Black Sheep Heir

by Yvonne Lindsay

  He’s never followed the rules...

  He doesn’t do whirlwind romances...

  Until he meets her!

  When rebellious heir and security mogul Miles Wingate accidentally runs into Chloe Fitzgerald—literally!—it feels like fate. She’s beautiful, intriguing and surprisingly interested in his estranged family. One night with Chloe leaves him suspicious—and craving more. But when a crisis forces Miles home to Royal, Texas, a string of bombshells awaits. Including one about Chloe and her hidden agenda...

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author Yvonne Lindsay

  “Dad was a man driven to succeed, at any cost.”

  Yes, even at the cost of another man’s life, Chloe thought privately.

  “That must have been hard on all of you.”

  “It had its moments,” he said sparingly. “Dad died a couple of years back. Now I’ve decided that his opinion doesn’t matter. I’m here for me. To live my best life. It’s why I go for what I want when I see it and I make no apology for that.”

  “And why should you. Isn’t that how we should all live? Striving for what we want? Honestly, as long as we don’t do harm to others, isn’t that the way to live our best lives?”

  Miles cocked his head and looked at her carefully. “I’m more and more convinced that fate put you on that collision course with me yesterday. Does that sound corny?”

  Oh, it was fate all right.

  * * *

  Black Sheep Heir by Yvonne Lindsay is part of the Texas Cattleman’s Club: Rags to Riches series.

  Dear Reader,

  To me, family is everything. You can have your differences, but when push comes to shove, it’s family that can hold us together when everything else is falling apart. This year has been particularly hard for our family with the death of a much-loved aunty and ongoing health battles with other family members. But at the end of the tunnel was the light of our much-anticipated granddaughter to lighten our hearts and remind us that family continues to be everything.

  In Black Sheep Heir, Miles Wingate, who is estranged from most of his family for wanting to go his own way in life, is called to action when things start going from bad to worse in one of the Wingate companies. Miles drops everything to assist his family. Chloe Fitzgerald has her own agenda. Her family was destroyed by Miles’s dad years ago. Growing up with her mother’s bitterness toward the Wingates being a constant refrain, Chloe wants to see her mother find happiness more than anything. Will revenge against the Wingate family be enough?

  I hope you will enjoy reading this installment in the Texas Cattleman’s Club: Rags to Riches continuity. And special thanks to my fellow authors for being so amazing to work with.

  Happy reading!

  Yvonne Lindsay

  Yvonne Lindsay

  Black Sheep Heir

  Award-winning USA TODAY bestselling author Yvonne Lindsay has always preferred the stories in her head to the real world. Married to her blind-date sweetheart and with two adult children, she spends her days crafting the stories of her heart. In her spare time she can be found with her nose firmly in someone else’s book.

  Books by Yvonne Lindsay

  Harlequin Desire

  Wed at Any Price

  Honor-Bound Groom

  Stand-In Bride’s Seduction

  For the Sake of the Secret Child

  Marriage at First Sight

  Tangled Vows

  Inconveniently Wed

  Vengeful Vows

  Texas Cattleman’s Club: Rags to Riches

  Black Sheep Heir

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or yvonnelindsay.com, for more titles.

  You can find Yvonne Lindsay on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!

  I dedicate this book to the memory of our

  darling aunty Joy, who will be forever missed

  but carried in our hearts forever.

  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

  Excerpt from Insatiable Hunger by Yahrah St. John

  Excerpt from The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch by Maisey Yates

  One

  “Vultures!”

  Miles Wingate balled up the newspaper in his hand and tossed it across the dining room in a controlled burst of fury. The crumpled ball bounced on the polished wooden floor and skittered to rest against the molded baseboard. Even then, he could still see the glaring headline that had destroyed his appetite for anything remotely resembling breakfast.

  WINJET FAILS SAFETY INSPECTION!

  The syndicated article had cut far too close to the bone, exposing serious flaws in safety procedures at the WinJet aircraft manufacturing plant in Texas. At the very least, the fines would be massive. At the worst, the entire plant could be shut down. The fact that his late father’s cost cutting measures and often-underhanded tactics had come home to roost didn’t cause Miles much surprise. But when it meant his elder twin brothers, who headed Wingate Enterprises, and the rest of his family had to bear the brunt of it? That infuriated him in ways that he hadn’t experienced since long before he’d turned his back on the family business and moved to Chicago.

  Still, his dad had been dead and buried for two years. Surely his brothers, Sebastian and Sutton, should have picked up on the discrepancies, which had led to the fiery disaster at the plant last month. Three workers had been seriously hurt. The lawsuit that had followed could easily be handled, but the subsequent internal investigation findings that had now led to a joint OSHA and FAA investigation becoming fodder for the media? That meant serious trouble for the company.

  “Not my circus, not my monkeys,” Miles ground out.

  And, because he couldn’t tolerate mess, he strode across the floor and picked up the balled-up paper and tossed it in the recycling bin. Even without the reminder there in front of him, he knew he had to do something to get this irritating itch out of his system. He shouldn’t let it bother him that his family name was being dragged through the mud. After all, he’d made his choice to step away from everything associated with Wingate Enterprises a long time ago.

  He’d used his knowledge and his contacts to establish his own company, Steel Security, and he had a team of employees that he valued and respected. People who took security, both personal and cyber, as seriously as he did himself. He would never let anything happen to any of them, if he could help it, and if something did occur, you could bet your last dollar that he’d hold himself accountable until proven otherwise. As far as Miles was concerned, his responsibilities began and ended right here, in Chicago, with his team.

  But that didn’t stop him from feeling as if he shouldn’t do something for his family. Wingate Enterprises had enjoyed many years of escalating success on the backbone of the employees who worked for the company. His family had a duty to look after those people. That they hadn’t, and that it had come down to something as basic as safety, stuck in Miles’s craw like a dry husk. The injured workers were well within their rights to sue. Everyone deserved to come home safely at the end of their shift. But something about the whole matter didn’t sit right with him. He knew his brothers were nothing like their dad. T
hey didn’t cut corners, and they respected people. He should call them, at least.

  “Not my problem,” he reminded himself.

  He had to get out, clear his head. It was the start of the new month and a Wednesday morning, his work-from-home day. His usual routine meant he’d go for an hour-long run, come home, shower and lose himself in his work with no interruptions. If he didn’t go for that run, he knew he’d never be able to settle. The phone calls could wait. Already dressed for exercise, he grabbed his earbuds, strapped his phone to his upper arm and headed out the door.

  Pounding the pavement between his town house and Lincoln Park, he finally felt his body begin to relax into a calming rhythm. And with every yard he covered, he could feel the distance between the disturbing news back in Texas and the life he’d chosen here in Chicago widening. Yeah, this was exactly what he needed.

  Today was set to hit the low nineties but the temperature right now was still comfortable. Despite how things had started, this was going to be a good day.

  * * *

  Chloe Fitzgerald checked her watch again. He was late. Every Wednesday at exactly 8:00 a.m. Miles Wingate ran in the park. Every Wednesday but this one, by the looks of things, she thought ruefully. It just went to prove, even with the best-laid plans, there was always something that could throw a wrench in the works. She strode back and forth on the pavement, debating whether or not to give up on her idea for today and to regroup. Find another way to engineer that chance meeting with the man who would ultimately lead her to the vengeance her family so richly deserved.

  She’d waited so long for this. Years, in fact. Tears of frustration suddenly pricked at her eyes. Why had he changed his routine today of all days? Was it because of the story that had been plastered all over the news? Reading the report that the illustrious Wingate family were under investigation for unsafe practices had given her so much satisfaction. After all, it was past time they got their just desserts. It wasn’t fair that her family had suffered while theirs had prospered—especially when the late Trent Wingate had built a generous proportion of WinJet’s success on the back of her father’s own business after driving her poor dad to take his own life.

  Growing up with the stigma of having a parent who’d committed suicide had left its scars. Scars that had deepened with her mother’s bitterness at having to pack up the life she’d known in Texas and accept charity from distant family here in Chicago to get them where they were today. No, their life had not been easy. And there’d been plenty of time for Chloe to think about the Wingates and what she’d do if she ever got the chance.

  Discovering that the younger Wingate son lived and worked in Chicago, versus being enfolded into the Wingate Enterprises umbrella, made him more accessible. And, as a Wingate, Miles was no less culpable in her book. Yes, she was all about visiting the sins of the father onto the sons and daughters of that callous bastard, Trent Wingate. His progeny had taken their privileged lives for granted for long enough. It was time they saw their sainted father for the scoundrel he truly was.

  The family could ill afford more bad press, and Chloe had plenty to dish out. All in good time of course. To get the ball rolling, she’d contacted the reporter who’d broken the first story about the fire at the WinJet plant with an offer to give him more information about the family at grass roots level. She’d given him her background and told him about what Trent Wingate had done, but the reporter had said the story lacked immediacy. He could maybe use it in conjunction with something else—something more current. So she’d created her campaign.

  First, she planned to get close to the family. Then, when she was well entrenched, she’d show them, through the media, exactly what their father had done to hers. And, ultimately, teach them how much it hurt to be betrayed. But first, she had to get close to the family, and if Miles Wingate didn’t turn up for his regular Wednesday morning run, her plans would fall apart.

  Which was unacceptable.

  She’d spent hours and hours on this. Scheming and waiting to be able to implement her plan until she was on summer break from her job as an elementary schoolteacher. Now it seemed foolish to have pinned all her strategy on an initial chance meeting during his regular Wednesday morning run. But it had made so much sense to her at the time. Bump into him. Strike up a conversation. Let the conversation lead to a drink or dinner, maybe. She wasn’t ugly and she knew Miles wasn’t in a relationship right now. Surely he’d take her bait?

  He was a creature of routine. She’d taken heart from that. Except today he’d varied that routine. Normally Miles would have passed this section of path by now and been heading up toward the monument. Chloe ceased her pacing and stood still, searching the area around her for the tall, familiar figure she’d been scoping out for the past couple of weeks.

  Maybe she should just start running. Maybe he’d taken a different route today for some unknown reason. Maybe she’d bump into him somewhere else on the many paths that lined the park. So many maybes. She hated anything to be unsure. She’d had quite enough of that in her life. Miles Wingate’s routine had reassured her—underscored that she was doing the right thing.

  Routine was the backbone of her existence, too. It was one of the reasons why she’d become a teacher. The sweet young faces in her class might change with the start of each school year, but the basics remained the same. Structure was everything. Planning was everything.

  She needed a new plan.

  Chloe spun around and started to head back toward her car, at the exact same moment as a tall, blond-haired, male figure came toward her and barreled straight into her. The impact knocked her clean off her feet and drove the breath from her lungs. She landed smack on her bottom on the path and uttered a startled “Oh!”

  “I’m so sorry,” the man began. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Can you stand?”

  She looked up. The morning sun was like a halo behind him and she couldn’t quite make out his features, but there was something in his deep, masculine voice that she recognized from the online video clips she’d seen about him and his company.

  Miles Wingate, in the flesh.

  Her jubilation at tracking down her quarry was tempered with the fact she could still barely draw in a breath.

  “A minute,” she managed to squeak out, and raised a hand with her forefinger up.

  He knelt on one knee in front of her. At this angle she could now see his face, and she felt as if she’d been sucker punched all over again. The man, in person, was so much...more... than he was on-screen or in news bulletins.

  “I’m okay,” she said eventually, even though her heart continued to race in her chest. Due more to his proximity than to their collision. “Look, I’m sorry. I got in your way. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  He smiled. “I’m fine. I’m more concerned about you. Are you sure you’re all right? That was quite a fall.”

  She shifted gingerly. Her butt was tender but there was no way she was admitting that.

  “I was more winded than anything, I think,” she said with a smile. “Again, I’m really sorry about all of this. I should have been looking where I was going.”

  “You did kinda change direction all of a sudden, but I should have been more careful, too.” He straightened and extended a hand. “May I help you up?”

  She hesitated a second, caught by the old-fashioned courtesy in his Texas drawl. She and her mom had lived in Illinois so long now, she’d almost forgotten what that sounded like.

  “Thank you.”

  Chloe placed her hand in his and allowed him to help her to her feet. His hand was warm and strong, and despite her intentions, she felt a zing of awareness travel up her arm. He let her go the minute she was upright. A gentleman to the core. It would have been so easy to have allowed their contact to linger, but he hadn’t. There was absolutely nothing inappropriate in his touch, although a curl of curiosity in the back of her mind made her wonder if
he’d felt that same electric charge that she had.

  “Is that blood on your hand?” he asked, jolting her out of her reverie.

  Chloe turned her hand palm up. She was bleeding a little. Must have been from when she put her hand out behind her, to try and stop her fall. Actually, now that she came to think of it, her wrist was a bit sore, too.

  “It’ll be okay. It’s nothing serious.”

  “May I look?”

  Again, that courtesy. She proffered him her hand and caught her breath as he cradled it in his own.

  “Is that sore? Me touching you like this?”

  “A little,” she admitted.

  Actually her wrist was now beginning to hurt a lot, and to swell, too.

  “I don’t like the look of this,” Miles Wingate said. He looked up at her with a small frown furrowing between his sharp green eyes. “You need to get this seen to. Let me take you to a medical center.”

  “No, seriously, I’ll be fine. A bit of ice, a compression bandage—that’s all I need.”

  “Look, I feel responsible for your injury. Let me help you.”

  Chloe chewed her lower lip. She knew exactly who he was, but he had no idea of that. What would a regular woman do in this situation? She certainly wouldn’t instantly act as if she trusted him. Would she?

  “No, it’s okay,” she forced herself to say, and reluctantly pulled free of his touch. She winced a little and cradled her wrist in her other hand. “My car is parked nearby. I’ll be fine.”

  Miles straightened. “Look, I know you don’t know me from Adam, and despite having bowled you clean off your feet, I really mean you no harm. Let me introduce myself properly—Miles Wingate, at your service. And you can trust me. I actually work in security, so I totally get why you don’t want to accept my help. Thing is, I feel bound to offer it to you and to see that you accept it. But not in a creepy way, of course.”

  He smiled at her then and looked so earnest she couldn’t help but smile back in return.