Dane's Return Read online

  Dane’s Return

  MacKenzies of Montana

  Liliana Hart

  Contents

  Other Books

  Cover Page

  Quote

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Thomas’s Vow

  Cover

  About the Author

  Also by Liliana Hart

  Dane’s Return is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © Dane 2011 by Liliana Hart

  Copyright © Dane: A Christmas Wish 2013 by Liliana Hart

  Copyright © 2019 Dane’s Return by Liliana Hart

  All rights reserved.

  Publishing in the United States by 7th Press.

  Dane’s Return: Liliana Hart

  www.lilianahart.com

  Book Design by Wicked Smart Design

  Created with Vellum

  JJ Graves Mystery Series

  Dirty Little Secrets

  A Dirty Shame

  Dirty Rotten Scoundrel

  Down and Dirty

  Dirty Deeds

  Dirty Laundry

  Dirty Money

  A Dirty Job

  The MacKenzies of Montana

  Dane’s Return

  Thomas’s Vow

  Riley’s Sanctuary

  Cooper’s Promise

  Grant’s Christmas Wish

  The MacKenzies Boxset

  MacKenzie Security Series

  Seduction and Sapphires

  Shadows and Silk

  Secrets and Satin

  Sins and Scarlet Lace

  Sizzle

  Crave

  Scorch

  MacKenzie Security Omnibus 1

  MacKenzie Security Omnibus 2

  Lawmen of Surrender (MacKenzies-1001 Dark Nights)

  1001 Dark Nights: Captured in Surrender

  1001 Dark Nights: The Promise of Surrender

  1001 Dark Nights: Sweet Surrender

  1001 Dark Nights: Dawn of Surrender

  The MacKenzie World (read in any order)

  Trouble Maker

  Bullet Proof

  Deep Trouble

  Delta Rescue

  Desire and Ice

  Rush

  Spies and Stilettos

  Wicked Hot

  Hot Witness

  Avenged

  Never Surrender

  Addison Holmes Mystery Series

  Whiskey Rebellion

  Whiskey Sour

  Whiskey For Breakfast

  Whiskey, You’re The Devil

  Whiskey on the Rocks

  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  Whiskey and Gunpowder

  The Gravediggers

  The Darkest Corner

  Gone to Dust

  Say No More

  Stand Alone Titles

  Breath of Fire

  Kill Shot

  Catch Me If You Can

  All About Eve

  Paradise Disguised

  Island Home

  The Witching Hour

  Books by Liliana Hart and Scott Silverii

  The Harley and Davidson Mystery Series

  The Farmer’s Slaughter

  A Tisket a Casket

  I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus

  Get Your Murder Running

  Deceased and Desist

  Malice In Wonderland

  Tequila Mockingbird

  Gone With the Sin

  DANE’S RETURN

  Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made.

  -Robert Browning

  Chapter 1

  There were those who said Dane MacKenzie would never amount to anything. That he'd spend his life drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next, never settling down or taking an ounce of responsibility for anything. There were even some who said he'd end up in prison or six-feet underground. He'd been closer to both more times than he cared to admit.

  Dane had the body of a brawler and ready fists, but there were some folks—usually women—who claimed the smile that graced his sensuous lips when those fists connected with another man's flesh was enough to make any woman want to take a walk on the wild side. Though he’d outgrown his reputation, his reputation hadn’t outgrown him.

  He was a man with appetites. The ladies could attest to that as well, for he'd left many broken hearts in his wake. But no matter what the pleasure—whether it be brawls or seduction, violence or passion—he always put everything he had into what he wanted.

  What was the point of playing if you weren't going to win?

  He pulled the rattletrap car he'd rented off to the side of the road at the top of a hill, just past the Now Entering Surrender, Montana sign that sat weathered with age and slightly crooked. It had been ten years since he'd been home. Sure, he’d kept in touch with his brothers. They got together once a year for a vacation and again at Christmas. But always somewhere else. He hadn't set foot in Surrender since the day he'd thrown his bags in the trunk of his car and sped out of town.

  There were too many memories. Of the old farmhouse he and his brothers had been raised in. Of the Christmases and birthdays. Of fighting and carousing with his brothers with equal abandon. The chores, the school programs, his first kiss in the alley behind Gruber's Ice Cream Shoppe. And then later, his first taste of a woman—the fumbling, sweaty bodies on a blanket in the back of his pickup truck. All of those memories were here, but still, he hesitated on the outskirts of town.

  Dane opened the car door and got out, ignoring the shudder of the engine and coughs of smoke from the tailpipe. There hadn't been a lot of options for car rentals when one of his buddies had flown him to the private airstrip thirty miles south of Surrender, so he'd taken the keys of the rusted-out Honda and kept his focus on getting home in one piece. But now that he was here he wanted nothing more than to turn around and head back to the airport.

  Everything was lush and green in the middle of July. Surrender was nestled snugly at the bottom of the hill, a gem of white fences and red barns with hundreds of acres of pastureland dotted with roaming livestock that was so many people's bread and butter in this part of the world. The town itself was one long road, and a row of bricked businesses flanked each side of the street. They all had matching black awnings and wooden sidewalks. It looked exactly the same as when he'd left.

  An uncomfortable feeling lodged in the pit of his stomach. He didn't even know why he'd come home. Partly for his brothers. He missed them more than he cared to admit. And partly because he was tired of traveling. Tired of not having a place of his own—moving from jungles to army barracks to third world hovels to five star hotels. He'd always gone where the story had lead him. He'd needed the adventure. To prove that he could survive outside of Surrender. Without his brothers there to catch him if he fell.

  But now he was here. Home.

  And Charlotte wasn't. He'd lost his chance there. It was his one regret for leaving. The pang of memory hadn't lessoned over the years. He remembered her as fresh-faced and beautiful. Black hair and bright green eyes. A sarcastic tongue, and a laugh always ready on her full lips. A body just beginning to become a woman's. She'd been eighteen when he'd felt her beneath him for the first time. And in the ten years since, no woman had ever come close to making him feel the same.