a man right down to the marrow.

The male of the species currently ranked right below cockroaches and fly larvae in her estimation. Too bad she hadn’t used that look to intimidate her former lover when she first met him. She could have saved herself some trouble.

The stranger blinked and set his jaw. Obviously, he wasn’t used to rejection. Too bad. She wasn’t interested in anything he had to offer. The only thing of interest to her right now was the quest that had brought her back to Texas.

His lips tightened in a thin line and his eyes narrowed. He pivoted and headed for the men’s room a short distance away. Good.

Sky glanced at the skycap. He reached out to snag yet another of the bags she’d indicated from the conveyor belt. She tried to relax, while mentally urging the luggage to hurry. A rising impatience beat at her soul as it had been doing since she got off the telephone with the woman from the Finders Keepers detective agency yesterday evening. It was still hard to believe that Lily Garrett Bishop had actually discovered what had become of her daughter in such a short time. The agency was as good as it was reputed to be.

Her daughter.

A shiver skimmed down her spine. She was actually going to see her only child. Excitement was tempered by anxiety and her emotions continued their roller-coaster ride. She wanted to shout at these people to hurry along so she could get going.

Sky found herself tapping her foot and stopped, annoyed by her outward sign of impatience. She needed to calm down. Nothing would happen tonight anyhow, beyond checking into a hotel. She hadn’t expected to catch a plane to Texas this quickly. She’d thought she would need a couple of days to get things organized. Had she known how smoothly everything would fall into place, she would have arranged to meet Lily this week instead of next.

Sky told herself it didn’t matter. While she didn’t have any details, Lily had given her the essential information. Once Sky knew where her daughter now lived with her widowed father, she hadn’t been able to rest until she finally located Darwin Crossing, Texas. The search had taken perseverance. Darwin Crossing appeared to be a one-street town in the middle of nowhere. The place wasn’t even on most maps. The nearest marked town was a small place called Bitterwater, and even that didn’t have a hotel. What it had was a rooming house. Sky promptly made a reservation.

Tomorrow morning she would drive into Bitterwater, check into the rooming house, and search out Darwin Crossing. If the town was as small as it looked, she should have no problem locating her daughter.

Sky ignored the bustle of people around her while she waited for her bags to be collected. Dressed as always in New-York-style chic, she knew she stood out in the crowd. Her transformation over the years had been so successful that no one gave her a second look in New York—unless it was admiring.

With a sigh she kept an eye on her laptop computer case as people jostled and shoved, vying for luggage on the spinning carousels. Her matched set was distinctive, but there was quite a bit of it. Five bags, to be precise—not including her computer and the briefcase. Since she didn’t know how long she’d be staying, she’d packed nearly everything she owned when she walked out of her pricey co-op in Manhattan.

Vaguely, she wondered if she would ever return. She would finish the winter line, of course, but she was burned out and stressed to the max, as Ted was fond of saying. Her entire life hinged on the outcome of the step she was about to take.

She was in a strange mood, she admitted. Even for her. Maybe finding Ted in her bed with their next-door neighbor’s twenty-three-year-old daughter had caused her brain to short-circuit. It had certainly made her angry enough to finally kick him out of her home and her life for good. She should have done it a long time ago. Habit had kept them together. Habit, and the fact that he was a perfect social escort whenever she needed one. No doubt he viewed her much the same way. He could hardly escort the little Lolita to his business functions.

Sky frowned. Other than making her feel annoyed, Ted’s behavior didn’t really matter to her anymore. Maybe her mood was due to the uncertainty of her quest. Finding the daughter she’d given up at birth twenty years ago was stressful enough to put a person in a strange mood.

Sky had no idea what she would do or say once she met her daughter face-to-face. And for someone as disciplined as she was, this uncertainty was a weakness that made her uneasy. Would her daughter hate her—or welcome her?

She looked around for a new place to direct her thoughts as a ruggedly handsome man in a sheriff’s uniform strolled past. Diverted, Sky found herself staring. Now, that was a man worth paying attention to. He carried himself with unconscious grace, radiating self-confidence and easy assurance—a man who was comfortable with himself and the world around him.

Then she caught a brief glimpse of the vivacious young blonde on his arm. His large, well-formed body blocked the girl’s features completely, but that hardly mattered, since he was the one who compelled her attention. He grinned down at his companion affectionately. Sky turned away.

What was it with older men and blond girls young enough to be their daughters? She found her perfectly manicured nails digging into the leather strap on her briefcase and forced her fingers to relax.

Another jerk. An extremely compelling-looking jerk, but a jerk nonetheless.

Unless the girl was his daughter. Sky froze at the thought.

Good news, Ms. Diamond, the woman from Finders Keepers had said. We located your daughter in a tiny town called Darwin Crossing. She lives there with her father, the town sheriff.

An eerie expectancy settled over her, leaving her momentarily deaf and unable to draw a breath. It couldn’t be. Sky took a grip on her vacillating emotions and strained for a clear view, but too many people stood between her and the young woman.

Blood thundered in her head. She was shaking. Visibly shaking! This would never do. It couldn’t be her daughter. Sky would look like an absolute fool if she went charging over there.

But what if it was? What if that was her daughter standing there only a few yards away?

Sky stepped forward, trying to follow their progress through the crowds. She felt hot and cold at the same time. If it was her daughter, what would she do? Oh, God, she wasn’t ready for this. Her gaze flew to the man’s features. Smile lines crinkled the corners of his eyes and bracketed his mouth. They softened the strong planes of his face as he leaned into the young woman, intent on what she was saying.