www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To my first ever hero. Thank you for your

       acceptance, your encouragement and for being such a wonderful example for me.

      You’re amazing. I love you, Dad.

       Prologue

      “YOU MUST BE PLEASED with yourself.”

      “Definitely pleased,” Tobias Black agreed with the caller. “And a little surprised that our own sheriff turned out to be the dealer of sex drugs.”

      “The drug ring is broken but it doesn’t end with him. Someone higher was pulling strings. Any idea who?”

      Taking the phone off Speaker, Tobias lifted the handset to his ear, then stared at the glowing tip of his cigar and considered the question. A month ago, he’d chosen to bring the FBI in to help bust the drug ring specializing in a new-fangled form of Ecstasy that’d been blazing through his small town. His eldest son, Caleb, had helped the FBI bust that ring.

      He’d brought the FBI in knowing than someone had more in mind that peddling sex drugs. Someone with a grudge against him. But as far as he was concerned, the FBI could butt out now. Tobias preferred to figure out who was trying to knife him in the spine himself. He was funny that way.

      “No idea who was issuing Kendall’s orders, but I’m not worried,” Tobias lied smoothly. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

      “Even with the new sheriff in your corner, this time you just might be in over your head. My resources have uncovered yet more criminal activity and quite a few rumblings of something big coming soon.”

      Shit. He didn’t need this. In his mind, the FBI had had a single purpose. To use their connections to bring his son home. That plan had worked, Caleb was now the acting sheriff, engaged to a pretty little thing in town, and slowly allowing Tobias to rebuild a bridge between them.

      Right now, Tobias was busy setting into action goal number two. Better known as luring his daughter, Maya, back home. He didn’t have time to keep playing these cop games.

      He stared through the smoke at the awkwardly shaped ceramic bowl, glazed a brilliant red with fingerprints all along the edges. Every once in a while, he wondered if he was still smoking his daily cigar just for the joy of using the ashtray his five-year-old daughter had made. A dynamic, controlled man, he didn’t consider overt sentiment a weakness. But he did consider not having more to be sentimental about a waste.

      “I’m sure your associates at the FBI are looking at Kendall’s associates and haven’t given up on discovering who’s behind it all,” Tobias said. No longer having the taste for a relaxing cigar, he stubbed it out and stood to pace. “In the meantime, we’ll handle things here in Black Oak. Caleb has years of experience with the DEA, and he’ll make a fine sheriff. There’s nothing to worry about here.”

      “That’s not what I’m hearing,” the man on the phone reminded him. “Someone is gunning for you. And instead of dealing with that, you’re busy playing footsie with a woman young enough to be your daughter.”

      Tobias gave a wicked grin. “You make me sound like a dirty old lech, saying it that way.”

      “What else should you sound like?”

      “A clever man who knows just which buttons to push?”

      Eight years ago, Tobias had made a vital mistake. After years of pulling cons on his own, of only working, occasionally, with his children, he’d taken on a partner.

      Greta von Lautner.

      It’d been the last straw for his volatile children.

      Caleb had left to join the DEA, tired of his father’s life of crime. Gabriel had accused his father of thinking with his penis, and walked out vowing to prove himself a better con than his old man had ever been.

      And Maya? Tobias’s sweet little angel had been heartbroken, not only at the change in dynamics, but at what she saw as being ousted from her place in her father’s life. She’d tried to stick around, though. Then Greta had blown the con they were in the middle of; she’d left Maya vulnerable. Tobias had