The Pearl of Paradise

by Jean Brashear

  “No one knows, Chang. I’ve sacrificed everything to make sure of that.” She studied the fog moving in over the Bay, rubbing her arms as though she could warm the chill of fear invading her heart.

  “What if you’re wrong? Are you willing to gamble Gregory’s life on it? Or your own?”

  The burn in her stomach increased. She hugged both arms around her waist. “And what of Damon’s life? Is no one to speak up for him?” Her voice grew stronger. “While he’s busy protecting everyone else,” she glared in defiance, “who protects Damon?”

  …Excerpt from THE PEARL OF PARADISE by Jean Brashear © 2011.

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  TEXAS REFUGE

  Wounded hero Quinn Marshall is haunted after nearly dying in a failed attempt to save his sister. The last thing the former homicide detective wants is another woman to watch over, but someone important to his brother is in trouble, and Quinn’s basic nature is to protect. Soap opera star Lorie Chandler has already lost her husband to an obsessed fan and now her son is the madman’s new target.

  While the police hunt the killer, Quinn’s rugged Texas ranch is the ideal hiding place for Lorie and her child. Neither Quinn nor Lorie expects the explosive heat or the powerful emotion that flares to life in his canyon refuge, yet there is no future for them and both are painfully aware that their time together can only be temporary. When the madman finds them, Quinn’s sole focus is on keeping Lorie and the boy he’s come to love safe, even though his success will mean that he will have to give them up to a life where he cannot belong.

  Quinn Marshall jolted awake in his seat.

  The acrid scent of candle smoke seared his nostrils. He glanced around and remembered he was on a plane. Took a deep breath.

  The passenger beside him still slept.

  But the flight attendant’s gaze was locked on his.

  Had he cried out in his sleep?

  “Sir?” she whispered, dark curls falling forward. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Can I get you something?”

  My old life back. “No. Thank you.”

  She hesitated. He flattened his gaze and sat still, willing her to give up. What he needed was beyond even her best intentions.

  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.

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  TEXAS STAR

  Sexiest Man Alive Josh Marshall is on his way home to Texas when he rescues a woman on the run. In contrast to the many women crushing on him all over the world, Elena Navarro does not trust him and wants nothing to do with him, seeking to escape every time his back is turned. Running from an abusive husband with criminal ties and terrified to trust anyone, she finds Josh’s tender care a miracle, but his fame could be a death sentence for them both. When echoes of a shared past life threaten, Josh questions his sanity, but he’s a white knight to the core and cannot stop trying to help her, even at the risk of his life.

  “You sacrificed your life for love in ancient days,” the old woman intoned. “Your soulmate is alive in this time and needs you once more.” Her dark eyes burned into him. “She is in grave danger.”

  Film star Josh Marshall blinked. Choked down a laugh. Great party idea, Babette, he silently saluted his hostess. Scanning the celebrity-studded room for the curvaceous redheaded starlet, he paused. “Um…thanks. Now if you’ll excuse me…?”

  The old woman didn’t release his hand until he met her gaze again. “You do not believe,” she said. “But you will.”

  He didn’t want to be rude, but he’d had enough. Sure, his family tree was rife with those who walked in realms most people didn’t believe existed—his own brother Quinn had formidable psychic powers which had saved more than one life—but he wasn’t among them. He was a realist, grounded firmly in the here and now. Almost nothing in Hollywood was real, so it was up to him to keep his feet firmly planted.

  “I have to leave now. Do you…?” He reached into his pocket for his money clip.

  Dark eyes flashed displeasure. “Gadjo,” she all but spat. “Run from your fate, young one, but do not run away when your lady needs you.”

  Reclaiming his hand, he tugged at his cuffs under the black tux. He hadn’t been rude to her, despite the outrageous pronouncement, so why should he feel the need to apologize? Still he tried, for the sake of Tía Consuela, if no one else. “Look, it’s not that I—”

  But the old woman had already turned away.

  …Excerpt from TEXAS STAR by Jean Brashear © 2012.

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  TEXAS DANGER

  Case Marshall drives a truck instead of his Harley after a crooked partner bankrupts his ranch. Socialite Samantha St. Claire never dreamed she’d be on the run from the mob—or that she’d find a white knight at a t
ruck stop. Their worlds couldn’t be less compatible or their attraction more high-octane, but there are dangers and shocking secrets to battle before they can dream of a future together.

  Samantha St. Claire was exhausted. The terror she’d barely held at bay in New Orleans had preyed on her mind every mile she’d driven, running for her life.

  For the lives of her family.

  She’d hoped to find her Uncle Roland in San Angelo as promised in the cryptic letter that had sent her serene, orderly life into free-fall—but her favorite relative had vanished, and now she had no idea what to do or where to go. Only that she couldn’t go home.

  She’d been warned.

  Uncle Roland was the black sheep of her mother’s family, but he’d always doted on her, and she’d thought his days as a scoundrel were long over.

  Apparently not. His misdeeds couldn’t include something simple like sleeping with the wrong man’s wife or drinking too much, though—oh, no.

  He’d gotten himself right in the crosshairs of the biggest crime boss in New Orleans. Even Samantha, with her patrician family background and her staid job as a banker, had heard of Etienne Gascoigne. She would never have dreamed, however, that their paths would have any reason to cross—but she’d learned better. His men had come for her. Had vividly demonstrated that her social standing meant absolutely nothing. Had forever robbed her of the ability to feel safe.

  And they’d threatened her family. If she breathed a word of what she’d learned, what she’d endured that terrifying night would be nothing to what they would do to her dignified father, her beautiful, fragile mother or her two beloved sisters.

  What was she going to do?

  She’d fled New Orleans in haste, withdrawing only the paltry sum she could take from an ATM. Raised to be her father’s princess and a leader of New Orleans society, however, she’d made a rookie mistake that first day in handing over her credit card without thinking—then asking for it back too late.

  One of her attackers had shown up in the parking lot of the cheap motel that night.

  Her red Porsche was far too noticeable—another mistake. She’d rectified it by climbing out the bathroom window of the motel that night, and she’d faced the fact that her precious car had to go. In Houston, she’d traded it in—and lost her shirt on it—for the distasteful but anonymous sedan she’d hoped would last long enough to get her to Uncle Roland.

  Wherever he was.

  But she’d been too frightened to battle over the cost. Her situation had rapidly become deadly serious, and all that had mattered was getting away from the men who were after her. She couldn’t contact the authorities; she couldn’t ask her family for help. It didn’t matter that she had no experience with subterfuge, that this shadow world she’d entered was light years from all she’d known.

  Until she found her uncle, she was on her own. There was no one to turn to, no one to trust.

  But now that junker car wouldn’t start. She’d left it a mile down the road from this truck stop and hiked here to buy herself time to think.

  “Hon, you sure you don’t want to eat something? You need some meat on those bones, and you look dog tired,” said the waitress named Jolene. She’d been refilling Samantha’s coffee cup for the last hour as she took up space in a booth she had no right to monopolize.

  But she didn’t know how far her scarce funds would need to stretch. How she would ever find more—an irony when she had ample savings in addition to a trust fund.

  “I’m okay. Thank you. I-I guess I should—” Go, she was about to say.

  But Jolene’s attention had shifted to someone headed that way.

  …Excerpt from TEXAS DANGER by Jean Brashear © 2013.

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  About the Author

  New York Times and 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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