Rancher's Deadly Risk
He’s her only refuge
In these rugged mountains, Cassie thought she’d finally found the small-town welcome she’s been looking for her whole life. But after she stops some school bullies, suddenly the rest of this close-knit community isn’t acting so friendly. The threats begin, and this schoolteacher has nowhere to turn for help—until a rugged, mysterious rancher steps in.
Lincoln Blair has been drawn to Cassie from day one. That’s why he’s avoiding the too-tempting new teacher—he knows from experience that outsiders get bored and leave. Still, he just can’t help wanting to protect Cassie when trouble starts. As her danger grows, Linc realizes it’s his heart he’s forgotten to safeguard….
“You’re not alone in this.”
Cassie stood there looking lost and alone and upset, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to make her feel better. She’d have to ride out this storm or leave town. She’d already mentioned the possibility herself, a reminder that had left him feeling warned.
Knowing he was being a fool, but doing it anyway, he rose and went to gather her into his arms. The instant he drew her close, he realized he might have just made the biggest mistake of his life….
Dear Reader,
I’m sure most of us have been bullied at one time or another while we were in school, if not later in life, as well. Plenty of us probably remember some of it. I know I still remember a few incidents, especially the time a teacher bullied me. I didn’t want to go back to school.
The heroine of this story doesn’t realize that she carries scars from when she was bullied in school, and it takes the hero’s love to help her past them. What’s more, as a teacher now, she is again being bullied by someone hiding in the shadows and threatening her very life.
This is a deeply emotional story about caring, about community and about love. But it’s also a story of the darker side of human nature and how we triumph. For me it always comes down to love: how we love each other, both as couples and as community. Love is the best answer we have. Sometimes it’s the only answer.
Bullying can leave lifelong scars. And while this story is about love’s triumph, it also touches on an issue that we as a community need to deal with. Our kids should not be afraid to go to school.
Hugs,
Rachel
Rachel
Lee
Rancher’s Deadly Risk
Books by Rachel Lee
Harlequin Romantic Suspense
**The Final Mission
#1655
**Just a Cowboy
#1663
**The Rescue Pilot
#1671
**Guardian in Disguise
#1701
**The Widow’s Protector
#1707
**Rancher’s Deadly Risk
#1727
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
An Officer and a Gentleman
#370
Serious Risks
#394
Defying Gravity
#430
*Exile’s End
#449
*Cherokee Thunder
#463
*Miss Emmaline and the Archangel
#482
*Ironheart
#494
*Lost Warriors
#535
*Point of No Return
#566
*A Question of Justice
#613
*Nighthawk
#781
*Cowboy Comes Home
#865
*Involuntary Daddy
#955
Holiday Heroes
#1487:“A Soldier for All Seasons”
**A Soldier’s Homecoming
#1519
**Protector of One
#1555
**The Unexpected Hero
#1567
**The Man from Nowhere
#1595
**Her Hero in Hiding
#1611
**A Soldier’s Redemption
#1635
**No Ordinary Hero
#1643
Harlequin Nocturne
***Claim the Night
#127
***Claimed by a Vampire
#129
***Forever Claimed
#131
*Conard County
**Conard County: The Next Generation
***The Claiming
Other titles by this author available in ebook format.
RACHEL LEE
was hooked on writing by the age of twelve, and practiced her craft as she moved from place to place all over the United States. This
New York Times
bestselling author now resides in Florida and has the joy of writing full-time.
To all the kids everywhere who live in fear of bullies. You are not alone.
Contents
Chapter 1
C
assie Greaves felt the winter nip in the Conard County air as she left her small rental house to head for school. The rising sun to the east cast a buttery glow over the world, and the trees that had fully turned a few weeks ago were now shedding their brilliant cloaks, leaving behind gray, reaching fingers. She scuffed her feet through the dry leaves and almost laughed from the joy of it.
For much of her teaching career, all seven years of it, she had taught in much warmer climes, places where there might be only two seasons, or at most three. Part of what had drawn her here was winter, the idea of being cold, of needing to bundle up, and cozy evenings with a cup of something hot as she graded papers or read a book.
Having grown up in the Northeast, she had found a growing desire to need extra blankets at night, to awake some morning and hear the world hushed under a fresh snowfall.
As romantic as her image was, however, she also knew there would be parts she wouldn’t exactly enjoy, but this morning she didn’t want to think about them.
She wanted to think about that invigorating nip, the possibility of rediscovering her Nordic skis and the school she was coming to enjoy so much. It was smaller than she was used to, only eight hundred students in the entire high school. And even with budget cutbacks, her classes were smaller. It was easier to get to know her students, and she was beginning to recognize most of the faces that walked the hallways.
Hallways. Another thing she liked. At her last few schools, there had been no hallways, only covered walkways, which meant moving from an air-conditioned classroom out into the heat, only to walk into another air-conditioned classroom. At times that setup had its charms, but she actually
liked
having interior hallways again.
She smiled and hummed to herself as she walked the four blocks to the high school. There she taught math for all four grades, which gave her days quite a bit of variety.
It had also taught her some lessons. A lot of her students had no interest in advancing to college. They were planning to take over their parents’ business or ranch and she had discovered a need to rewrite math problems in ways that seemed useful to them. Unlike some other places she had taught, many students here weren’t content to just do the work because it was required.
Plus, in perfect honesty, the students’ backgrounds encouraged her to find meaningful ways of phrasing problems because there was so much homogeneity in the things that concerned them. Her elementary algebra class didn’t look blankly at her when she asked them to calculate the storage space needed for a certain number of bales of hay. They went home, measured the bales—round or oblong, depending—and gave her answers based on a practical exercise. Now how cool was that?
Discovering the volume of a grain silo, working with board feet of lumber, sketching out plans for a shed, figuring out how many acres of pasture for a herd of a certain size—all those things enlivened them. Consequently she was discovering a new love for her subject herself.
Drawing in a deep breath of the chilly air, she decided this place was growing on her even more than she had hoped.
When she arrived on the campus, Lincoln Blair was standing outside. He was the football coach and science teacher, an absolute stud of a man who had so far remained reserved, even unapproachable, although everyone else seemed to like him a lot.
In her mind she had dubbed him “Studley Do-right” because he was appealing enough to make her constantly aware of him, sort of like an itch in her libido. He had dark hair, astonishingly bright blue eyes and there was something about him that always made her think he must have descended from a long line of Celtic warriors. Square-jawed, weathered a bit from sun and wind, with narrow hips he unconsciously canted in a way that made it impossible for a woman not to notice them.
She gathered from things the other teachers had said that he owned a ranch that had been in his family for generations, and he worked it as time allowed, which probably explained that weathered look. Regardless, while most of the teachers had certainly been welcoming enough, his air of reserve truly set him apart.
Not that she should probably blame
him.
She’d had enough experience with men who wanted nothing but a fling with her, and had concluded there must be something essentially wrong with her. On the other hand, she reminded herself that getting involved with a colleague was seldom wise, and in a small town like this, it might even be a wider problem if people noticed and started talking.
Nor was it as if he were the first man who had ever ignored her. Noticing him amounted to a recipe for grief, judging by her past experience.
He nodded as she approached and opened the door for her with a quiet good-morning, but didn’t follow her in. She guessed he had bus duty, the job of standing outside to make sure that no one used the space and time between getting off the bus and through the doors to make trouble.
She tried to shake away thoughts of Lincoln Blair from her mind as she passed other teachers with cheery greetings and made her way to her desk. Unlike other schools where she had taught, she had her own classroom, which also provided her with an opportunity to personalize things. It felt nice to have a space where she could hang up posters or set out cool objects for the students to explore a bit. As much as possible she tried to apply math to real life because it
was
part of real life, an important part. The applications were just a bit different and more focused here.
She prepared her desk quickly, then stepped into the hall to monitor arriving students. This school still had homerooms, a place where students went to have their attendance recorded and hear morning announcements, something she hadn’t seen since her own school days long ago. Then fifteen minutes later they moved on to their first classes.
In her last few schools, homeroom had been combined with the first class of the day. It might have cut down on movement, but inevitably it cut into the instructional hour one way or another.
Since it was Friday, her students were a little more restless and less focused than usual, their minds on the many things they had planned for the weekend. Or perhaps they were just thinking of escape into absolutely gorgeous weather.