Small-town Texas with high-stakes risks Alice Green lives with ghosts. A rogue cop whose mistake led to the loss of a young girl's parents, Alice is haunted by the decisions that halted her sterling career. And now the same girl who lost her parents has been abducted. And Alice will stop at nothing to find her. Joshua O'Brien doesn't want to tell his brothers—fellow inheritors of his deceased parents' ranch—that he has bigger plans. Applying to work for the FBI brings the possibility of an exciting and illustrious career. But when he meets Alice, whose beauty is only surpassed by her brain, it doesn't take long for things to heat up. And while helping her crack a case might save a life…it could also cost him his own. Cattlemen Crime Club

IT WAS A KISS SHE COULDN'T FORGET… Though the sign on Matt Bonner's San Antonio detective agency door claimed he was a "finder of lost loves," there was one he hoped he never had to find—the man who'd given Matt's ex-sister-in-law her first kiss. A kiss that had apparently given Jamie Lee fifteen years' worth of memories. But the man Jamie Lee was looking for didn't exist. Or so everyone told them. Why, then, was the trail of this seemingly obscure missing person strewn with danger, destruction and undeniable desire? Unless there was more to that kiss than Jamie Lee was willing to tell…? Matt knew firsthand about wanting to protect secrets. His was the deadliest of all: the two-fisted heat of a forbidden love.

This book explores the identity of Texas as a state with a large and severe penal system. It does so by assessing the narratives at work in Texas museums and tourist sites associated with prisons and punishment. In such cultural institutions, complex narratives are presented, which show celebratory stories of Texan toughness in the penal sphere, as well as poignant stories about the witnessing of executions, comical stories that normalize the harsher aspects of Texan punishment, and presentations about prison officers who have lost their lives in the war on crime. In analysing these representations, the book shows that Texan history plays an important role in the production of Texan self-identity, and that to understand the Texan commitment to harsh punishment we must be prepared to focus on Texan myths and memories. Prisons and Punishment in Texas draws on diverse interdisciplinary work, including criminology, cultural studies about Southern values, as well as research on cultural memory and dark tourism. Museums are shown to be under-researched sites of criminological significance, which offer rich evidence through which penal imaginaries and the cultural role of punishment can be explored. The book will be of great interest to criminologists as well as scholars of sociology, cultural studies, museum studies and politics.

Throw a sassy whiskey slinger together with a down-on-his-luck cowboy and what do you get? A match made in the Last Chance Saloon. . . She's No Lady Lark Van Schuyler can take care of herself--and has ever since she ran away from home and wound up in Buck Shot, Oklahoma. Taking care of others is a novelty she can't afford. Until she sees a man deep in his drink and being cheated at poker. Lark decides to do him a favor. . . He's No Gentleman The last thing Larado needs is more booze--especially in his lap. Just when he's about to clean up at cards, a no-account soiled dove drops a drink on him. It's her own dang fault that she loses her job. He never expects to see her again. Especially not during a bank hold-up. In Texas. And married--to him. They're Made For Each Other Being tied down to a pretty gal and her crazy donkey is turning out to be the worst fix Larado's ever found himself in. The West isn't big enough for both of them. But maybe love is. . . "Sharp, sexy repartee. . .filled with wit and ribald humor, double-crosses and heated passion, this is the most delightful Western of the season." --Romantic Times on To Tempt A Texan (4 1⁄2 stars, Top Pick, and KISS Award winner)

She’ll do whatever it takes To keep her baby safe. Aiming a shotgun at a would-be kidnapper showed Renee Smith she had the instincts she would need to safeguard her newly adopted daughter. Then US marshal Cash O’Connor offers her a safe haven at his Texas ranch and she knows it’s best to accept his protection. Cash recognizes that Renee’s incident is eerily similar to his own infant sister’s unsolved kidnapping thirty years ago. This time, Cash vows to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. USA TODAY Bestselling Author

Alex Reynolds's soul is shaped by his father's cruelty and tortured by a mountain of regrets. A man with a heart as unreachable as his deserves to live out the rest of his days alone on his Texas ranch. Then a damsel in distress interrupts his isolation with a chance at redemption. Patience Gorham should be walking up the aisle. Instead she's pleading with a handsome stranger to save her from marrying a brute! But the last thing Patience expects is for her rescuer to have three conditions. To honor and obey…but never to love….

Six foot two of raw masculinity is her best witness protection Face-to-face with the woman who jilted him, Colin O’Brien tells himself he’s over her. What the charming rancher doesn’t know is that the man Melissa Roark Rancic married has forced her—and her infant daughter—to live a charade of love. And now, about to testify to his criminal deeds, she’s shaken by rekindled feelings for Colin and scared that he’ll discover her child is his. Though angry, Colin vows to protect Melissa from her vengeful ex…while safeguarding his own heart. But once he steps up, he can’t step away. No danger can keep Colin from the woman he never stopped loving.