Lone Star Protector

Texas K-9 Unit #6

by Lenora Worth

Let romance keep you warm this winterKeeping WatchWhen dog trainer Kaitlin Mathers is attacked, Texas K-9 Unit captain Slade McNeal is determined to keep her-and what's left of his family-safe from harm. But soon Slade realizes nothing's safe, including his dogs, his son or the beautiful woman who's opening his heart. When Slade realizes the enemy might be closer than he ever dreamed possible, he vows to see justice served. But can he save Kaitlin before it's too late to tell her he loves her?

Genres: Romance, Love Inspired Suspense, Christian, Love Inspired, Suspense, Romantic Suspense, Christian Fiction

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Lenora Worth has written 75 books for three different publishers. She reached a milestone when she received her 50th book pin from Harlequin. Her books have won both regional and national awards and she now has millions of books in print and is a NY Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author. Currently she is writing both Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense and Tule Publishing. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Lenora has two grown children and lives in Florida.

Pen name: Lenora Nazworth

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book six and the conclusion of the Love Inspired Suspense series "Texas K-9 Unit". Dog trainer Kaitlin is almost kidnapped while working with newest trainee to the K-9 Unit, Warrior. Captain Slade McNeal comes to her rescue after hearing Warrior barking. Slade cares for Kaitlin and he determines once and for all to put an end to the crime spree that has been running rampant in Sagebrush, Texas, for the past six months.

This was an enjoyable conclusion to the series. The Boss of the crime syndicate is finally revealed, as is the fate of Slade's missing K-9 partner, Rio. Not sure if this book would work as well as a stand-alone since a lot of the events that are being followed up on in this book, happened in previous books. It was nice to finally read Slade's story, I really liked both him and Kaitlin, and I enjoyed revisiting with members of the K-9 Unit from past books. I truly loved all the brave and heroic dogs of the K-9 Unit that were featured in this series.

[Patrizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stelle e mezza
Lo sapevo io che avevo indovinato chi fosse il gran cattivo! Fine soddisfacente di un'altra bella serie con protagonista una unità cinofila. Il voto è a tutta la serie.

[Kathy Eberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been a fan of Lenora Worth and read most of her contemporary romances, but I confess that I had not read her suspense romances until now. I was intrigued by a law enforcement story line, particularly a canine story line and I was not disappointed. Having not read the other books in the series, I focused on this particular story. I thought the accuracy of a law enforcement officer's life as well as the trainer was good and I truly enjoyed the action in this book. Having not seen the other books, I was surprised at the events that led to the end of the book and I kept reading until the end. I think that this book is a fine stand alone book, but I intend to go back and read the rest of the books in the series as well. Congratulations Lenora on another good book!

[Shirlene]

Kaitlin Mathers was out late training her new K-9 recruit, Warri0r, when she felt a gun sticking into her rib cage. The barking dog caught the attention of the K-9 police captain, Slade McNeal. With him coming to her aid, she managed to get loose and wasn't kidnapped. The guy got away with the car door being hit. Kaitlin was frightened though and when Slade got close enough, Kaitlin grabbed him and held on tight. Her took him to stay with him, his son, Caleb and his father for the night.
Slade had lost his wife two years back when a bomb went off in his car. The rumor was the bomb was meant for him. 5 months back, his dog, Rio had been stolen and his father had been badly beaten. His five-year-old son, Caleb had become withdrawn and had been having nightmares ever since that night. Kaitlin had spent some time babysitting Caleb and he seemed to like being with her dogs. Slade was thankful for Kaitlin and was happy that she was always willing to help. They were good friends.
Kaitlin's father had left when she was very young and her mother had been a vet and had been murdered by a drug addict trying to steal drugs when she was a teenager. She was taken in by her grandmother. She had accepted the job as the K-9 trainer a few years back and was good at it. She didn't like being scared and became a cop to learn how to protect herself so she wouldn't end up like her mom.
There had been other attempts on the officers of the K-9 unit. Their problem was the leader of a drug syndicate in town known as The Boss. They couldn't find out who he was. A couple of the officers asked to meet with Slade and they suggested that who they might be looking for was his best friend, Dante Frears. They further suggested that he had been having an affair with one of the officers' sister and killed her. One of his men, another officer, had then killed her son who they suspected was also Dante's son, Daniel. Slade had shot him in his leg but it was the other officer's bullet that had killed Daniel. That other officer was now dead. They thought that Dante had Rio and needed Kaitlin to work with Rio to find what they were searching for in Lost Woods, a nearby park.
Dante had been in the military and had served with Slade. He had returned from the Middle East and become a real estate mogul. This lead to other business ventures and opportunities in West Texas to make serious money.
Kaitlin went home and her best friend and fellow trainer, Francine, came to stay with Kaitlin. Someone managed to get past the officer watching her house and leave a note on the front porch telling Kaitlin that she was being watched. They traced the paper used to write the note back to some paper purchased by Dante's wife. Slade had a hard time with it but knew that he had to keep up appearances with Dante until they had proof of who he was and what he had done. He was invited to the birthday party for his wife and asked if he could bring a friend. He wanted to see how Dante reacted to seeing Kaitlin. They went to the party and there Kaitlin knew that something was bothering Slade and something about Dante bothered her. She noticed Slade going down a hallway and she went to stand near the entrance. She intercepted Dante when he headed that way. He was sidetracked by another person and Kaitlin found Slade and kissed him. Slade wondered what was going on until he saw Dante watching them. He knew that Kaitlin had covered for him while he had been getting some hair off a brush in Dante's bathroom to use for a DNA test to prove that Daniel had been his son.
They left the party and Kaitlin thought that Slade might be mad about the kiss but after they got back to Francine's house, he kissed her this time. He then explained his suspicions about Dante and about his getting DNA evidence to find out if Melody's nephew was Dante's son. Kaitlin then figured out what was bothering her about Dante. Her kidnapper had called her sweetheart and Dante had done the same thing. She mentioned that to Slade.
Kaitlin and Francine were headed home together on Monday evening when Francine's truck ran out of gas. She had filled it up only 2 days previous. Someone had to have siphoned the gas out. Kaitlin called Slade and told them they were broke down and he headed to their location. Meanwhile, a van pulled up that looked like the one her kidnapper had used. The driver, Rudy, got out and he wasn't the same guy. Slade arrived and ran a check on him. He was taken in because he had a warrant out for not paying his child support and he had a bag of weed on him. The officers used that to get information from him. He admitted to letting someone pay him to use his van for a week. They brought the van back with the dents removed and a new paint job.
Kaitlin had dinner that night with Slade and his family. They were working in the kitchen and talking about their case bringing them together. Kaitlin told him they needed to take it slow until the case was solved. Kaitlin was hoping that once Slade solved the case that he would work on rebuilding his relationship with God. She had trusted God to get her through what had happened to her mother. They kissed again and were interrupted by a phone call telling Slade that Rudy had been found with a bullet in his forehead. Kaitlin told him that she would put Caleb to bed with Warrior and stay with him until he returned.
Slade went to check on Rudy and decided that he had to do something to push things along. He headed toward the Last Woods and drove by Dante's place. He saw Dante leaving and decided to follow him. He headed to a warehouse and saw Dante enter the building and come out dressed completely in black and get into a black van. Slade followed him to the Lost Woods. They got out and started digging. He saw them with a dog and he knew it was Rio. He hadn't been treated well. Slade watched them until he heard them talking about a police car driving close by and they left.
Meanwhile, Kaitlin was on the phone with Melody when she heard a noise. She stayed on the phone while she went to check it out. She ran into Jason and he startled her. She mentioned him to Melody while Melody was on her way to the house. Someone had tried to break in again but he was scared off.
Slade decided to do some digging where the guys had started and he hit a metal box. He covered it up and before he left, he was shot in the shoulder. He then went home. Kaitlin told him that he needed to be careful and remain focused to keep him and his family safe. He told Kaitlin and Melody that the DNA he had gathered had proven Dante to be the father of Daniel.
Slade was concerned that Kaitlin had chosen to avoid him for the next couple of days. He knew that she was worried about him. He missed her. He went to see her and asked to borrow Warrior for a bit. He wanted to pay a visit to Dante with Warrior to see if he could pick up any smells in his house and to test Warrior's reaction to Dante.
He took Warrior to Dante's and Warrior tried to bite him. That was enough for Dante to be found guilty in Slade's eyes. Warrior was turned loose in the penthouse and didn't find anything.
Kaitlin told Francine that she was falling in love with Slade. Francine told Kaitlin that she needed to give her problems to God and let him take care of it. She needed to be careful of turning away from Slade for doing his job. This was difficult but Kaitlin knew Francine was right.
She was on her way home with Francine when she received a call saying that her dog was tied up at the entrance to Lost Woods. Kaitlin drove to find him against Francine's advice. She was surprised to see Rio and got out of the car to go to him. Then she noticed he was tied up. She turned around and someone grabbed her. A gun was pointed at Francine's head and she was ordered to get Warrior under control. She was told that Slade was in the woods so she needed to behave. Dante hollered for Slade to come out or Kaitlin would be hurt. He came out and Dante pulled out a piece of Dan's clothes and told Warrior to follow the scent so he would know where to dig. Kaitlin instead told Warrior to attack. Dante and the other guy ran off with the dogs and Slade following. Slade told Kaitlin to run to where the car was parked that had dropped him off. Kaitlin ran until she saw the car and noticed that Dante was there beside a van with another guy. Kaitlin was taken again and tied up. She managed to kick an extra black jumpsuit out of the van before they drove off headed for Slade's house.
Kaitlin was afraid that there might be a bomb at Slade's house and went quietly. They arrived for her to find out that her suspicions regarding Jasper, Slade's fathers' nurse, were correct. Jasper had been bribed to drug Slade's father and Caleb and hid when he saw Francine come in with a gun to her head. Dante called Slade and told him to bring the diamonds that he had dug up in the park to him, order a helicopter for him and to call off the SWAT team. Slade had the SWAT team surround the house so that Slade couldn't get too far away. He took the diamonds to the house and tried to talk to Dante to see why he had done all that he had. When Slade got to the house, Caleb came out of hiding and told him that Jasper had told him to hide. Slade's fathers' dog, Chief, attacked and bit Dante. Slade threw the diamonds in the air and let Warrior and Rio into the house. They jointed in the attack and Jasper hit Dante over the head with a skillet. He was handcuffed and taken in to custody. The bomb was found under the sink by Titan, another K-9 dog, and disarmed.
Slade told Kaitlin that he loved her and she told him that she loved him too and apologized for turning away from him for doing his job. Slade told Kaitlin that she wanted to marry him and Kaitlin accepted his proposal.

[Wendy Sparkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since K-9 Rio has been stolen, there have been a few distant sightings of him with someone all in black walking in the Lost Woods. Rumour has it that something of value has been lost in the woods & they need the skills of Rio to find it for them.

Only they don't know the commands to use to put Rio to work.

Obviously, the trainers at the K-9 Unit do, & Kaitlin Mathers is the perfect person for them to kidnap & get her to give the correct commands.

Except that they have to get past Warrior, the K-9 she has been training for the last few months particularly to find Rio, and also Captain Slade McNeal, who having lost his dog Rio & had various members of his team threatened, is not about to let them get Kaitlin. He is going to take down this crime syndicate, if it is the last thing he does!

A great finish to the Texas K-9 Unit series - this is #6. I really love the dogs from the K-9 Unit which have a huge part to play in this series. The only thing I will say is that although I really liked the theme of redemption & forgiveness which wove throughout this series, of the 3 people in these stories who were married before, it would have been nice for at least 1 of them to have had a happy, loving marriage.

#1 #2 #3
#4 #5 #6

You really do need to read these books in order as each book, while a story on its own, also has a plot which runs & develops through all the 6 books, building up to the grand finale in book 6. This means that you will not only want to read this book, but also the preceding 5 in the series! So if you are looking for a one off story to read, then this is not the book for you. However, if you are short of reading material & want a series to get you going, then you might want to try out this series.

Also coming out near Christmas time there is another book centred around the K-9 Unit which I'm looking forward to reading:

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Reads Review - Lone Star Protector by Lenora Worth

I should have paid more attention when signing up for this book, because I hadn't realized this was the sixth book in a series. Having not read the earlier books in this series, I was a bit lost, but it turned out to be pretty standard. The action was okay, and the romance was decent, but it just lacked a bit of complexity, a bit of steam. Not bad, but probably not something I would have signed up for if I had known more about it. It was just okay. For a romance it was tame, slightly Christian leaning, and as a mystery and suspense it was a little easy to predict and seemed to unravel very quickly. I'm not sure about the pacing of the earlier books, but this one went fast and didn't spend a whole lot of time building the tension.

The relationship itself in the book, the romance, was okay, rather sweet, very standard, very much caught up in a lot of the traditional gender roles. The man is the dedicated police officer who might be too obsessed with his job, the woman is the nurturing mother figure constantly being put in danger and needing to be rescued, told that she should just accept that it's the way men are. It's not really flattering to anyone, but the writing is good, and the story isn't terrible. I did feel a little lost, especially when a bunch of characters were listed that I'm sure appeared in the other books in the series.

The relationship aside, the characters were decent, if a bit bland. I would have liked to see a bit more passion and steam, but as this seems to be "inspirational" or whatever that means, I'll assume that this was as good as it gets for this type of book. Again, the writing was solid, and I did like the K9 cop aspect of it, the way they were a part of the story and helped with things. The plot was okay, and involved some soap opera level hijinks and murders. I don't know if I would have found it more satisfying if I had read the rest of these series, but it was decent enough.

And in the end I can't find too much to say about the book. It was okay, but not really anything I care to read. I can't find too much fault in the writing itself, though there is plenty to dislike in the choices of character and outlooks. Still, the book doesn't sock you over the head with Jesus, so there's that. I just can't figure out what more to say, though, so I'll leave this book with the score of three stars out of five.

[Lyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I have heard many compliments about Lenora Worth. When it comes to defining goodreads I typically take the stance of "I know it when I see it", so It was not until I finished Lone Star Protector that I found it really worthy of the reputation. Given what is going on at last book, we already knew who might be the boss -- greatly reducing mystique and interestingness. But Ms. Worth twisted these disadvantages by her flexible structure and rhetorical logic with elegant in choice of words and sentences. She's talented.
My favorite scene is when Kaitlin kissed Slade in Dante's bathroom. What a tactful treatment, enough of a moment of humor, for its romantic bubbles, yet never lost intension.
Of course there are a few small down sides, but in general it works as advertised.
Oh, I almost forget! Welcome home, Rio. <3

[Kathleen ShortRidge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this series late.. As in this one was my first. It did wrap the others up for me so that I could follow along, but I think it would have been better if I start at the beginning. See if I could find the clues for myself in the other books that this book gave me as a whole. I love books that bring God into our lives and shows us how we can have him with us at all times, without being preachy. They are stories that show love, compassion, and forgiveness without steamy scenes that someone who is trying to remain clean will have to feel compromised for reading. Stories you can enjoy without it being a conscience issue.
This is a keeper for me and a must read in line with the others for sure.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last one Lone Star Protector book #6 will blow your mind as to who the Big Boss is and why he stole the Captain's K-9 Partner and why the Boss had tried to kidnap one of the trainers. Follow Kaitlyn Mathers and Captain Slade McNeal has he trys to keep her safe and she toys to keep him from getting himself killed, it will take everything they both have to finally close the case and then finding each other for all eternity.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best book in the series. It was so full of action, romance, and suspense that I just couldn't stop reading it!!! I absolutely loved the way Slade and Kaitlin came together in both love and solving the final parts of the mystery. Though I figured out who the bad guy was about half-way through the series, it was still cool to read, and this was a really good bad-guy!!!

[Carolyn Hutson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific end to a suspenseful series!

I loved this last book in this series. The tension and romance between Slade and Kaitlin was so real. The suspense of finally discovered the big boss and taking him down had me on pins and needles. I loved all of the dogs as well. Awesome series.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best one so far. They are all good stories. But Ms Worth 's story was full of anxious, edge of your seat action. The romantic parts are good and not over done. Perfect


Great story, non stop edge of your seat action. Not overdone on the romance. Just enough to make the story awesome. I love all the K9 Unit books.
Loved this one very much.

[Shayne Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lone Star Protector

Lone Star Protector by Lenora Worth is the final book of this series. I really enjoyed reading all of the books and Worth did a great job of tying everything together. The story of Slade, Katelyn, Caleb, Papa and the dogs focused on trusting God. Another great story by Lenora Worth!

[Jesus Beach Girl Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This last installment of the Texas K 9 Unit series was a great story. The continuation was perfect as was the sweetness of the love of Kaitlyn and Spade. I have to say I had "the boss" figured out a few books back, but this has to be my favorite book in the series.

[michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book and read in 2 days!

I love the dogs k9 unit how they fit good into the story... Great suspense and romance and kept you turning pages too see how it plays out ! Well done Lenora worth! This was a good suspense book...

[Sandra Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW....what a book! One of those that you have to keep reminding yourself that it is fiction...it's not really happening. A real page turner with a great suspenseful plot, some romance and a great HEA ending. Loved, LOVED this book!

[angela yargus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too close for comfort

I am so enjoying this series...and all the K-9 series, and so great to learn about different
areas that I know I would love, because I have always lived in small towns.

[Karen Pawelko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked how this book ended although it did take me till this book to realize who the person was that they were after. I liked all the K-9 officers and their dogs and think it would be best to read the 6 books in order as each K-9 officer has their own story.

[Ingemar Bjornson · Rating 1 out of 5]

stupid

That was the stupidest cast of characters I’ve ever encountered in a book. That bunch of keystone cops couldn’t catch a cold in January, they are even more inept than Delores Fossen’s cops.

[Marg · Rating 5 out of 5]

great series

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great conclusion to a wonderful series.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story, loved the action and suspense. This is the last in the series Texas K9 Unit.

[Doris Ware · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good series. I read it on my kindle.

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ending to the series and a good lesson about keeping your eyes on God and going forward, not letting the past dictate who you are now.

[Bernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lone Star Protector review

Lone Star Protector is the sixth great romantic suspense book in the Texas K-9 Unit series written by author Lenora Worth.

[Andrew Service · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Series

Storylines is amazing good. The writing imagine of character development been good results. I'm thinking series of books good reading.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best book in the series! It was so intense and creepy! I loved it! Loved how it all came together and I am sad to say goodbye to these characters. Great series!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect Book Perfect Series

This book was absolutely the perfect ending to this series. I was very happy with the ending, everyone was back where they should be.

[sandy moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lone Star Protector

Amazing story where fear of past experiences control lives. Good over evil happened when trust and working together happened to bring about justice.

[Peggy Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Ending

Right will always prevail with the Lord as our partner. Super series about great people and super K-9s. Impressive collaboration.