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Her Texas Ranger
By Stella Bagwell Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
Copyright © 2004 Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-373-24622-6
Chapter One
"One riot, one Ranger. Isn't that the reputation you Rangers have down in Texas?"
The question prompted Seth Ketchum to cast a wry glance at his younger brother, Ross, who was standing just to the right of his chair.
Seth had almost forgotten what it was like to be back on the T Bar K with his family. Two years had passed since he'd seen his brother and sister. The time had slipped up on him and now as they crowded around him in the living room of the ranch house, he realized just how much he'd missed his siblings.
"That's what the saying is - one riot, one Ranger," Seth responded to his brother's comment. "But I'm not a superhero, Ross."
Ross reached down and slapped his brother proudly on the back. "That's right, Seth. You're better than a superhero. You don't have to waste time racing into a telephone booth to change out of your boots and hat."
A few feet away, from her seat on a leather chesterfield couch, their sister, Victoria, groaned. "Ross, this mess isn't funny. I don't know how you can joke at a time like this."
Ross chuckled as he continued to squeeze Seth's shoulder. "Who's joking?" Ross retorted. "Company D down in San Antonio would fall apart without Seth."
The two men were dressed similarly in boots and jeans andlong-sleeved cotton shirts. As far as resembling each other, Seth was a fraction shorter and more solidly built than his six-foot brother. Where Ross's hair was nearly black, Seth's was a dozen shades of brown, ranging from light to dark. But the most striking difference in the men was in their demeanor. Ross was normally all grins and teasing laughter whereas Seth had always been a quiet, serious man.
"Ross, your confidence in me is a little exaggerated," Seth countered. "At least my captain would say so."
Grinning, Ross waved away his older brother's modest remark.
"You're already a sergeant. Before long you'll be a captain."
Seth grimaced. Ross was still, in many ways, just like their late father, Tucker. He'd believed all Ketchums were meant to go straight to the top of the ladder.
"I don't want to be a captain," Seth said while gazing absently at the glass of iced tea he was holding. "I like the position I'm in just fine."
"Seth, you -"
"Ross, will you let it rest?" Victoria interrupted.
"Seth isn't telling you how to run the ranch. And he's only been home a few minutes! Why don't you let him catch his breath?"
Seth glanced gratefully at Victoria. She was not only a beautiful woman, she was also a damn good doctor and as far as he was concerned, she'd always been the most levelheaded of the four Ketchum siblings. After all these years of her being single, he found it hard to believe that she and Jess Hastings had mended their differences and were now married and expecting a child. Yet that wasn't nearly the shock he'd received when he'd heard that his playboy brother had tied the knot with Isabella Corrales, a beautiful lawyer from the Jicarilla Apache reservation.
But romance and weddings hadn't been the only things taking place on the T Bar K. Jess, his new brother-in-law and undersheriff of San Juan County, had been shot and nearly killed. Thankfully, that case had been solved and the ranch hand that had committed the crime was now serving time behind bars. However, there was still the mystery of the murdered foreman, Noah Rider, to unravel and everyone in the family was now looking to Seth, expecting him to work a miracle in a case that, frankly, had been cold from the very beginning.
Ross moved away from Seth and took a seat on the arm of his wife's chair. "I just want to brag a little on my brother, sis," he said to Victoria. "I'm not trying to tell him how to do his job. Hell, that's the reason we called him. He knows how to investigate a murder case. We don't. That is, except for Jess. But he's already said the San Juan County Sheriff's Department is welcoming all the help they can get."
Seth said, "Well, like I told you both on the phone, New Mexico isn't exactly my jurisdiction, unless we have a Texas crime that overflows into this state."
"It appears that you have," Victoria spoke up.
"Noah Rider lived in Hereford, Texas, at the time he was murdered. Looks to me like a Texas Ranger has every right to investigate the death of a citizen of Texas."
A faint grin lifted the corner of Seth's lips. "Depending on where that death occurred," he told his sister.
"We don't know where the death occurred," Isabella pointed out.
Ross smiled proudly at his wife. "Good point, honey. I think I'll keep you around, after all."
Bemused, Seth watched his brother lift the back of Isabella's hand to his lips. He'd never seen Ross acting so smitten and it came as a shock that his brother was really and truly in love with someone other than himself.
"Seth, you don't really have to have jurisdiction around here to do a little snooping on your own, do you?" Victoria asked, her face wrinkled with concern.
"I mean, you don't have to work in conjunction with Jess's office, do you?"
Seth smiled briefly at his sister. One of the reasons he'd dropped everything back in Texas and hurried out here to the T Bar K was to help ease Victoria's mind. From what Ross had told him, Victoria had been extremely upset from the very onset of this whole murder thing and she'd continued to worry about what it might do to the family, and the ranch, if the killer wasn't caught and brought to justice. All the anxiety couldn't be good for the baby she was carrying. And more than anything, Seth wanted to see his sister deliver a healthy child.
"Don't worry, Victoria. I can snoop in a way that won't step on anyone's toes. I just won't have immediate access to Ranger computer data. But if I need something searched, I have a friend back in Texas who'll do it for me."
"A female friend?" Ross asked impishly.
Seth didn't bother to glance at his brother. After all these years, he was used to Ross's teasing. And now that Seth was thirty-nine, nearing forty, and still single, he expected to hear more from his newly married brother.
"No. A fellow Ranger."
"Seth, you're just no fun at all."
"I didn't come up here for fun, little brother."
Instead of taking offense, Ross chuckled. "Okay, you don't have any fun back in Texas and you don't plan on having any while you're here at home. So what are you planning to do?"
The question brought Seth's head around and he looked at his brother squarely. "I plan to track down Noah's killer."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Her Texas Ranger by Stella Bagwell Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
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