High Stakes — Kathy Herman

Eighteen-year-old Angie Marks, tattooed and pierced, shows up in the small town of Baxter without a place to stay. When eccentric millionaire Patrick Bailey hires her to be his housekeeper, and then when Angie risks her own safety to help Mr. Bailey get his twin great-grandsons out of a rattlesnake's strike zone, she finds herself fully at the center of the town's curiosity. At Monty's Diner they say she might be involved with Billy Joe Sawyer, using rattlers to intimidate the key witnesses in his upcoming trial. Is she? Or does Angie Marks have her own agenda?