Series:

Harlequin Intrigue\Sweetwater Ranch

Excerpt from book:

The moment Sheriff Cooper McKinnon stepped through the hospital's emergency room doors, he spotted the woman running toward him. Not hurrying. Flat-out running.

He'd only known the running woman, Jessa Wells, for a few months now. Since she'd moved to Sweetwater Springs to take the job as the town's assistant district attorney. A move that continued to be a thorn in Cooper's professional and personal sides.

Like the woman herself.

But that wasn't a thorny look she was giving Cooper now. She was a mess.

Her light brown hair was tangled on her shoulders, and there were small nicks and cuts on her face. White powder from a car's deployed air bag was clinging like dust to her already pale gray skirt and top. Everything about her expression was an emotion he knew all too well.

Fear.

Remembering that fear, and the panic, it felt as if someone had just punched him in the gut. Mercy. Despite his feelings about Jessa, Cooper prayed her situation turned out better than his.

One lost child was enough.

"Hurry," Jessa insisted, catching his arm and practically dragging him out of the E.R. waiting room and into a side corridor. "Dr. Howland's ready to draw your blood."

She was ashy pale—the only spots of color were those wide blue eyes. Desperate eyes.

Yet something else Cooper understood.

"It's my son," she said, though he didn't know how she managed to speak with her breath gusting like that. She was dragging in air through her mouth at a much too fast rate.

"Yeah. When the doctor called me, he said your boy, Liam, was two years old and that he'd been hurt."

Jessa managed a shaky nod. "We were in a car accident. Someone sideswiped me." She gave a hoarse groan. "And his spleen ruptured. I didn't even know that could happen to a toddler."

Lots of bad things could happen to babies and toddlers, and Cooper wished he didn't know that firsthand.

She threw open the door to an examining room. Not an empty one, but there was no sign of her son inside. Just Dr. Howland, his nurse Tammy Karnes and a table set up for Cooper to give blood.

Other than the panicked mother and the feeling of urgency, this was familiar ground for Cooper, since Dr. Howland often called him to donate blood. This was a first, however—a child who might literally die without it.

"Thanks for coming so fast," Dr. Howland greeted.

The doc looked every day of his sixty-plus years this morning. Heaven knew how many life-and-death situations like this he'd faced over his long career as a smalltown doctor. How many babies he'd delivered.

And saved.

Heck, he'd delivered Cooper and his two brothers and had saved them a time or two over their years as law enforcement officers. He hoped the doc could do the same for Jessa's little boy.

Cooper took off his Stetson and got on the table, his belt holster and gun clattering against the metal side. The nurse didn't waste any time swabbing his finger. All routine. She jabbed it to get the drops of blood that she needed for a quick test to make sure he wasn't too anemic to donate. While she scurried away to do that, the doctor rubbed his arm with antiseptic and inserted the needle.

The wait began.

It wouldn't be long, but it would no doubt seem like a lifetime to Jessa. She stood at the end of the table, her gaze firing all around, mumbling a prayer under her breath.

The door flew open and the nurse hurried back in. "We're good to go."

That was the only green light the doctor needed, because he turned on the machine and got Cooper's blood flowing intDelores Fossen kicks off her new series, Sweetwater Ranch, with a Texas lawman, a beautiful district attorney…and the child they'll risk everything to protect 

Saving a little boy's life reopens painful wounds for Texas sheriff Cooper McKinnon. This could be his son, whose loss has haunted him for two years. But Cooper has a formidable adversary in Jessa Wells. She's the adoptive mother—and she'll do anything to hold on to Liam. 

It's cruel justice that the man who shares Liam's rare blood type has an unsolved murder in his own family. And the danger's far from over. Fighting her desire for Cooper, Jessa has no choice but to join forces with the maverick cowboy. Jessa knows working together is their best shot at keeping the child safe. But it's the possibility of a future alone that breaks Jessa's heart.