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The Man From Falcon Ridge
Rita Herron
Escaping a nightmarish past, Hailey Hitchcock fled to a remote Victorian homestead…and fell into the arms of an avenging stranger.Old ghosts echoed through Tin City's "hatchet house," reviving memories of the bloodbath that had taken place within its dilapidated walls. But was it Hailey's unsettling recollections - or Rex Falcon's formidable presence - that sent chills up her spine? When chaos abounded on the blustery cliffside, the primitive falcon trainer swooped to Hailey's rescue.Yet Rex's dark, piercing eyes and tightly coiled strength posed an even greater danger. As escalating threats aroused their forbidden desires, it became clear the house held all the secret answers. Secrets that someone would kill to keep hidden…
The wind hurled a branch across the window, the scraping sound reminding Hailey that she was alone.
She combed the stairs, but found nothing. No sign of the ghost of the child she’d thought she’d seen. The noise must have been the wind blowing debris on the roof.
Still shaken, she pushed back the heavy drape and stared into the darkness, searching for signs that someone was nearby. A light burned from the big stone house at the top of the hill.
Rex Falcon.
Her body grew hot just thinking about his dark eyes.
He was big. Strong. A towering specimen of a man with a muscular body that emanated strength and power. The kind of man who could protect a woman.
The kind who could hurt her with those big hands.
She didn’t intend to get involved with him. Men were trouble.
Especially one as dangerous looking as Rex Falcon.
The Man From Falcon Ridge
Rita Herron
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author Rita Herron wrote her first book when she was twelve, but didn’t think real people grew up to be writers. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job. A former kindergarten teacher and workshop leader, she traded her storytelling for kids for romance, and writes romantic comedies and romantic suspense. She lives in Georgia with her own romance hero and three kids. She loves to hear from readers so please write her at P.O. Box 921225, Norcross, GA 30092-1225, or visit her Web site at www.ritaherron.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Hailey Hitchcock—A woman running from a past she doesn’t remember into a future just as terrifying as the nightmares that plague her.
Rex Falcon—A man determined to find the real killer behind the Hatchet Murders.
Randolph Falcon—Rex’s father. He’s spent the past twenty years of his life in jail for killing the Lyle family—but is he really guilty?
Deke and Brack Falcon—Rex’s brothers are determined to free their father from prison.
Thad Jordan—A man obsessed with Hailey. Will he kill to keep her his?
Lawrence Lyle—The man and his family were brutally murdered twenty years ago. Did he carry the secrets of his family’s murder to his grave?
Sheriff Andy Cohen—He arrested Rex’s father for murder, but did he have ulterior motives?
Bentley McDaver—The prosecutor put Rex’s father in jail for life. Did he have reason to rush the trial?
Carl Pursley—Rex’s father’s defense attorney. Did he help frame him for the murder?
Lindy Lou Lyle—She died in the Hatchet murders, but now her ghost is haunting Hailey.
Ava Riderton—She was Lyle’s secretary. Does she know more than she’s telling?
To Kim Nadelson:
Thanks for all your enthusiasm and
support with my first gothic!
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Prologue
Ten-year-old Rex Falcon stared in horror at the yellow crime-scene tape wrapped around the Lyle house. It was dark now, the night sounds adding to the eeriness. When he’d gotten here, he’d peeked inside the window and seen the gory murders. Then the sheriff and his deputies had pushed him and his brothers and mother into the yard with the other neighbors and refused to let them talk to Rex’s father.
Just because his daddy had found the bodies, they were treating him as if he’d killed the people inside.
His mother hugged the boys close to her. “You boys go on home. You shouldn’t be seeing all this.”
“I’m not going anywhere till they let Daddy go,” Rex said, hands fisted.
“Me neither,” his middle brother Deke said.
His youngest brother Brack jutted up his chin, his eyes wide. “I’m staying, too.”
An image of the dead people flashed into Rex’s head. There was so much blood. It looked like a river on the kitchen floor. The mother lay in it. The boy cuddled beside her. The father, too. It covered his hands and face, and his head….
“Little girl’s dead, too,” a neighbor murmured behind him. “Found her blood near the river.”
“Randolph Falcon.” Sheriff Cohen jerked Rex’s daddy to a standing position and handcuffed him. “You’re under arrest for the murders of the Lyle family.”
“No!” His mother collapsed into a neighbor’s arms, sobbing.
His father’s hawklike eyes pierced Rex as the sheriff yanked him down the steps toward his squad car. “Take care of your mama and brothers for me, son.”
Rex shook his head in denial. His father’s words had sounded so odd, as if he wasn’t coming back. But they couldn’t take his father away and lock him up.
He was innocent.
“Daddy!” His brothers chased after the sheriff, and Rex ran after them.
A bald eagle that had been perched on top of the porch swooped down and soared toward the car, its talons bared. Rex’s father nodded toward the bird. The animal knew what it was like to be caged. He was a bird of prey. He needed freedom.
Just like the Falcon men.
The blue light flicked on, the siren screeched and a cloud of dust rose behind the police car. Rex gathered his brothers and mother and walked them home, but it was dark inside and cold and so quiet the house echoed like a tomb. It was as if his father had just died.
Fear and anger and sadness knotted Rex’s throat. He wanted to do something to get his daddy out of jail. He wanted to make his mother stop crying. And his brothers…they were heartbroken.
But he felt so helpless. He was only ten. A stupid ten-year-old boy. What could he do? He didn’t know anything about lawyers or courts or anything else.
Tears pushed against his eyelids, but he blinked them back. Big boys didn’t cry.
But he had to be alone and think, so he fled into the mountains, silently venting his pain in the midst of the snow-laden pines.
Chapter One
Twenty years later
“You can never escape me, Hailey.”
Hailey Hitchcock inhaled to stifle a cry as Thad Jordan’s hands tightened around her jaw. She desperately wanted to scream, but it was useless. No one would hear.
An icy breeze swirled around her, sending her skirt flapping about her legs. Thad had been so angry with her on the way home from the Christmas dinner party that he’d pulled over on this deserted stretch of highway outside Denver, then half dragged, half carried her down a path in the woods. “It’s freezing out here, Thad, please take me home.”
“You’re bound to me forever,” he murmured.
A shudder rippled through her. His voice was as brittle as the winter wind. Why hadn’t she seen through his charismatic act to the devil that lay beneath? How could she have been such a bad judge of character?
Because he was an attorney. A well-respected, handsome man she’d thought she could trust. And he’d been so charming at first.
Until she’d told him she didn’t want to see him anymore, that she’d quit her job, bought a house and was moving. Then he’d revealed his hidden side.
He lowered his mouth to kiss her, the stench of bourbon on his breath. His other hand slid clumsily to her blouse, and he jerked a button loose.
Cold air assaulted her breasts. Her stomach convulsed.
“Please, Thad, stop. Go home. Sleep it off.”
“No. Nobody humiliates Thad Jordan.” His eyes darkened with an evil flare she’d never seen before. He looked menacing. Brutal. As if he meant to punish.
Then his fingers closed around the ruby necklace he’d given her, the cold stone dangling against her bare skin. “You accepted my gift, now accept that we’re together.”
“You can have the necklace back,” Hailey said, wishing she’d never let him put it on her in the first place. But he had insisted.
His fingers slid to her neck, and she swallowed, her heart racing. What was he going to do? Choke her? “Please, Thad,” Hailey whispered. “Take the necklace, then drive me home.”
His jaw snapped tight, then he backed her up against the tree. “I’ll never let you leave me, Hailey. You’re mine forever.”
Fear spiked her adrenaline, and she swung her knee into his groin. He released her with a bellow. “You’ll pay for that.”
Panic surged through her. She ran, jumping over the rotting tree stumps and bramble. He yelled and ran after her. She clawed her way through the forest, her breathing erratic. Leaves crunched behind her. He was chasing her. Closing the distance.
Briars stabbed her thighs, and she tripped over a tree stump. Her hands hit the dirt, and she struggled to regain her balance. Suddenly he was there. He latched on to her hair and jerked her so hard her neck nearly snapped. Dead brush and pine needles pricked her knees. She swept her hands blindly across the ground for a weapon. Just as he lowered his head, she clutched a branch, then jabbed it upward with all her might. He howled in pain, then fell backward cursing. Blood gushed from his cheek and eye.
Shaking, she jumped up and ran through the forest opening. He screeched her name like a wild animal, once again on her trail. She spotted the car and dashed toward it.
Thank God he’d left the keys inside.
She flung herself into the driver’s side, hit the locks and turned the key. The ignition chugged, then died. He burst through the opening in a thunderous roar, one hand covering his bloody eye, the other fist flailing. “Stop it, Hailey. Come back here!”
She cried out and patted the gas. The car had to start. She couldn’t be trapped here with that monster.
He closed the distance, then banged on the door. “Open the door, Hailey. Dammit, open it!”
His eyes wild with rage, he threw himself on the front window. The car rocked sideways.
His bloody hand streaked the glass as she twisted the key again. She pressed the gas one more time. The car roared to life. Panting, she accelerated, and spun forward. The jolt sent him sailing into the air. She screamed, then steered the opposite way and sped off. She couldn’t look back now. And she couldn’t stop.
If he caught her, he’d kill her…
HIS FATHER WAS NOT A KILLER. He was innocent.
