Starting Over
Authors: Ryder Dane
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Action & Adventure, #Contemporary, #Erotica, #New Adult
Starting Over by Ryder Dane
Starting Over
Lucifer’s Breed
by Ryder Dane
© Copyright August 2015 JK Publishing, Inc.
ISBN# 978-1-311-16317-2
All cover art and logo © Copyright August 2015 by JK Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Cover by Jess Buffett
Published by JK Publishing, Inc.
JK Publishing, Inc.
Starting Over by Ryder Dane
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
: This eBook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This eBook 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 recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not
purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com, and purchase
your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any
actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
by any means without the written permission of the author and publishing company.
Piracy
: Please always be aware of where you are purchasing your electronic books
and from whom. Only purchase from reputable, licensed individuals such as Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, iTunes, etc. If ever in doubt, let the author know of a suspected site
illegally selling their works—remember to include a link to the site where you have found
a book you suspect of being pirated. It only takes a moment of your time, but you will
forever have the gratitude of an author.
About the eBook Purchased
: Your purchase of this eBook allows you to only ONE
LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device.
You do not have resale or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both
the publisher and the copyright owner of this eBook. This eBook cannot be copied in
any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload
to a file sharing peer-to-peer program, free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest.
Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this
eBook, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method
currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this eBook
anymore, you must delete it from your computer.
WARNING
: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is
illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is
investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of
$250,000.
If you find any eBooks being sold or shared illegally, please contact the author or JK
Publishing, Inc. at [email protected].
JK Publishing, Inc.
Starting Over by Ryder Dane
Table of Contents
JK Publishing, Inc.
Starting Over by Ryder Dane
She finished spreading her brother’s ashes in the Missouri river. The tal wide
shouldered, hard as nails man she’d known was now gone, and in her heart was the
biggest void she’d never wanted to imagine. Tuck wouldn’t be there when she fucked
up, or became cornered by some well meaning bastard who wanted to change the
Dyke’s sexual orientation. She was on her own now, and she was still feeling the rage
at God for allowing the only one in the world she loved to be murdered by a damned
bunch of killers that even the cops were afraid to pull over on the highway.
As a toddler, her parents and brother spoiled her. She’d grown into a snaggletooth
first grade Princess when Tuck came to school to pick her up early one day. She’d
never seen her parents alive after that horrible day. The official cause of death was a
gas explosion in the house. Tuck had been blown out of the backdoor, or he wouldn’t
have lived to be there to pick her up, and tell her mommy and daddy were dead, and
with the angels now. He was barely eighteen years old himself, he could have left her
for the state to take, but he didn’t do that. He took her and left the area that day.
It wasn’t until she was eight and heard Tuck tel ing the man he worked for that their
parents had been killed by a man their father was going to testify against. Mr.
McCormick was an older gentleman who owned a bar in the middle of nowhere, outside
of a little town called Betwixt and Between. There wasn’t much to the town, a post
office, a general store, two gas stations, and a diner. Mr. McCormick helped Tuck claim
the insurance money from the house, and their father’s life insurance. At eighteen and
scared of his shadow, Tuck hadn’t even thought about such things as insurance claims.
At the time, all he was thinking was to get his little sister, and get the hell away from the
killer.
Tuck had seen the men that had kil ed their parents, and when she’d turned twenty-
one, he began his hunt for the bastards. She’d heard from him from time to time, and
even wrote things down he told her to remember for him, things like names and
numbers. Once in a while he would mention a few men that he liked, but increasingly in
the past few months, his calls were fewer and farther between.
From the day she began sprouting breasts, she was in disguise. Her hair was as
short as she could cut it, and she wore nothing but boys clothing at all times. Make-up
had never touched her smooth cheeks or eyes, and the only lipstick she could claim to
have used was lip balm. The bar patrons knew she was a girl, there was no hiding her
curves or voice. Letting them believe that she was more boy than girl was the only
protection she was able to use from amorous roughnecks, farmers, and drifters. Other
than the knives she kept in her engineer boots, and the 1911 she carried when she was
away from the bar. Her plain appearance was her best asset.
She hadn’t gone to school, Tuck and the old man had taught her Math, English, and
Science, to the best of their limited abilities. They lived so far outside of any town with a
school that she would have been home schooled anyway.
The old man had passed away three months ago. He hadn’t told her he had
prostate cancer until he was too weak to get out of bed one day. She knew he wasn’t
feeling well, and had taken him to his doctor every other week or so for quite some time
JK Publishing, Inc.
Starting Over by Ryder Dane
now. She got him into the old Studebaker truck he loved so much, and driven the eighty
miles to the hospital. He hadn’t been back at home two days before she found him
dead in his room. He’d taken the entire bottle of pain medication, and downed a bottle
of whiskey to wash the pills down.
Last week, she’d gotten an anonymous phone cal telling her to pick up Tuck. It
was dark and raining by the time she got to Lindell. She drove up to a deserted garage,
and put the truck in park. A black van pulled in behind her and two men got out of the
van. They went to the back and she could see them carrying what appeared to be a
body, wrapped in plastic bags. Their burden was heaved into the bed of her truck, and
the men got back into the van and left. Once they were out of sight, she jumped from
the truck and ran to the open tailgate, climbing into the bed. She took the knife from her
boot and sliced the plastic from boots to his neck, crying all the while. She pulled the
plastic from his head and lost her mind in those few seconds it took her to recognize her
brother’s face in the light from her Maglite. She’d known when she answered the
phone, but had hoped that it would turn out to be a mistake.
The police had no leads, or so they said anyway. She knew who Tuck’s kil er was,
and from the research she had done and was continuing to do, she knew the man was
the same one who had murdered her parents.
Her plan wasn’t solid yet, but the son-of-a-bitch would pay, and she would bathe in
his blood if she got the chance. She had a few things to do first, and if there was one
thing she was good at, it was planning. She had some skills to perfect, and a few
arrangements to be made. Once she was gone, she didn’t plan to return, but you never
knew what life or death would bring about. “Hope for the best but expect the worst.”
JK Publishing, Inc.
Starting Over by Ryder Dane
Eighteen months later…
War was frustrated. He was disgusted by the shit and politics that came with being