Rancher's High-Stakes Rescue Read online

  Stranded with the cowboy

  A McCall Adventure Ranch story

  While out on the range, cowboy Josh McCall finds himself the victim of vicious sabotage. Now he’s stuck in the wilderness with no one but city slicker Kate Carrington. The rough-and-tumble rancher must use all his skills to survive, his willpower to protect Kate and his determination to resist their mutual attraction. Until Josh makes one fateful decision that could jeopardize their bliss...and their lives.

  “Damn, Kate, you are one sexy woman.”

  She raised her green gaze to his and tugged up a corner of her mouth. “You’re not bad yourself, cowboy.”

  Her compliment sparked something at his core. He’d had women ogle him for years. In truth, he relished the attention. But knowing she returned his feelings of attraction was deeply satisfying in a way he’d never experienced before.

  Josh nipped lightly at the tip of her nose. “You did it.”

  She drew and released a deep breath before a bright smile lit her face. “I did it.”

  “I knew you could.”

  Her grin twisted in irony. “I didn’t.”

  “So what convinced you?” he asked, wiping drips of water from her eyebrow with his thumb.

  She chuckled and shook her head. “I don’t know. You. My old moxie. Who knows? I didn’t take the time to overanalyze it when the courage came. I just...jumped.”

  “Would I sound patronizing if I said I was proud of you?”

  Her expression softened. Warmed. “No.”

  He leaned his forehead against hers and whispered, “Ready to go again?”

  * * *

  Be sure to check out the final McCall Adventure Ranch novel next month!

  * * *

  If you’re on Twitter, tell us what you think of Harlequin Romantic Suspense! #harlequinromsuspense

  Dear Reader,

  Are you the adventurous sort, always up for a daring challenge, or are you the sort who’d never attempt a potentially death-defying sport? Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane, right? This month, I have the pleasure of sharing more of Josh McCall, whom you first met in last month’s Rancher’s Deadly Reunion as Piper McCall’s brother. Josh is impetuous, fun-loving and a bit reckless, but good to the core. He’s found his niche in the new adventure ranch he’s started with his siblings’ help. Rock climbing, white-water rafting, zip-lining...what could possibly go wrong?

  Marketing expert Kate Carrington has led a staid, safe life ever since a tragedy in her childhood nearly cost her everything. She wants to trust the handsome and charming Josh McCall as she tests out the challenges for the adventure ranch’s advertising campaign. But when danger finds her again, Kate will discover that more than her life is at stake, because Josh McCall has put her heart at risk, as well!

  I hope you enjoy Josh—the rascal sure stole my heart!—and Kate’s story. And as far as adventures go, I enjoyed a few and would love to think I could do more, but when it comes to extreme sports, I’m happy with terra firma!

  Happy reading,

  Beth

  RANCHER’S HIGH-STAKES RESCUE

  Beth Cornelison

  Beth Cornelison began working in public relations before pursuing her love of writing romance. She has won numerous honors for her work, including a nomination for the RWA RITA® Award for The Christmas Stranger. She enjoys featuring her cats (or friends’ pets) in her stories and always has another book in the pipeline! She currently lives in Louisiana with her husband, one son and three spoiled cats. Contact her via her website, bethcornelison.com.

  Books by Beth Cornelison

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  The McCall Adventure Ranch

  Rancher’s Deadly Reunion

  Rancher’s High-Stakes Rescue

  Cowboy Christmas Rescue

  “Rescuing the Witness”

  Rock-a-Bye Rescue

  “Guarding Eve”

  The Mansfield Brothers

  The Return of Connor Mansfield

  Protecting Her Royal Baby

  The Mansfield Rescue

  Black Ops Rescues

  Soldier’s Pregnancy Protocol

  The Reunion Mission

  Cowboy’s Texas Rescue

  Visit the Author Profile page at

  Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  To Paul

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Excerpt from Killer Smile by Marilyn Pappano

  Prologue

  Eight-year-old Kate Carrington climbed the silo ladder, one rusty rung at a time, while her mother’s voice shouted in her head, Stay away from the old silo, Katie. It’s dangerous!

  But Mama was a worrywart. That’s what Daddy called her, and Kate tended to agree.

  If she were a boy, you’d call her athletic and adventurous. Don’t be overprotective just because she’s a girl, her daddy would say.

  The rusty ladder creaked and wobbled as she climbed, and Kate paused. Looked down. She was pretty high. She cast her gaze around her family’s sun-drenched Missouri farm. The corn was waist high and bright green. The sky was clear blue, and the scent of tilled earth was heavy in the air after Daddy had plowed the west field, prepping it for a new planting. This kind of day filled her with the sort of excitement and curiosity to do and see and explore that Mama called recklessness.

  She tried to be good for Mama’s sake. She didn’t want Mama to worry, but Kate figured she knew her limits. And today, Mama wasn’t home. She and Daddy had gone to chaperone a 4-H conference all weekend with Henry and his class. Grandma, who was her babysitter for the weekend, would never know she’d climbed up here.

  And she wouldn’t be climbing the old silo if her brother’s new remote-controlled airplane, the one he’d just gotten for his birthday, hadn’t landed smack on top of the silo roof and gotten stuck upside down. Kate wasn’t supposed to be playing with it. If she lost it, she’d be in so much trouble! So she had to at least try to get it.

  The ladder up the outside of the silo rattled again and swayed. She hesitated, wiping her sweaty hand on the seat of her shorts. Just a little farther...

  When she finally pulled herself high enough to see the roof of the silo, she exhaled a sigh of relief. The plane was still in one piece. And it wasn’t that far in from the ladder. She could easily crawl out to get it.

  She swung her legs over the top bar of the ladder and began scooting slowly up the rough slope of the sagging silo roof. She heard a snap, and her heart thumped harder. She stretched to reach the plane, but it was still just beyond her grasp. Swallowing hard, she edged farther along the rotted roof, inching her hand closer, closer...

  In an instant, the roof beneath her gave way with a loud crack. Her stomach swooped as she plummeted
down. The fall felt endless and lightning fast at the same time. Terrifying.

  And then she hit the bottom. The abrupt stop rattled through her body with a tooth-jarring jolt. Pain worse than anything she’d ever known streaked up her leg. Her head smacked against something hard, and when she tried to scream, she couldn’t catch her breath.

  Then everything went silent. Black.

  Chapter 1

  Twenty years later

  The Colorado terrain was breathtaking, Kate thought, as she peered out the backseat window. The tiny car belonged to the Uber driver who had picked up her and her coworker, Dawn, at the Denver airport. The owners of McCall Adventure Ranch had been scheduled to give them a ride to the ranch, but she and Dawn had managed to get an earlier flight out of Dallas and hadn’t remembered to notify the ranch staff until they were about to land.

  “Here’s the turn,” Dawn said, leaning forward to direct the driver with a pointing finger as well as her verbal cue.

  The driver eyed her via the rearview mirror, his look clearly disgruntled.

  “Thanks,” he replied dryly and reached up to shut off the turn-by-turn directions on his cell phone in the dashboard mount.

  Dawn took the hint and sat back again with a sheepish “Oh. Sorry.”

  Kate hid a grin behind her hand, pretending to scratch her cheek. She was well familiar with Dawn’s bossiness but knew her coworker didn’t mean to be controlling. Dawn simply had a high-energy, highly organized, highly efficient type A personality, and she let it get the best of her sometimes. Dawn got results, because she didn’t take no for an answer. She did her research, knew her business and had a plan for everything.

  If you hesitated or wishy-washed around her, you were likely to get swept along by her tidal wave of persuasion and direction. Case in point—Kate’s presence on this trip.

  When Dawn had brought the public relations firm’s new client campaign to her and told her about the trip to gather firsthand knowledge and have in-depth, in-person strategy meetings with the ranch owners, Kate had balked.

  “So they want us to go on one of these adventure excursions?” she’d asked, the contents of her stomach curdling.

  Dawn’s eyes had been bright with excitement and enthusiasm. “Yes! No charge. Isn’t it great?”

  “Um...”

  “The trip includes rappelling, white-water rafting, zip-lining, camping, a hands-on ranch experience—meaning they’ll show us roping and riding—and if we want, they’ll even take us BASE jumping!” Dawn had laughed and smacked the palm of her hand on the desk. “How cool is that?”

  Cool hadn’t been the word that came to Kate’s mind. Terrifying was more like it.

  “Um. W-wow,” she’d stuttered as her hands began to shake.

  “We leave in two weeks. It’s gonna be awesome!” Dawn had gushed.

  And no excuse or expressed reluctance had convinced Dawn to find another staff member to go in Kate’s place.

  “No way! I want you. Don’t be a chicken. This trip is the perfect way to shake up your staid life and get your adrenaline pumping!” Then Dawn had made Bambi eyes at her, adding, “You’re my friend. I want to experience this with you, not Frank or Hattie. We’ll have a blast.”

  Gauntlet thrown down. Friend card played. Pleading look employed. Yes, Dawn was good at getting her way.

  So here Kate was, in the back of a tiny Uber, her heart in her throat as they bounced down the rutted drive to a beautiful Colorado ranch. She took a deep breath and squeezed the straps of the purse she held in her lap as if they were a lifeline. Maybe she could wrangle her way out of the more dangerous activities. Even as the anxious thought crossed her mind, a niggle of something long dormant kicked in her soul.

  Ever since the incident at the silo when she was eight years old, she’d waged this internal battle. Her innate curiosity and longing for adventure got shouted down by the pervasive terror, the lingering memory of two gut-wrenching, pain-filled, nightmare-inducing days at the bottom of the abandoned silo.

  As they pulled to a stop in front of the building with the sign that read Check In Here, the scents of manure and fresh hay greeted her. And made a cold sweat pop out on her upper lip that had nothing to do with the warm May weather. She hadn’t lived on her family’s Missouri farm for ten years, but just a whiff of the smells inherent to agribusiness stirred memories both bitter and sweet.

  While Dawn spoke to the Uber driver, Kate climbed out and stretched her back. She could only partly blame her tight muscles on the narrow airplane seat and hours of sitting. Her heart beat an apprehensive tattoo as she took in the rural setting and filled her lungs with the fecund, late spring air.

  “Hello there!” a male voice called, and she pivoted to face the tall, broad-shouldered rancher striding toward them with a sexy grin. “Welcome to the Double M! Can I help you with your bags?”

  “Sure.” She smiled at the cowboy, whose black hair was neatly trimmed and whose bright blue eyes stood out against his tanned complexion and dark eyebrows. “We’re checking in. For the adventure excursion.”

  He paused, looking confused. “Wait. Are you Dawn Fetzer?”

  Dawn strode over to him with her hand out. “I’m Dawn. This is my colleague, Kate Carrington.”

  He stuck out his hand to Dawn. “I’m Zane. We’ve talked several times.”

  “Of course. Nice to meet you in person.”

  He shook Kate’s hand as well before turning a look of dismay to Dawn. “Did I miss a message about a change in your flight schedule? I was going to pick you up.”

  He hurried to the trunk of the small coupe, where the Uber driver was unloading their suitcases. Hoisting one suitcase in each hand, he moved the bags out of the driveway while Dawn explained about the opportunity to take the earlier flight.

  “We had to hurry to board, and I completely forgot to call you before we turned our phones off for the flight. I’m sorry!”

  Zane waved off her apology. “Forget it. Just glad to have you here safely. Let me show you to your rooms.” He pulled out a small two-way radio receiver and held it to his mouth. “Hey, I need you out front. The reps from the PR firm are here.”

  A voice on the radio answered, “Already? They’re early!”

  Zane flashed an embarrassed grin to them. “Yeah, I know. Get out here.” Then to Kate and Dawn, “This way, ladies.”

  He led them across the hard-packed dirt yard toward a freshly painted clapboard building with a wooden sign over the front door that read Guest House.

  As they followed their host, Dawn leaned close to Kate and whispered, “This trip just gets better and better. High-adrenaline adventures and a hot cowboy as our host.”

  Kate grinned and elbowed Dawn in the ribs. “Flirt.”

  Dawn waggled her eyebrows. “You know I’m faithful to Dean. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice fling.”

  Kate’s pulse tripped. “What?”

  Dawn sent her a sly grin. “Look at him, Kate. Don’t tell me you don’t want a little bit of that cowboy action.”

  Kate shifted her gaze to the admirable posterior encased in blue jeans and square jaw of their swoon-worthy host. “I admit he’s good-looking—”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Dawn’s hum of agreement held a lascivious overtone.

  “—but I’m not a fling kinda girl, vacation or otherwise.” Two mistakes of that nature in three years cured her of that bad habit. She had a talent, it seemed, for allowing herself to get hurt in more ways than just physically.

  “This used to be the bunkhouse for our hands when the ranching operation was bigger,” Zane said. He set their suitcases down and swept a hand toward the front room. The living room had been decorated with shabby-chic ranch decor and homey furniture in warm shades of beige and chocolate with brightly colored accent pillows from red to rust. “This is a community area for relaxing. The TV remote
is on the coffee table just there.” He pointed it out then, rubbed his hands together and continued, “No room assignments. Just pick whichever one you choose. We do have two other small parties coming later in the day who’ll be in the last two rooms. Dinner will be—”

  His spiel was interrupted as another cowboy burst through the door they’d just entered, lugging the last of their bags. “Hi, ladies! Welcome,” he said, sounding winded.

  Kate caught the frown Zane directed at the other man, and she turned toward the new arrival. She eyed the cowboy in surprise, understanding Zane’s displeasure. The out-of-breath cowboy wore dusty jeans and a stained white T-shirt, and his boots had definitely seen better days. He removed his hat to rake his fingers through shaggy black hair that grew past his earlobes with wisps that drooped messily over his eyes. He was the opposite of neat and trimmed Zane in so many ways...and yet he was a carbon copy. Same startlingly blue eyes, same ruggedly cut jawline—though this cowboy’s chin was dusted with a couple days’ worth of stubble—and the same broad-shouldered, muscular-legged physique.

  Kate’s mouth dried as she studied him, unsure why his disheveled appearance unsettled her.

  Zane cleared his throat. “Ms. Fetzer, Ms. Carrington, this is my brother, Josh.”

  Dawn stepped closer to Josh with her hand out. “Nice to meet you, Josh. Call me Dawn.”

  Josh flashed a lopsided grin and held both hands up out of Dawn’s reach. “I’m gonna pass on the handshake for now. When you arrived, I was in the stable with one of our first-calf heifers, overseeing the latest birth for our herd. I’ve mostly washed up, but I’m still kinda grimy.”

  “Aww,” Dawn cooed. “A baby?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We’re a working ranch, and replenishing the herd is our livelihood.” Josh spared Kate a glance, and his boyish grin slipped a little before returning to full wattage. Holding her gaze, he added, “If you want to meet the new calf, I’d be happy to take you to see him once you get settled.”

  Kate swallowed the flutter of disquiet that she could feel pulsing in the vein in her neck. “That sounds great.”