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She's come for his life…
Feisty Lily Carrington wants revenge for the murder of her father. She's finally tracked down the killer—and she's going to make him pay….
He'll fight to keep it…
Juniper Barns has done everything he can to escape his violent past. Now a hardworking sheriff, he protects the lives of those in need. But he can't outrun his destiny anymore. It's time to stand and fight.
Only, this time, his opponent is beautiful Lily—the vulnerable girl who came looking for vengeance, but who's in danger of losing her heart to the one man she's forbidden from loving….
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Spring 1883
San Francisco
"Admit it, Lily.Your competitiveness has finally gotten the best of you."
"I'll admit nothing of the kind." Quite pleased with her new business venture, Lily Carrington eased back into the burgundy velvet of her office chair and lifted a cup of steaming hot chocolate to her lips.
Reginald spared her a quick glare, his thin lips set in a grim line as he continued to riffle through the box of disorganized company files atop her desk.
"It's no matter," she said. "McFarland is simply being a sore loser by withholding the payroll records and turning over the company files in such disarray. I'll sort through every page if I have to. There's more than one way to obtain payroll records. Surely someone on-site has kept a log of employees, work hours and pay rates."
"Take my advice, sweetness." Reginald tossed another file into the box, then brushed his fingers against his blue silk jacket as though his hands had been soiled. "Sell it."
"I will not. You're being rash."
"I'm being realistic." He dropped into the leather chair on the opposite side of her desk. A wedge of sunlight gleamed against the dark hair slicked back against his scalp. Stiff tracks left by his comb added to his look of severity. Even so, with his slight build and delicate facial structure, Regi was no more intimidating than a stern librarian or a cranky banker.
As her second cousin and top financial advisor, it was Regi's job to be circumspect about business matters, but Lily had run the numbers before going after the lumber company. With proper management, the Sierra lumber camp and mill would become a valuable asset to L. P. Carrington Industries.
"Lily, it's no secret that this entire venture is nothing but a folly to put ol' McFarland in his place."
A smile curved her lips before she took another sip of creamy cocoa, the taste nearly as sweet as her victory. She wouldn't deny the fact. The old goat had dared to come to her offices a few months ago seeking financial assistance, only to refuse to sit across the bargaining table from a woman. If that hadn't been insult enough, he'd later publicly ridiculed her before hundreds of colleagues at a charitable ball, calling her a disgrace to respectable businessmen.
A disgrace, was she? She hadn't been the one sitting idly by while her stock was discreetly bought out from under her. Her initials had been the prefix of Carrington Industries for five splendidly successful years. At twenty-five years old, Lily was L. P. Carrington Industries, owning more than eighty-five percent of the company. The supposed board of trustees, her old and ailing relatives, only cared that their bank accounts were brimming.
The fact that McFarland wasn't making this particular takeover an easy endeavor didn't take away from her delight at seeing the utter defeat and humiliation in his face as she had personally claimed the title of her new lumber company.
"L. P. Carrington Lumber," she said brightly. "I like the sound of it."
Reginald groaned as he reached toward the tray holding her silver chocolate pot. "Face it, strumpet, he let this money pit go because it was failing."
"You didn't see his face when I walked in. He didn't want to part with Pine Ridge."
"So you've taken the man's prized possession. You don't need to prove anything further." He sat back in his chair and pulled a silver flask from the inside of his jacket.
"Regi! It's barely ten o'clock in the morning!"
"And yet my head is throbbing as though I've suffered an entire day of your takeover activities."
Lily crossed her arms in disapproval as he poured a clear trail of spirits into his hot chocolate. He capped the flask and tucked it back into his jacket.
"I don't need to see the outstanding payroll records to surmise that this company is about to implode." Regi sat back, sipping his potent chocolate. "The accounting records reveal plenty. McFarland took out more than he put in and had nothing left to pay his employees, nor was he willing to dip into his personal funds to compensate for the loss."
"Exactly. The company failure was due to his poor management. I didn't walk into this completely blind, Reginald. The potential is there."
"Darling, you hardly need another source of income. And we have enough work to juggle without taking on a camp full of filthy oxen men who haven't been paid in weeks. This lumber business will be nothing but a drain on our time and resources."
"I'm keeping my new company. Success is the best revenge."
Regi took a deep drink, his dark eyes shining with mirth. "This is why men cower in fear when you enter a boardroom."
She didn't appreciate his catty tone. "They do."
"Yes, love, I know. I'm the one standing right beside you as they tremble. No one is questioning your success."
"That's not the point," she said, straightening her posture. She tugged at the bottom of her fitted waistcoat, smoothing wrinkles from the black-and-gray pinstriping.
Reginald rubbed at his temple. "What exactly is the point, love? I keep forgetting. Could it be that you need another excuse to stay cooped up in this pampered palace of an office?" He splayed his hands toward satin-lined walls trimmed with gold moldings. "Look at you. Impeccable style, flawless skin, every strawberry-blond curl swept up in sheer perfection, and all of it going to waste."
"I don't care for your perspective. Looking my best is hardly wasteful."
"I dare say ten years ago you'd have been the belle of every debutante ball, had you bothered to attend them."
Unlike the rest of the Carrington women, Lily didn't judge her worth by the size of her wedding dowry. She preferred to follow her mother's example and shun tradition. It was, after all, what everyone expected of her, for poor orphaned Lily to adopt her mother's reckless ways. She did hate to disappoint.
"If you'll recall, I was banned from such festivities."
Regi's tittering laugh increased her annoyance. "I assure you, no one has forgotten. You did pull off your own ruin with certain aplomb. And for what? To spend your days intimidating stuffy old men in gray suits and looking over the shoulders of all our accountants? Every day you descend from your living quarters bound and bustled in San Francisco's finest fashions. You need to get out once in a while, Lily. Strut your fancy wares."
"I'm a businesswoman, Reginald, not a peacock."
"You hardly need to be an exotic bird to get some fresh air. Take time for a social tea, a stroll through Ghirardelli Square for heaven's sake. You need a lover, Lil, not more work."
One brief interlude had been plenty to keep her focused on the finer things in life—business and chocolate. No one had been complaining about her social life while she'd doubled the family fortunes. Regi was the only one who'd made any attempt to understand her, or at least humor her ambitions.
"You socialize enough for both of us," she said. "Someone has to run this place."
"If your aunt Iris knew how I've aided and abetted your spinster ways, she'd turn over in her grave."
Regi also knew how to get under Lily's skin.
"Doubtful," Lily said, her frown deepening at the thought of her late, harping guardian. "The old biddy could hardly be troubled to lift a finger in life, much less 'roll over.'And you are deliberately toying with my temper."
"On the contrary, I'm simply pointing out the obvious. You already work nonstop. This isn't a small undertaking, Lily."
"A successful lumber company will be a perfect addition to L. P. Industries."
"Yes, love, but we're talking about a bankrupt lumber camp. According to the latest financial records, McFarland hadn't paid his employees in over a month, which is why he was looking for outside funding. Are we to make good on those back wages? All we have is a list of names, with no hint of their position in the company or pay rate. We don't even know if the camp is abandoned or filled with disgruntled employees."
"We'll gather a team to assess the situation and obtain the payroll files. We'll send a messenger immediately with notices explaining the change of ownership and temporary freeze of financial assets."
Reginald scooted to the edge of his cushion and braced his hands wide on her desk. "Just for a moment let's be reasonable. What do you know of lumberjacks?"
"They chop down trees."
Regi laughed. "Oh, bravo. And when these jolly beasts of labor, who 'chop down trees,' come tromping from the woods demanding to be paid, what then, my darling?"
Lily refilled her cup and smiled brightly. "Refer them to you, of course, my financial counsel."
Regi arched a dark eyebrow. "I'd laugh if I didn't know you have a streak of viciousness in you. I can hardly counsel a woman who does not heed my advice."
"I'm neither naive nor inexperienced. Anything worth the effort is seldom easy."
The glint in Reginald's brown eyes told her he was quite aware of that fact.
"If they want their jobs they'll have to be patient while we work through McFarland's mess. Otherwise they're welcome to take up banners with those obnoxious men of the labor unions and harping ladies of Women's Suffrage, and march the streets. Goodness knows one can never please the masses."
"You have never tried to please the masses," Regi said. "So why not just please your cousin. Let this one go."
"No."
Regi's gaze narrowed. "When this lumber-camp jaunt goes up in smoke, I will expect a full I-should-have-listened-to-Reginald apology."
"I always listen to you, Regi," she said as she began thumbing through the box of files. "You've been my trusted friend since I arrived in San Francisco."
"Which says little of my sensibilities," he muttered.
"We will split the list of employees and see if we can't match them to job references buried in the rest of this mess."
Reginald stood and snatched the stack of paper she held out to him. "You realize we do employ secretaries?"
"Yes. Tell Emily I'd like another pot of hot chocolate."
"Right after I notify some of the staff that they'll be taking a trip to the mountains."
Lily slid her chair up to the desk and...
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