Texas Outlaw by @AdriennedeWolfe - a lady train robber who tangles with a sexy US marshal.
TEXAS OUTLAW (Book #1, Wild Texas Nights Series) is the story of a lady train robber who tangles with a sexy US marshal, who has vowed to bring her to justice.
Texas Outlaw
Wild Texas Nights
Book 1
by
Adrienne deWolfe
Follow @AdriennedeWolfe
Cover links to Amazon
Texas Outlaw has ranked as high as #1 on Amazon.com's Kindle List of Top 100 Western Historical Romances and #1 on Amazon.com's Kindle List of Top 100 Historical Romances. The ebook version is currently free.
Excerpt
Eagle Valley, Nevada
December 1873
The last time Fancy Holleday robbed a train, she did it in her bloomers.
On that singular occasion, she’d had only one hired gun to distract from his duties. Tonight, the train carried a railroad detective and a deputy U.S. marshal. As skilled as she was at disposing of lawmen, even she had to admit she had limitations.
Fancy scowled, careful to hide her tapping boot beneath her skirts. She’d made the unfortunate decision to concentrate her charm on the marshal, since she’d reasoned that a federal tin-star could do her mission more damage than the detective. Cord Rawlins, however, had barely glanced her way. Now her time was running out.
Perhaps the Texican had grown too fond of this horse, she thought uncharitably. How else might she explain his indifference? Other men positively drooled over her lavender eyes and bulging bustline; Marshal Rawlins acted as if beautiful women were as common as fleas on dogs. She had half a mind to plop down on his lap to see for herself if he were bull or steer.
She smirked at the thought — until she heard the clock chime the quarter hour. Her heart lurched. Only 15 minutes remained before the other outlaws boarded. Only 15 minutes were left to prove to her Spanish lover that she was still valuable to him, in spite of her 25 years.
Damn that Marshal Rawlins. Did she have to look like a beefsteak to interest the man?
Gazing past the scurrying waiters with their trays of crystal and gleaming silver, she glared once more at Rawlins. He had made a face at the menu’s exotic selection of blue-winged teal and had specially ordered beef. His suffering waiter had been sent back twice with orders to “burn” the steak. Now Rawlins was shoveling beans down his gullet with a slab of cornbread.
Fancy sniffed. As far as she could see, Rawlins’s badge was the only thing that distinguished him from a cowpoke. She supposed she had expected more from a federal tin-star. Foolish of her, really. She had yet to meet a lawman whom she could respect. The ones in San Francisco all seemed to be more crooked than she was. That was why she never had qualms about drugging them when they interfered with her lover’s casino business. The way she saw it, laudanum was a far kinder fate than anything Diego might have planned.
But Rawlins, of course, was oblivious to the favor she’d tried to do him. He had refused to sneak off with her to the sleeping car, and he had declined her invitation to dine. Now, short of cracking open his skull in full view of a dozen witnesses, she didn’t see how she could possibly render him unconscious before Diego’s thugs derailed the train.
Diego Santana, so help me God, this is the last time I will ever participate in one of your heists.
She winced inwardly as she remembered their last job, when she had to strip to her underclothes before the laudanum finally took effect on the railroad detective. Her gun hand quaking as much from cold as from guilt, she had herded the pajama-clad passengers from the sleeping car to the snow, where Diego had looted and ridiculed them.
She had hoped then, as she did now, that Diego would come to appreciate her loyalty and that, finally, he would ask her to marry him. Although she and Diego had had their differences of late, tonight he was counting on her to crack the safe in the express car. He had given her another chance, thank God, even though he’d been furious with her for begging him to forget his dreams of a counterfeiting empire. Arguing with him had proven useless, so she had finally swallowed her misgivings and agreed to help him accumulate the kind of wealth he would need to control the Barbary Coast. Although she didn’t share his new fondness for armed robbery, she loved him. That would have to see her through this ordeal.
Uh-oh. Fancy’s heart tripped. Marshal Rawlins was on his feet. He was heading for the door! If she bungled this job, Diego might send her back to the whorehouse! She would never see an altar, then.
There was only one thing left to do: make a scene. Hadn’t Diego always said that scene-making was her second-greatest talent?
With theatrics worthy of the great Laura Keene, Fancy bounded to her feet, swept the china from her table, and loosed an ear-splitting shriek.
“You cad!” she exclaimed, looming over the innocuous-looking gentleman who sat behind her.
Until that moment, her neighbor had been staring dreamily out the window at the starlight and pines rushing by. Now he turned, blinking owl-like at her through thick, round glasses. Only then did Fancy notice his black frock coat and starched white linen collar. She nearly groaned aloud. Her mark was a preacher! Why in God’s name had she let herself be seated next to a preacher? Convincing Rawlins that this worm of a creature had tried to fondle her would demand the performance of a lifetime.
She let her forefinger shake as she leveled it at the cleric. “Loathsome man. Never in my life have I been so . . . so vilified! And you, a pillar of the church. Have you no conscience? No shame?”
The parson had yet to recover his wits, and Fancy glanced hopefully at Rawlins. The marshal looked like he was about to yawn – or worse, to continue on his way. She battled a wave of panic.
“How dare you hide your depraved, disgusting behavior behind the trappings of your office!” She flared her nostrils at the parson.
“My dear young woman, I think you must have mistaken –”
“Charlatan!” She filled her lungs until her breasts nearly spilled from her artfully rigged corset. “You lie! You would have these good people questioning my integrity. Marshal!” Her bellow rattled the windows and caused at least one passenger to douse his lap with turtle soup. “Arrest this man!”
Author Bio and Links
The recipient of 48 writing awards, including the Best Historical Romance of the Year, Adrienne loves to mentor aspiring authors by providing story critiques. Her non-fiction e-titles include How to Write Wildly Popular Romances, How to Write Romance Heroes with Sex Appeal, and How to Write Sensual Love Scenes. Her bestselling western historical Romance novels include the Wild Texas Nights trilogy, which is now available in e-book format.
When Adrienne isn't writing books, she is blogging at WritingNovelsThatSell.com, where aspiring authors find lots of tips, inspiration, writing resources, professional story critiques, and online writing workshops and courses.
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