Derrick

Thank you for reading Derrick, Book #9 in the Texas Boudreau Brotherhood series. I hope you enjoyed Derrick and Daisy’s story. I loved writing their book. Even though Derrick isn’t a Boudreau, he’s an honorary member of the clan, and when the chips are down, the Boudreaus always circle the wagons to protect one of their own. Plus, Daisy deserved her chance at happily ever after, don’t you think?

Since so many readers wrote me, asking about some of the secondary characters in Shiloh Springs, I decided some of them deserved to have their own stories told, and allow them to get their happily ever after. This doesn’t mean you won’t be getting the rest of the Texas Boudreau brothers, it simply means you’re getting additional books about the folks living in Shiloh Springs and their interactions with the family.

Next up is Dane Boudreau. Dane handles all the day-to-day workings of the Boudreau spread, keeping the ranch up and running. But when feisty Destiny, computer hacker extraordinaire, contacts him about a not-so-veiled threat to his life, Dane knows all his secrets are about to be exposed. Want to know more? Keep reading for an excerpt from his book, Dane, Book #10 in the Texas Boudreau Brotherhood. Available at all major e-book and print book stores. Available for pre-order now.

“You dropped your bombshell and hung up before I could ask any questions.” Dane leaned back against the padded back of the booth and crossed his arms over his chest. “Care to give me a few more details?”

Destiny stared down at her hands, twining her fingers over and over. All that nervous energy needed to go someplace. It was almost like she wanted—no, needed—to be working a keyboard rather than sitting here. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a social meeting, where he could simply let her off the hook and send her on her way. No, the information she’d uncovered might make the difference in his own investigation. One nobody, especially not his family, knew about.

“Like I said, I like Ridge. He’s a decent boss and lets me do my job on my own terms. He’s talked about your family and how much you all mean to him. So, I’ve kinda kept my eyes open whenever I see the Boudreau name pop up online. Thank goodness you don’t spell your last name like the Louisiana Boudreauxs. Having that X on the end really skews the results.”

“From what I understand, generations ago our family did spell it with the X on the end. I have no idea when it changed, but…”

Destiny blew out a breath, and it ruffled the bangs across her forehead in a cute way. Most of the time he loved long hair on women, something he’d never questioned. But Destiny’s hair was short, feathered in layers around her face, and it highlighted her high cheekbones and made her deep brown eyes seem huge.

“I set up a few alerts so any time one of your names popped up, from somebody doing an inquiry to a credit check, I got notified. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s nothing. Almost everybody who’s on the internet has tons of stuff moving through sites and they never know. Usually, they are surface inquiries. Like when somebody looks up Camilla, because of her books. Things like that I discard without a second look. Ms. Patti’s real estate business, Douglas’ construction company? Tons of hits, but nothing that would raise any red flags.”

She nodded, her teeth nibbling on her lower lip. Dane fisted his hands to keep from reaching across the table and touching her lip, to pull it free. He wasn’t sure why he was reacting to Destiny like this. But ever since he’d seen her in the Big House’s kitchen with Tina, seeing the tattoo on her chest, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. And that was a problem. Until he’d settled his own life, he couldn’t even think about dealing with anything, or anybody, else.

Dane barely refrained from rolling his eyes. While he wasn’t a complete noob, he had more than a passing knowledge of the ins and outs. Not as much as Destiny, obviously, but still…

“There is the internet, the world wide web, where almost everyone does their daily business. Whenever you do any kind of search, that’s where you’re looking. But there is a deeper layer, called the Dark Web. That’s where a lot of your more…questionable…searches and requests happen.”

Dane nodded, following her meaning. “I’ve heard of the Dark Web. That’s where you found my name?”

“Yeah. At first I thought it was a mistake. Sometimes that happens. Some idiot types in a wrong URL and gets steered to a place where they’d never really know, and usually gets redirected pretty quick.”

Destiny stopped talking when the waitress brought their drinks, along with chips, salsa and queso. Dane tapped the corner of the menu, and she shook her head, choosing instead to grab a tortilla chip and scoop up a mound of queso and pop it into her mouth. His mouth curved upward at the look of total bliss on her face. Well, that answered one question. The woman liked Mexican food.

“Let’s cut to the chase, Destiny. You got an alert with my name. Found somebody had put a hit on me. What else do you have? A time? A place? A name? Give me something.”

Her perusal made him feel like a bug under a microscope. She didn’t say a word, simply studied him with such intensity he wanted to do something. Anything. Mostly he wanted to bolt from the restaurant, pretend he’d never heard about somebody wanting him dead. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. He’d managed to stay hidden from the rest of the world for most of his life. Living with the Boudreaus, being adopted at a young age, had helped keep his pursuers off his trail for almost two decades.