Texas Takedown (Mason Ridge), by Barb Han
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Texas Takedown (Mason Ridge), by Barb Han
Best Ebook Texas Takedown (Mason Ridge), by Barb Han
He's facing trouble as big—and unpredictable—as the Texas terrain
For security expert Dylan Jacobs, his little daughter is a light against the shadows of his past. But when the sexy ex-soldier locates missing Samantha Turner, the shadows return. Samantha is convinced their childhood nemesis—the Mason Ridge Abductor—is back. And that he's hunting her.
Amid a hail of gunfire, Dylan commits to keeping Samantha safe—then nearly crumbles when his own child disappears. So when the villain poses a vicious ultimatum—turn over the woman he loves or never see his beloved toddler again—Dylan knows what he has to do. Put plan B into action.
Texas Takedown (Mason Ridge), by Barb Han - Amazon Sales Rank: #254139 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-10-01
- Released on: 2015-10-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Texas Takedown (Mason Ridge), by Barb Han About the Author USA TODAY Bestselling Author Barb Han lives in N. Texas with her husband, three beautiful children and a spunky Golden Retriever/Poodle mix. She loves romance novels, thriller movies, and cooking. Her favorite hobbies include hiking, swimming, and skiing.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Difficult didn't begin to cover the past year for Dylan Jacobs. Not only had he discovered that he was a father, but he'd learned the mother who'd kept the baby from him was terminally ill. He'd wanted to be angry with her on both counts, but his frustration had died on the vine with every step toward the hospital where she lay losing her grip on life. And once he'd looked into his daughter's green eyes—a perfect reflection of his—he'd been wrapped around that little girl's finger.Falling in love with Maribel had been the easy part. She had rosy cherub cheeks, dark curls for days and a laugh brighter than the Texas sun. Caring for a two-year-old who'd just lost everything known to her, everything comfortable, had been harder than his tour in Afghanistan.What a difference a year made.Dylan squatted at the end of the hallway just out of sight, listening intently as the sounds of Maribel's electric toothbrush hummed, then died. The pitter-patter of her bare feet on bamboo flooring in the hallway came next. She knew the drill, the same ritual they'd performed every morning since she'd come to live with him in Mason Ridge. She'd be on the lookout, ready to find Da-da.Her giggle was like spring air, breathing life into everything around her. And he'd been on a certain path of destruction before she came into his life.The tap-tap-tap of her footsteps stopped at the end of the hall. She'd expected to find him by now."Da-da."He rolled and landed with his back against the floor a few feet away, arms spread open.She jumped, squealed and clapped all at once. A second later, she launched herself on top of him. "Da-da!"Thanks to reflexes honed by the US Army, he caught her in time."Airplane, Da-da," she said. Her r came out as a w. Dylan extended his arms and made her fly. "Mrrrrrr, mrrrrrrr."A knock at the back door interrupted their playtime. It was probably for the best. Maribel shouldn't be late to preschool again. Dylan didn't think he could stomach another disapproving look from Mrs. Applebee. He might not be the most punctual guy when it came to dropping his daughter off at school, but no one could argue his love for the child. Not even stern-faced, disapproving Apple-bee. She might run a tight ship, but her heart was pure gold. More important, she loved Maribel.He set his little girl on her feet next to him. "Daddy needs a favor. Go to your room, put on your shoes and grab your backpack."She planted her balled fist on her little hip and argued for a little more time as a plane.The knock came louder this time. Dylan didn't like the sense of urgency it carried. "When you get home from school today, I promise. Okay, Bel?"She pursed her lips and narrowed her gaze."And we can have ice cream after," he threw in to tip the scale in his favor. "You don't want to miss your field trip to Dinosaur Park.""Ho-kay" came out on a sigh. She turned and bolted toward her room. Toddlers had one speed. It was full tilt.Dylan popped to his feet in one swift motion and crossed to the kitchen, his muscles still warm from his early-morning push-ups. He liked to get his workout in before Maribel opened her eyes. When she was awake, his full attention was on her, had to be on her. Three-year-olds had no sense of danger.Only a few people used his back door. He saw his friend Rebecca Hughes through the glass and motioned for her to come inside."Everything okay with Shane?" Shane was the younger brother she'd recently located who had been abducted at seven years old. Dylan tried not to think about the fact that Shane had been only four years older than his Maribel when he'd been taken from Mason Ridge and the Hughes family all those years ago. Even so, a bolt of anger flashed through him quicker than a lightning rod and with the same explosive effect."He's fine. I'm not here about him." Didn't those words leave a creepy-crawly feeling all over Dylan?"What is it? Something going on with Brody?" She had reunited with her high school sweetheart, who was one of Dylan's best friends, when the man responsible for kidnapping her and her brother as children had come back for her last month.She shook her head. "It might not be anything. It's just that Samantha stopped answering her cell phone four days ago. I have a bad feeling.""You call her father?" he asked."Store says he's gone fishing," she supplied. Saman-tha's father owned the only hardware store in town."So you want me to look into it?" Since opening the doors to his security consulting firm last year, he'd taken the occasional missing-person case, none of which had involved a friend's disappearance. He, Rebecca and Samantha had been part of a close-knit group of childhood friends. The group had broken up fifteen years ago when Rebecca and her brother, Shane, had been abducted.For the past few weeks, everyone in town had been focused on the manhunt for the Mason Ridge Abductor after he'd returned to permanently quiet Rebecca. Her search for her brother had brought her too close to the truth. Thomas Kramer's grip on the community had lasted fifteen years, but luck had finally smiled on the town and they'd gotten him. He wasn't in prison, where he belonged, but he'd been killed in a car crash and that was just as good. Either way, he was no longer a threat.Dylan thought about his word choice. Luck? There was a reason he didn't have a rabbit's foot tucked in his pocket. Hard work was reliable. Luck was for ladies in Vegas at the slot machines. Luck was for people who believed in things they couldn't see. Luck was for pie-in-the-sky dreamers. Dylan was far too practical to fall into that trap. People created their own luck.With a state-of-the-art computer, a strong network of contacts and skills honed through the military, Dylan didn't have to rely on chance to help his clients.Even so, he couldn't shake the bad feeling he had about Rebecca's visit.Maribel bounded into the room, ran straight for Rebecca and wrapped tiny arms around her knees. "Auntie Becca!""Hey, baby girl." Rebecca bent down to eye level and then kissed Maribel on the forehead.The two had become fast friends. A tug Dylan didn't want to acknowledge stirred his heart. Rebecca was fantastic, don't get him wrong, but he suspected the bond had happened so quickly in part because Maribel missed her mother. He kept Lyndsey's picture on Maribel's night-stand. Maribel kissed the photograph every night before bed and then said good-night to her mother in heaven. It was important that Maribel knew just how much her mother had loved her. Even more important to Dylan was that Maribel knew her mother had wanted her.On some level, he understood why Lyndsey had kept his daughter from him. He'd been partly to blame, having declared long ago that he never wanted kids or marriage. How many times had he told Lyndsey that parenthood was about the cruelest thing a person could do to a child? Too many.His wild-child ways hadn't helped any. He had no right to hold on to anger when it came to Lyndsey's decision. She'd been trying to protect her baby.Dylan never took for granted how very blessed he'd been from the day that little girl had come into his life. His only regret was that he hadn't known sooner, that Lyndsey hadn't realized how much being present in his child's life would mean to him. Had he been that much of a jerk?The short answer? Yes.He had to have been. Lyndsey would've trusted him otherwise. He couldn't blame her, either. How many times when they'd lain in bed in the mornings had he said their life was perfect the way it was? Dozens? Hundreds? He'd been so adamant that he'd almost convinced himself, too.Down deep, he'd wanted a family of his own but he'd never have been able to admit that to himself. He'd always figured that he'd jack it up. History repeating itself and all that. Except the one thing Dylan knew above all was that he was nothing like his parents. He'd gone to great lengths to ensure it.And yet he couldn't help but think he'd failed Lyndsey. Because of his stubborn streak, she'd gone through her pregnancy alone. Then she'd had a baby by herself. To top it off, she'd spent the first two years of Maribel's life without any help from him.He could give himself the cop-out all day long that he'd have done better by Lyndsey if he'd known. Still didn't ease the sting of feeling as if he'd let her down in the worst possible way when she needed him. And then, before he could make any of it right, she'd died.At least she hadn't done that alone—he'd made certain. He'd maintained a bedside vigil during her last days. She'd been in a coma and couldn't speak. The only thing she could do was squeeze his hand when he apologized for letting her down.Dylan sighed sharply. Those memories had been packed away and stowed deep. So why were they resurfacing?And how ridiculous did his point of view seem to him now? His life wouldn't be complete without that little rug rat. Maturity was on his side. But he never would have turned Maribel away. Lyndsey couldn't have known. She'd believed the wilder side of Dylan.He turned to Rebecca. "I need to run Maribel to school and then I'll make a few calls. You want to stick around and wait? Coffee's fresh.""I wish I could stay. We've got a colt that's in trouble and Brody has his hands full. I better get back and help with the other horses." She'd moved in with Brody after rekindling their romance, and they'd be announcing a wedding date any day now. Together they made a great team running his horse rehabilitation center, and the work looked to agree with her. Or maybe it was just the fact that she'd found someone who could make her happy.Dylan had more pressing matters to think about than the complications having another female in his life would bring. His three-foot-tall angel kept him on the brink of exhaustion."I can take Maribel to school if you want. It's on my way home," she offered.Dylan figured that was Rebecca's way of saying she hoped he'd get started looking for Samantha right away.Maribel was already jumping up and down, clapping her hands.He nodded to Rebecca, even though he'd miss being the one to take his little girl to school. His part-time nanny, Ms. Anderson, usually picked up Maribel in the afternoons. She cooked suppers and stayed as long as Dylan needed her around. Said she enjoyed keeping busy after being widowed at the young age of sixty. When he'd hired her, she'd volunteered to come in first thing in the mornings, too, but Dylan had refused. He couldn't give up being the one to wake Maribel. His daughter might've come out of nowhere a year ago, but she was here to stay, in his home and in his heart. Dylan couldn't imagine his life any other way.Between Ms. Anderson, Mrs. Applebee and Maribel, Dylan had plenty of estrogen in his life.Having his own business allowed him to work from home a lot of the time and set his own schedule for the most part. But there were occasions when he had to be away overnight. He appreciated Ms. Anderson's flexibility."I'll call the headmaster and give up my volunteer spot on the field trip.""I'd hate for you to do that," Rebecca said."I have a few other things to do today anyway. And I'm pretty sure Applebee could use a break from me. There's a wait list for these trips. This'll give another parent a shot."Maribel frowned."Hey, I worked the past two. It's good to share with the other parents so they can spend the day with their kids." He took a knee. "Give Daddy big hugs."Maribel hesitated, then ran to him and he caught her as she tripped on her last step, scooping her into his arms, kissing her forehead.With any luck, he'd be done in time to tuck his precious little girl into bed. Losing her mother had not been easy on her last year, and part of the reason he desperately wanted to make his security consulting enterprise work was so that he could be around and she could grow up surrounded by people who loved her. Dylan couldn't bring back her mother, but he'd vowed their Bel would always know she'd been wanted and loved. Unlike Dylan, whose parents had dumped him with his grandmother at six months old because the responsibility of caring for a baby had proved too much for the free-spirited hipsters. They'd split up a year later and had rarely visited. No birthday cards. No high school graduation appearance. No showing at his daughter's christening.Dylan's child would never know that brand of rejection.She turned toward Rebecca and launched herself again."Hold on there." He caught her under her arms and pulled her back toward him. He helped secure her backpack before another round of hugs came.Maribel stopped at the door and turned, smiling, one hand holding on to Auntie Becca's, the other waving back at him. "Bye-bye, Da-da!""Have a good day at school. Learn everything you can.""So I can be smarter than you," she squealed. Those adorable r's rolling out like w's. The pediatrician had assured him she'd sort it out in the next year or so. He knew he should work harder on pronunciation with her but it was so darn cute the way she said her words. Because he'd missed out on the first two years of her life, a selfish part of him didn't want her growing up any faster than she had to."That's right." Dylan watched Rebecca buckle Mari-bel into the spare car seat she'd pulled from her trunk. He stood at the window until the blue sedan disappeared down the drive.His laptop was already booted up, so he snagged another cup of coffee and seated himself at the breakfast bar. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake the feeling that Maribel needed a female influence in her life even if he couldn't imagine having time to find one. Relationships were complicated. They required communication and commitment. The only thing Dylan was devoted to at the moment was finishing his cup of coffee.When he put his full attention to the case, it took about an hour of digging to find that Samantha had withdrawn five thousand dollars in cash from her bank four days ago. The withdrawal was timed perfectly to her disappearance. His trouble radar jumped up a few notches. She might've been forced to pull out the money, murdered and then dumped somewhere. No. Forget it. He couldn't allow himself to believe she'd been killed and that he'd be looking for a body. There were other possibilities. Maybe she'd decided to pack up and take a vacation. Everyone was burned out from recent events.A quick call to her employer shot down that prospect. Samantha hadn't been to work in a week.The probability foul play wasn't involved shrank by the nanosecond.Dylan scanned online news outlets for crimes with unidentified females on the date she withdrew money.He came up short and sighed with relief.There were dozens of hospitals in Dallas, even more counting the suburbs. He narrowed his search down to a five-mile radius of where she lived and worked. The number shrank to five. He called each one looking for a Jane Doe, relieved when he didn't find her.Next he reached out to the city morgue, which was not a call he wanted to make.Relief flooded him at receiving the word that no Jane Does had been received in the past week.Having exhausted obvious answers, he had to consider other possibilities. The first one that popped into his mind said she could be on the run. But from what?
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. good book By S. Frank Good book with some pretty intense action. Dylan is asked by a friend to find Samantha, a mutual friend who is missing. When he does, he discovers that Samantha has been in hiding, terrified that the Mason Ridge Abductor is after her, even though the man believed to be the Abductor is dead. When they are attacked, Dylan has to agree that something is going on.Dylan has a lot going on in his life, the biggest of which is caring for his toddler daughter. He had only found out about her the year before, just before Maribel's mother died. He's dealing with a lot of guilt over the fact that she had believed that Dylan wouldn't want to know he was a father. Maribel has become the center of Dylan's life, and he has really taken to being a dad. He has started his own security business, which he can run mostly from home, making it possible to spend as much time as possible with Maribel.Samantha is terrified by what is going on. Her father has been kidnapped, but not before he told her to go into hiding to protect herself. She has been told that her family and friends are in danger. When Dylan arrives, she does her best to get him to leave her, afraid of what might happen. Those fears come to pass when his daughter is kidnapped, and the kidnapper wants to trade Samantha for Maribel.Dylan is determined to protect Samantha at the same time he works to find his daughter. He and Samantha have been friends since they were eleven, but there is something more between them now. Both try to resist, but it becomes bigger than they can contain. I loved watching the relationship develop, as both of them overcame their fears about risking their hearts. I loved Samantha's resilience as she dealt with each attack and continued to insist on being involved in every aspect. She fell hard for Dylan, but believed that he would deny anything between them in order to focus on his daughter. I enjoyed the ending as both of them accepted their feelings and that they needed to be together. The scene with Samantha's father was pretty cute.The suspense of the story was very good. Even though I hadn't read the first book, there was more than enough backstory given that it was easy to keep up. Each attack on Dylan and Samantha helped them uncover a little more information. I wanted to smack Dylan for his one plan to go out on his own because it could have turned out so badly. They had help from various friends to get more information on their top suspects. The final confrontation was really intense, and while the immediate problem has been solved, I have a feeling that there is more to the Abductor's story than has been exposed so far.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Nobody does it better By Cynthia Harrison I love stories about family, community, small towns and falling in love. Add a mystery and it's icing on the cake. But not everyone can combine these elements the way Barb Han does. From the first page I was biting my nails from the suspense and rooting for the couple who are thrown together into a dangerous situation that constantly gets more frightening, especially when a small child is involved in a kidnap scheme that goes back many years. Samantha and Dylan remember that earlier kidnapping in their small town so when their families are caught in the kidnapper's trap, they know things could get dangerous. Especially because they're be shot at. But the kidnapper was caught and he's dead. So how come someone with the same strategy says he's the bad guy come back to life? It sure seems like it, but as Dylan digs deeper, he finds his worst nightmare. I love how protective Dylan is of Samantha. Her terror is so real it is palpable. Nobody blends romance and suspense like Barb Han!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Barb you did it again By Tina Brimlow Have you ever gotten that feeling of lack of sleep due to an amazing book by an amazing author? No well then you have to check out this book by Barb Han. I must have spent sleepless nights reading Texas Takedown cause there was not way I was going to put it down without finding out what was going to happen next. It had the story, the suspense, the action, and the romance. Texas Takedown will keep you on the edge of your seat. And trust me when your done, your going to melt cause you realize you have to wait for the next best read by Barb.
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