Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Bailey Kent hasn’t stopped thinking about Brooke since he met her years before when he first visited Bliss. She’s his dream woman, and now she’s within reach. She responds so beautifully not only to him, but to his brother. They’ve shared women all their lives, but both know Brooke is the one. There’s only one problem. She’s his muse, but she sees him as a way station, not the destination on this journey she’s taking.
Only one problem? Shane Kent knows his brother sometimes doesn’t see the bigger picture. Bay’s head and heart are wrapped up in his art, and it’s Shane’s job to remember the reality of whatever situation they’re in, and this time it’s big trouble. Their last job took them to a ranch that might have been selling more than cattle. Shane witnessed something criminal and they ran, but their old crew is looking for them and he’s worried they’ll find Brooke, too. And then there’s the fact that they once hit on her sister-in-law and her brothers hate them…
It'll take a miracle to bring these three together, so it’s a good thing Bliss is known for them
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Wyoming
Shane Kent pulled the gloves off his hands as he walked into the barn. Despite the heavy, warm material, his fingers still felt stiff. There wasn’t much that could keep a Wyoming winter from freezing a man’s bones.
Why did it seem warmer in Colorado? He knew on an intellectual level that it wasn’t, but the time he’d spent at Stef Talbot’s always seemed so much warmer. Likely since in the first couple of years they’d known the man he’d been more than happy to share his lovers with them. Stef Talbot was Bay’s mentor when it came to art, but he’d been an excellent tutor at other things for Shane.
Since the man had married, he’d been happy to sponsor them at a couple of clubs, but he was far more private. Now a good deal of the warmth Shane felt came from Stef’s wife, Jennifer, and his parents, Sebastian and Stella. Oh, most people would call Stella Benoit-Talbot Stef’s stepmom, but she was his mother in every way but biology.
Biology meant nothing, and Shane knew it. Not that he’d been as lucky as Stef.
Don’t expect me to give a damn about you, you piece of shit.
Shane took a long breath and tried to let the memory go. He’d been five, maybe. Perhaps a bit older, but his stepmom never let him forget that while he and Bay shared a dad, Shane was the product of her husband’s affair.
He shook off the snow. The barn was quiet at this time of night. He should have headed to the bunkhouse where Bay was undoubtedly sitting on his bed sketching while the young cowpokes played cards and drank until they passed out.
They were getting far too old for this shit.
The last piece of work Stef sold for Bay had brought in five thousand dollars.
Which they immediately had to put into buying a new truck since the craptastic one they’d been driving for ten plus years finally died.
They couldn’t get ahead no matter what they did.
They were never going to get that sweet wife and house and family that actually gave a damn. They were going to be the old men of whatever ranch they happened to be working at. Always changing. Best he could hope for was to find a place where they felt comfortable and work until they died.
He was almost certain it wouldn’t be Kingman Ranch.
There was something wrong here. Something felt off. Off? He was almost certain Kale Kingman ran this ranch in fairly criminal ways and didn’t mind getting rid of what he considered baggage.
“We have a problem.”
Shane went still at the sound of the ranch foreman talking quietly. The voice floated down from the upper level where they kept a lot of the feed and equipment they needed for the ranch. Kingman was a top-of-the-line ranch with three big barns. This was the biggest and was equipped with what was essentially an elevator so they could move heavier stock up and down from the storage spaces.
There was a horse barn with every comfort he could imagine.
And there was that barn no one was supposed to go into.
“We always have a problem,” another voice said. Andy Mills. He was the foreman’s right hand. Andy and Dennis were the epitome of older career cowboys. Dennis lived in his own place next to the bunkhouse, while Andy had the only private room in the building that housed the ten ranch hands who lived on property. There were more who commuted in, but the hands who lived here were considered the inner circle.
Well, except for him and Bay. They’d been told they were in a probationary period and would be so for the first year. After that they would consider making them real Kingman men.
At the time he thought they’d watched too much Yellowstone.
He was starting to wonder if the dudes who made Yellowstone had gotten the idea from Kale Kingman.
“It’s the new guys,” Dennis said, and then his voice went too low to hear.
Shane froze, and it had nothing to do with the sub-zero temperatures outside. He stood stock-still, trying hard not to even breathe. He’d thought about sneaking out or calling up to let them know he was here.
But he and his brother were “the new guys.”
Bay didn’t see the problems, but then Bay saw the world through his weird-ass artist eyes and often missed the reality of situations. While he was trying to capture the essence of a place, Shane was having to make sure that place didn’t eat them alive.
He wished he could flip his stepmom off and let her know her precious baby boy was only alive because the bastard saved him.
But she was dead and no longer cared. And it wasn’t like she’d been great to Bay either. She was drunk most of the time, and when she wasn’t taking her rage out on Shane, she was weeping to Bay about how terrible her life was and how it was up to him to fix things, and why did he have to spend so much time with that bastard?