She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, then nodded her head. "Well, let me know if you change your mind."
"I will."
After she retreated, he shook his head hard, as if that would dislodge the sense of evil clinging to the curves inside his skull. Why had the dreams started again? First the dark-haired boy, now this. For months after he'd left the force he hadn’t experienced any.
He never wanted another one. After the first one, his sister had been murdered. He'd been too late to save her, nearly died himself.
But now they were back. Who was the little dark-haired boy around whom he felt such danger? Who was the blond woman in the picture?
A blonde…. Like Clarissa.
I don't want this. It's useless. I didn't save her.
Let me be.
To settle himself, he visualized the table rock at the canyon's edge where he'd found respite. Grounded by earth, the only sound the constant wind sweeping his mind clean of shadows, he could find rest for his troubled mind.
Peace he didn't deserve.
He felt the change in the engines and stirred, raised his seat back and prepared for the landing. When they touched down and rolled to a stop, he uncoiled his tall frame and rose to grab his carry-on. The flight attendant caught his eye, her expression intimating that this didn’t have to be the end. With regret, he shifted his gaze to stare at the ceiling. She had no clue what she’d be tackling.
"56 West 66th," he told the cab driver a few minutes later, then settled back into the seat of the taxi, gathering himself for the charade he must act out. He hated to be less than honest with his younger brother, but Josh knew nothing about this crack in the steadiness he'd always counted on from Quinn, how it had swallowed him up, how damned scared Quinn was that the darkness seemed to have become a permanent part of him.
Once they had shared practically everything, the three orphaned siblings, but Clarissa was gone, and Josh had a new life and a bright future. Their one surviving relative, their grandmother's sister whom they called Tía Consuela, was aging and carried her own burdens.
This was his battle to fight.
Things were looking up for his brother now, and Quinn wasn't going to screw it up. Josh’s grief over Clarissa had faded in the demands of his new leading role. He’d worked hard for what he’d accomplished, and Quinn wanted him to savor it.
Quinn only wished his brother would leave him alone in the canyons to seek his own peace. But Josh and Tía Consuela had conspired to corner Quinn into paying Josh a visit in New York, and Quinn had run out of excuses.
He hated cities. The years he’d spent as a Houston homicide detective couldn’t be forgotten so easily, but he damn sure tried. Visiting New York brought back too many unwelcome memories of crowded streets. Of danger, of darkness.
"Here we are." The driver’s voice broke into his thoughts.
Quinn paid the fare and stepped from the cab, looking around him. God, the noise. A pang of longing for the crisp, clean air of the High Plains, the endless stars in the Texas nighttime sky, squeezed his heart.
It was only a few days. He squared his shoulders and entered the building.
…Excerpt from TEXAS REFUGE by Jean Brashear © 2012.
Buy TEXAS REFUGE
Buy the sequel TEXAS STAR
* * *
THE GALLAGHERS OF SWEETGRASS SPRINGS:
Nestled in the Texas Hill Country, tiny Sweetgrass Springs was founded by four veterans of the Texas Revolution, and for over a century the town and their ranches grew and prospered. Nowadays, however, too many of the town's children leave for the big city as soon as they can escape, and Sweetgrass is barely hanging on. The heart and soul of Sweetgrass is Ruby Callahan, once a scandal for bearing a child out of wedlock and refusing to identify the father. Her daughter vanished from Sweetgrass right after high school, but Ruby, owner of community gathering place Ruby's Café, remains, keeping vigil, hoping for her daughter's return. She is fighting to save her ancestors' legacy, but the town is dying, and it's breaking Ruby's heart.
TEXAS WILD
(Rissa and Mackey, The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs #2)
Hollywood's hot playboy stuntman Randall Mackey replaced the adrenaline rush of his career in the SEAL Teams with another life courting danger, but that existence is jeopardized by injury. The sexy bad boy of Sweetgrass Springs returns to the town where his teenage exploits made him a legend, only to find that his buddy's tomboy little sister has grown up in very interesting ways. If he thinks, however, that gifted horse trainer Rissa Gallagher will simply fall into his arms and help him dodge dealing with a haunting past and a future that looks grim, Mackey might want to think again.
Rissa Gallagher has been abandoned by everyone in her family except the hard-hearted father who is physically present but cold and critical. She is the last hope for the land that has been in her family for six generations, and though Mackey is pure temptation incarnated in one very sexy package, he can never be more than a fling when the only thing he does better than make love is…leave.
RANDALL MACKEY REACHED for that quiet zone, that place he went when he'd done all the prep he could envision, when the film stunt was as ready as it would ever be. All that was left was for him to actually throw his body out there, off this skeleton of a building where his size twelve feet perched on an eight-inch-wide girder looking down onto...
Thin air.
Was it dangerous? Hell, yeah. Why would he bother otherwise?
Was it more deadly than missions he'd been on in Afghanistan with his fellow SEALs?
Nobody was shooting at him. Nobody wanted him to die.
He hadn't died. But others had.
And no stunt, however dangerous, however much meant to make audiences cringe in whiplash horror, would ever, for one single second, equal that life he missed like a limb.
"Ready?" asked the second unit director. "You sure about this, Mackey? Because we could use CGI..."
"Wouldn't be the same, and you know it."
"All right, then," the director said. "Quiet. Ten seconds. Roll film."
Mackey heard the intake of breath, felt the vigilant stillness around him. Felt the surge in his blood, the welcome buzz of the adrenaline that gave him a reason to get up every day. Three...two...
Mackey leaped for the girder that was impossibly far away, extending his arms, using his leg muscles as springboards—
Go...go...go...
He wrapped his arms around the girder, felt his legs whip forward, his momentum propelling his feet ahead—
The cable attached to the harness beneath his shirt jerked him backward with such force that he lost purchase. His body slammed into a pole behind—and abruptly he plunged, his leg slamming into the level below as he grappled for a hold. He halted his fall, the skin on his hands stripped away until they let go—
He tucked his body and caught himself by the knees on the girder below—
The cable snapped into his head—
Hang on hang on hang—
Fade to black.
…Excerpt from TEXAS WILD by Jean Brashear © 2013.
Buy TEXAS WILD
COMPLETE BOOKLIST
The following Jean Brashear titles are available in all ereader formats.
TEXAS HEROES
The Gallaghers of Morning Star
TEXAS SECRETS
TEXAS LONELY
TEXAS BAD BOY
The Marshalls
TEXAS REFUGE
TEXAS STAR
TEXAS DANGER (coming soon)
The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs
TEXAS ROOTS
TEXAS WILD
TEXAS REBEL (coming soon)
Other titles:
THE PEARL OF PARADISE (novella)
Five years ago, covert operative Damon Alexander became guardian of the sacred ivory carving, the Pearl of Paradise, and he sacrificed any chance for a life with the woman he loved to save her from being killed by his archenemy, Kwan. The vow curses him
to die, should he leave holy ground, but his enemy is back and is picking off those Damon cares for most, taunting Damon to risk the curse to stop him.
Lily Shen has spent five years closing off her heart from Damon after his devastating betrayal, but hearing that he means to sacrifice his life to stop the killing, she knows that she may have the only means to save him—by revealing to him that he has a son. When Kwan kidnaps their child, the love that never died draws them together in a race to find some means to break the curse and save the son Damon has never met.
THE LIGHT WALKER (full-length novel)
Newly-minted detective Jace Carroll's innocuous first case plunges her into a world of shifting realities. At the center of the tangled knot is the mesmerizing and mysterious Dante Sabanne, a wealthy recluse whose proficiency with ancient poisons, mystical lore and exotic sexual practices makes him by turns a crucial expert witness, a devastating lover...and possibly the man behind a cult whose profane rituals have turned from depraved to deadly.
The powerful attraction between them complicates everything, as the Jace who thought she knew exactly who she was and what she wanted becomes both pawn and queen in a battle between the dark and the light. Innocents will die if she makes the wrong choice between the evidence before her eyes and the yearnings of a heart she is no longer sure she can trust.
A scorching tale of suspense, passion and magic from USAToday bestselling author Jean Brashear
About the Author
USAToday bestselling Texas romance author of the popular TEXAS HEROES series and over 30 other novels in romance and women’s fiction, a five-time RITA finalist and RT BOOKReviews Career Achievement Award winner, Jean Brashear knows a lot about taking crazy chances. A lifelong avid reader, at the age of forty-five with no experience and no training, she decided to see if she could write a book. It was a wild leap that turned her whole life upside down, but she would tell you that though she’s never been more terrified, she’s never felt more exhilarated or more alive. She’s an ardent proponent of not putting off your dreams until that elusive ‘someday’—take that leap now.
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Texas Roots: The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs Page 23