Wyoming True - Diana Palmer Page 0,84

my life, I think being a family man is far and away the best.” He drew her close and kissed her, then dropped his head to put a kiss on the head of his little daughter, who was nursing.

“I never dreamed I’d ever be so happy,” Ida confessed. “And it’s nice to have Fred back,” she added with a smile. “Even nicer of the governor to grant him a full pardon.”

He pursed his lips. “I did make a few phone calls.”

“You devil,” she teased.

“Well, he’s a great driver. And he does have some great stories about his former profession,” he added with a twinkle in his silver eyes.

“I think we might not let the kids hear those stories right away,” she replied with a laugh. “At least, not until they’re teenagers.”

“One day at a time, sweetheart.”

She pressed close to him, watching her daughter nurse. “One day at a time,” she whispered and sighed. The face she lifted to her husband’s was almost luminous with joy.

* * *

Eager to escape her family, heiress Gaby Dupont finds a career for herself working for powerful lawyer

Nicholas Chandler. But soon, she butts heads with her sexy boss. Ultimately, it will be up to Nicholas to save Gaby’s life—and both of their hearts...

Read on for a sneak preview of Notorious, part of the Long, Tall Texans series from New York Times

bestselling author Diana Palmer.

Notorious

by Diana Palmer

CHAPTER ONE

GABY DUPONT GLANCED again at the paper in her hand. She hesitated to do this, but her grandmother had pleaded with her. They needed to know something about this noted Chicago criminal attorney, Nicholas Chandler, and his very famous law firm, Chandler, Morse and Souillard. Gaby was the only one of the family who lived permanently in Chicago, where he did. If her grandmother hadn’t been so upset, and so insistent, perhaps Gaby could have found another solution. But this might be her best option.

She pushed the doorbell and stood nervously waiting for someone to open the door. This apartment was in a swanky area of Chicago, overlooking the lake. It was as expensive as the place where Gaby lived. She knew this man by reputation, and also because the law firm he headed had represented her grandfather in a criminal action that still made her sick to her stomach to remember. There was an appeal being threatened in the case, and Gaby’s grandmother wanted to know if this attorney was going to consider representing her ex-husband again. She needed to know. So did Gaby.

Gaby had done masquerades before, mostly in an attempt to avoid a greedy cousin who was stalking her relentlessly for some property willed to her by a mutual great-aunt, which she wasn’t willing to give him. She’d never understood the passion some people had for the almighty dollar. Gaby would have been happy poor. It was attitude, she considered, more than what happened to you. But poverty was something she’d never known.

Gaby was twenty-four and she didn’t want to get married. Her grandfather, Charles Dupont, had sold her like a prize mare without her knowledge when she was sixteen. Her innocence had a monetary value, and without Gaby’s knowledge—or his wife’s—he’d arranged a private party and left Gaby alone with a foreign businessman to whom he owed a lot of money, and three of the businessman’s friends. Gaby was to be his payoff, since Madame Dupont had refused to pay his gambling debts.

But Gaby’s screams had brought her grandmother running. Two men at the party, Madame’s chauffeur and bodyguard, had busted the lock on the door and saved the teenager from assault at the hands of her grandfather’s colleague. One of the men had taken photos with his cell phone just as Madame Dupont went in the door and saw the horror. The photos were used in a criminal complaint. There were a few assorted bruises and lacerations before the assaulting parties had managed to escape before the police arrived.

Gaby had been transported to the hospital, her grandfather to jail. Gaby’s grandmother had filed for divorce the very next day, leaving her immoral husband penniless and furious at his changed circumstances. Sadly, Gaby’s assailant was a foreign diplomat, and he used his diplomatic immunity to escape any charges. His three friends vanished like smoke. Gaby’s grandmother had been furious, but her attorney had been forced to relinquish the criminal charges against the diplomat. Gaby’s grandfather, however, had been arrested and tried and convicted. Thanks to a friend, an influential and rather shady judge, his