Texas Wildcat

TOO HOT TO HANDLE!

A blowout in the oil fields was bad news for everyone—a loss of time and money for the owners, day and night danger for the men who fought valiantly to cap the raging flames.

Sam Tyler was one of those men, cool-headed in the midst of bedlam, unafraid even when he risked everything in the fight against the towering column of smoke and fire. But when an accident in the oil fields sent him storming into Kelly Blanchard’s office, he learned there was one kind of fire even he wasn’t equipped to handle.

Texas Wildcat

Western Lovers

™

Lindsay McKenna

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedicated to Boots Hansen and Coots Matthews, blowout specialists, who are genuine Texas heroes in the finest sense. And to Alvin Moody, whose knowledge and friends provided further insights into the Texas gas and oil industry, and Jeanne Long, surely a Texan at heart, for her friendship, creative ideas and enthusiasm.

A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR

Dear Reader,

My good friend Jeanne Long invited me down for a week to Houston, where I was wined, dined and shown everything “Texas-style,” which, to say the least, was bigger than big.

At one of the parties I attended I met Boots Hansen and Coots Matthews, oil-well-fire “blowout” specialists. They’d worked with Red Adair, the original granddaddy who had figured out how to snuff out oil-well fires, and eventually formed their own company, Boots and Coots of Houston, Texas.

I had such a great time with these two Texas wildcats that they invited me over to their company to show me videos of blowouts they’d extinguished around the world. They showed me a royal good time at their facility, and being a volunteer firefighter for West Point, Ohio, I understood what they did, how they did it and how dangerous their job really was.

So, with their technical help and guidance,

Texas Wildcat

 was born in Houston, Texas, at a Texas-size party with Texas-size men and women-all larger than life. I hope that you enjoy reading

Texas Wildcat

 as much as I did writing it, and as much as I enjoyed the people who inspired me to create this novel.

Dear Reader,

I don’t know about you, but I thought running my late father’s company, a Texas one at that, was an awful lot of work and responsibility. Plus, my father really hadn’t wanted me nosing around in what had made him a millionaire. Daddy thought a woman’s place was anywhere but the office, but being a Texan by birth, I felt it my duty to know his business.

It was a good thing I did, because when he died unexpectedly, the whole company fell on my shoulders. And when Sam Tyler, the number-three man in the company, came marching into my office accusing my company of making shoddy equipment-well, there was a Texas-size blowout right then and there!

Sam Tyler is a typical arrogant Texan-he knows he’s not only good-looking but he’s the best at his job. I wanted to hate him on sight for accusing my recently deceased daddy of making bad equipment that put two of Sam’s men in the hospital.

Sam met his match in me. I’m no out-of-stater come to live in Texas. I was born here! And Texas women have a backbone of steel, even though we have that sweet, sugary Southern diplomacy, too. We’re called steel magnolias. He called me a Texas Wildcat. To tell you the truth, Sam is terribly good-looking and I really liked him the instant our eyes met. There was something so proud and strong and capable in him. Little did I realize that my own stiff-necked, hot-tempered ways would get me into more trouble than a Texas frog strangler!

Kelly Blanchard

Ranch Rogues

1.

Betrayed by Love

Diana Palmer

2.

Blue Sage

Anne Stuart

3.

Chase the Clouds

Lindsay McKenna

4.

Mustang Man

Lee Magner

5.

Painted Sunsets

Rebecca Flanders

6.

Carved in Stone

Kathleen Eagle

Hitched in Haste

7.

A Marriage of Convenience

Doreen Owens Malek

8.

Where Angels Fear

Ginna Gray

9.

Inheritance

Joleen Daniels

10.

The Hawk and the Honey

Dixie Browning

11.

Wild Horse Canyon

Elizabeth August

12.

Someone Waiting

Joan Hohl

Ranchin’ Dads

13.

Rancher’s Wife

Anne Marie Winston

14.

His and Hers

Pamela Bauer

15.

The Best Things in Life

Rita Clay Estrada

16.

All That Matters

Judith Duncan

17.

One Man’s Folly

Cathy Gillen Thacker

18.

Sagebrush and Sunshine

Margot Dalton

Denim & Diamonds

19.

Moonbeams Aplenty

Mary Lynn Baxter

20.

A Home on the Range

Judith Bowen

21.

The Fairy Tale Girl

Ann Major

22.

Snow Bird

Lass Small

23.

The Countess and the Cowboy

Linda Randall Wisdom

24.

Heart of Ice

Diana Palmer

Kids & Kin

25.

Fools Rush In

Ginna Gray

26.

Wellspring

Curtiss Ann Matlock

27.

Live-In Mom

Laurie Paige

28.

Kids, Critters and Cupid

Ruth Jean Dale

29.

With No Regrets

Lisa Jackson

30.

Family Affair

Cathy Gillen Thacker

Reunited Hearts

31.

Yesterday’s Lies

Lisa Jackson

32.

The Texas Way

Jan Freed

33.

Wild Lady

Ann Major

34.

Cody Daniels’ Return

Marilyn Pappano

35.

All Things Considered

Debbie Macomber

36.

Return to Yesterday

Annette Broadrick

Reckless Renegades

37.

Ambushed

Patricia Rosemoor

38.

West of the Sun

Lynn Erickson

39.

Bittersweet

DeLoras Scott

40.

A Deadly Breed

Caroline Burnes

41.

Desperado

Helen Conrad

42.

Heart of the Eagle

Lindsay McKenna

Once A Cowboy…

43.

Rancho Diablo

Anne Stuart

44.

Big Sky Country

Jackie Merritt

45.

A Family to Cherish

Cathy Gillen Thacker

46.

Texas Wildcat

Lindsay McKenna

47.

Not Part of the Bargain

Susan Fox

48.

Destiny’s Child

Ann Major

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

One

“A

ll hell’s broken loose, Kelly!”

Kelly tiredly raised her head. She stared blankly at Jake for a moment. Her office manager’s face was drawn. Her heart plummeted. What now? she wondered miserably. What else could go wrong? Brushing an auburn strand of hair away from her forehead, she sat up a little straighter in the huge leather chair.

“What’s wrong?” Her voice sounded tired and strained after the events of the past week.

Jake grimaced, giving a sorrowful shake of his head. “Boots and Coots’s office just called. Two of our monitor pipes blew up on them.”

“Oh, no!” Kelly groaned, slumping back into the chair. “How? I mean…”

Jake came inside the door and shut it softly behind him. “They’re sending Sam Tyler over to tell us about it.”

She frowned, pushing aside the mountain of paperwork. “Who’s he?”

“Number three man in the outfit, that’s who. They’re angry, Kelly. We’re gonna lose the account.”

Kelly made an agitated gesture, then got to her feet. “Dad never made bad pipe. What’s going on, Jake? I don’t understand it,” she muttered, walking around the large square desk. She fought back tears of remembrance. Tears of grief. Only a week ago her father, a Texas wildcatter as well as the president of Blanchard Pipe, had been sitting in his office. Now, he was dead. Dead because of a senseless automobile accident. A drunk driver had ended the life of the person she loved more than anyone in the world. Kelly’s green eyes narrowed with pain as she stared over at Jake. She chastised herself for not knowing more of her father’s business. Now, it was up to her to run the multimillion-dollar company, which made a variety of pipe for the oil and gas industry around the world.

Placing a slender hand on her brow, she massaged her temples. She had to think coherently regardless of the circumstances. Boots and Coots were one of their major buyers. They used Blanchard pipe at oil and gas well blowouts to spray water on the raging inferno while their men worked to put the fire out.

“Who spoke to you, Jake?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Boots Hansen did.”

“What happened?”

Jake released a heavy sigh. Coots Matthews and Sam Tyler were up on a call in Canada. They trucked in a load of our pipe for the job. Their men had set up the unmanned water monitors close to the gas fire to protect the crew working beneath it. When Sam went in to help with the welding on the blowout preventer our pipe failed on two out of the six water monitors.” Jake shook his head, stealing a glance over at Kelly. “That type of fire can reach temperatures of twenty-two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. A heavy water fog pattern is used so the men can work at the mouth of the well.”

Kelly’s full lips thinned. “Don’t tell me they were injured?”

“’Fraid so, Kelly. They put Slim Hudson in a burn unit up in Canada. Tyler was burned too, but apparently not as badly. The team just landed at the airport and he’s on his way over here right now.”

It was far more serious than she had first thought. Blanchard pipe was designed to withstand thousands of pounds of water pressure hurtling through it for months on end without failure. This was the third time within a month that their pipe had buckled during a critical phase. Word was getting around. The business her father had started twenty years ago was in danger of failing because of it.

Tears glittered in Kelly’s green eyes as she lifted her chin. “Okay, Jake, bring Mr. Tyler to me when he gets here. I want to deal with this one personally. Boots and Coots have been good customers for too long. This

has

 to be investigated.”

“Man, you’re telling me. I feel bad about this one.”

“Is Slim going to be all right?”

Jake managed a sliver of a smile. “You know Texans, Kelly. We’re all tougher than horseshoe nails. Yeah, he’ll make it.”

“Have Susan get more information. I want to know when they’ll transfer Slim back to Houston,” Kelly ordered.

Walking dejectedly back to the leather chair, Kelly stared at the floor. Normally, her shoulders were straight and proud. Today they slumped. The guilt bore down on her. Why hadn’t she gotten more involved in her father’s business this last year before his death? The answer was simple: her crumbling marriage had finally fallen apart. This past year she had been picking up the bits and pieces of her psyche and she had thought it best not to return to the business world full time until she had her life under control.

Todd, her ex-husband, had always opposed her working. He wanted no wife of his to be a corporate executive. Kelly had relinquished her position as vice-president when she left Houston to marry, but she had insisted on helping her father as a regional director. Her involvement with the business had led to one horrible argument after another. After five years of quarrels, Kelly had given up on the faltering marriage, unwilling to suffocate beneath Todd’s restrictions. But she was still suffering from the effects of the divorce.

Before she had time to consider all those effects, the door of her office was jerked open. Kelly’s eyes widened as she met the angry blue gaze directed at her. She froze, fingers resting on the desk, facing her adversary. He wore the white coveralls that were synonymous with Boots and Coots Company. Over the left pocket was the name, Sam, in blue embroidery. Kelly’s heart leaped. He wasn’t a huge man, but the animal power within him took her breath away. She had never met him before, yet her senses were instantly affected by him. His blue eyes narrowed on her. The face, darkly tanned by the Texas sun, was square, the jaw uncompromising. His black hair was neatly trimmed and hidden beneath a white baseball cap with the Boots and Coots symbol upon it. Involuntarily, Kelly took a step back, her legs brushing against the chair. If it weren’t for his mouth, she would have been completely intimidated by him. But it was a kind mouth, though it was drawn now into a thin line.

“I’m Sam Tyler. Where’s Blanchard?” he ground out. Sam Tyler was feeling irritated with the fact that his left arm had to remain in a sling for the next week. He glared at the woman in front of him. “We’ve got a score to settle with him.” He halted at the desk and unceremoniously dropped a piece of aluminum pipe on it. “Blanchard integrity!” he snarled. “Take a look, honey. The old man’s company can go to hell for this,” he continued, jabbing his square index finger down at the pipe. One end was blown completely apart, its normally smooth exterior now jagged, razor sharp splinters.

The smarting pain of the burns on his shoulder and upper arm fueled Sam’s anger. The woman standing before him appeared as tired as he felt. Her eyes were the color of dark emeralds. Was she Blanchard’s secretary? Despite the pallor of her face and the darkness beneath her large eyes, she was damn good looking. Sam squelched those thoughts. “Where is the old—”

“Dead.”

Sam’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? I just talked to him two weeks ago.”

Kelly’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. “I said he’s dead. Does that compute? He was killed last week in an automobile accident.”

Sam swallowed his anger. A frown formed on his forehead and he reached up, taking off the cap. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “Then who are you? His secretary?”

“I’m his daughter, Mr. Tyler. Look,” she began, in a strained voice, “sit down. I’ll have Susan bring us some coffee. I just heard about the pipe blowing. I need more information.”

Sam’s mouth softened and he took a step back. “Yeah,” he agreed, his voice losing its hard edge. “I guess we could both use a cup of coffee.”

Kelly tried to still her racing heart. This man was a stranger to her, so why was she responding to him so strongly? I must be closer to exhaustion than I thought. She had to get some sleep soon or…Kelly brushed her thoughts aside and called Susan to bring coffee. Sam had seated himself in the chair before her desk. Her gaze settled on his heavily bandaged left arm and the sling.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Jake told me you and Slim got burned.” She regarded him gravely. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Running his strong-looking fingers through his dark hair, Sam held her gaze. In that instant she looked so damned fragile; a china doll that had been fractured. The anger he had carried all the way home on the plane dissipated. He judged her height around five feet nine. Thick, auburn hair tumbled in graceful abandon around her shoulders, barely brushing her breasts. The simple black dress with its white collar and french cuffs increased her look of vulnerability. Her complexion appeared washed out. Sam’s eyes narrowed as he continued to study her. Why hadn’t he seen her around Houston? Where had Blanchard been hiding his daughter? She appeared to be almost ethereal. At that moment he wanted to reach out and touch her to see if she was real. Would she disappear like a cloud on a scorching Texas day?

“I shouldn’t have come barging in here like a steam roller, either,” he apologized. “It’s just that we’re all pretty upset by Slim’s injury.”

Susan entered, interrupting the tense conversation. With their respective cups of coffee in hand, they waited until the secretary left the office. Kelly walked over to the desk and sat down. “You had every right to be angry, Mr….”

“Call me Sam,” he insisted.

It would be easy to call him by his first name.

The sudden warmth in his voice eased the tension between them. “Let’s discuss your problem with the pipe,” she suggested, pulling over a notebook and a pencil. “Can you tell me what led up to the pipe’s failure?”

Sam hesitated, sensing her utter exhaustion. “Look,” he began on a more conciliatory note, “you don’t need this right on top of your father’s death. I could speak to Jake. We’ve dealt with him quite a bit in the past.”

Kelly shook her head. “No,” she returned, a smile pulling at one corner of her mouth, “I need to be kept busy right now.” The smile disappeared as she stared over at the pipe. “And this incident has top priority.” She was thankful her father wasn’t here to witness this. His pride in producing a quality product was well known; this would have broken his heart.

Sam leaned forward, resting his one elbow on his long thigh. “You’re taking over his business, then?”

“Yes.”

Sam nodded. She had guts. He liked the fire he saw flickering in the depths of her wide, transparent eyes. “Okay,” he agreed, “let me fill you in on the details of the pipe blowing, then.”

“Fine. Start at the top, Sam.”

He leaned back, feeling the dull pain from the second-degree burns across his right shoulder and upper arm. He disdained pain-killers because he didn’t want the loss of alertness they caused. “We got a call to cap a Canadian gas well up in the province of Alberta. Coots was available and the three of us flew up.”

“And the pipe?”

“Trucked in. It took Pete four days to make the drive.”

Kelly nodded. It was August and it must have been warm even up in Canada at the time. “Do you remember the temperature on the day our pipe failed?”

He shrugged one broad shoulder. A shoulder that looked as though it could carry the weight of the world on it. Kelly found herself wishing she could simply lay her head on it for just a moment…to find a moment’s peace. Her rambling thoughts surprised her. Sam Tyler was a complete stranger to her! Wearily, she touched her brow, confused by her own chaotic emotional reaction.

“It was eighty-two degrees Fahrenheit, but near the blowout it was close to twenty-five hundred degrees. We worked under a galvanized roof while welding the blowout preventer to the pipe. With the shielding of the roof plus the water fog, it was a livable two hundred degrees underneath.”

“Were you aware of a front coming through? What was the weather situation at the time?”

He gave her an intent look. “What are you getting at? You think high temperature and high barometric pressure might have had something to do with the pipe failing?”

Kelly felt her stomach tighten. “I don’t know. All I want are the facts. We’ll have our lab analyze this pipe. The lab people will have to have all available data in order to make a correct analysis.” Her voice sounded just as clipped as his. But she didn’t want to fight. She wanted peace. She wanted to be held by strong, protecting arms. And there had been no one for the last year of her life. No one who would allow her to lean on him for a moment to try to gather her emotional strength.

“I’ll also need to know how many thousands of pounds of pressure were being pumped through the pipe.”

“I don’t remember right offhand. Pete was our pressure specialist on that job. A full report is logged in on every blowout we cap. It might be better if you come over to the office at Port Neches tomorrow and read through it. Coots will be finishing it tonight.”

Kelly allowed the pencil to slip from her fingers. She gazed across the room at Sam Tyler. She didn’t blame him for his anger over their injuries. “When will they be flying Slim back here to Houston?”

Surprise flared briefly in his eyes. “Why?”

“Because, Mr. Tyler, I want to see him and personally apologize. Here at my father’s company we’re used to keeping oilmen safe, not maiming them.” Her voice broke and Kelly felt the tears rush into her eyes, blurring her vision. She got up and turned, walking resolutely to the window. Her jaw was clenched and rigid as she fought back the deluge that threatened to overwhelm her. She heard Sam get up, heard the soft brush of his boots against the carpet.

“I’ll be over at Boots and Coots tomorrow morning at nine A.M., Mr. Tyler,” she forced out in a brusque manner to hide her tears. Drawing her shoulders up, she silently willed him not to touch her.

Sam halted a few feet from where she stood. Her clean profile was silhouetted against the bright blue of the Texas sky. It was a face filled with stubbornness and pride. But he also saw sensitivity and gentleness there. Her lower lip trembled, and Sam sensed that she was very close to tears. His natural reaction was to reach out and comfort her. But the angle of her tense body warned him off. Dropping his gaze, he said, “Okay, we’ll see you tomorrow morning, Ms. Blanchard. And I’m sorry about your father’s death….”

Kelly waited until she heard the door close before burying her face in her hands. She took several deep, ragged breaths, controlling her anguish. The sudden tenderness and concern that Sam Tyler had displayed had nearly broken her in two. She had had a wild urge to turn and throw herself into his arms. Instinctively, she knew that he would have allowed her to cry freely without demanding an explanation. Groaning softly, Kelly walked back to the desk. Opening the drawer on the right, she grabbed a handkerchief and blotted her eyes.

The buzzer rang and Kelly picked up the phone.

“Yes, Susan?”

There was hesitation in the secretary’s voice. “Ms. Blanchard, a Mr. Gage Wallace of Wallace Steel is here to see you.”

Kelly stood frozen. No! Not now! And not him! Pursing her lips, she said, “Tell him I’m busy, Susan. He made no appointment and I don’t feel up to seeing anyone else today. Whether he likes it or not, he has to make an appointment like everyone else.”

She hadn’t meant to slam the phone down, but she did anyway.

The door to her office opened moments later and Kelly looked up from behind the desk. Gage Wallace slipped in, quietly shutting the door.

“I’ve come to extend my condolences, Sam.”

A surge of emotion rose in her. It took the last of her efforts to remain calm. At age forty-two Wallace was a slender man with prematurely graying hair. Like most image-conscious businessmen, he was impeccably dressed in a dark, pinstripe suit. His brown eyes were narrowed upon her face. “Forgive an old friend for disregarding your secretary’s orders.” He walked up to the desk and handed her a bouquet of tiger lilies, pink tea roses and purple iris.

Kelly stared at the flowers. Her emerald eyes darkened. “You’re a little late with funeral flowers, Gage.”

A slight smile drifted across his lean face. “These are for you, Kelly. I thought they might brighten up your day.”

Her glare was frosty and laden with contempt as she rose from her chair. “The only thing that will brighten up my day is for you to get out of here!”

Gage casually dropped the bouquet on the desk. He seemed completely undisturbed by her outburst. It was as if he were waiting for a child to tire of her temper tantrum. “I was out of the country at the time of your father’s death. Otherwise, I would have attended the funeral and given you moral support.”

Her nostrils flared. “Take your lies somewhere else, Gage! You never cared for anyone longer than it took you to take their money!” Kelly choked back a sob. Oh, God, she couldn’t cry! Not in front of this man who had been like an evil shadow in her father’s life and her own.

“Look,” he continued smoothly, “I know you’re terribly upset by what happened. It’s all over the industry that Blanchard pipe has failed on several blowouts.” He gave a practiced smile that was supposed to win her over. “Sure I can’t interest you in using Wallace Steel Mills? I can assure you our formulas are up to the best standards. Why not switch? Now would be a perfect time. You can’t afford to buy any more pipe from R and B Steel. It will ruin your company’s reputation if another pipe blows under stress. You could lose the whole business, Kelly.”

She was trembling. In an effort to hide her distress, she leaned forward in an aggressive stance. “We have nothing to discuss, Gage. Not a damn thing. It’s typical of you to take advantage of a traumatic human event and try to make a buck out of it. You figure if I’m grief-stricken, I’ll