A Real Cowboy Rides a Motorcycle
Page 22
Beside the moose rack was the battered wooden clock he’d been watching all evening. Adrenaline raced through Ben as he watched the minute hand clunk to the twelve. It was seven o’clock.
“What happens at seven?”
Ben jerked his gaze back to Haas, startled to realize the older man had been watching him closely enough to notice his focus on the clock. “I turn into a fairy princess.”
Haas guffawed and slammed his hand down on Ben’s shoulder. “You’re all right, John Sullivan. Mind if I call you Sully? Most Sullivans go by Sully. It’ll make it seem more like it’s your real name.”
Ben’s fingers tightened around the frosty bottle at Haas’s persistence. “It is my real name.”
Haas dropped the smile and leaned forward, lowering his voice as his gaze locked onto Ben’s. “I’ll tell you this, young man, I’ve seen a lot of shit in my life. I’ve seen men who look like princes, but turn out to be scum you wouldn’t even want to waste a bullet on. I’ve seen pieces of shit who would actually give their life for you. You look like shit, but whatever the hell you’re running from, you got my vote. Don’t let the bastards catch you until you can serve it up right in their damn faces. Got it?”
Ben stared at Haas, too stunned by the words to respond. No one believed in him, no one except for the man who had helped him escape. He’d known Mack Connor since he was a kid, and Mack understood what loyalty meant. But even Mack knew damn well who Ben really was and what he was truly capable of. Mack’s allegiance was unwavering, but he did it with his eyes open and ready to react if Ben went over the line.
He had a sudden urge to tell Haas exactly what shit was going down for him, and see if the old man still wanted to stand by him.
But he wasn’t that stupid. He couldn’t afford for anyone to know why he was here. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he finally said.
Haas raised his beer in a toast. “Yeah, me neither, Sully. Me neither.” As Haas took a drink, another weather-beaten Alaskan sat down on Haas’s other side. This guy’s face was so creased it looked like his razor would get lost if he tried to shave, and the size of his beard said the guy hadn’t been willing to take the risk. Haas nodded at him. “Donnie, this here boy is Sully. New in town. Needs a job. His wife left him six months ago, and the poor bastard lost everything. He’s been wandering aimless for too damn long.”
Ben almost choked on his beer at Haas’s story, but Donnie just nodded. “Women can sure break a man.” He leveled his dark brown gaze at Ben. “She ain’t worth it, young man. There are lots of doe around for a guy to pick up with.”
Ben managed a nod. “Yeah, well, I’m not ready yet.”
“We gotta get him back on the horse,” Haas said. “Got any ideas?” With a wink at Ben, he and Donnie launched into a discussion about the assorted available women in town and which ones might be worthy of Ben.
As the two old-timers talked, Ben felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders. In this small town in the middle of Alaska, he had an ally, at least until Haas found out the truth. Shit, it felt good to have someone at his back. It had been too damn long—
The door to the kitchen swung open, and a cheerful female voice echoed through the swinging door. Her voice was like a soft caress of something…damn. He realized he didn’t even know what to compare it to. His mind was too tired to conjure up words that would do justice to the sudden heat sliding over his skin. But a seductive, tempting warmth washed over him, through him, like someone had just slipped hot whisky into his veins, burning and cleansing as it went.
Ben went rigid, adrenaline flooding his body. It was seven o’clock. Based on what he’d pieced together about her schedule and her life, she would be coming on duty now, walking out of the kitchen now. Was it her? Was it her? Her hand was on the kitchen door, holding it open as she finished her muffled conversation. She was wearing a black leather cord with a silver disk around her wrist. On her index finger was a silver ring with a rough-cut turquoise stone and a wide band with carvings on it. Her fingernails were bare and natural, a woman who didn’t bother with enamel and lacquer to go to work. Her arm was exposed, the smooth expanse of flesh sliding up to a capped black sleeve that just covered the curve of her shoulder. She wasn’t tall, maybe a little over five feet.
Son of a bitch. It might actually be her. Come into the bar, he urged silently. Let me see your face. He’d never heard her talk before. He’d never seen her in person. All he had was that one newspaper picture of her, and the headshot he’d snagged from her family’s store website before it had been taken down. But her trail had led to O’Dell’s, and he was hoping he was right. He had to be right.
The door opened wider, and Ben ducked his head, letting his hair shield his eyes again, but he didn’t take his gaze off her, watching intently as the woman moved into the restaurant. Her back was toward him as she continued her conversation, and he could see her hair. Thick, luscious waves of dark brown.
Brown. Brown. The woman he’d been searching for was blond.
The disappointment and frustration that knifed through his gut was like the sharp stab of death itself. He bowed his head, resting his forehead in his palms as the image flooded his mind again, the same memory that had haunted him for so long. His sister, her clothes stained with that vibrant red of fresh blood, sprawled across her living room, her hand stretching toward Ben in the final entreaty of death. Son of a bitch. He couldn’t let Holly down. He couldn’t let her down again.
“Are you okay?”
He went still at the question, at the sound of the woman’s voice so close. She still had the same effect on him, a flood of heat that seemed to touch every part of his body. He schooled his features into the same uninviting expression he’d perfected, and he looked up to find himself staring into the face he’d been hunting for the last three months.
He’d never mistake those eyes. The dark rich brown framed by eyelashes so thick he’d thought they had to be fake, until now. Until he could see her for real. Until he could feel the weight of her sorrow so thickly that it seemed to wrap around him and steal the oxygen from his lungs. Until he looked into that face, that face that had once been so innocent, and now carried burdens too heavy for her small frame.
Until he’d found her.
Because he had.
It was her. Yeah, maybe she’d ditched the blond and let herself go back to her natural color, which looked good as hell on her, but there was no doubt in his mind.
He’d found her.
Son of a bitch.
He’d found her.
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Select List of Other Books by Stephanie Rowe
(For a complete book list, please visit www.stephanierowe.com)
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
The Wyoming Rebels Series
A Real Cowboy Never Says No
A Real Cowboy Knows How to Kiss
A Real Cowboy Rides a Motorcycle
The Ever After Series
No Knight Needed
Fairy Tale Not Required
Prince Charming Can Wait
The Knight Who Brought Chocolate (Coming Soon!)
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The NightHunter Series
Not Quite Dead
The Order of the Blade Series
Darkness Awakened
Darkness Seduced
Darkness Surrendered
Forever in Darkness
Darkness Reborn
Darkness Arisen
Darkness Unleashed
Inferno of Darkness
Darkness Possessed
Shadows of Darkness
Hunt the Darkness (Coming Soon!)
The Soulfire Series
Kiss at Your Own Risk
Touch if You Dare
Hold Me if You Can
The Immortally Sexy Series
Date Me Baby, One More Time
Must Love Dragons
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot
Sex & the Immortal Bad
Boy
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
The Alaska Heat Series
Ice
Chill
Ghost
Stand Alone Novels
Jingle This!
NONFICTION
The Feel Good Life
FOR TEENS
A Girlfriend’s Guide to Boys Series
Putting Boys on the Ledge
Studying Boys
Who Needs Boys?
Smart Boys & Fast Girls
Stand Alone Novels
The Fake Boyfriend Experiment
FOR PRE-TEENS
The Forgotten Series
Penelope Moonswoggle, The Girl Who Could Not Ride a Dragon
Penelope Moonswoggle & the Accidental Doppelganger
Release Date TBD
Collections
Box Sets
Alpha Immortals
Last Hero Standing
Romancing the Paranormal
Stephanie Rowe Bio
USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Rowe is the author of more than 40 novels, including her popular Order of the Blade and NightHunter paranormal romance series. Stephanie is a four-time nominee of the RITA® Award, the highest award in romance fiction. She has won many awards for her novels, including the prestigious Golden Heart® Award. She has received coveted starred reviews from Booklist, and Publishers Weekly has called her work “[a] genre-twister that will make readers…rabid for more.” Stephanie also writes a thrilling romantic suspense series set in Alaska. Publisher’s Weekly praised the series debut, ICE, as a “thrilling entry into romantic suspense,” and Fresh Fiction called ICE an “edgy, sexy and gripping thriller.” Equally as intense and sexy are Stephanie’s contemporary romance novels, set in the fictional town of Birch Crossing, Maine. All of Stephanie’s books, regardless of the genre, deliver the same intense, passionate, and emotional experience that has delighted so many readers.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to my beta readers, who always work incredibly hard under tight deadlines to get my books read. I appreciate so much your willingness to tell me when something doesn’t work! I treasure your help, and I couldn’t do this without you. Hugs to you all! Thanks also to the Rockstars, the best buzz team ever!
There are so many to thank by name, more than I could count, but here are those who I want to called out specially for all they did to help this book come to life: Malinda Davis Diehl, Donna Bossert, Leslie Barnes, Kayla Bartley, Alencia Bates Salters, Alyssa Bird, Jean Bowden, Shell Bryce, Kelley Daley Curry, Ashley Cuesta, Denise Fluhr, Sandi Foss, Valerie Glass, Heidi Hoffman, Jeanne Stone, Rebecca Johnson, Dottie Jones, Janet Juengling-Snell, Deb Julienne, Bridget Koan, Felicia Low, Phyllis Marshall, Suzanne Mayer, Erin McRae, Jodi Moore, Ashlee Murphy, Judi Pflughoeft, Carol Pretorius, Kasey Richardson, Caryn Santee, Summer Steelman, Regina Thomas, and Linda Watson.
Special thanks to Michael James Canalas at MJC Imageworks for a wonderful cover. Mom, you’re the best. It means so much that you believe in me. I love you. Special thanks also to my amazing, beautiful, special daughter, who I love more than words could ever express. You are my world, sweet girl, in all ways.
Dedication
For Donna Bossert. Thank you for all your support and friendship. I treasure you!