On The Texas Border

Linda Warren

Abby Duncan's come home to Hope, Texas - the town known as Brewster's Valley, after the wealthy, powerful old man who rules it - to find the truth behind the accusations that drove her father to his death. Only Brewster knows what really happened. But he refuses to tell Abby unless she agrees to find his missing daughter, the child he's never acknowledged. Part of Brewster's deal is that Abby undertake this search with the help of Jonas Parker, foreman of Brewster's farming empire. Jonas knows only too well that the truth may not be what Abby expects.But neither of them can anticipate the secrets they're about to uncover. Secrets that threaten to shatter everything they've ever believed about themselves…and each other.

“Simon Brewster wants me to find his daughter.”

“What daughter?” Jonas stared incredulously at Abby. “The old man doesn’t have a daughter. He’s using you because of his own agenda. Brewster does things for his own weird reasons and nine times out of ten, someone gets hurt. Go back to Dallas and forget about him.”

“I can’t,” she whispered, and felt chills run up her spine. She thought of all the years her father had worked for Simon Brewster—all the hard work and loyal service Abe Duncan had given Brewster, only to be tossed aside like an old shoe. And the rumors…Brewster had promised to tell her the truth if she found his daughter. “I have to clear my father’s name.”

But Jonas wasn’t ready to accept her answer. “What if you find out that your father did the things people say he did?”

“No!” She shook her head. “You knew my father. How can you even say it?”

Jonas took a step closer. “Because when you start digging into the past, you’d better be able to handle the consequences.”

Dear Reader,

You need to go. That’s what my brother J.O. said to me when he was drilling water wells in the Rio Grande Valley. He talked about the large fields of agricultural crops growing there, the Mexican laborers, the seasonal workers and the poverty across the Rio Grande River. The more he talked, the more questions I asked. I could definitely feel a story coming on.

You have to go, he kept insisting. So my husband and I headed for the border. I’d been to Mexico years ago, but this time it was more vivid and real. I looked at the contrast between Texas and Mexico through the eyes of a writer, and a story emerged that I hope you will enjoy.

Abby and Jonas are two very different people, and it took me a while to sort through the trails of their lives. I hope you will find these characters and the area as absorbing as I have. If you do, you will go there, too—if only in On the Texas Border.

Thanks for reading my books.

Linda Warren

You can always reach me at P.O. Box 5182, Bryan, TX 77805, or e-mail me at LW1508@aol.com

On the Texas Border

Linda Warren

To my brothers—

James Otto Siegert, Bobby Louis Siegert

and Paul William Siegert. Thanks for the love and

encouragement. As we grow older, I hope we continue

to grow together instead of apart and that we always

remember the sense of family our parents instilled in us.

And to the man who went with me to the RWA conference

in New Orleans without one complaint—

my husband, Billy Warren, my Sonny.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

J.O. Siegert, Tammy and Rodrigo Medina and all the people who answered my endless questions about Texas and Mexico with such patience. Any errors are strictly mine.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

“LOOK AT THAT, ABIGAIL,” Simon Brewster said as he stood at the huge windows overlooking the Rio Grande Valley. “It all belongs to me…as far as the eye can see.”

“Are you proud of that?” Abigail Duncan asked, scribbling notes on a pad while a tape recorder picked up his voice. She was writing Mr. Brewster’s memoirs. The eighty-year-old’s life had been