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A Wanted Man

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Overview

The past has a way of catching up with folks in Stone Creek, Arizona. So schoolmarm Lark Morgan and Marshal Rowdy Rhodes are determined to hide their secrets--and deny their instant attraction. That shouldn't be too hard, since each suspects the other of living a lie. Her too-fancy clothes and big-city ways inspire gossip all over town; his blond good looks and impudent grin belong to a man sporting a gunfighter's coat.

But Rowdy and Lark have one truth in common: the very real dangers they face. Like the gang of robbers wreaking havoc on the railroad heading toward Stone Creek--the men Ranger Sam O'Ballivan expects Rowdy to nab. And as past and current troubles collide, Rowdy and Lark must surrender their stubborn pride to the greatest power of all--an undying love.

Editorial Reviews

The author of more than 60 books, bestseller Miller pounds out another frontier romance loaded with hot lead, steamy sex and surprising plot twists. Rowdy Rhodes is the handsome hunk newly arrived in Stone Creek, Arizona Territory, in 1905. He's living under an assumed name and trying to change his criminal ways, but his plans to go straight go awry when he meets pretty Lark Morgan, a sophisticated local schoolteacher who is secretly on the run from a rich, abusive husband back in Denver. As they flirt, spar and try to keep their own secrets, felonious family members and other more lethal pursuers threaten them both. When Rowdy is tasked with catching the gang of train-robbing outlaws led by his own father, he is in a real dilemma. Between trysts with Lark under the horse blankets and aided by an unlikely tip, Rowdy saves the day after a terrific shootout. He can't, however, save Lark, whose salvation comes in an unexpected and satisfying plot twist. After the last owlhoot hits the dust and the smoke and secrets are cleared up, this zippy horse opera comes to a predictable and comforting ending. (July)
Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Linda Lael Miller

In 2006, New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller left the Arizona horse property she's called home for the past five years and listened to the call of her heart. Packing up her dogs, Sadie and Bernice, and her four horses, the author of more than seventy novels bid farewell to her home in the desert and returned to the place of her birth, Spokane, Washington. The daughter of a town marshal, Linda grew up in Northport, WA, a community of 500 on the Columbia River, 120 miles north of Spokane. Her childhood remembrances include riding horses and playing cowgirl on her grandparents' nearby farm. Her grandparents' spread was so rustic that in the early days it lacked electricity and running water. As delightful as this childhood was, Linda longed to see the world. After graduating as valedictorian of her high school class, she left to pursue her dream at the age of eighteen. Because of the success of her writing career, Linda was able to live part-time in London for several years, spend time in Italy and travel to such far-off destinations as Russia, Hong Kong and Israel. Now, Linda says, the wanderlust is (mostly) out of her blood, and she's come full circle, back to the people and the places she knows and loves. Before Linda begins her writing day, she takes her first cup of coffee while enjoying the scenic view of the wooded draw behind her new home. The first morning there, a snowfall blanketed the pine trees, something she had missed in the desert outside Scottsdale. Still enamored with the people she came to love in Arizona, she says she will still set books in that starkly beautiful area, and, of course, Washington. Devoted to helping others pursue their dreams, the author will launch her seventh round of the Linda Lael Miller Scholarships for Women in May 2007. A talented speaker, she donates all her speaking honoraria to her scholarship fund. The stipends are awarded to women who seek to better their lot in life through education. It's no wonder the protagonists in Miller's novels are women her readers admire for their honor, courage, trustworthiness, valor and determination to succeed, despite overwhelming odds. "These qualities make them excellent role models for young women," Miller explains. "The male leads possess equally noble traits that today's woman would be delighted to find in her life's mate." The author traces the birth of her writing career to the day when a Northport teacher told her that the stories she was writing were good, that she just might have a future in writing. Later, when she decided to write novels, she endured her share of rejection before she made her first sale.

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Additional Info

Imprint

HQN Books

Filesize

711.37 KB

Number of Pages

384

eBook ISBN

9781426816154

Excerpt from: A Wanted Man by Linda Lael Miller

Stone Creek, Arizona Territory January, 1905
ROWDY RHODES LEANED BACK in the whorehouse bathtub, a cheroot jutting from between his teeth, and sighed as he waited for the chill of a high-country winter to seep out of his bones.
Jolene, an aging madam with pockmarked skin, three visible teeth and a bustle the size of the Sonoran Desert, sloshed another bucketful of steaming water at his feet."I done seen everything now," she told him, her eyes narrowed in lascivious speculation as she studied bathhouse before."
Pardner, the old yellow hound, sat soaked and bewildered in the tub next to Rowdy's. He'd gotten pretty scruffy on the long ride up from Haven, the dog had, and Rowdy meant to take him for barbering next. They could both do with a haircut, and Rowdy was itching for a shave.
Pardner was just plain itching. "Always a first time," Rowdy said, drawing on the cheroot and then blowing a smoke ring.
Jolene lingered, probably hoping to do less-hygienic business, but willing to settle for whatever conversation might come her way."It's one thing, you payin" for clean water for yourself, but I don't see how as it makes a difference to the dog."
Rowdy grinned and blew another smoke ring. "We'll be wanting steaks, soon as we're dried off and decent, if you can scare them up," he told Jolene. "Pardner likes his rare."
"If that don't beat all," Jolene said, pondering the hound. "I can get steaks, all right, but they'll cost you a pretty penny. And if you've a mind to pass the time upstairs with any of my girls, cowboy, your partner here will have to wait in the hall."
Given that he was naked, and in a prone position, Rowdy didn't see any profit in pointing out that he didn't have truck with whores. His .44 was within easy reach, as always, but shooting a woman, saint or sinner, was outside the boundaries of his personal code. Unless, of course, she drew first.
"No time for idling with the ladies," he said, feigning regret. He idled with plenty of ladies, whenever he got the chance, but he favored fine, upstanding widows.
"You lookin" for ranch work?" Jolene asked, in no apparent hurry to rustle up the steaks.
"Maybe," Rowdy answered. The truth was, he'd been summoned to Stone Creek by none other than Major John Blackstone and Sam O'Ballivan,an Arizona Ranger he'd chanced to encounter down south, a little over a year before, in the border town of Haven. He'd come partly because he and Pardner hadn't had anything better to do, and because he was curious. And there were a few other reasons, too.
He suspected his pa was somewhere in these parts, up to his old tricks, for one.
"Try Sam O'Ballivan's place," Jolene said helpfully. "Sam's a fair man, and he's always hirin" on hands to feed them cattle of his."
Rowdy nodded. "Obliged," he said. "Not that you're hurtin" for money, if you can afford clean bathwater and a steak for a dog," Jolene added.
"A man can always use money," Rowdy allowed, wishing Jolene would order up the steaks, go back to riding herd over the drunks he'd seen out front in the saloon swilling whiskey, and leave him to bathe in peace.
Pardner gave a despairing whimper. "Just bide there for a while," Rowdy told him quietly. Pardner huffed out a sigh and hunkered down to endure. He was a faithful old fella,Pardner was.He'd trotted alongside Rowdy's horse for the first few miles out of Haven,but then he'd gotten footsore and come the rest of the way in the saddle. As they traveled north, the weather got colder, and they'd shared Rowdy's dusty old canvas coat.
Remembering the looks they'd gotten from the townsfolk, him and Pardner, riding into town barely an hour before, Rowdy smiled. Even with a new and modern century underway, the Arizona Territory was still wild and woolly, and odd sights were plentiful. He wouldn't have thought a man and a dog on the back of the same horse would attract so much notice.
"You run along and see to those steaks," Rowdy told Jolene. Even with the bucketful of hot water she'd just poured into his tub, the bath was lukewarm, and there was cold air coming up through the cracks between the ancient, warped floorboards. He wanted to scrub himself down with the harsh yellow soap provided, dry off, and get into the clean duds he'd saved for the purpose.
Of course, Pardner needed sudsing, too, and Rowdy didn't reckon even Jolene's services extended quite that far.
Jolene hadn't had her fill of visiting, that much was clear by her disgruntled aspect, but she lit out for the kitchen, just the same. upright on his hide like quills on a porcupine, from the rubdown with a burlap sack, growled low and in earnest.
Yes, sir, Rowdy thought, looking down at him, he did want barbering.
"That dog bite?" Willie asked. A muscle twitched in the beard stubble along his right cheek. He carried himself like a man of little consequence determined to give another kind of impression.