Stretching, Olivia rubbed her bare legs against the sheets and reached for Nate, but his side of the bed was cool. She blinked against the morning light filtering through the blinds as disappointment hit her. Figuring he was out running, she smiled and recalled last night while burying her face in the pillow. He'd finally let go. The emotion pouring through him in the way he'd made love to her had been amazing. Earth-shattering. Soul-crushing. After all the horrible things he'd seen and done, that were put upon him, he seemed to be shedding the past and looking toward a future.About time.Another stretch, and she slipped out of bed with the sheet around her middle. She padded into the living room, only to abruptly halt.Nate sat on the sofa, elbows on his knees and head in his hands. He was fully dressed in jeans, boots, and a tee, and the tension radiating off him stalled her heart. Muscles rippled and ink came alive as his fingers fisted."I need to tell you something." Slowly

Every instinct told him to run, to get as far away from the pain as fast as possible. But he'd given his word, had made a promise, and he'd keep it. Though it wouldn't be right under her nose on the ranch, Nate would protect Olivia just the same. Pain be damned.On his Hog, he tore down the road, heading for town with two goals to accomplish by day's endto find a way to stay in Meadowlark and to make sure he'd never be in a position to hurt Olivia again. He'd barely made it out of the Cattenach Ranch gate and his chest pinched from missing her. And he'd better get used to it. Not that he ever would. Christ, he never should've touched her, never should've let her try to...heal him. His own misery was something he'd grown familiar with eons ago, but this particular level went beyond that to an amplified version of hell.The look on her face, the hurt in her voice, the way she'd tried to justify...No. No, no, no.Pulling off the main road a few minutes later, he parked in front of

Olivia pulled her truck in the driveway and cut the engine, then pounded her fist on the steering wheel a trillion times. Not that it helped her frustration level, but it beat screaming through town like Wee Willie Winkie after a meltdown.All day yesterday, she'd torn Meadowlark apart trying to find Nate. After little sleep, she'd headed out to do the same thing this morning. Nothing. Nada. All Rip would tell her was Nate started work on Monday and that, last he'd heard, Nate was fine. The good ole boys club, protecting each other. Rip must've assumed Nate needed time.She wasn't fine. And she didn't believe for one second Nate was, either.Helpless tears of concern and fear threatened again, so she climbed out of the truck and stalked toward the barn. Perhaps Nakos had heard from Nate. Sunlight beat down and the grass was damp with dew. Spring clung to the tepid air and birds chirped. A breeze whirred the leaves budding on the trees. Flowers poked through the defrosted ground, r

VOLUME TWO: BENEDICTIONRibs screaming in agony, blood dripping from her nose and lip, and her right eye swollen almost shut, Amy Tarcher stumbled through the Cattenach Ranch iron gate onto her best friend's property. Her legs cramped, barely holding her up, and the vertigo was screwing with her balance. Loose gravel over the brick-laid driveway grated under her shuffling flip-flops, but they were all she'd been able to manage when she'd fled home.Amy's own postage stamp of a house was in an older subdivision on the other side of Olivia's sprawling ranch. Which meant, somehow, she'd walked three miles to get here. Her car hadn't been an option. Before her husband had gone mental and put her in this current black and blue state, he'd slashed her tires, smashed her cell phone, and had taken a hammer to her photography equipment. That hurt almost worse than the beating he'd inflicted.An end in sight, she forced her feet to keep moving and headed up the driveway at a drunken snail's p

Three months later...Today was going to suck. And not the good kind. Nope. The big, sweaty, hairy donkey balls variety. He thought he'd been prepared for this, but the shift in his gut said otherwise.Biting back a sigh, Nakos Hunt glanced from the two men standing beside him to the wide open expanse of Cattenach Ranch. Two-thousand acres of rolling grasslands and high plains. The Laramie Mountains just to the south were little more than a bluish mirage in the distance, but a slightly cool breeze wafted across the basin to provide some relief from the heat. A rare hot Wyoming sun beat down from a cloudless sky as prairie grass crackled in the wind. He shoved his index finger between his neck and the white collar of the button down shirt Olivia had forced him to wear, trying to get liberation from the upper eighties temperature. With his dark skin, courtesy of his native Arapaho tribe, he was roasting. At least she'd let him wear jeans and cowboy boots, but he felt naked without hi