The Christmas Cowboy Hero (Heart of Texas #1)

Prologue

South Africa

Home.

The word flashed across the screen of Clayton’s cell for the fourth time in three days. He turned the phone over as his way of ignoring it.

It had been over six months since he last spoke to his parents. They hadn’t exactly been thrilled when he didn’t return home after resigning his commission in the Navy.

How could he? Everyone would expect him to be the guy he’d been when he joined the military. And he wasn’t.

Not even close.

There were times he looked at himself in the mirror and didn’t recognize the man he saw staring back at him. He wasn’t ready to go home and have his family discover just how altered he’d become.

Clayton ran a hand through his hair and glanced out the window. The heat could be seen rising from the ground. A group was already gathering to start patrolling the reserve for the day.

Few of his friends understood why he’d chosen to take the contract job in South Africa guarding the animals instead of the other offers he’d received.

Frankly, he was tired of all the killing.

Not that it didn’t happen in his current job, but they were protecting the animals from poachers. It was different.

He stood from his bed as he pocketed his cell phone and grabbed his baseball hat. Clayton was on his way to the armory to get his weapons for the day when he heard his name. He looked over his shoulder and saw the door to his boss’s office open.

Clayton backtracked and poked his head into the room. Jim Collins waved him inside. Apprehension scuttled down Clayton’s back when he saw that Jim was on the phone, uttering the occasional, “yes” every now and then.

He stared at Jim. A career military man who retired from the Army, Jim was tall and in phenomenal shape for a man in his late fifties. Many took the gray in his black hair to mean that he was slow and weak. It didn’t take long for Jim to show them differently.

Finally, his boss held out the phone to Clayton. “Take it.”

“Who is it?” Clayton asked without looking at it.

Jim blew out a breath and got to his feet. “Take the goddamn phone,” he said in a harsh whisper.

Even as he grasped the receiver and brought it to his ear, Clayton knew it was his family on the other end. There was a second of panic as he realized that it must be dire for them to reach out to his boss.

“Hello,” he said.

“Clayton Randall East, I didn’t raise you to ignore me,” came his mother’s commanding words.

He was at once happy to hear her voice and worried, as he perceived the slight tremble in her words. The one thing his mother had always been was strong. He’d grown up believing that she could stop the sun from rising if she had a mind to do it. Justine East was that kind of woman.

So for that tremor to be there concerned him greatly.

“What is it, Mom?” he asked.

“It’s your father.”

Three words. That’s all it took for him to recognize that something had happened. Because his father was the type of man to outlive everyone just because he could. There was no way his mother would call unless things were bad.

“What happened?”

His mother drew in a breath that he heard through the phone. “It’d be better if you came home before I explain it.”

“Mom. Tell me now.”

“Just like your father,” she mumbled. “There was an incident.”

Clayton closed his eyes. “Is Dad…?”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“No, sweetheart,” his mother said in a soft voice. “Your father is very much alive. He had a transient ischemic attack or TIA. It’s a mini stroke. The doctors said it was a warning. There’s no permanent damage, and he’s recovering now, but I need you home.”

This went beyond what had occurred with his father. And he knew without asking that it involved the ranch. “Tell me all of it.”

“We’re on the verge of bankruptcy, Clayton. Our last hope rested on Cochise.”

He squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. The East Ranch had been in operation since 1893 and had passed down through generations of Easts.

Times had been dire at the ranch before, but every time, it managed to survive. When Clayton had left for college and then the Navy, the ranch had been doing more than fine.

Ben East was one of the more frugal owners the ranch had ever seen, so Clayton knew his father wasn’t to blame. Which meant something else had occurred, something his mother wasn’t ready to share.

“Where’s the bull?” he asked.

Cochise had been his choice. Clayton begged his father to purchase the bull years ago, and it had been a wise investment that netted the East Ranch vast profits.

There was a bit of a hesitation from his mother before she said, “Stolen. Along with about a hundred cattle with many set to calf soon.”

Clayton couldn’t believe all of this had been happening at the ranch and they were just now calling him. Then again, he didn’t exactly answer calls, texts, or emails on a regular basis.

“I need you,” his mother said.

He opened his eyes and looked at Jim. “I’m on my way.”

“Thank you, son.”

The fact that he heard tears in her voice only made him angrier at himself. He ended the call and handed the receiver back to Jim.

“I already got you a flight while you were talking,” his boss said. “The chopper will leave in fifteen minutes to take you to the airport.”

As Clayton shook Jim’s hand, he couldn’t dislodge the feeling that he wouldn’t be returning. But that was something to deal with later. Right now, he had to help his parents and figure out who had stolen their cattle.

Though cattle rustling wasn’t as prolific as it had been a hundred years before, it still occurred. And it had happened to the East Ranch.

It only took Clayton a few minutes to gather his clothes into his pack. He looked around the small room with the twin bed. Unlike others, he didn’t have anything personal to decorate the room with.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and walked from the room to the waiting chopper that would begin his trip back to Texas.