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Anything for His Son
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Justice for a Ranger
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Randolph saw the questions in Victoria’s eyes, along with the fear, and his guilt grew inside him for his lies.

She didn’t trust him.

But she didn’t want to live at Falcon Ridge, either. Still, if her father died, she would sell the property and it would be lost to him forever.

Maybe that was what this was all about... Someone was trying to scare her off so she would sell... Someone else who wanted Falcon Ridge. But who?

He’d vowed to steal her home away from her for his own reasons. But he couldn’t walk away or stop looking for the answers he sought now.

“You’d better go, Randolph.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if she was trying to hold herself together, as if he was the devil himself.

He wanted to tell her he wasn’t, but that was a lie, too. So he gave a clipped nod, not trusting himself to keep his hands off her if he stayed.

“I’ll be in the cabin close by if you need me.” He scrawled his phone number on a card and shoved it in her hand.

She nodded, then raced inside and slammed the heavy door shut, separating them just as the truth about why he’d returned to Falcon Ridge did.

* * * As he lay on the cot in the dark an hour later, listening to the wind howl and rattle the tin roof, he watched moisture seep through the cracks in the ceiling of the rotting wood and formulated a plan. He had to get Victoria to trust him, to allow him to search her father’s papers for information about his business dealings and the construction company that had built Falcon Ridge. If Hoffman had cheated his father, he’d probably cheated someone else, someone who was waiting on him to die so he could recoup his losses. Then Victoria would be in his way.

Nugent had been partners with Hoffman and Randolph’s father, but according to his sources, Nugent had profited well over the years and had left the area. Still, he’d check out the man and see.

An image of Victoria’s delicate face bathed in moonlight haunted him as he tried to fall asleep. He envisioned her long fingers trailing across his cheek, caressing him, threading their way through his hair, and his body tingled. He could almost feel her lips touching his, her breathy whisper of elation as he claimed her mouth. He’d spread kisses along her jaw and neck, lick the delicate lobe of her ear then dip lower to taste her breasts. He’d erase the pain from her face and make her cry out in pleasure; fill her body with delicious sensations as he pumped himself inside her. And he’d watch the erotic play of emotions in her eyes as he took her to heaven.

* * * Victoria couldn’t fathom sleeping in her father’s room where she’d found the snake, but sleeping in her own childhood bed was just as daunting. As soon as she crawled beneath the faded gingham spread, painful memories flooded her. The house groaned and creaked its nightly song of horrors. Cold air from the brittle wind outside seeped through the windows, rattling the panes and making the house vibrate from the bitter weather and isolation outside.

And then the cries began.

The childish screams of Sally Jo as she’d reached out, expecting Victoria to catch her from the fall.

Her mother’s anguished shout echoing in the eaves. Her father’s groan as he’d huddled over her mother’s limp body. The faint whisper of death drifting through the air - pungent, metallic, forever.

Victoria lurched up in bed heaving for air, perspiration mingling with the tears in her eyes. Outside a tree branch scraped the fog-coated window, the shadows of the spiny leaves dancing like talons trying to tear their way inside.

Randolph Falcon’s face floated through the haze. He was close by. He would hold her and keep her safe. Help her fight off the demons.

But he had lied to her - had secrets in his eyes.

And on a purely primal sexual level, he posed a different kind of danger. He was the kind of man who could make a woman lose control. Forget her own existence as he possessed her with his own. Drive her wild with desire.

A danger she wasn’t ready to face.

Tomorrow, she’d visit her father. Find out more about Randolph. Until then she’d have to face her demons alone, fight off the desperate urge to go to the enigmatic stranger, crawl in his bed and burrow in his strength.

To plead with him to make her forget the nightmares that tormented her in the night.

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