Colorado Cowboy

by Diana Palmer

Genres: Western Romance; Multicultural & Interracial Romance

Synopsis

Suspenseful and sexy, here is one of New York Times bestselling contemporary western romance author Diana Palmer’s celebrated Colorado novellas.

Set against the breathtaking backdrop of Colorado, this suspenseful and sexy novella from New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer tells the tale of a solitary cowboy whose peace is interrupted—and wild heart tamed—by an intriguing stranger who brings a new kind of danger to his door . . .

Fleeing her mother’s killer, Esther Marist ends up at a rugged stranger’s cabin. A wildlife rehabilitator with a menagerie that includes an elderly wolf, Matthews isn’t the type to turn any creature away . . .
 
As Esther heals, she realizes how much danger she’s brought to his door—and how far he’ll go to protect her.
 
“You just can't do better than a Diana Palmer story to make your heart lighter and smile brighter.” —Fresh Fiction
 

Release date: April 25, 2023

Publisher: Zebra Books

Print pages: 96

Sample

It was snowing. Esther Marist was cold and frightened walking along the highway. She pulled her blue fox jacket closer around her and nervously pushed back a long strand of platinum blond, curly hair. She was still wearing the gray wool slacks and the purple silk blouse she’d put on that morning. There was a dark stain on the hem of one pants leg. It was blood. Her mother’s blood.

Her pale blue eyes stared into the darkness without really seeing it. Her mother, Terry Marist, had just been killed in front of her eyes, from being picked up and literally thrown down the staircase by her latest gigolo boyfriend.

Terry had several homes. This one was in Aspen, Colorado. It was the prettiest of the lot. They’d come here against Terry’s wishes, several weeks ago, because her gigolo boyfriend was meeting somebody. Esther hadn’t been able to hear all of it, but there had been something said about Terry financing a scheme of his that two partners were involved in. They were going to meet the men here. Darrin had forced the two women into Terry’s Mercedes and driven them here from Las Vegas, where Terry had reluctantly financed several days of reckless gambling by her vicious boyfriend.

Terry had finally realized what Esther had known from the beginning, that Darrin was dangerous and money-crazy. But it was too late. Esther’s mother had paid the price, and if Esther couldn’t get out of Aspen before Darrin Ross found her, she’d be paying it as well.

Her mother had tears in her blue eyes as she shivered and clawed at her daughter’s cold fingers. Her leg under her short dress was twisted horribly from the fall. Her blond hair was covered in blood from where her head had collided with one of the banisters. She was gasping for breath and then Terry realized that there was a cut on her mother’s throat. Blood was pulsing out of it like a water fountain. Esther knelt beside her mother and frantically tried to stop the flow with her hands, but she couldn’t.

“I’ll call an ambulance!” she told Terry quickly, glancing up the stairs in fear that Darrin would come. She started to pull her cell phone out of the pocket in her slacks and remembered that she’d left it upstairs in the drawer of her bedside table, charging.

“No,” her mother choked. “Too late. I’m . . . dying.”

Terry put the huge seven-carat pink diamond ring she always wore into Esther’s palm and closed her daughter’s fingers around it. “Keep the will I gave you last night. Keep the ring, too. He thinks . . . I put it on the dresser, like he . . . told me to. Run,” she whispered frantically. “I’m so sorry . . . ! You can go to . . . your . . . grandfather . . .”

But before she could say anything more, she made an odd little sound and the light left her eyes. Her pretty face was white from the blood loss. Upstairs, the boyfriend was cursing. “Where is it?” he was raging. “Where’s that damned ring? I saw her put it . . . right here . . . on the dresser!”

Esther felt for a pulse, but her mother’s eyes were open, her pupils were fixed and dilated; darkness was settling in them, just like when one of Esther’s pets had died and she’d watched the same thing happen to their eyes. Terry was dead. Darrin had killed her! Tears ran down her cheeks as she took one last look at her only refuge in the world. Her mother was gone and she would be at the mercy of Terry’s murderous boyfriend.

Esther knew better than to stay. Darrin Ross was drunk and he was very dangerous when he drank. He’d taken up with her mother weeks ago, despite Esther’s pleas. But he loves me, her mother had said with a laugh, and you’ll get used to him. Esther hadn’t. And once he started knocking her mother around when she wouldn’t give him as much money as he wanted, Terry Marist had realized the mistake she’d made. Darrin was abusive and frightening. Terry was sorry, but she was too afraid to try and leave him.

He’d become obsessed with the enormous diamond ring that Esther’s mother had been given on her eighteenth birthday by her father. Even though they were estranged, Terry Marist spoke of her father sometimes and told her how kind he’d been to her when she was a little girl, before Terry married a man he didn’t approve of. The ring had sentimental value. But past that, it was worth a king’s ransom. Darrin had tried to take it off her finger once, when she was asleep, but Terry’s poor hands were arthritic and swelled badly. He’d been sure at the time that all Terry had would be his one day, so he’d found an excuse to give her about what he was doing. He was just massaging her poor fingers because she’d been crying out in her sleep. Esther knew better. Terry hadn’t.

Now, Terry had truly left him and Esther was going to be next unless she could get away before he came downstairs. He was still upstairs, searching for the ring. He yelled that he’d seen her take it off and put it on the dresser, because he’d threatened her if she didn’t. So where was it?

That explained why Terry had it hidden in her hand. Esther had given her mother one last, anguished look, grabbed her coat and purse off the coat tree, and ran out into the snowy night.

She had only the money in her purse, her unspent allowance. She didn’t even have a credit card, having always used her mother’s. The money was all in her mother’s name as well, and Darrin would have access to it; but not at once. He wouldn’t know that Terry had cut up her credit cards so that Darrin wouldn’t have access to them, soon after they’d arrived in Aspen. She’d had the premonition then and shared it with her daughter. Terry was truly frightened after the terrifying trip up from Vegas, with Darrin driving the Mercedes, laughing about how much money—Terry’s money—he was going to spend on this new venture of his.

Most of Terry’s estate was tied up in stocks and bonds and property, not easily liquidated. The ring Esther wore was free and clear and could be hocked or sold for a fortune. Where could she go? She was twenty-three years old and she’d never worked a day in her life. She’d been pampered, taken care of, her every desire fulfilled. Her mother’s great wealth had cushioned her, spoiled her. If her mother had only loved her . . .

Well, over the years she’d managed to accept the neglect, while the housekeeper, Agnes, had shared holidays with her and been a wonderful substitute mother. Esther’s mother was perpetually in search of the right man, so there was a succession of them in the villas she kept both in the United States and other countries. Esther had learned quickly to stay out of the way. Her mother didn’t like having a grown daughter; it interfered with her vision of herself as a young and beautiful woman. Despite the face-lifts and spas and couture garments, her age was getting hard to hide. When she was at her lowest ebb, cast off by a younger lover, she’d met Darrin Ross. And it had all started to come apart. Even the slight affection Terry had felt for her daughter was suddenly gone, in the passion she shared with Darrin. But so soon, the passion turned to fear. Darrin drank heavily and used drugs, and he had very expensive tastes. Terry became a hostage to his desires. Along with her, Esther, too, became a victim. And now her mother was dead and she was cast adrift in a cold and frightening world, with no family.

Her mother had mentioned a grandfather. But who was he? Her mother spoke once of a falling-out she’d had with her remaining parent over her choice of husbands when she’d married Esther’s easygoing, gambling father. Her father was long dead, but the feud apparently remained. Esther knew her grandfather’s last name but not where he lived, because she hadn’t been told. She couldn’t go through family albums or correspondence, because those were in the main house back in Los Angeles, where Terry and Esther had lived. Esther didn’t even have her cell phone. It was in the drawer beside her bed, still charging. She’d forgotten to bring it downstairs this evening, having come running when she heard her mother scream.

She could have cried, but it would do no good. She was running for her life. She could call the police, of course, but Darrin would tell them it was a terrible accident. He wouldn’t tell them that he’d thrown Terry down the staircase, and when the police left . . . It was too terrible to think about.

There had at least been three 911 calls from the address previously, though, when Darrin had attacked Terry over money. Agnes had called the police despite Terry’s pleas. Try as he might, Darrin couldn’t intimidate Agnes, who had powerful relatives. He wasn’t drunk enough to do that, but he had pushed Terry into firing her. A temporary housekeeper had been engaged to work in her place, and Esther’s heart had been broken at the treatment her surrogate mother had suffered. Terry had taken Darrin’s side against her daughter for protesting. Darrin had threatened her with a black eye if she interfered with him again or if she dared to call the police. Those 911 calls would be on record. Even though Darrin was sure to swear that Terry’s was an accidental death, there would be an investigation, because of Darrin’s prior abuses. Surely he’d be found out!

Esther was far too afraid to do anything. She would call the police, she decided, so that at least Darrin wouldn’t have the opportunity to hide the body. She’d do it anonymously, however, and from a pay phone. If she could find one. She’d never used a public phone. She wasn’t sure where to go. But they recorded those calls, didn’t they? And what if Darrin’s friend at the police station recognized her voice and traced the call before she could get out of town? What then?

Buses ran. But Darrin would be after that diamond, and even worse, after her mother’s will. Esther hadn’t understood why her mother had stuffed the legal document into her purse the night before. You must keep it close, she’d said, and never take it out of your purse. Esther had asked why. Her mother had looked horrified and murmured something about a terrible threat. Darrin was jealous. He thought she was seeing someone else. He wasn’t about to give up his luxury bed and board and he’d already started drinking. Her mother had seen an attorney, unknown to Darrin, and changed her will so that Darrin inherited nothing. In one of his rages, Darrin had gone with Terry to an attorney and had her revise her will to leave everything to him. Intimidated, Terry had agreed. But two days before her death, she got up enough courage to go back to the attorney and change the will so that her daughter would inherit everything. She told the lawyer she’d had a premonition. So now Esther stood to inherit the incredible amount of wealth, and she had the new, revised will, naming her beneficiary. She had the diamond, too. But the will and the ring were only useful if she lived.

She had to get out of town and somewhere she could hide, where Darrin couldn’t find her. When she was safe, she could decide what to do. Tears stung her eyes. Her poor, sweet mother, who had no sense of self-preservation, who trusted everyone. Esther knew what Darrin was the minute she saw him. Her mother was certain that he was only misunderstood, and he was so manly!

The first time Darrin had struck her mother in the face, Terry had realized with horror what sort of person he really was. But it was too late. He intimidated her to the point of separating her from every friend she had. He watched her, and Esther, like a hawk. The abuse had grown so much worse when he insisted on coming here to Aspen, to the grandest of Terry’s many homes. They didn’t dare tell anyone. He had a friend on the local police force, he told them, and he’d know if they tried to sell him out. They didn’t have the nerve. Agnes, the only one in the household who wasn’t afraid of him, had called 911, and been fired. Poor Agnes, who’d sacrificed so much to take care of the little girl Terry ignored. It broke Esther’s heart.

And now her mother was dead, and Esther was running for her own life. She didn’t have the price of a plane ticket. But she knew that Darrin had that friend on the police force. He might have someone who knew how to hack credit card companies to find out if a card in Terry’s name had been used. So it was . . .