PRAISE FOR LINDSAY MCKENNA’S WIND RIVER VALLEY SERIES!
“The believable and real romance between Tara and Harper is enhanced by the addition of highly dimensional supporting characters, and a minor mystery subplot increases the tension by a notch. This is a fine addition to a strong series.”—Publishers Weekly on Lone Rider
“Captivating sensuality.”—Publishers Weekly on Wind River Wrangler, a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books 2016 selection
“Moving and real . . . impossible to put down.”—Publishers Weekly on Wind River Rancher (starred review)
“Cowboy who is also a former Special Forces operator? Check. Woman on the run from her past? Check. This contemporary Western wraps together suspense and romance in a rugged Wyoming package.”—Amazon.com’s Omnivoracious, “9 Romances I Can’t Wait to Read,” on Wind River Wrangler
“Set against the stunning beauty of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, Wind River Wrangler is Lindsay McKenna at her finest! A tour de force of heart-stopping drama, gut-wrenching emotion, and the searing joy of two wounded souls learning to love again.”—International bestselling author Merline Lovelace
“McKenna does a beautiful job of illustrating difficult topics through the development of well-formed, sympathetic characters.”—Publishers Weekly on Wolf Haven (starred review)
Also by New York Times Bestselling Author
LINDSAY MCKENNA
SILVER CREEK series
Silver Creek Fire
Courage Under Fire
Strength Under Fire
(and a new Silver Creek Novel is coming in April 2022!)
WIND RIVER VALLEY series
Wind River Wrangler
Wind River Rancher
Wind River Cowboy
Wrangler’s Challenge
Kassie’s Cowboy (novella included in CHRISTMAS WITH MY COWBOY)
Lone Rider
Wind River Lawman
Home to Wind River
Wind River Wedding (novella included in
MARRYING MY COWBOY)
Wind River Protector
Wind River Undercover
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.
STRENGTH UNDER FIRE
LINDSAY Mc KENNA
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
PRAISE FOR LINDSAY MCKENNA’S WIND RIVER VALLEY SERIES!
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Teaser chapter
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New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2021 by Nauman Living Trust
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, 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.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN: 978-1-4201-5084-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-5088-9 (eBook)
To my grandfather, John Cramer, master carpenter.
He left Ohio in 1929, during the Great Depression
and in his family Model T, headed for San Diego,
California, to start all over.
He built a kitchen cupboard business from nothing,
and worked hard all his life, creating beautiful wood
cabinets, cupboards, and so much more.
I grew up watching him choose wood,
his hands so knowing with grain and texture, and
seeing the wood come alive beneath them.
His work ethic, love of Nature, love of trees,
was imprinted upon me forever.
How fortunate I was to be his granddaughter.
I wrote Silver Creek Fire
in dedication to his magical craft.
Chapter 1
April 15
“This is my new home. A new chapter in my life,” Dana Scott whispered to herself, sounding unsure about her decision. She had just bought a broken-down old log cabin and a hundred acres with the only money she had left in the world. This was her dream home.
She stood there in the cool morning at ten a.m., a range of Wyoming mountains behind and east of the cabin, rising out of the Silver Creek Valley. Fifty acres of land was composed of timber on the slopes covered with conifers. The rest of the land was on the flat Wyoming valley that was an agricultural paradise.
A slight breeze ruffled her loose red hair that lay against her shoulder blades. Pulling her denim jacket a little tighter around her, she felt panic rising and wrestled it down, as she always did. No stranger to fear, it had been a frequent friend the last few years of her life.
Drawing in a shaky breath, Dana had spent most of what her parents had left her, and the last of the money was in a bank in Silver Creek. She had no job—yet. She was farm raised, but there wasn’t much of a call for a woman who had farming skills nowadays.
Looking up at the sky, it was a pale blue, the morning air clean. The cheerful call of birds getting ready to nest was music that lifted her battered spirit.
Had she done the right thing? Spending money that could never be replaced, on this land and the broken cabin? Like the coward she was, she had run away from her traumatic past. Looking to make a break and start over, she’d left the Willamette Valley, a rich winery and agricultural country in Oregon, and headed to Wyoming. Having taken a master gardener course earlier in her life, she’d used her educational knowledge and checked out the pH of the soil here in this valley and it was perfect to grow many types of crops. Of all the places she’d had the potential to choose in four different states, this valley had the richest soil with the right mix of pH, consisting of alluvial silt from old rivers now disappeared, and loamy clay.