Waiting on a Cowboy - Jennifer Ryan Page 0,118
finally had doubts about Gabriel’s new plans for Sunrise. “I’m going to make sure they know they have a choice.”
Joseph gave her a firm nod.
And she took another shot at getting through to him in case it would help stop Gabriel. “Go to Gabriel’s place. You’ll see who he really is.”
With that, she rushed off to join the girls at the van with hope in her heart that exposing Gabriel to Joseph would have a domino effect and he and the other men would finally stand against him.
She climbed behind the wheel knowing that was a long shot. She shifted the bag of evidence onto her lap. It and the other things she’d hidden were probably her only hope of putting Gabriel in a cell where he belonged if she got them to the right authorities.
Alice leaned over. “I’ll hold on to that if you’d like.”
“I’ve got it. But thanks.” Skye put her shaking hand on the bag, turned the key in the ignition, and hit the gas to get them out of there. Everyone fell back in their seats, then let loose a holler.
They thought they were out to have fun.
She knew better.
No telling what they’d say or do when they realized where she was really taking them.
As she drove through the gates, she took a moment to think about what she was leaving behind, but it only made her heart ache more, so she shut off her brain and drove.
Lucy deserved justice and she planned to get it for her. One way or another.
Alice leaned forward, staring out the windshield. “The movie theater is the other way.”
“I’m going to make a stop. I think you’d all benefit from talking to someone about your upcoming marriages.” She hoped she was doing the right thing.
“Like a counselor?” Bess asked.
“Very much like that.” A legal counselor, who could advise the fourteen-year-old, who of all the young brides needed the most help because she already had a baby on the way.
“I’m nervous,” Julie confessed. “But the flowers are going to be so pretty.” She covered her complicated feelings by talking about pleasant things.
“My bouquet is filled with pink peonies.” Alice beamed.
“I made this really pretty floral crown with baby white roses and orchids,” one of the other girls chimed in.
It seemed easier for them to follow Julie’s lead and stick to the simple things.
They grew all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and flowers on the farm and in the greenhouses and sold them at farmers markets along with the other goods produced at Sunrise. It’s how they sustained the compound.
“Mine has pink roses and blue hydrangeas.” Beth’s voice didn’t sound as exuberant as the other young women caught up in the weddings. At nineteen, maybe Beth was one of the ones unsure of sprinting down the aisle.
The others responded to her restrained tone and fell silent, as if Beth’s quiet resistance amplified their unspoken fears.
They should be afraid.
Skye had gathered pieces of the odd things happening at Sunrise. Taken one at a time, they didn’t seem to be anything more than a ramp up to increase production for much-needed repairs, renovations, and expansion. But put together with the slow changes to the culture and philosophy they’d lived by for decades, alterations that Gabriel forced with his persistent ways, it painted a picture that went against everything she’d believed in her whole life.
Lucy’s death proved someone had to stop Gabriel before it was too late.
About the Author
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author JENNIFER RYAN writes suspenseful contemporary romances about everyday people who do extraordinary things. Her deeply emotional love stories are filled with high stakes and higher drama, love, family, friendship, and the happily-ever-after we all hope to find. Jennifer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. When she finally leaves those fictional worlds, you’ll find her in the garden, playing in the dirt and daydreaming about people who live only in her head . . . until she puts them on paper.
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By Jennifer Ryan
The McGraths Series
Waiting on a Cowboy
Stand-Alone Novels
Sisters and Secrets
The Me I Used to Be
Wild Rose Ranch Series
Tough Talking Cowboy
Restless Rancher
Dirty Little Secret
Montana Heat Series
Tempted by Love
True to You
Escape to You
Protected by Love (novella)
Montana Men Series
His Cowboy Heart
Her Renegade Rancher
Stone Cold Cowboy
Her Lucky Cowboy
When It’s Right
At Wolf Ranch
The McBrides Series
Dylan’s Redemption
Falling for Owen
The Return of Brody McBride
The Hunted Series
Everything She Wanted
Chasing Morgan
The Right Bride
Lucky Like Us
Saved by the Rancher
Short Stories
Close to Perfect
(appears in Snowbound at Christmas)
Can’t Wait
(appears in All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy)
Waiting for You
(appears in Confessions of a Secret Admirer)
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Love of a Cowboy copyright © 2021 by Jennifer Ryan.
waiting on a cowboy. Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Ryan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-285186-4
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-285193-2
Cover design by Nadine Badalaty
Cover images by © SalvadorCelis/iStock/Getty Images Plus; © thierrydehove.com/Getty Images; WLDavies/iStock /Getty Images Plus
Cover photography by Rob Lang Photography
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HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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