A Troubled Range - Releasing Friday March 25
Blurb:
The neighboring Holden and Jessup ranches are anything but neighborly—Jefferson Holden and Kent Jessup loathe each other. But despite his father’s long-held grudge, Haven Jessup just can’t bring himself to hate, especially after Dakota Holden takes him in during a violent storm and Haven meets Dakota’s friend, Phillip Reardon.
Phillip accepts Haven for who he is, seeing through the mask Haven uses to hide his attraction to men, but their tentative and secret relationship will be under a huge amount of stress. Sabotaged fences, injured animals, unsavory plans, and Jessup family secrets will threaten Haven’s newfound happiness and his hopes of a future with Phillip.
Excerpt:
“Why’s your dad hate Dakota so much? He’s never been anything but nice to everybody, far as I know. Helps everybody out when they need it and more than most, from what I hear.” Kade didn’t look up as he watched the pastureland around him, looking for anything that could make the cattle sick.
“The only thing I can figure is because Dakota’s queer.” Haven saw Kade’s head jerk up at the word. He knew he shouldn’t have used it, especially with the feelings he himself had had for as long as he could remember. Haven knew Kade was looking at him and he needed to cover somehow. “Not that it matters to me, but then Dad always held with that church stuff. I never paid it no mind,” he added as nonchalantly as he could. Haven made his way toward the fence line, with Kade a little ways away watching the ground. “Maybe it’s just ’cause Dad’s jealous or something. Everything that happens, he tries to blame it on the Holdens, always has. God himself could sweep down in a blaze of glory, and he’d blame the Holdens that God’s brightness hurt his eyes.”
Kade snickered, but said nothing more before riding off to continue checking the range. Haven moved closer to the fence, watching the wire and posts as Jake followed the route he knew well. A few of the posts looked as though they might be ready to give, and Haven dismounted, holding Jake’s reins as he checked, but they held fine, and he remounted, continuing on his way. In a few places, he saw where posts had already been replaced, and he made a note to thank Dakota the next time he saw him. There was no way he’d tell his dad, who would only yell that Holden had been on his property rather than being grateful that the man had actually fixed the fence for them.
At the far end of the range, Haven looked back along the line before starting down the back section. He saw Kade weaving through the range and let his thoughts wander. He liked it out here alone where he could think, away from his father’s stiflingly vocal self-righteous convictions. Fencing and posts passed by as he and Jake slowly made their way along the back of the range. Post after post, acre after acre, passed by them. A few times, he pulled Jake up to check posts and to help keep his eyes sharp.
At the far corner of the range, he dismounted and fished in his saddlebags for pliers. Jake lowered his head, feeding, looking content, as Haven worked to fix a break in the fence. Twisting the barbed wire back together, Haven worked carefully, keeping his gloved fingers away from the barbs, but as he repaired one break, another section of wire pulled away from the post. “Damn it!” Haven swore—there just wasn’t quite enough wire left to really fix it. After working awhile, Haven finally managed to knit the break back together.
Crack! The sound had Haven jumping out of his skin. Looking around, he saw the dark clouds of a storm rolling in fast from the west. “It’s okay, Jake. Let’s go home.” Haven could feel the horse’s nervousness, and he opened the saddlebag to put his tools away. Crack! Boom! Thunder rolled through the air, making the ground shake. Jake reared, and Haven found his butt bouncing on the ground as Jake raced away in a complete panic, hooves tearing up the ground as he got smaller and smaller, galloping back toward the barn faster than Haven could ever hope to.
“Shit!” Haven hollered as the wind picked up. With nothing else to do, Haven began walking the fence line back the way he had come. If he were lucky, the storm would be dry, bringing wind and noise, but no rain. But that he doubted as the next gust of wind carried the scent of water on it, and he picked up the pace, practically running.
Haven looked around, but knew what he’d see: nothing at all for miles in any direction except open range and fence. There had once been a range cabin just beyond the fence, but it had fallen down in a storm a few years earlier, and his dad was too cheap to rebuild it. So he had no choice; he had to walk and pray. He knew Kade was far away and had hopefully made it back to the ranch.
Another crack was followed instantly by a clap of thunder that had Haven holding his ears and clamping his eyes shut. He swore he could almost feel the heat; he sure as hell could smell the crackling in the air. Looking up, he saw smoke rising from the range just to the west. “Holy fuck,” he said to himself, eyes wide in fear, “the range is on fire!” Haven hurried, racing along the fence line as the smoke grew in intensity, spreading in the nearly dry grass.
The first raindrop splatted against his shoulder, big and full, followed by several more. Looking up at the nearly black sky, Haven checked for swirls, but saw none. As he continued to hurry along the fence line, the wind picked up again as the sky opened up, sheets of rain wetting him to the skin in an instant. At least he didn’t have to worry about the fire, but the rain picked up even more, buckets of water driven past him by gale-force winds, his wet shirt flapping in the wind.
With no shelter at all, his only choice was to continue trying to get home. Haven knew it wasn’t safe out in this weather, but he didn’t have a choice.
Finally, he reached the fence corner and began the turn toward the house. He could barely see, the water blowing into his eyes. “Haven.” Hearing his name in the wind, he tried to call back, but just got a mouthful of water. Peering through the gloom, he saw a figure on horseback materialize on the other side of the fence. “Haven, is that you?”
“Yes,” he called into the wind as a horse and rider came closer on the other side of the fence. “Dakota?” He couldn’t see for sure who it was in the yellow rain gear.
“Climb through the fence.” Dakota got off the horse and carefully spread the wire. Haven did the same, gingerly threading himself between the sharp barbs before standing next to the snorting horse. “Get on behind me, and we’ll get you inside.” Dakota mounted the huge horse before pulling Haven up behind him. Haven held on tight as the horse began to move.
“How can you see in this?”
“I can’t, but Roman knows the way, and he’ll get us back to the house. Just hang on.”
