Ropes and Revenge Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  All Rights Reserved

  About the Book

  Also by Jessie Evans

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  EPILOGUE

  A letter from the Author

  More From Jessie Evans

  Please enjoy this excerpt of...

  Ropes and Revenge

  A Lonesome Point Novel

  By Jessie Evans

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright Ropes and Revenge © 2015 Jessie D. Evans www.jessieevansauthor.com

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. This contemporary western romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This e-book is licensed for your personal use only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with, especially if you enjoy hot, sexy, emotional novels featuring alpha cowboys. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. Cover image by Rob Lang c. Rob Lang/Roblangimages.com 2015. Cover design © by Sarah Hansen for Okay Creations. Edited by Robin Leone Editorial.

  About the Book

  Two broken hearts, one chance to make something beautiful with the pieces...

  Eight months ago, John Lawson lost his wife and best friend in a tragic accident on his family’s ranch. In the time since, he’s devoted himself to two things—taking care of his two newly motherless sons and proving that Lily’s accident was no accident. Now, he finally has hard evidence that his wife was murdered and he won’t rest until he has the killer’s blood on his hands. He doesn’t have time for anything but vengeance, especially not a crazy ghost hunter wanting to poke around the old spring on his family’s ranch.

  Persephone Styles—Percy to her friends—learned about ghosts the hard way, when she was orphaned by a violent crime at the age of seven. Ever since, she’s seen spirits and been obsessed with studying souls beyond the grave. She’s in Lonesome Point to document the town’s spectral activity, but finds herself powerfully drawn to widower John Lawson and empathizing with his grieving children. For the first time in years, Percy is as riveted by the living as she’s always been by the dead and longs to be a part of John’s life.

  But when one night of passion becomes something more, Percy realizes John is as haunted as she is and that the man she’s coming to love is walking a dangerous road that may end with him becoming a murderer’s next victim.

  Also by Jessie Evans

  Sign up for Jessie’s newsletter and never miss a new release: http://bit.ly/1swaXYv

  Lonesome Point, Texas

  LEATHER AND LACE

  SADDLES AND SIN

  DIAMONDS AND DUST

  12 Dates of Christmas: A Lonesome Point Holiday Novella

  GLITTER AND GRIT

  Sunny With a Chance of True Love: The Ballad of Ugly Ross

  CHAPS AND CHANCE

  ROPES AND REVENGE

  Always a Bridesmaid

  BETTING ON YOU

  KEEPING YOU

  WILD FOR YOU

  TAKING YOU (series-ending novella)

  Fire and Icing

  MELT WITH YOU

  HOT FOR YOU

  SWEET TO YOU

  SAVING YOU (series-ending novella)

  Escape to You Novellas

  AUDITIONING YOU

  DARING YOU

  Edgy, New Adult Reads written as J. Evans

  ONE WILD NIGHT

  THIS WICKED RUSH

  ONE PERFECT LOVE

  THIS SWEET ESCAPE

  ONE BEAUTIFUL REVENGE

  THE PROTECTOR

  A Kindle Worlds novella set in the world of

  H.M. Ward’s The Arrangement

  PROLOGUE

  The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

  But I have promises to keep,

  And miles to go before I sleep.

  -Robert Frost

  John Lawson woke up flat on his back in a field of gently waving golden wheat. Above him, a warm summer sun glowed in a robin’s egg blue sky, and all around his sprawled body sun-drunk insects hummed a sleepy tune. A gentle breeze caressed his face and the pungent scent of heavy, late summer flowers drifted to his nose.

  For the first time in longer than he could remember, he felt relaxed, peaceful, and happy. So happy, he couldn’t seem to get worked up about the fact that he didn’t know where he was or how he’d gotten here.

  If he’d been a different man, he might have smiled, closed his eyes, and let the warm sun lull him back to sleep. But John Lawson didn’t go with the flow or let the day take him. He was the strong, grounded, no-nonsense, keep-your-shit together type.

  Since his father had died, he’d been the bedrock of his family, the person his mother and two younger brothers could turn to when they needed a shoulder to cry on or someone to help them calm down and see sense. John had talked his hot-headed brother Cole out of trouble more times than he could count and had coaxed his lovesick brother Bubba back from the emotional ledge when his first girlfriend broke his deep-loving heart, all while quietly tending his own garden without the need of special attention from the people he loved.

  That was simply the man he was. He was a port in the storm; a calm, steady pair of arms to cling to when chaos swept into a life, setting the most carefully laid plans to waste.

  And then suddenly, everything had changed. He had changed, though for the life of him, right now, he couldn’t remember why.

  Something had happened…something bad…

  He rubbed at the tops of his eyes, but his thoughts didn’t clear and the feeling of unease whispering across his skin only grew worse. He didn’t know where he was or what he was hiding from in this golden field, but it was past time to get moving and head back home. There were cattle to tend to and people depending on him. He couldn’t afford to waste an afternoon lying flat on his back.

  He rolled over on the cool, hard-packed earth, preparing to jump to his feet, but froze when he saw the woman in a yellow sundress lying on the ground beside him.

  “Where did you come from?” he said, a laugh rumbling through his chest. “You snuck up on me.”

  Lily grinned, transforming her cute, freckled face into a thing of beauty. “I’m a sneaky one.” She squinched one eye closed. “Gotta keep both eyes on me, tough guy.”

  “Not a problem.” John reached out, curling one arm around h
is wife’s waist and drawing her closer. Just that innocent touch was enough to make his entire body ache and his chest feel like a pressure cooker was slow-roasting his heart.

  “I’ve missed you, Freckles,” he said, his throat tight as he leaned down to press a gentle kiss to Lily’s lips. He didn’t know why they’d been apart, but it felt like ages since he’d seen her smile, felt her warm in his arms, tasted the sweet grass and molasses taste of his favorite person in the world.

  God, she tasted good. Perfect. Like something too pure and wonderful to be real.

  But she was real, and they were going to find their way back home together. Now that his wife was in his arms, anything seemed possible.

  “You don’t have to miss me.” She sighed against his lips as her thin arms twined around his neck. “I’m with you every day, babe. I won’t leave until you’re ready.”

  John frowned as he pulled back to look down at her face, the face of the only woman he had ever loved. “Well, then you’re never leaving.” His arm tightened around her. “Because I’m never going to be ready. We’re forever, Freckles. I don’t want to find out what kind of man I’d be without you.”

  Lily smiled, but sadness pinched the skin around her eyes. “You know what I love most about you?”

  “What?” He tried to relax, but he couldn’t seem to banish the anxiety her previous words had inspired. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, that something terrible lurked in the golden field, waiting to pounce and rip this idyllic moment to shreds.

  “You are constant.” She swept his hair from his forehead, her fingers cool against his skin. “You’re the northern star and the sun rising in the east and spring muscling through the cold every winter.”

  He leaned in to her touch. “Is that a romantic way of saying I’m boring?”

  She laughed softly, but her grin didn’t stick around for long. “No, it’s a romantic way of saying that you’re dependable and that always made me feel so safe. I never had to doubt how much I was loved. I knew that I had your heart and that, no matter what life threw at us, you were going to be by my side, helping me fight through it.”

  “Will be by your side,” he corrected. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “No, you’re not,” she said, cupping his face in her too-cool hands. “You’re stuck John. And that was okay for a while, but now it’s time to start moving again.”

  His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s time to start feeding the kids something other than macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.” She smiled. “And Peyton’s going to turn into a banana if you don’t stop letting him have three a day.”

  “It’s just…easier,” he said, pulse speeding as something swelled at the back of his thoughts, a dark pocket of knowing that he didn’t want to burst through to his conscious mind.

  “I know, babe,” Lily said. “But the boys need variety in their diet. And they need variety in their daddy, too.” Her thumb brushed across his lips. “They need to see you smile. They need to know that life goes on and losing someone isn’t a death sentence for the heart.”

  John’s chest clenched and it was suddenly impossible to draw in a breath.

  But he didn’t want to breathe. Breathing would lead to remembering and he didn’t want to remember. He didn’t care if the monster lurking in the wheat jumped out and tore his head from his body; he wasn’t going to turn and look it in the face.

  He wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

  “You need to hope again,” Lily whispered. “And love again, because there is no one in the world who deserves love more than you do. You deserve it and you need it to soften all those hard, constant edges of yours.”

  His tongue turned to stone and emotion shoved up his throat like a fist. He wanted to tell her she was crazy—that he would be worthless without her, broken and frozen so solid on the inside he would never thaw out again—but he couldn’t speak. He could only shake his head, fighting the tears trying to bleed from his eyes. He wouldn’t cry.

  He hadn’t cried a single time…

  Not even on the night…

  The memory was close now, rising to the surface no matter how hard he tried to keep it at bay.

  “A bird in a cage will forget how to sing.” Lily pressed a kiss to his cheek, sending a fissure cracking through the center of his heart. “Don’t forget, John. It’s okay to let love back into your life. It’s okay to let me go.”

  “No.” He choked the word out, wrapping his arm around Lily and crushing her to his chest. “No, Lily. Please. Don’t leave me.”

  “Don’t be afraid,” she said, her body growing less substantial in his arms. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Everything is going to be all right.”

  “No, it’s not.” He clutched her closer, but Lily was fading away, vanishing like smoke drifting from a dying fire. “No. No! Don’t go!”

  John woke to find himself sitting straight up in bed, his bare chest covered in sweat and his arms reaching for something that wasn’t there.

  Someone who wasn’t there. Who would never be there again because he’d buried Lily last spring.

  Gritting his teeth against the fresh misery washing through him, he bent his knees and dropped his head to rest on his crossed arms. He pulled in ragged breaths, fighting to regain control as he lost her all over again.

  He’d had dreams about Lily before, but nothing like that.

  It had been so real he could still taste her kiss on his lips, feel the way she’d fit against him, her softness molding to his hard angles like they’d been made for each other. He could still hear her voice echoing in his ears, whispering that it was time to let go.

  “I can’t, Freckles,” he whispered, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I can’t let you go. Not until I know the truth.”

  And maybe not even then.

  There were times when John cursed his obsession with proving that Lily’s death hadn’t been an accident, hating the way it stole his focus from his family and the sons who needed him to be both mother and father to them now that their mama was gone.

  But there were also times when his quest for the truth was the only thing keeping him going. It was his last tie to Lily, the last thread binding them together, and he didn’t know what would happen to him if it were severed.

  Maybe he would be able to let go and move on, the way he knew Lily would have wanted him to. Or maybe he would lie down and give up.

  He’d already reserved the plot next to Lily’s and there were times—dark moments at the end of a long day of struggling to provide his sons with a decent imitation of a happy home—when he couldn’t think of any reason why he shouldn’t join her.

  Maybe the boys would be better off without him. Maybe no parents was better than a father who was a walking cautionary tale, a miserable, haunted example of what happened when you dared to love someone with all your heart and the world took them away. At best, he was teaching Peyton and Carter to guard their hearts and keep love at arm’s length. At worst, he was teaching them that life was a cruel joke and death the sad, pointless punch line.

  Life can be cruel, but death isn’t an end. And love is never a mistake.

  The voice floating through his head sounded so much like Lily’s that it made the hairs on his arms stand on end. It felt like she was in the room, close enough to touch, close enough to hear him if he called out to her again.

  No matter how crazy he knew it was, his lips were parting to speak, when a small, pitiful voice sounded from the door to his bedroom.

  “Daddy, I’m sick.” Peyton sniffed and clutched a handful of his red and white striped pajama shirt. “I need tummy medicine.”

  “All right, buddy.” John pushed off the covers and stood, hitching his pajama pants higher on his hips. “Come into my bathroom and we’ll get you something.”

  Peyton lifted his arms to be picked up and John scooped up his sleep-warm son. Peyton had just turned six and had a fiercely independent streak, but when he was
tired he still loved to be held. John hugged him close as he headed into the bathroom and flicked on the light.

  Peyton blinked sleepily and wrinkled his freckled nose. “I don’t like Halloween anymore, Daddy. I don’t want to do Halloween next year.”

  John set him on the counter beside the sink and reached into the medicine cabinet. “It’s not Halloween’s fault you were sneaky and ate half your candy stash on the way home. I told you to only have two pieces.”

  Peyton’s lips turned down hard at the edges. “Am I in trouble? Am I going to lose games tomorrow?”

  “No, you’re not going to lose games,” John said, shaking out an antacid onto his palm. “I don’t see any reason to punish you when your tummy is already doing that for me.”

  Peyton popped the antacid into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully for a moment, his little face pale and solemn in the harsh bathroom light. “I wish I could have a do-over. And only have two pieces of candy. Like you said.”

  “Do-overs would be nice,” John agreed, thinking of all the things he would do-over, all the steps he would take to make sure Lily was safe and here to help him tuck Peyton back into bed.

  But there were no do-overs and after he had tucked Peyton in with his favorite stuffed dinosaur and a fresh cup of water on his bedside table, John returned to his lonely room and lay back down on the right side of the bed. The left side was still Lily’s, even if she hadn’t slept there in seven months and would never sleep there again.

  It was still hers, the way his heart was hers, and he couldn’t imagine anything different.

  He couldn’t imagine letting her go, no matter how many songs his heart forgot how to sing.

  Percy

  It was Samhain, the night when the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest, a time when even less psychically attuned people might receive a message from the beyond.

  For Persephone “Percy” Styles—a woman who had dedicated her life to communicating with souls that had passed on to the other side—it was practically a given that she would receive some sort of visitation in her dreams tonight.