Ropes and Revenge
Authors: Jessie Evans
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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
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Lonesome Point, Texas
12 Dates of Christmas: A Lonesome Point Holiday Novella
Sunny With a Chance of True Love: The Ballad of Ugly Ross
Always a Bridesmaid
TAKING YOU
(series-ending novella)
Fire and Icing
SAVING YOU
(series-ending novella)
Escape to You Novellas
Edgy, New Adult Reads written as J. Evans
ONE BEAUTIFUL REVENGE
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 his 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.