Lone Wolf Bounty Hunter Read online

  “I want to know everything there is about you.”

  She gave a nervous laugh. “You know, so I can get a full picture of the man I’m working with.”

  “Working with?” he asked with the raise of a brow.

  “Just tell me what you need in a relationship.”

  He hadn’t said he needed anything, merely what he believed was an indicator, but he didn’t correct her. “I think if you are dating the right person, they will help you be the best version of yourself. They will push you to your next level. Together, you should feel like you can take on the world. If they are holding you back, in any way—” as he spoke those words, he felt a tug at his heart that told him this was probably him when it came to her “—then you should find someone better.”

  There was a look of pain in her expression. “Well, I’m glad we don’t have to worry about anything like that,” she said, turning away.

  LONE WOLF BOUNTY HUNTER

  Danica Winters

  Danica Winters is a multiple-award-winning, bestselling author who writes books that grip readers with their ability to drive emotion through suspense and occasionally a touch of magic. When she’s not working, she can be found in the wilds of Montana, testing her patience while she tries to hone her skills at various crafts—quilting, pottery and painting are not her areas of expertise. She believes the cup is neither half-full nor half-empty, but it better be filled with wine. Visit her website at danicawinters.net.

  Books by Danica Winters

  Harlequin Intrigue

  STEALTH: Shadow Team

  A Loaded Question

  Rescue Mission: Secret Child

  A Judge’s Secrets

  K-9 Recovery

  Lone Wolf Bounty Hunter

  Stealth

  Hidden Truth

  In His Sights

  Her Assassin For Hire

  Protective Operation

  Mystery Christmas

  Ms. Calculation

  Mr. Serious

  Mr. Taken

  Ms. Demeanor

  Smoke and Ashes

  Dust Up with the Detective

  Wild Montana

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Kendra Spade—A prosecutor from New York whose family runs STEALTH, a military contracting and private security company that is at odds with a Montana state senator. When called to action to defend her family, she must face the pain of her past and find hope for her future.

  Trent Lockwood—The co-owner of Lockwood Bonds and a man who prides himself on his ability to do the right thing in a world that seems to focus on everything that is wrong.

  Tripp Lockwood—Fellow co-owner of the family business, Trent’s older brother and a man who is known to be an acquired taste.

  AJ Spade—Kendra’s older brother and a man who thinks his primary objective is to make her come to the family’s heel.

  Senator Dean Clark—A man with an ego as large as any cowboy’s belt buckle. Awaiting trial for his role in his wife’s murder and daughter’s kidnapping, he files a lawsuit against the Spades with the goal of turning the public’s perception of guilt from him to the shadow team.

  Brad Bradshaw—A criminal defense attorney and the head of the Bradshaw Law Group, a firm that is working to defend the senator with the hope it will be a feather in their caps and a boon for their company.

  Marla Thomas—The cosigner for the senator’s bond at the Lockwoods’ shop. Though she should be easy to track down, she is the hardest of all thanks to her masked truths and open lies.

  To my family, friends and fans.

  May this and all of my books help bring light to the darkness.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Excerpt from The Big Island Killer by R. Barri Flowers

  Chapter One

  It was a gift, nearly dying. After a lifetime spent on the front lines of her family’s many wars, it wasn’t until she was wounded and feared dead that she finally found herself with the freedom to really live.

  The wound under her left clavicle was Kendra Spade’s daily reminder of how close she had come to the edge. Yet it had also been her get-out-of-the-family-business-free card. It was a bullet that she would have gladly taken again.

  She slipped on her silk shirt and buttoned it, leaving the top open to expose the diamond solitaire necklace that adorned the base of her throat. Like any shiny thing, it had a way of attracting the biggest fish and the widest mouths. Judge Giuseppe always commented on her necklace after the hearings. She held no doubts, thanks to the look in his evil-dulled eyes, that it wasn’t only the necklace he found beautiful. That being said, she would never be the kind of woman who would sell her soul for a judge’s favor—there were far better and easier ways to get what she wanted.

  She picked up her suit jacket, laid it over her arm and slipped on her blood-bottomed heels. Before walking out of her office, she put on her lipstick and checked her lines in the mirror by the door—as always, she appeared picture-perfect.

  It was a good thing the looking glass wasn’t capable of peeking into her soul. If it was, it would see all the struggles that came with being a prosecutor and a woman with a past. Everything in her life was peppered with wounds and emotional shrapnel, but the best part of it was the scars—they were the body’s way of fusing itself and its weaknesses into a stronger and more resilient space.

  She touched the puckered place under her clavicle for good luck and picked up her briefcase. This would be a tough case, but if things went her way—which they usually did—she wouldn’t need any luck, just the power of her research and her persuasion. Today was just a bench trial, so she would only have to convince Judge Giuseppe that the defendant had committed the murder he was charged with, and that it was premeditated, not an act of self-defense. The defense had taken a risk, going for a bench trial instead of asking for a jury, and she was all too happy to oblige. Judge Giuseppe was fair and consistent on the law. Juries could be capricious.

  The trial would likely last the rest of the afternoon, but it would be dollars in her pocket—money that allowed her to be almost completely free of her ties with her family’s private security company, STEALTH. They regularly worked as military contractors and had operatives all over the world, including several right here in New York.

  On second thought, she would never be truly free.

  Her phone buzzed as she walked up the courthouse steps, and she slipped it out of her briefcase—AJ.

  Speak of the devil.

  She considered not answering and letting the phone call go to voicemail, but her brother would just keep calling until she did pick up—and that was to say nothing of the rest of the family that he would call to the table and ask to reach out to her as well. They were wolves when they needed to be, and she would always be called back to the pack when pride or lives were at stake.

  “AJ.” She said his name simply, affectless.

&
nbsp; “Glad to catch you. You busy?”

  He knew the answer to that question. She was always busy—just like him. “Not too bad. You?”

  “Just another day in paradise.” AJ chuckled. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about the ranch we’re working from in Montana, but we have a situation on our hands.”

  She could feel a request coming on the flotsam of his words, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go in for the direct hit and get it over with or if she should make him work for the ask—either way, she would be urged to do his bidding. First, she needed to know if this call to action was because of imminent danger to person or pride.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  AJ exhaled. “We’ve had a run-in with a state senator whom we were hired by. He admitted to having his wife killed and his child kidnapped, but now he has recanted and told us that he was coerced into his testimony and feared that STEALTH would kill him if he didn’t take the blame.”

  So, this threat had the bite of both injury of pride and death of souls. “And now he is suing the family?”

  “And you knowing that is exactly why we need you to come home and work on our behalf.”

  “You know as well as I do that I’m not licensed in Montana. I’d be of little to no help. However, I can make a few calls and get you the best lawyer possible.”

  “No,” AJ said, his tone making it clear that there was no argument she could make that would grant her reprieve from his request. “You are the best lawyer I know and the only one we can truly trust. And, if you look, you will notice that you actually are licensed in the State of Montana. You can thank Zoey for that one when you get here.”

  “Just because you had your team...” She glanced around, making sure that no one was listening in on her conversation, but everyone around her kept moving and seemed wrapped up in their own lives. “Just because you hacked the state bar and faked documents, it doesn’t mean that I will step into line with your plans. What you did is unethical, and if anyone was to find out, I’d be permanently disbarred.”

  AJ sighed. “The only one who has the power, or could find the proof to get you disbarred, would be you.”

  She held no doubts he was right—their boss, Zoey, would have done everything in triplicate and spared no expense to sell their ruse. Yet it didn’t change the fact she wasn’t acquainted with the intricacies of the Montana state legal system and its statutes.

  “You’ve put my reputation, my credibility and my honor at stake, and now you want me to do you a favor? I don’t like being strong-armed, AJ,” she growled.

  “And yet you are still talking to me. We both know that you love me and your family. We have you booked on a flight out this afternoon. All you have to do is go and present your case in front of Giuseppe and secure the guilty verdict that we both know you will get—then go to JFK. We have everything else you will need when you get here.”

  Damn, they’ve done their research.

  She might have hated being pushed around by her brother, but he was also the only one she loved enough to allow him to get away with treating her like a child despite the fact that she’d grown into a strong, independent woman. No matter how powerful she became or how far she tried to push her family from her world, all he had to do was make a call and prove that he would always have sway—but his most influential weapon to bring her to heel was her love for him and her other siblings. Family would always come first.

  “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, almost as if he could hear the thoughts and the arguments she was having within herself.

  “There had better be whiskey and fresh ice in my bedroom when I arrive.”

  Maybe the only time she would ever truly be free would be when she broke the chains of love she felt for her family—but death would wield that ax, something she didn’t want for any of them. Until then, when they pulled the chains tight, she had no choice but to do their bidding.

  * * *

  GETTING GIUSEPPE TO issue the right verdict had been fairly straightforward. A handful of hours later, she found herself seated in a puddle jumper and flying from Minneapolis into Missoula. At least her family had the good sense to book her first-class, but that meant little on the tiny airplane. Basically, she got one extra bag of pretzels and was the first one in line for the cheese tray.

  After boarding, she clicked her seat belt in place, and an auburn-haired man with piercing brown eyes smiled down at her. He was wearing cowboy boots, jeans and what she could best describe as something that had come off a ranch supplier’s discount rack—though he made that Western-style shirt look good.

  “Hey,” he said, giving her a nod before stowing his black backpack in the overhead compartment and sitting down.

  She gave him a tip of the head and a tight-lipped smile as he clicked in. If she had any luck, that would be where their conversation ended. She didn’t mind a little chitchat on a flight, but she didn’t like being cloistered next to such a good-looking man for that length of time—actually, any length of time. And this man was definitely good-looking. He had deep-set eyes and the brooding scowl of a thoughtful and intrepid soul.

  He glanced over at her, and his eyes picked up the light from her window, making them shine the color of warm caramel. She doubted any woman who’d looked into those eyes had ever felt the ability to say no to any kind of request he made. He was definitely the kind who had his fair share of options when it came to women—and she wasn’t the kind who wanted to compete for any man’s attention. She commanded respect and, above all, loyalty.

  The plane steadily filled with college students, smiling couples and single professionals. She glanced down at her phone. She hadn’t even put it on airplane mode yet, and she already had twenty new emails from her office and her clients. While waiting for the flight, she had taken care of what she could and made a few brief phone calls, but her thoughts returned to AJ. He hadn’t told her much about what the senator was threatening to do to her family and STEALTH, the private military contracting company that employed them. Well, all except her...for the last few years. It was a nice reprieve while it lasted.

  “Ma’am?” a flight attendant asked. She hadn’t noticed he was standing in the aisle and looking down at her, and his sudden appearance made her jump with surprise.

  “Yes?” she asked, her cheeks warming with the thought she had been caught unaware.

  “Can you please push your purse farther under your seat?” He motioned toward her leather bag, which was barely showing and, if she had been given a choice, would have never been on the floor in the first place.

  She forced a smile, clicked off her phone and dropped it into her bag before reaching to push it deeper under the seat. She felt a snap and her fingernail snagged on the man’s bag that was on the floor next to hers, but she barely paid attention as she finished shoving the bag under her seat and sat back up.

  The steward didn’t crack a smile and moved his way down the aisle, doing his best impersonation of an overworked schoolmarm in the process—she was surprised he didn’t have a ruler to rap on flyers who ignored or failed to comply to his standards.

  The man next to her cleared his throat. “If you’d like, I can put your bag in the overhead compartment for you.”

  “Thank you for the offer, but it’s fine.” And just like that, she’d had enough of men for the day. The last thing she was going to do was hand her purse over to the care of a stranger so he could put it out of her sight.

  A sigh escaped her lips before she had a chance to check the sound.

  She could feel the gaze of the man sitting next to her; he must have picked up on her unspoken annoyance. “I am sorry,” she said, not bothering to try to deny her actions. “I have had a long day, and it’s not even close to ending.”

  The plane rolled back and taxied out onto the runway, getting in line for takeoff.

  The man beside her smiled, h
is teeth as gleaming and beautiful as his eyes. “You’re fine. I get that way, too. Where are you flying out of, originally?”

  Her fears of chitchatting were being realized, and she only had herself to blame. It was a good thing her legal cases didn’t usually hinge on a single sigh; sometimes she found it only too hard to keep her body language in check.

  “New York City.” She left it simple, not wanting to have the man continue with his line of questions.

  He nodded, pinching his lips together as if he had more that he wanted to ask her but had picked up her reticence. “I’m coming from there as well. Funny, we might have been on the last plane together, too.”

  His words were innocuous, but something about the way he spoke made the hair on the back of her neck rise.

  She turned to him, facing him carefully and searching his eyes for some kind of recognition, but she found nothing but the features of the handsome stranger. “Do I know you?”

  He smiled, closed his eyes and let the G-force press his head back against the seat as they took off, forcing her retreat back to her headrest as well.

  As the plane leveled out, she had the plummeting feeling that this man was a plant. He could play coy, but she wouldn’t put it past her brother to put a tail on her to ensure she made it on the plane and safely to Montana.

  He didn’t say another word. He seemed to be asleep in the seat next to her—effectively trapping her. Ten minutes ago, she had hoped the man wouldn’t talk to her, and now that her wish had come true, she was wishing for exactly the opposite—and to find out if her intuition was right or if she was simply losing her edge.

  She battled with herself as she occasionally glanced over at him throughout the three-hour flight. When the surly flight attendant returned with the cart, she hoped the man would stir, but instead the attendant passed him over and gave her the little box of snacks and three minibottles of vodka—two of which she would definitely need to save for later.

  After downing the first minibottle, she looked over at the sleeping man. His chin was tilted back, but even in sleep he was sexy. This man, this stranger next to her, was just that—a stranger.