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In Sha’allah, he thought, with a bitter smile In Sha’allah

Thousands of elica Gordon stared out herat the blackness of the Texas night

Were these the saelica shter here

Her father would have said it was because everything in Texas was bigger and better than it was anywhere else

Even debts, she thought, her s so fast they made her head spin She’d taken over the company flushed with determination, certain she could pull it back from the brink of disaster—but she only seemed to have pushed it closer

Sooner or later, so to one of its newest acquisitions, and then…

Angelica stepped away frohed, sank into an old-fashioned rocker and leaned back Her hair, loose for the night, fell over her shoulders in a fiery tumble of soft, coppery curls

If only the men orked for her, orked with her in this super ive her a chance If only they’d stop treating her as if she were an intruder in their private club—but that was about as likely as thefrom the sky

This was a world where men flexed their muscles instead of their brains, where they spoke an unintelligible jargon in an inco white Stetson hats and black boots It was a world where ed in the kitchen and in the bedroom But in the boardroom? Never

Even her father had thought that way Oh, Hank Gordon had let her work in his office each suested he take her on as a full-tiraduation, he’d chuckled and patted her on the head as if she’d made some marvelous joke Eventually she’d had to accept the truth, that he’d never give her a real job at Gordon Oil no matter how many business courses she took or what aone on to an academic career

Yet now, thanks to a twist of fate, here she was, running Gordon Oil

Running it straight into the ground

Angelica rose froreen robe that was the sahtly around her slender body and looked out theagain The stars still blazed in the night sky, as bright and unreachable as they’d ever been

No, she told herself, no, she was not destroying Gordon Oil! The co before she’d taken over And she could turn things around She had everything going for her—detere, and all the plans she’d drawn up over the years—plans her father had never wanted to look at

All she needed noas for fate—that same fate that had put her into this situation in the first place—to be kind

Angelica gave a deep sigh

But who could ever knohat fate would bring?

CHAPTER ONE

EARLY h the arched s of the Landon olden brilliance on the kilim carpets that covered the oiled parquet floors

Cade s rooht for the silver coffee service set out on the sideboard

Soed There was always fresh coffee on the sideboard—and Landon House was still the biggest,Emerald Lake

“’Mornin’, Mr Cade”

He turned as Stella, who’d been in charge of the kitchen for h the service door, pushing a well-laden trolley Cade moved to help her, but she waved him off

“You just relax and enjoy your coffee, Mr Cade” With deft, swift moves, waffles, bacon and ha the mountains of food with obvious satisfaction

Cade grinned “What?” he said “No steak?”

“Did you want steak?”

“God, no,” Cade said quickly “This is fine, Stella Terrific, in fact”

Stella looked doubtful “You sure?”

“Who’d want anything more than to start the day with your wonderful coffee?” Cade said, lifting his cup in salute

Stella blushed prettily “Your teasin’ ways are gonna get you in trouble one of these days, Mr Cade,” she said as she sailed through the door to the kitchen

Cade hooked a chair out from the table with one booted foot and sank into it, his coffee cup balanced in his strong, tanned hands Stella always produced a gargantuan breakfast as decreed years before by Charles Landon, even though no one ever put more than a dent into the mountains of food

Cade sighed Landon House was still less a home than one man’s stateht against, one way or another

But others had bowed to his power, right to the end

Three days ago, at the funeral, the house had been filled with those coes, captains of finance and industry as well as half a dozen congressmen and senators—they’d all shown up

“Damn,” Zach had mumbled as he’d sidled past Cade late in the afternoon, “it’s like a three-ring circus”

Their father would have loved everystream of Cadillacs, Lincolns and Mercedeses that had followed the hearse to thebirth to Kyra, lay entombed