Next month, watch for Sara’s Angel.

Until then, I enjoy hearing from my readers and can be reached at P.O. Box 127, Henryetta, OK, 74437 or c/o eHarlequin.com.

Enjoy the romance,

Also available from Sharon Sala:

SWEET BABY
(MIRA Books)

REUNION
(MIRA Books)

REMEMBER ME
(MIRA Books)

THE RETURN
by Sharon Sala writing as Dinah McCall
(MIRA Books)

MISSION: IRRESISTIBLE
(July 2000, Silhouette Intimate Moments #1016)

ALWAYS A LADY
(Silhouette Books)

Coming soon from Sharon Sala:

SARA’S ANGEL
(October 2000, Silhouette Books)

BUTTERFLY
(November 2000, MIRA Books)

HONOR’S PROMISE
(November 2000, Silhouette Books)

KING’S RANSOM
(December 2000, Silhouette Books)

FAMILIAR STRANGER
(June 2001, Silhouette Intimate Moments)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to a very special woman who has chosen to share her gift of being a writer with any willing soul who has the perseverance to listen and learn.

Not only has she the skill to write wonderful stories and poetry, but she also has the patience to share her knowledge.

And what makes her teaching better…what sets her apart…is the fact that she does it with love and…gentle persuasion.

Ernestine Gravley…this one’s for you.

Chapter 1

The doorbell’s loud persistent summons pulled Cole Brownfield from the backyard pool. It sent him stomping through the house, leaving a wet trail of drips and footprints in his wake.

“What?” he growled as he yanked open the front door to face a stranger. He knew he was being rude but he’d just gotten home from a three-day stakeout and was bone weary.

He and his partner, Rick Garza, also a member of the Laguna Beach Police Department Narcotics Division, had scrunched themselves in the back seat of a burned-out abandoned vehicle in a less than appealing part of the city. For several hours, they’d watched the constant stream of traffic coming and going from the small, nondescript residence that had tentatively been identified as a crack house. After last night, that had been confirmed.

During their stakeout, he’d been crawled on by bugs and barked at by stray dogs. And sometime during the night, someone had tossed a sack of garbage into the yawning openings of the vehicle that had once been windows. He’d never been so glad to get up and out of a place in his life. The only thing that had kept him sane was the thought of diving into the clear, clean, sparkling waters of his backyard pool. But he’d only made two laps when the doorbell had interrupted his relaxation. The quick dip for which he’d yearned before crawling into bed was fast becoming an impossible dream.

Cole continued to drip as he glared over the man’s shoulder to the cab parked on the street.

“Is this the Brownfield residence?” the cab driver asked.

“Yes,” Cole answered. “Who wants to know?” Being a policeman made him instantly suspicious of strangers. After the last seventy-two hours, he was in no mood to play twenty questions with a cab driver.