I’ll be back later to post the winner of the Chocolate, Roses and Handcuffs Giveaway! ~DD

Today’s round of snippets is all about the action! Grab the “Oh-shit-handle” and get ready for a wild ride! 🙂

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“With amazing suspense, and hot, dominant lovin’ this cowboy and his high school sweetheart take the reader on an amazing emotional journey. Mixed with a bit of humor, sizzling bedroom scenes, and cowboys that steal your heart, Ms. Devlin has created a beyond 5 Book worthy start of an incredible new series… Once again, thank you, Ms. Devlin, for stealing my heart with complex and witty characters, hot sex and riveting suspense!” ~5/5 Books, Reviews by Molly

“Devlin has done it again! I pretty much gobble up anything she writes and “Laying Down the Law” is another hit… Fun and fast, “Laying down the Law” is great for fans of western romances or someone looking for that great next “hot” read!” ~The Brunette Librarian

Seeking sanctuary could be the hottest mistake she ever made.
The TripleHorn Brand, Book 1

A lifetime ago, Zuri Prescott kicked the dirt off her boots and ditched her small-time small town for the glam city life—and lived to regret it. When she’s framed for a bank job, she lights out for home, seeking refuge with her old high school sweetheart while she figures out her next steps. Only she discovers that the boy she left behind is the last man she should trust.

Sheriff Colt Triplehorn knows trouble when he sees it, especially when it comes in the form of a familiar trespasser, caught naked between an angry bull and her underwear. Sure she’s up to her usual no good, he grants her sanctuary at his ranch—the better to keep an eye on her, and purge her from his system once and for all.

Reconnection is sweet and hot, but the heat can’t hide the truth. When Colt inevitably finds out what Zuri’s running from, it’s too late to put the fire out, and he’s got a career-compromising choice on his hands. Follow the letter of the law, or follow his heart.

Product Warnings: When a sheriff captures the girl who got away, expect revenge so hot it leaves brands on two lonely hearts…

Zuri woke slowly. Something tickled her nose and a bad, bad feeling snaked down her spine.

A shout sounded from the yard in front of the house, Scout’s excited barks punctuated the air. Her eyes fluttered open. Even though it was the dead of night, light chased across the walls of Colt’s bedroom. Bright red light that flickered and waved. The smell of smoke filled her with dread.

“Fire!” came more shouts. Boots thudded on the porch.

Instantly alert, Zuri pushed up from the bed, heart racing. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and ran to Colt’s chest of drawers, found another tee and too-large pants and dressed. She put on socks to protect her feet, then ran out the bedroom and down the hallway toward the front door.

Just as she reached for the doorknob, she felt a presence behind her. A moment later, a large hand closed around her mouth. Something hard nudged her ribs and she knew.

She smelled his cologne, felt the gust of his hot breath against her cheek. She went still as her blood chilled

“Have to stop meeting like this,” he whispered in her ear. His hand slid away from her mouth.

Torn between screaming and fighting, she quivered against him. Outside was chaos. Even if she had the courage to shout, they’d never hear her above the roar of the fire, the shrill whinnies of frightened horses and the shouts from the men as they scurried to put out the fire.

Tamping down her fear, she lifted her chin. “What did you do?”

“Set a fire in the barn,” he said, his tone weirdly gleeful. “It’ll give us a little time.”

She thought fast. Had all the hands left to take care of the fire? Even the ones watching the house? Stillness surrounded them. He’d done something. She just knew it.

“No one’s coming. Your guard’s gonna have a helluva headache when he comes to.”

A shiver racked her frame, but she stiffened her back. “I don’t know who you are,” she said, lying, because this time she recognized his voice. “You’ve already got me in the FBI’s crosshairs. You should have just let them find me. What more damage can you do?”

“I can make sure they stop looking. Point all eyes your way.”

“Bastard.”

A finger toyed with the hair beside her ear. “Too bad your sheriff didn’t show better judgment. If he’d locked you up, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Leave him out of this.”

“Can’t. It’s too late now. He already harbored a person of interest. You disappear on his watch, they’re gonna think he let you escape. That maybe he knew all about the money and you cut him in so he’d look the other way.”

“He’ll be cleared. No one will believe he’s involved.”

“But it will take some time. Long enough for me to get far, far away.” He shifted behind her. “Open wide.” His hand appeared in front of her face, holding a wad of fabric

She didn’t want to open, but she didn’t really have a choice. He had a gun to her side, and she didn’t want anyone else hurt. She opened her mouth and waited while he stuffed the fabric inside. Panic welled because it was too large to push out with her tongue, and he wasn’t done. The gun fell away and tape covered her mouth, holding the wadding in place.

Then he dragged her toward the kitchen and the door leading to the driveway, away from all the commotion in front of the house. Opening the door, he pulled her out sideways, past the prone body of one of the hands.

She sobbed, the sound muffled. The urge to vomit rose up, but she tamped it down because she’d choke.

“Like I said, he’ll wake up. They’ll think you started the fire. That you hit him over the head making your escape.”

She dragged her feet, anything to slow him down, hoping like hell someone would see, but there was no one. The quiet enveloped them as he forced her quickly through a pasture toward the vehicle parked on the highway.

He didn’t pause at the fence. The barbed wire was cut. Another nudge on her ribs and he forced her into the passenger seat of the sedan and quickly restrained one hand with metal cuffs dangling from the oh-shit handle above the passenger-side window.

As he pulled away from the shoulder of the road, sirens sounded in the distance from the opposite direction. Fire trucks heading to the ranch.

Zuri watched as the Triple Horn Ranch faded in the distance.

She laid her head against the headrest and closed her eyes, praying for intervention, because she knew the farther down the road they got, the less her chances of ever being found were. She couldn’t imagine what Colt would go through when he discovered her gone. He loved her, had told her so, but would he hold onto that last nugget of uncertainty and believe she’d left willingly?

At least she’d had a chance to set things right. They’d had two days. Two perfect days. She could almost die happy. Almost. Except it would mean that David had won, and that thought made her mad as hell.

 * * *

Colt jammed the truck into park in the middle of the road and yanked open his door. Two more county trucks pulled in, spitting gravel from beneath their tires, forming a barrier at the highway intersection. He’d used graveled ranch roads and a cutoff to get here quickly. He’d planned for just such an eventuality, coordinating with the sheriff from the next town over.

Wade stepped down from his truck. “If he makes it through this road block there’s another forming on down the road.”

The radio squawked. “Colt? Colt?”

Colt cussed under his breath. Gabe had never got the hang of the police radio.

“Got his taillights in front of me now. We’re about a quarter mile from you. Get ready.”

Colt clamped his hat on head, pulled out his rifle and opened his truck door to rest the barrel against the bottom of the window frame. In the distance, he saw the glint of metal in the early morning sunlight.

Wade clapped his shoulder. “We’ve got him boxed-in tight. No place he can go. We knew it was a diversion the second the barn went up.”

“Didn’t count on the fact he was already inside the damn house,” Colt ground out. “We were watchin’ the pastures, the roads.”

Gabe had seen him and Zuri slip across the pasture, but the bastard had a gun on her, and his brother had to hold back so Satterly wouldn’t spook and kill her on the spot. “Gabe’s been followin’ with lights off so he wouldn’t know he was bein’ trailed while I called in support. Should’ve arrested his ass the moment he nosed around the Roy’s garage.”

“Didn’t have cause,” Wade said from where he stood, rifle braced in the window on the other side of his truck.

Colt gave him a glance across the cab. “Wouldn’t have mattered. Zuri’d be safe. I should’ve been there. Should’ve stuck to her like glue.”

“You’re the law. It was your duty to alert the feds. When Satterly moved out of his hotel room, the deputies scrambled me. Had to call you, boss. It’s what you’ve been waitin’ for.”

Colt narrowed his gaze on the car approaching at a fast clip. The glint was Satterly’s sedan. He reached into the dash and flipped the switch to set the blue lights strobing. The other trucks followed suit.

The sedan slowed. Colt bent his head and stared through his rifle sight. It was Satterly behind the wheel all right. Beside him sat Zuri, her hand hanging from a set of cuffs. His gut tightened. She looked scared.

The car weaved then swerved, running off the road as the wheels turned and Satterly began to make a U-turn but discovered his way was blocked by another set of vehicles coming from the direction of the ranch.

Gabe slowed and flashed his headlights. Behind him were three more trucks, all from the ranch, ranch hands crammed in the cabs and tail beds, all armed.

“Hope they know not to let off a shot while she’s inside,” Colt growled.

“Your brother Tommy might think he’s so good with that rifle of his that he could take him out where he sits.”

“I’d have his ass if he tried.”

Satterly’s car halted, half in the ditch, then lurched back onto the road and headed slowly toward Colt and his deputies’ cars.

“Come on, buddy, do the smart thing.”

The car kept coming, the engine building. No sign from the driver he was going to stop.

Colt shook his head, pulled his rifle from the window and slammed his door closed. With his rifle held against his thigh, he strode down the center of the highway toward the car.

* * * * *

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