Texas Wildcat
TOO HOT TO HANDLE!
A blowout in the oil fields was bad news for everyone—a loss of time and money for the owners, day and night danger for the men who fought valiantly to cap the raging flames.
Sam Tyler was one of those men, cool-headed in the midst of bedlam, unafraid even when he risked everything in the fight against the towering column of smoke and fire. But when an accident in the oil fields sent him storming into Kelly Blanchard’s office, he learned there was one kind of fire even he wasn’t equipped to handle.
WESTERN LOVERS
™
LINDSAY
McKENNA
TEXAS WILDCAT
Dedicated to Boots Hansen and Coots Matthews, blowout specialists, who are genuine Texas heroes in the finest sense. And to Alvin Moody, whose knowledge and friends provided further insights into the Texas gas and oil industry, and Jeanne Long, surely a Texan at heart, for her friendship, creative ideas and enthusiasm.
A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Reader,
My good friend Jeanne Long invited me down for a week to Houston, where I was wined, dined and shown everything “Texas-style,” which, to say the least, was bigger than big.
At one of the parties I attended I met Boots Hansen and Coots Matthews, oil-well-fire “blowout” specialists. They’d worked with Red Adair, the original granddaddy who had figured out how to snuff out oil-well fires, and eventually formed their own company, Boots and Coots of Houston, Texas.
I had such a great time with these two Texas wildcats that they invited me over to their company to show me videos of blowouts they’d extinguished around the world. They showed me a royal good time at their facility, and being a volunteer firefighter for West Point, Ohio, I understood what they did, how they did it and how dangerous their job really was.
So, with their technical help and guidance,
Texas Wildcat
was born in Houston, Texas, at a Texas-size party with Texas-size men and women-all larger than life. I hope that you enjoy reading
Texas Wildcat
as much as I did writing it, and as much as I enjoyed the people who inspired me to create this novel.
Dear Reader,
I don’t know about you, but I thought running my late father’s company, a Texas one at that, was an awful lot of work and responsibility. Plus, my father really hadn’t wanted me nosing around in what had made him a millionaire. Daddy thought a woman’s place was anywhere but the office, but being a Texan by birth, I felt it my duty to know his business.
It was a good thing I did, because when he died unexpectedly, the whole company fell on my shoulders. And when Sam Tyler, the number-three man in the company, came marching into my office accusing my company of making shoddy equipment-well, there was a Texas-size blowout right then and there!
Sam Tyler is a typical arrogant Texan-he knows he’s not only good-looking but he’s the best at his job. I wanted to hate him on sight for accusing my recently deceased daddy of making bad equipment that put two of Sam’s men in the hospital.
Sam met his match in me. I’m no out-of-stater come to live in Texas. I was born here! And Texas women have a backbone of steel, even though we have that sweet, sugary Southern diplomacy, too. We’re called steel magnolias. He called me a Texas Wildcat. To tell you the truth, Sam is terribly good-looking and I really liked him the instant our eyes met. There was something so proud and strong and capable in him. Little did I realize that my own stiff-necked, hot-tempered ways would get me into more trouble than a Texas frog strangler!
Kelly Blanchard
Ranch Rogues
1.
Betrayed by Love
Diana Palmer
2.
Blue Sage
Anne Stuart
3.
Chase the Clouds
Lindsay McKenna
4.
Mustang Man
Lee Magner
5.
Painted Sunsets
Rebecca Flanders
6.
Carved in Stone
Kathleen Eagle
Hitched in Haste
7.
A Marriage of Convenience
Doreen Owens Malek
8.
Where Angels Fear
Ginna Gray
9.
Inheritance
Joleen Daniels
10.
The Hawk and the Honey
Dixie Browning
11.
Wild Horse Canyon
Elizabeth August
12.
Someone Waiting
Joan Hohl
Ranchin’ Dads
13.
Rancher’s Wife
Anne Marie Winston
14.
His and Hers
Pamela Bauer
15.
The Best Things in Life
Rita Clay Estrada
16.
All That Matters
Judith Duncan
17.
One Man’s Folly
Cathy Gillen Thacker
18.
Sagebrush and Sunshine
Margot Dalton
Denim & Diamonds
19.
Moonbeams Aplenty
Mary Lynn Baxter
20.
A Home on the Range
Judith Bowen
21.
The Fairy Tale Girl
Ann Major
22.
Snow Bird
Lass Small
23.
The Countess and the Cowboy
Linda Randall Wisdom
24.
Heart of Ice
Diana Palmer
Kids & Kin
25.
Fools Rush In
Ginna Gray
26.
Wellspring
Curtiss Ann Matlock
27.
Live-In Mom
Laurie Paige
28.
Kids, Critters and Cupid
Ruth Jean Dale
29.
With No Regrets
Lisa Jackson
30.
Family Affair
Cathy Gillen Thacker
Reunited Hearts
31.
Yesterday’s Lies
Lisa Jackson
32.
The Texas Way
Jan Freed
33.
Wild Lady
Ann Major
34.
Cody Daniels’ Return
Marilyn Pappano
35.
All Things Considered
Debbie Macomber
36.
Return to Yesterday
Annette Broadrick
Reckless Renegades
37.
Ambushed
Patricia Rosemoor
38.
West of the Sun
Lynn Erickson
39.
Bittersweet
DeLoras Scott
40.
A Deadly Breed
Caroline Burnes
41.
Desperado
Helen Conrad
42.
Heart of the Eagle
Lindsay McKenna
Once A Cowboy…
43.
Rancho Diablo
Anne Stuart
44.
Big Sky Country
Jackie Merritt
45.
A Family to Cherish
Cathy Gillen Thacker
46.
Texas Wildcat
Lindsay McKenna
47.
Not Part of the Bargain
Susan Fox
48.
Destiny’s Child
Ann Major
Table of Contents
One
“A
ll hell’s broken loose, Kelly!”
Kelly tiredly raised her head. She stared blankly at Jake for a moment. Her office manager’s face was drawn. Her heart plummeted. What now? she wondered miserably. What else could go wrong? Brushing an auburn strand of hair away from her forehead, she sat up a little straighter in the huge leather chair.
“What’s wrong?” Her voice sounded tired and strained after the events of the past week.
Jake grimaced, giving a sorrowful shake of his head. “Boots and Coots’s office just called. Two of our monitor pipes blew up on them.”
“Oh, no!” Kelly groaned, slumping back into the chair. “How? I mean…”
Jake came inside the door and shut it softly behind him. “They’re sending Sam Tyler over to tell us about it.”
She frowned, pushing aside the mountain of paperwork. “Who’s he?”
“Number three man in the outfit, that’s who. They’re angry, Kelly. We’re gonna lose the account.”
Kelly made an agitated gesture, then got to her feet. “Dad never made bad pipe. What’s going on, Jake? I don’t understand it,” she muttered, walking around the large square desk. She fought back tears of remembrance. Tears of grief. Only a week ago her father, a Texas wildcatter as well as the president of Blanchard Pipe, had been sitting in his office. Now, he was dead. Dead because of a senseless automobile accident. A drunk driver had ended the life of the person she loved more than anyone in the world. Kelly’s green eyes narrowed with pain as she stared over at Jake. She chastised herself for not knowing more of her father’s business. Now, it was up to her to run the multimillion-dollar company, which made a variety of pipe for the oil and gas industry around the world.