Lasso That Cowboy

LATEST FROM LYNDE LAKES
Hi, everyone, I’m delighted to announce my newest romantic suspense/thriller release, the 2nd in the Ryan Ranch Trilogy, LASSO THAT COWBOY. Book # 2 has joined COWBOY LIES on Amira Press’ book shelves.

LASSO THAT COWBOY, Book # 2 excerpt.
www.amirapress.com

Amber rubbed her throbbing head and fought a wave of dizziness. Running away felt like a bad choice to start a new life. But waking up next to a lifeless, bloody body told her that if she’d stayed in San Antonio, sooner or later, she’d be jailed, or worse yet…dead.

Elmer, the trucker she’d hitched a ride with, pulled his flatbed semi into the center of a complex of ranch buildings. “This is as far as Betsy can go to make an easy wide turn,” he said in his thick Texas drawl.

He had the fierce look of an albino gorilla, but Amber had learned in their hours riding together that he had the heart of a teddy bear. Elmer hauled lumber and fencing supplies into the Bar R cattle ranch, and she’d lucked out getting a ride with him from San Antonio to this nowhereland about a hundred miles north of the Mexico border. She had ignored the no riders sign painted on his door and told him she was broke and needed a lift to get a job. Elmer sized her up and gestured for her to get into the cab. She’d felt comfortable with him from the moment she settled into the passenger seat. The pictures of his wife and two teenage daughters tucked into the visor over his head suggested he was a family man, and the gentleness in his voice when he talked about them warmed her heart.

“You gonna be all right?” he asked.

Amber nodded. The dizziness had passed. Now she felt empty, lost. The activity behind the roar of ranch machinery and grange trucks should’ve made her feel not quite so alone. But she was alone. Totally alone. She had no ID in her wallet, no pictures of loved ones. A woman with no past. She’d better get used to it.

She sighed, grabbed her suitcase and slid from the cab. Elmer moved his truck ahead. He circled slowly until the driver’s side of his polished, black cab came parallel with her.

“If this job falls through,” he said, shouting over the idling engine, “be out by the dirt road in front of the bunk house at 5:00 AM sharp. I won’t wait!”

The June sky was light blue, cloudless. Amber shaded her aching eyes from the blinding morning sun and looked up at him. The upward tilt of her head sent pain shooting up the column of her neck into the base of her skull. “You know something about this place that I don’t?” They were both yelling over the head-splitting engine noise now.

“It’s just that…if Luke Ryan’s gonna be your boss, you maybe oughta ask for your pay up front.”