In Sandra Chastain’s story of reawakened love, a feisty bar owner and a man of the law must forgive the sins of their past to forge a future together.
Jessie James gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to participate in her hometown’s Gold Rush Days celebration. She’s supposed to lead a historical reenactment of a wagon train delivering gold to the capitol building in Atlanta. But after an anonymous phone call tips off a planned robbery, the governor sends someone to protect the payload—the man who broke Jessie’s heart. And when he strides into her bar, looking tempting in his cowboy boots and jeans, Jessie is consumed by righteous fury . . . and overwhelming desire.
Haunted by old memories of the sexy, enigmatic Jessie, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Gabriel St. Clair isn’t too keen on returning home. His goal is to complete his assignment and skip town as soon as possible. But there’s no way Gabriel will be able to make a clean getaway once he feels the pull of the fierce daredevil he loved and lost. Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from other Loveswept titles.
Release date:
October 14, 2013
Publisher:
Loveswept
Print pages:
228
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“Gabe, we’ve had a tip that a wagon train carrying gold is going to be held up. I’m assigning you to ride shotgun.”
Gabriel St. Clair glared in disbelief at his baby-faced superior, the tough young head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “This is the 1990s, Ben. Gold isn’t moved by mules and wagons anymore.”
“It is when the governor decides to reenact the wagon train that brought in the original forty-one ounces used to plate the dome on the state capitol.”
“And somebody has threatened to hold up the gold train? You can’t be serious,” Gabe argued.
“I am serious. And you’re the agent who is going to see that the gold is kept safe.” Ben Jansen tried to smother a smile.
“Why me?” Gabe asked.
“You aren’t ready to come back to full-time duty yet. So I’m giving you an easy assignment in your old hometown. A minivacation. Sorry you’ll have to leave all those luscious nurses behind.”
“A vacation?” Gabe didn’t want to think about returning to Dahlonega. He would never consider it a vacation. He hadn’t been back since he’d graduated from college, except for his father’s funeral. He’d been out of the hospital for weeks, and there weren’t any luscious nurses. He’d shied away from relationships ever since his broken engagement.
“Sure,” his boss went on. “Think of it as horseback riding, camping out, getting away from the pressures of the city. You do ride, don’t you?”
“Yes, but the original wagons were pulled by mules, not horses. Believe me, there’s nothing easy about driving a team of mules seventy miles.”
“You don’t have to do the actual driving, Gabe, just tag along. The train already has a wagon master.”
“And who is in charge?” Gabe asked, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
Ben glanced down at the papers he was holding. “I’m told she’s a dynamite-looking saloon owner named Jessie James. I believe her grandfather mined the gold originally.”
That brought Gabriel to his feet. “Jessie James? You expect me to escort a gold train led by Jessie James? No way. I know Jessie personally.”
Ben managed to keep a serious expression on his face as he explained. “A personal friend of the governor recommended you for the job because you are a friend of Miss James.”
“Which personal friend would do that? I’ll kill him.”
“As a matter of fact it was Alice Magadan down at the Shelter for the Spiritual Odyssey of Man, you know that center for the homeless near the capitol. We were discussing the wagon train the other morning at breakfast when she reminded the governor that you were from Dahlonega.”
“And since when do you and the governor discuss the assignments of your agents with an outsider?”
Ben looked amused. “Outsider? You know Alice Magadan, don’t you?”
“Yes. I went to school with her son.”
“Then you must know that between Alice and her sister, Jane, there’s little that goes on over at the capitol that they don’t know about.”
Gabe groaned and sat back down. “Don’t do this, Ben. You’ve heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys? Believe me, that feud was small potatoes compared to the one between the St. Clairs and the Jameses. It’s been going on over two hundred years, ever since both claimed the same lot on Pumpkinvine Mountain in a land lottery, and they’ve never stopped.”
Ben, still studying Gabe’s file, let go a narrow smile that suggested he might know more than he was letting on about Gabe’s relationship with Jessie.
“The sheriff of Lumpkin County has had a legitimate tip that the gold train is going to be held up, and because you’re familiar with the people involved, he’s approved our sending you along.”
Gabe crossed his arms over his chest and winced at the tender spot where the bullet that had put him out of commission had entered his shoulder. “I won’t do it!” he said in a low voice. “I’ll take that vacation.”
“Too late. I’ve already told the governor you’d go.”
“I don’t know why anybody is doing this. How much is the gold worth anyhow?”
“You’ll be carrying fourteen ounces, worth about three hundred and fifty dollars an ounce.”
“Why not send a state patrol car or an armored truck?” Gabe argued.
“We could send an armored car,” Ben agreed, “but moving the gold down here is a symbolic gesture. The gold originally came here from the James mine by wagon train. As part of their Gold Rush Days Celebration, they’re going to reenact the wagon trip.”
Gabe could see that he wasn’t going to change his supervisor’s mind. The governor thought it was a good public-relations gesture, and Gabe happened to be recovering from a gunshot wound. His doctor wouldn’t release him for hazardous duty yet, but Ben thought that driving a wagon train for seventy miles would be a piece of cake.
A piece of fruitcake, Gabe thought, trying to find a way out, trying and giving up in frustration. It wasn’t the assignment that was bothering him. It was Jessie.
Jessie James. There had never been another daredevil like her. And it was all her grandfather Alston’s fault. He’d filled her head with tales of the outlaw who made the name Jesse James famous, and she’d tried to live up to it.
Gabe could still remember their childhood friendship. She’d followed him as a skinny little girl, then later as a twelve-year-old who spit fire and threw elbows one minute in a pickup basketball game, and the next minute turned modest at the idea of swimming in their underwear.
Oh, she’d never been a real outlaw, not the kind who broke the law, but she’d gone her own way. While other girls had fallen in love with makeup and rock stars, Jessie had fished and hunted. Eventually, she’d even become her father’s gambling buddy, until she’d been arrested for disturbing the peace when her father hadn’t wanted to leave a poker game and the St. Clairs had refused to take his IOUs.
Ben snapped the file folder closed. “I understand that you haven’t been back to Dahlonega since you signed on with the bureau. Is that right?”
“That’s right. The St. Clair family hasn’t always followed the letter of the law. I didn’t want to take a chance on having to arrest one of my forty-second cousins for making moonshine or fighting chickens. Folks in that part of the country are still fiercely loyal to their own kin. They never let you forget.”
“You have forty-two cousins?”
“Of course not. Forty-second cousin is a mountain expression to explain why everybody who’s ever married a relative, no matter how distant, claims kin to you if it is to their advantage.”
“That’s a relief.” Ben swallowed a smile. “I want you looking for robbers, not defending family.”
“I have only one uncle and three male cousins left in Dahlonega now, and unless Uncle Buck has taken up robbing wagon trains, I think we’re safe.”
Ben frowned. “I was told it isn’t common knowledge in Dahlonega that you’re an officer in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”
“No, they don’t know I’m a GBI agent. After I got my degree, I signed on with you guys. Once I graduated from the academy, I avoided Lumpkin County. Is that a problem?”
“Not at all. In fact, we think it would be better if you just tell Miss James that you’ve been sent by the secretary of state to join the train as a liaison officer.”
“Being dishonest with Jessie could be a mistake, Ben.”
“Maybe, but if the thieves don’t know you’re in law enforcement, they might give themselves away.”
“Won’t it seem a little odd when an outsider turns up?”
“Not at all. The local newspaper has already reported that the governor is sending a representative to oversee the ride.”
Gabe groaned. “You mean, not only do I have to play Clint Eastwood, I have to oversee a bunch of real tenderfeet driving real Conestoga wagons down real highways in real traffic? Some vacation.”
“One Conestoga wagon,” Ben corrected. “A gift from the state of Pennsylvania for the Centennial celebration. Don’t worry, Gabe. I’m sure you’ll do fine. And Gabe,” he added as his officer started to leave, “don’t forget, you’re there to protect the gold. That isn’t a joke.”
No, Gabe thought, the joke was on him.
Gabriel St. Clair had to play guardian angel to the most headstrong outlaw he’d ever known, Jessie James.
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