Rustling Up Trouble - Delores Fossen (HI #1527 - Nov 2014)

Series: Sweetwater Ranch (Book 3)

Blue McCurdy is supposed to be dead. So why is the ATF agent -- and father of Rayanne McKinnon's unborn child -- trespassing on McKinnon property? Before the Texan deputy can find out, Blue is injured playing cowboy in shining armor to protect her. When he wakes, he has no memory of what brought him there…or the night he and Rayanne spent together.

Blue can't remember why he disappeared from Rayanne's life five months ago. But now, with an unsolved murder -- and reignited passion -- raising the stakes, he races to put the pieces of his past together before a vindictive enemy destroys his world once again. And this time, he has so much more to lose.

Excellent book with the action starting on the first page and not letting up until the end. Rayanne and Blue had been working together on a case five months earlier when he disappeared. They had just acted on the attraction that had been building between them, and Rayanne was both worried and furious at what appeared to be his desertion. When she got word that he was dead, she was heartbroken. Now she's five months pregnant and has found him on her family's property having a shoot out with a couple thugs. He gets hurt trying to protect her, and wakes up in the hospital with some significant gaps in his memory.

Rayanne is a tough, independent Texas deputy, but being pregnant has caused her some internal conflicts. Blue is determined to protect her especially once he finds out about the baby, but it is tough for her to stay back where it is safer. Without his memory to fill in the gaps of why he left and where he's been, she has some trouble trusting him, especially with mounting evidence that he's been playing on the wrong side of the law. One thing that hasn't changed is the bone deep attraction she feels for him, and the knowledge as time passes that she's in love with him. I liked that her mistrust of him didn't last long, and that she worked just as hard as he did to find out who was behind the attacks. Rayanne has some trouble trusting him on a personal side because he's a man and has issues stemming from her parents' divorce.

Blue has a rough time of it in this book. He starts out shot and with amnesia, then finds out that Rayanne is pregnant with his baby. Without his memory it is hard to prove that he's still one of the good guys when accusations start flying. Fortunately the memory returns pretty quickly, but the bad guys are determined to take out both him and Rayanne. The constant action makes it difficult for him to recover from his injuries and he's constantly in pain. However, that does not stop him from doing everything he can to protect Rayanne and her baby bump. His feelings for her passed attraction long ago, but he doesn't believe he deserves love from her, so he hasn't told her about them. I liked the way that he trusted her professional abilities, but still wanted to take care of her.

The mystery itself was one that kept me engrossed from the beginning. First it was waiting for Blue to get his memory back so that he had an idea of what he had been doing for the last five months, and if it was that which had people trying to kill him. Then there was the question of who had set him up to look guilty of working for the bad guys. His boss also appeared to have some questionable things going on, so was he behind the attacks on Blue? Or could it be Rex Gandy, who had been the subject of an investigation by Blue? There is also Wendell Braddock, the father of the man Rayanne's mother is accused of murdering. He could be trying to kill Rayanne in a form of revenge. Blue also has a fellow agent who has been missing that makes a couple of appearances. There were so many bullets flying and things exploding that Blue and Rayanne never knew which direction the next attack would come from. While the question of who was behind the attacks got answered, there were still some questions left at the end.

There is also the continuing story of Rayanne's mother and whether she is guilty of murder. Half the family thinks she is, half claims she's innocent. This has created stress among the siblings that comes out in some real snarkiness. But however they feel about their mother, when someone is in trouble they all step up in support.