Jace sat by Jimmy’s grave, hand resting on the freshly-scarred dirt. Lying in the hospital, she had missed the funeral.
At her request, her mother had left the day after. Her mother’s new boyfriend could help her more than Jace would ever be able to do. There might be hope for Jace and her mother yet; only time would tell. Christine was talking rehab, and Jace hoped she meant it. She would give encouragement and support; her mother was the only family she had left, after all. But it was up to Christine how this would play out. Jace could live with that.
She might even be able to live with losing Jimmy someday—but not yet. That wound wasn’t nearly healed. A scab had formed, but the flesh was still raw beneath. She had a long road ahead to come to terms with how she’d failed her brother.
All you can control is how you go on from here, Jace. Myra’s words rang in her head. Nothing to be done about the past, no way to reconcile her shattered illusions about who she was.
She’d learned some hard lessons. That control could be a front for fear. That she was anything but bulletproof. That she was a woman who could love a man deeply.
Even if he didn’t love her back.
She hadn’t seen Dante since that night when everyone said she’d been dying, only no one could seem to agree on what had happened next. Each story had become more fantastic than the last.
Jace wasn’t sure what to think about any of it, but maybe she knew all she needed to. Dante had saved her. Maybe how didn’t matter.
Especially since he was leaving Santa Fe forever.
It had been Gabriel who had told her when he’d come to the hospital to eat crow. He’d caught her up on what had happened: Markos dead; Simon to stand trial for murder, Antonia as his accomplice. Dante had been cleared. She’d gotten the full story, how Dante had badgered his way into the raid by pointing out that they needed someone on the inside, that he’d been conducting his own undercover investigation after hearing rumors of Simon’s perversion of the legend Dante had taught him. Gabriel had even admitted that the loss of life could have been much worse without Dante.
The squad had turned out in full force at the hospital. Even unsmiling Capt. Gonzales had come to visit. She was on probation, she’d lost rank, but she was not off the force. She would have another chance at the job she’d fought so hard to get. Earl had been by every day, and he and Myra had become fast, if improbable, friends.
The world that had spun out of control the day she met Dante Sabanne was slipping back into place.
Unfortunately, it was no longer the world she wanted.
That couldn’t matter. A zillionaire and a cop didn’t belong together, except in the movies. He was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, too rich for a simple cop’s blood. They were polar opposites in every way. If she woke each morning from dreams of his hands on her body, that was her problem. There were too many tangled memories…so many conflicting emotions. She had no logical explanation for all that had passed between them.
But logic hadn’t saved her.
Dante had.
She’d discovered that he’d also flown in experts to oversee her care. She’d wished for a chance to thank him in person, but so far she hadn’t summoned the courage to approach him. To see rejection in his eyes or worse yet, pity, was more than she thought she could bear.
Ready or not, though, it was time. Past time. She would do the right thing. Say thank you before it was too late.
And then goodbye, knowing that the rest of her life would be lonely beyond anything she’d ever imagined.
She kissed her fingertips and pressed them to the dirt of her brother’s grave. “Goodbye, Jimmy. I’ll be back. I won’t leave you on your own again.”
Tears shimmering, she rose, dusted off her jeans, and stared out into the distance. Then she squared her shoulders and turned to go.
And saw him standing beneath a tree, as though she’d conjured him from her heart’s deepest longings.
He stepped away from the trunk where he’d been leaning. Far enough to give her privacy, near enough to watch over her.
Tall and straight, long black hair ruffled by the same cool mountain breeze whispering over her skin, Dante stood very still, as if waiting for her to choose, one more time.
You want to trust, but you are afraid no one is strong enough.
She’d felt his strength before. Had known, in a moment surrounded by starburst and singing, what it was to be safe. She wanted that feeling again. Wanted to trust it for the first time since a young girl’s world shattered.
But for one treacherous second, her heart did a slow roll in her chest, hope squeezed hard against fear.
When did you ever open your heart and stop looking for the sucker punch, Sis? Jimmy’s words echoed in her head as she looked at Dante.
Then, deep inside her, something eased.
Heart in her throat, she took that first, terrifying step toward the unknown, the illogical.
Dante smiled.
And opened his arms in welcome.
~THE END~
Thank you for letting me share my stories with you! If you liked THE LIGHT WALKER, I would be very grateful if you would help others find this book by recommending it to your friends on Goodreads or by writing a review. If you would like to be informed when my next release is available, please sign up for my newsletter here.
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Jean
If you enjoy reading romantic suspense, you might also enjoy one of my other romantic suspense titles:
Rancher Quinn Marshall is haunted after nearly dying in a failed attempt to save his sister. The last thing the former homicide detective wants is another woman to watch over, but someone important to his brother is in trouble, and Quinn’s basic nature is to protect. Soap opera star Lorie Chandler has already lost her husband to an obsessed fan and now her son is the madman’s new target.
While the police hunt the killer, Quinn’s rugged Texas ranch is the ideal hiding place for Lorie and her child. Neither Quinn nor Lorie expects the explosive heat or the powerful emotion that flares to life in his canyon refuge, yet there is no future for them and both are painfully aware that their time together can only be temporary. When the madman finds them, Quinn’s sole focus is on keeping Lorie and the boy he’s come to love safe, even though his success will mean that he will have to give them up to a life where he cannot belong.
Sexiest Man Alive Josh Marshall is on his way home to Texas when he rescues a woman on the run. In contrast to the many women crushing on him all over the world, this woman does not trust him and wants nothing to do with him, seeking to escape every time his back is turned.
Elena Navarro is running from an abusive husband with criminal ties. Terrified to trust anyone, she finds Josh’s tender care a miracle, but his fame and celebrity status could be a death sentence for them both. When echoes of a shared past life threaten, Josh questions his sanity, but he’s a white knight to the core and cannot stop trying to help her, even at the risk of his life.
Rancher Case Marshall is driving a truck instead of his hellraiser Harley after a crooked partner nearly bankrupts his Flying M Ranch. Society girl Samantha St. Claire never dreamed she’d be on the run from the mob—or that she’d find her white knight at a truck stop.
Their worlds couldn’t be less compatible or their attraction more high-octane…but there are dangers and shocking secrets to battle before they can dream of a future together.
Days away from release from Attica after serving twenty years to guard a secret, Lucas Walker discovers that he’s news again.
The story once shocked the world: the son of renowned Shakespearean actor Martin Gerard, murdered while defending his twin sister Tansy from assault by Lucas Walker, the juvenile delinquent once taken under the wing of Gerard’s wife Juliette.
Gerard’s triumphant return to the stage after a ten-year absence brings the old case to light. When Tansy is kidnapped, Lucas can’t leave New York as he’d planned, no matter how badly he wants to—not until he lives up to a promise to her dying mother to protect her. Lucas goes after her, risking imprisonment once more to face the person responsible for the night that forever altered all their lives.
Will the truth save her…or destroy her?
FBI agent Alex Sandoval has never forgiven himself for not protecting a young girl from seeing her mother murdered during his first hostage negotiation twelve years ago. Now Jade Butler is a cop herself, assigned to a prestigious multi-agency task force hunting for the killer of several young girls in Austin, Texas—and Alex is the agent in charge of the case.
They never met all those years ago, but Jade recognizes his voice as the one she still hears in her dreams, the voice that has comforted her through many a terrifying flashback. Her role on the task force is undercover, serving as bait for a madman, yet Alex cannot stop trying to protect her as he was unable to do years ago. Tensions ratchet between them as old memories vie with a powerful new attraction, and when Jade is taken hostage by the killer, it’s Alex’s worst nightmare as he must negotiate once again—only this time, it’s to save the woman he loves.
Gabriela Navarro believed she and Eli Wolverton would always be together…until he abandoned her. Years later, Gaby has made a new life in the big city. Her future is bright, and Eli is her past. When she returns to bury her father and learns that Eli is accused of his murder, she is stunned, but she no longer knows the man who’s replaced the boy she loved.
Then their paths cross again, and though the longing between them is more powerful than ever, Eli refuses to defend himself and pushes her to go. Does Gaby believe the charges against him, or the urgings of her heart?
There is so much more at stake than Gaby can imagine. With his freedom and his life on the line, only one thing would draw Eli away from his search for the truth: Gaby’s safety.
Even if that means he’ll lose her forever.
Tough prosecutor Callie Hunter left the small town and never planned to return, but an unexpected inheritance requires her to return to the scene of her life’s greatest heartache.
When she encounters the town’s golden boy who once owned her young heart—only to learn he’s fresh out of prison. All David Langley wants is to be left alone to scrape together a life unrecognizable to the boy who once carried the town’s dreams on his shoulders.
Until he let Callie Hunter derail him.
The draw between them is still there, but having her see how far he’s fallen is unbearable. The more she’s with him, however, the more she knows that who he was didn’t change. There has to be more to the story.
But second chances don’t happen for convicted murderers, and when old enemies conspire to send him back into the hell he barely survived, the only one who can help him is Callie.
The last person on earth he’s willing to ask for anything.
Please enjoy the following excerpt from TEXAS REFUGE
Quinn Marshall jolted awake in his seat.
The acrid scent of candle smoke seared his nostrils. He glanced around and remembered he was on a plane. Took a deep breath.
The passenger beside him still slept.
But the flight attendant’s gaze was locked on his.
Had he cried out in his sleep?
“Sir?” she whispered, dark curls falling forward. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Can I get you something?”
My old life back. “No. Thank you.”
She hesitated. He flattened his gaze and sat still, willing her to give up. What he needed was beyond even her best intentions.
She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, then nodded her head. “Well, let me know if you change your mind.”
“I will.”
After she retreated, he shook his head hard, as if that would dislodge the sense of evil clinging to the curves inside his skull. Why had the dreams started again? First the dark-haired boy, now this. For months after he’d left the force he hadn’t experienced any.
He never wanted another one. After the first one, his sister had been murdered. He’d been too late to save her, nearly died himself.
But now they were back. Who was the little dark-haired boy around whom he felt such danger? Who was the blond woman in the picture?
A blonde…. Like Clarissa.
I don’t want this. It’s useless. I didn’t save her.
Let me be.
To settle himself, he visualized the table rock at the canyon’s edge where he’d found respite. Grounded by earth, the only sound the constant wind sweeping his mind clean of shadows, he could find rest for his troubled mind.
Peace he didn’t deserve.
He felt the change in the engines and stirred, raised his seat back and prepared for the landing. When they touched down and rolled to a stop, he uncoiled his tall frame and rose to grab his carry-on. The flight attendant caught his eye, her expression intimating that this didn’t have to be the end. With regret, he shifted his gaze to stare at the ceiling. She had no clue what she’d be tackling.
“56 West 66th,” he told the cab driver a few minutes later, then settled back into the seat of the taxi, gathering himself for the charade he must act out. He hated to be less than honest with his younger brother, but Josh knew nothing about this crack in the steadiness he’d always counted on from Quinn, how it had swallowed him up, how damned scared Quinn was that the darkness seemed to have become a permanent part of him.
Once they had shared practically everything, the three orphaned siblings, but Clarissa was gone, and Josh had a new life and a bright future. Their one surviving relative, their grandmother’s sister whom they called Tía Consuela, was aging and carried her own burdens.
This was his battle to fight.
Things were looking up for his brother now, and Quinn wasn’t going to screw it up. Josh’s grief over Clarissa had faded in the demands of his new leading role. He’d worked hard for what he’d accomplished, and Quinn wanted him to savor it.
Quinn only wished his brother would leave him alone in the canyons to seek his own peace. But Josh and Tía Consuela had conspired to corner Quinn into paying Josh a visit in New York, and Quinn had run out of excuses.
He hated cities. The years he’d spent as a Houston homicide detective couldn’t be forgotten so easily, but he damn sure tried. Visiting New York brought back too many unwelcome memories of crowded streets. Of danger, of darkness.
“Here we are.” The driver’s voice broke into his thoughts.
Quinn paid the fare and stepped from the cab, looking around him. God, the noise. A pang of longing for the crisp, clean air of the High Plains, the endless stars in the Texas nighttime sky, squeezed his heart.
It was only a few days. He squared his shoulders and entered the building.
…Excerpt from TEXAS REFUGE by Jean Brashear © 2012
Start reading TEXAS REFUGE today!
Click on the covers below for more on each book
THE TEXAS HEROES series:
THE GALLAGHERS OF MORNING STAR
Secrets will be revealed and the lives of four people will be shattered as they learn that who they are and where they come from is not at all what they always believed.
Texas Secrets: Former SEAL Boone Gallagher returns to the only home he’s ever known only to find that the ranch has been willed to a stranger who doesn’t want it—and he must keep her there for thirty days, or it will be lost to them both.
Texas Lonely: A loner who’s lost faith in love is the only hope for a mother and child on the run
Texas Bad Boy: Disgraced bad boy has his chance for revenge against the beautiful society girl who chose money over his love
The Gallaghers Of Morning Star Boxed Set
THE MARSHALLS
Texas Refuge: Haunted former detective is the only sanctuary for an actress being stalked by a madman
Texas Star: Sexiest Man Alive becomes a white knight for a woman who keeps trying to escape him
Texas Danger: Down on his luck rancher is the only hope for a socialite on the run from the mob
THE WORLD OF SWEETGRASS SPRINGS
Nestled in the Texas Hill Country, tiny Sweetgrass Springs was founded by four veterans of the Texas Revolution, and for over a century the town and their ranches grew and prospered. Nowadays, however, too many of the town’s children leave for the big city as soon as they can escape, and Sweetgrass is barely hanging on. The heart and soul of Sweetgrass is Ruby Gallagher. Her daughter vanished from Sweetgrass right after high school, but Ruby, owner of community gathering place Ruby’s Café, remains, keeping vigil, hoping for her daughter’s return. She is fighting to save her ancestors’ legacy, but the town is dying, and it’s breaking Ruby’s heart.
Then the granddaughter she never knew existed arrives and sets in motion a new life for this eccentric, lovable spot in the road…where hope never fades and love never dies. Readers call it “a special place for hearts that need healing.”
Texas Roots: A Paris-trained chef on the run finds Texas family she never knew existed and a sexy cowboy she doesn’t dare love
Texas Wild: Sexy SEAL turned Hollywood stuntman returns home to find his buddy’s little sister all grown up
Texas Dreams: Take two reluctant brides and two frustrated grooms, mix with both clans of Gallaghers and season with a SEAL or three, a movie star, a Hollywood Barbie and a country music giant—and get not one but two surprise weddings
Texas Rebel: A former rebellious teen turned billionaire’s reunion with his teenage sweetheart and a secret baby he never knew about
Texas Blaze: What happens when a shark lawyer in stilettos has a fling with a hot firefighter determined to find Suzy Homemaker?
Texas Christmas Bride: All he wants is the girl he thought he’d lost forever.
The Book Babes: Five women began as a reading group and became family…but now change is rippling through the group. (A surprise Sweetgrass Springs connection!)
Texas Hope: Can two brothers who never knew each other existed overcome the secrets of a woman who abandoned one son and lied to the other?
Texas Strong: Can a man who’s never trusted anyone and a woman who’s trusted all the wrong men defy the odds and open their hearts to each other?
Texas Sweet: When a stranger who holds the keys to her identity arrives in town, will the girl everyone knows as Brenda come to terms with her past or run again?
Be Mine This Christmas: The man he’s become is not the boy she once knew—and he may never forgive her, once he knows the secret she’s been concealing.
Texas Charm: He’s a country superstar; she’s a small town waitress. When the real world slams into their reverie, whose heart will be the one to break? (Contains an original song written for this book)
Texas Magic: One billionaire…one tomboy…one night of magic. Miracle or mirage?
Be My Midnight Kiss: It’s New Year’s Eve…and now or never for these two hearts
Boxed sets:
The Gallaghers Of Sweetgrass Springs Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-3)
The Gallaghers Of Sweetgrass Springs Boxed Set 2 (Books 4-6)
LONE STAR LOVERS
Heart-tugging, action-packed and passionate stories of the close-knit Sullivan/Sandoval family of four brothers and one sister, plus the three Morgan sisters, orphaned and separated for many years, whose lives reconnect as they become part of the family circle.
Texas Heartthrob: Hollywood’s hottest star is a man in disguise when he encounters a woman who’s lost everything…but her secrets. When the world catches up to them, will the price of their lies cost them everything?
Texas Healer: Special Forces medic holds the power to heal both a doctor’s injured body and her wounded heart…but she can’t stay in his world—and he can’t leave.
Texas Protector: A detective forever haunted by the night when he couldn’t save a young girl from trauma—now she’s a cop herself and he has to send her undercover to lure a murderer.
Texas Deception: A plucky crusader falls for a down-on-his-luck stranger—only to learn too late that he’s the villain determined to destroy her town
Texas Lost: A hard-nosed detective targeted by internal affairs and the woman who’s professional evaluation will make or break his career. A a growing attraction between them risks first his case…and then her life.
Texas Wanderer: When she’s lost all her dreams and is finally finding a place to call home, will she place her trust—and her heart—in the hands of a wanderer with secrets?
Texas Bodyguard: He’s undercover as a bodyguard to a film star because her best friend is his top suspect. When she comes to mean too much to him, confessing his deception means risking his career—but not coming clean with her could risk her life
Texas Rescue: A haunted warrior who lives in the shadows encounters a small, valiant woman who’s a champion of lost causes, and the vibrant light within her lures him from the darkness. When she is rocked by a brush with evil, can he make her feel safe again…and can she convince him that he deserves to live in the light?
Lone Star Lovers Boxed Set (Books 1-3)
SECOND CHANCES series
Love deserves a second chance…
Guarding Gaby: Gabriela Navarro believed she and Eli Wolverton would always be together…until he abandoned her.
Bringing Bella Back: They had the perfect marriage…until he lost his way. Then he lost Bella.
The Price He Paid: The golden boy and the rebel girl who cost him everything
The House That Love Built: Once they had it all: a home with a man who adored her, three children they cherished, a life filled with passion and promise. Until one troubled child cost them everything.
The Road Back Home: Can her family forgive what she can’t forgive herself?
Dream House: Her dream house is the scene of his nightmares.
DANGEROUS TO LOVE stories
Is he her enemy…or will he save her?
Dark, deadly and dangerous, they operate in the shadows, guarding the women they love but cannot have.
The Choice: Only one of them can win—and if they cannot learn to trust each other, both of them could die.
Mercy: He went to prison for twenty years to save her…can he save her again?
The Light Walker: A brand-new detective. A mesmerizing, mysterious billionaire suspect. A powerful attraction that threatens the balance in a battle between the dark and the light
A letter to Rod Stewart resulting in a Cinderella 16th birthday for her daughter might have been the first step on Texas romance author Jean Brashear’s path to being a New York Times and USAToday bestselling author of more than 50 novels in romance and women’s fiction.
Jean’s stories are hailed as “feel-good romance at its finest” and her quirky small towns are called “a special place for hearts that need healing.” All are evidence of Jean’s heartfelt belief that love is the most powerful force in the universe, and her stories reflect that bone-deep commitment to spreading her faith in the goodness that exists inside us all.
Visit Jean’s website
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