from “Silent Partner” by Jodi Thomas

      JODI THOMAS

       DEWANNA PACE

       LINDA BRODAY

       PHYLISS MIRANDA

      GIVE ME A COWBOY

       ZEBRA BOOKS Kensington Publishing Corp. http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

      Contents

      SILENT PARTNER

      JODI THOMAS

      LUCK OF THE DRAW

      DEWANNA PACE

      TEXAS TEMPEST

      LINDA BRODAY

      ROPING THE WIND

      PHYLISS MIRANDA

      SILENT PARTNER

      JODI THOMAS

      Chapter 1

      Dust circled around Rowdy Darnell’s worn boots as he stepped from the noon train. The reddish brown dirt whirled, trying to wipe his footprints away before they were even planted in this nothing of a town called Kasota Springs, which suited him fine. If he could, he’d erase every trace of him ever having lived here.

      Beneath the shadow of his hat, Rowdy looked around, fearing he’d see someone he knew. Someone who remembered him.

      But only strangers hurried past and most didn’t bother to look in his direction. Not that they’d recognize him now. Prison had hardened the boy they’d sent away into a man, tall, lean and unforgiving.

      Rowdy pulled his saddle from among the luggage, balanced it over one shoulder and walked off the platform toward Main Street. In the five years since he’d been gone, the place had changed, more than doubling in size, thanks mostly, he guessed, to the railhead. New storefronts and businesses framed a town square in huddled progress. To the north a line of two story roofs stood behind the bank and hardware store. One end of Main was braced by the railroad, but on the other end houses and barns scattered out for half a mile, uneven veins leading into the heart of town.

      Rowdy was glad for Kasota Springs’ growth. Maybe he’d be able to sell the nothing of a ranch his father had left him and be on his way. He had a hundred places he wanted to see and five years of catching up to do. The sooner he got out of this part of Texas and away from memories, the better.

      He walked straight to the livery and picked out a horse to rent. All the corral stock looked better than any horse he’d worked with in years. Prison horses were either broken down or wild and crazy-eyed. A guard once told him horses too tough to eat were sold to the prisons. Rowdy almost laughed. The stock reminded him of the prisoners, he decided, wondering which category he fit into.

      “You here for the rodeo?” the blacksmith asked a few minutes later when he pulled the bay Rowdy had pointed out from the herd.

      “No,” Rowdy answered without looking at the man.

      “I’m surprised. You look like you could rodeo. Got the build for it.”

      Rowdy didn’t answer. He’d spent too many years avoiding conversation to jump in.

      The man didn’t seem to notice. “If I were younger, I’d give it a try. All the ranchers have gone together and donated cattle. They say the all-around winner will walk away with a couple hundred head. Imagine that. Biggest prize I ever heard of. We’re expecting cowboys from three states to be riding and the cattle are in the far pen, ready.”

      Rowdy moved to the horse’s head, introducing himself with a touch before he looked back at the blacksmith. “You mind if I brush him down and check his hooves before I saddle up?”

      The barrel-chested man shook his head, accepted the dollar for the rental, and turned his attention to the next customers riding in.

      Rowdy picked up a brush and began working some of the mud out of the horse’s hide. The familiar action relaxed him. One thing he’d learned in prison was that animals were a great deal more predictable than humans. Treat them right and they tend to return the favor.

      As he worked, he watched a fancy red surrey pull up to the livery with three girls inside and one cowboy, dressed in his best, handling the rig. Another cowhand rode beside the buggy as if on guard.

      “Sam!” the driver yelled. “Can you check this rigging? I’d hate to tell the Captain I risked an accident with this precious cargo of sisters.” He turned back and winked at the two girls sitting on the second seat.

      They giggled in harmony.

      Rowdy noticed that the third girl sat alone on the backseat looking out of place. She didn’t laugh, or even look like she was paying attention. Her dress was far plainer than her sisters’, and her bonnet held no ribbon but the one that tied just below her chin. A stubborn chin, he thought. Sticking out as if daring anyone to take a swing at it.

      “Give me an hour,” Sam yelled as he crossed into the barn. “I’ll oil the wheels and have it checked.”

      The driver tied off the reins and jumped down. The silver on his spurs chimed as he moved. “Ladies, how about lunch at the hotel?” He offered his hand to the first giggly girl, a petite blonde with apple cheeks, while the other cowhand climbed from his saddle and did the same to the second one, a slightly plumper version of her sister.

      When the first girl started to step down, the driver moved closer. “We can’t have you getting that pretty dress dirty. How about I carry you to the walk?”

      Rowdy watched as the cowboys each lifted a laughing bundle of lace and ribbons. It took him a minute to realize the silent one in the back had been forgotten. She sat, stiff and straight as if saying to the world she didn’t care. When she raised her chin slightly with pride, Rowdy saw her face beneath the simple bonnet.

      Plain, he thought. As plain as the flat land and endless sky of this country. She didn’t look all that old, but she had “old maid” written all over her. She’d be the one to stay with the parents long after the other two had married. She’d age alone, or worse, be forced to live from midlife to old age with one of the sisters and her family.

      He glanced at the others, their voices drifting lower as they strolled toward the hotel. Rowdy wondered how often this third sister had been left behind, forgotten.

      He moved around his horse and tossed the brush he’d been using in a bucket. For once in his life he wished he had clean Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. He’d been an outsider enough to recognize another. The least he could do was offer her a way out of her awkward situation.

      “Miss,” he said, shoving his hat back so she could see his face. “May I help you down?”

      She looked at him with a flash of surprise, as if she thought herself alone in the world.

      For a moment he figured she’d tell him to mind