Scarlet Lady

Book 4: Mac's Angels

by Sandra Chastain

Genres: Women's Fiction; Romance; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

Beloved author Sandra Chastain ignites a simmering story of two passionate souls who discover what happens when fate deals the cards.
 
Katie Carithers walks onto the riverboat casino Scarlet Lady with just one intention: win enough money to pay off her brother’s debts and save her family’s Louisiana plantation. A no-nonsense accountant by day, Katie decides that tonight she’ll wear a tiny red dress and be a sexy gambler—albeit one with an uncanny head for numbers and odds. But when Katie lays eyes on the handsome owner of the Scarlet Lady, all bets are off, as he quickly threatens to take more than her money with his roguish charm.
 
The man everyone simply calls “Montana” runs his Mississippi River casino like the tightest ship in the navy. But the night the brunette in the red dress appears, Montana feels his steely control waver. He’s never been so overwhelmed by a woman, not since he lost the courage to love years before. When the woman in red wins, Montana suspects that she has cheated—and just like that, one hand of poker ignites a passion play with the highest of stakes: two hearts.
 
Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: Flirting with Disaster, Taking Shots, and Long Simmering Spring.

Release date: June 10, 2013

Publisher: Loveswept

Print pages: 240

Sample

PROLOGUE
 
The New Mexico mountain hideaway known as Shangri-la to its creator and Angel Central to its grateful clients, had been peaceful for weeks. Lincoln McAllister knew it was too good to last. A need would arise and an angel would be asked to return the help given to him or her.
 
This time the call came from Sterling, secretary and administrative assistant to Mac’s old friend Conner Preston. Because of Mac, Conner had been reunited with the only woman he’d ever loved. Now they were on their honeymoon, leaving the ever-faithful Sterling in charge of Conner’s firm. But this call wasn’t business, it was a personal request for Mac’s help.
 
Sterling needed an angel.
 
“It’s Katherine Carithers,” Sterling explained. “Her brother, Carson, came to see me. He’s made some bad business decisions and Katie has come up with a plan to rescue him. Seems Carson’s tried to recoup his losses by gambling. He lost. Then he put up his share of the family plantation as collateral for his gambling debts.”
 
“Plantation?” Mac said with a laugh. “As in the Old South? What is this, some kind of antebellum melodrama?”
 
“Almost. The Caritherses go back that far. Old Carson, one of the first planters along the Mississippi, gambled on cotton and indigo. He won big. He was smart, too, put his money in foreign banks before the War Between the States. The present Carson, his great-great-great-great-grandson, just gambled—not for himself, mind you, but in a foolish effort to save that business.”
 
“What’s your connection, Sterling?” Mac asked. With every telephone call he received, Mac became more intrigued by the mysterious Sterling, who ran her boss’s business empire but was never seen by the public. Though he and Sterling went back a long way, Mac had never known her to ask for a personal favor—until now.
 
“Katherine is the daughter of one of my mother’s oldest friends. She and her husband were killed in a plane crash two years ago. The family business has already gone under, but Katherine is determined to protect the plantation and her brother. Mother says she’s a certified genius when it comes to numbers.”
 
“Okay. She’s a genius with numbers.”
 
“Oh, Mac, I’m explaining this badly. According to Carson, Katie went to a casino tonight to gamble. She expects to win enough money to pay off her brother’s gambling debts and buy his marker back from the man who holds it and the plantation. I’d like to help her, but she’s so proud she isn’t likely to accept help, and I … can’t leave here.”
 
“Sounds like foolishness runs in the family.”
 
“Carson says she’s a poker whiz. But she’s never played with professionals. Mac, she’s convinced she can win.”
 
“So was her brother.”
 
Sterling gave a low, throaty laugh. “Mac, the man she’s taking on is a real pro.”
 
“Oh? Who?”
 
“He calls himself Montana now, but I managed to find out that his full name is—can you believe this?—Rhett Butler Montana. He owns a Mississippi riverboat casino called the Scarlet Lady.”
 
Mac couldn’t hold back a chuckle of his own. He’d gotten Montana a job on that boat years ago when his family had disowned him. Now he owned the boat. And he’d dropped the famous name his starstruck mother had given him. Montana suited him very well.
 
“Ah, Sterling. Not a world-shaking dilemma, but interesting. Is Katherine beautiful, smart, and conniving?”
 
“I don’t know what she looks like, but she’s just as determined to keep her family together and save their land as the original Scarlett. And she thinks Montana is ready to take it. Carson is worried. I said I’d see what I could do. If you can help, I’ll owe you.”
 
“Of course,” Mac said. Finishing their conversation, he dropped the phone into its cradle and leaned back in his chair. “And I think we can keep the lady from knowing she’s being helped.”
 
Mac had been surprised at the emotion in the normally unruffled Sterling’s voice. Gamblers who got themselves in trouble weren’t Mac’s idea of people with earth-shattering problems, but he couldn’t ignore her request to bail the girl out, and it was time he checked on the man calling himself Montana.
 
Though if Katherine had already left for the riverboat casino, Mac was too late to stop her. Maybe losing would teach her the lesson her brother hadn’t learned. Of course, she could win. Katie, Rhett Butler, and the Scarlet Lady.
 
Intriguing.
 
If the players were anything like their namesakes, the South could rise again. It was time he called in his marker from Montana. He tried the gambler’s office. Montana was on the river. Mac left a message and sat back to wait.
 
While he waited he thought about the mysterious Sterling who was never more than a voice on the telephone.