Read Online Showdown in West Texas by Amanda Stevens - Free Book Online Page B

should do. He should get the heck out of town while the getting was good.
    But he couldn’t deny the situation he suddenly found himself in was more than a little exhilarating. The prospect of immersing himself in real police work again gave him the kind of adrenaline buzz he hadn’t experienced since he’d left the team.
    Could be that he’d been looking at this all wrong, he mused. Maybe everything that had happened to him in the last several hours wasn’t divine retribution, but divine intervention. Maybe someone upstairs was trying to throw him a bone.
    And as to those men from San Miguel who were after him—if they hadn’t yet identified him, it wouldn’t be long until they did. For all he knew, they could already have colleagues in Dallas looking for him.
    Maybe hiding here, right under their noses, was his smartest move. They were hunting Cage Nichols, not a guy named Dale Walsh.
    Rolling onto his side, Cage closed his eyes. For the time being at least, he decided to ignore that little niggling voice warning him that Grace Steele’s dark, soulful eyes might be playing hell with his judgment.
    Â 
    T HE FEATHER BED at Miss Nelda’s was a little too soft for Grace’s liking. She’d tossed and turned for hours, her thoughts ping-ponging back and forth between theterrible doubts she’d had earlier about her own sister and then that lusty little flutter she’d felt for Dale Walsh.
    Finally, she managed to dismiss the first concern. No matter what Lily’s grievances might be, she would never deliberately set out to hurt anyone, let alone her own sister. They’d grown apart over the years, but Grace knew that somewhere beneath that hard, jaded exterior was still the same caring, sensitive person who had once rescued every stray animal that had wandered onto the ranch.
    But if Lily hadn’t been at the top of those stairs, then who had Grace seen?
    She wanted to believe the whole episode was just an unfortunate accident. Maybe she really had tripped on the rug.
    But how to explain the sound that drew her attention on the landing? The glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye? The feel of a hand on her back a split second before she went tumbling?
    Could she have imagined all that?
    Grace had always prided herself on having a level head on her shoulders, but she couldn’t deny the house where her parents had been murdered still wreaked havoc on her nerves.
    She’d never told anyone, but she’d once suffered a severe panic attack when she’d found herself alone at the ranch. For what seemed an eternity, she’d remained paralyzed in her bedroom, unable to move, unable even to breathe. And then just like that, the spell ended and she’d never experienced anything like it again.
    But maybe something similar had happened to herearlier. A different kind of panic attack. It made about as much sense as her sister—or anyone else—trying to kill her.
    And as for her attraction to Dale Walsh, she could look to her more immediate past to explain her overreaction. Daniel Costa’s betrayal had really done a number on her confidence. As a deputy director, he’d been responsible for bringing Grace into the TBI where she’d quickly become one of the hottest young agents in the Bureau. Her meteoric rise, at least in part, could be traced directly back to the strings she’d allowed Daniel to pull on her behalf.
    Once their relationship turned personal, Grace had been a little too willing to ignore her persistent doubts about Daniel’s integrity because a man in his position often had to make tough decisions. At least that was how she tried to justify turning a blind eye.
    And then Daniel had thrown her under the bus, apparently without a moment’s hesitation in order to save his own hide. That had stung. A lot. He’d wounded her pride, embarrassed her in front of her peers and derailed a very promising career. But