Halfway Between

by Jana Leigh

  “The big house has enough bedrooms for all of you,” Slone pointed. “Let’s get you settled and then we can talk, then I can give you a tour of the ranch and we can start first thing in the morning.

  All of them nodded and looked around curiously but followed Slone into the large house. There was an older woman and man in the foyer waiting for them. They all looked at Alex who shrugged.

  The woman smiled and with tears in her eyes, she walked to each of them and hugged them saying as she did, “I am Louise, the cook and housekeeper, and this is my husband, Timothy, who is a handyman and wrangler that is going to help you out. Welcome home, and I am so happy you are all here, if you need anything you tell me. Now, I have a nice pot roast and potatoes, green beans and a nice chocolate cake for you. When you are ready, come down, and I will get your favorites written down.”

  The men looked stunned and accepted the woman’s hug, and then mumbled in return. They weren’t quite sure what to do about this show of emotion. It just wasn’t what they were used to.

  “Thanks,” Alex said and looked down to the floor.

  Her husband walked up, stuck out his hand, and said gruffly, “Welcome.”

  Alex looked at the older man warily and shook his hand. It was firm, and the look of understanding crossed the older man's face and Alex looked at the others as they followed, and he saw the kindred spirits all relax with the man's handshake. This was the right move, Alex knew it.

  Excerpt from Raising a Cowgirl

  Taming of Team TEN Book Two

  by Jana Leigh

  “See you later, darlin',” the woman said, leaned over, and kissed him quickly before leaving.

  “Later,” Gage said and leaned back and sighed. Sleep is what he needed now, tomorrow was going to be a full day, he had training in the morning, and then he had to ride the fence to fix it tomorrow.

  Just when he was ready to fall asleep, Gage heard his teammates’ voices. “Dude, get the fuck up, this is important. We have been waiting forever for you to quit fucking around.”

  “Huh?” Gage said and looked up—his dead teammates were in his room. “Holy Hell!”

  “You could say that, man, you have got to get a clue and stop thinking with your dick. We have a huge problem. It is time for you to get the letter and read it,” one of his teammate’s stepped forward. “Someone's life depends on it.”

  “Shit,” Gage groaned and looked around desperately. “Why me?”

  “Because I trust you, man, I explained that,” Raider standing before him said.

  “Fuck a duck, what do I need to do?” Gage sighed. He had seen Marie a few times since they arrived back, but it had been painful and a reminder to her having him around. He sent money every month, but so far, none of the checks had been cashed.

  “You have lost contact,” Raider said slowly.

  “I know, I am a bastard, man, but I was fucked up, and she had a new baby. Our grief was drowning both of us,” Gage whispered.

  “I know, but things change,” Raider said.

  “Like what?” Gage asked confused.

  “Read the letter,” Raider said and then faded.

  Gage stood and screamed loudly. He heard feet pounding on the stairs and the floor, then his door was flung open.

  “What?” Thane roared as he came in the door with a weapon drawn, sweeping the room.

  “This is your fault!” Gage yelled at Alex as he walked into the room, disheveled and sleepy.

  “Huh?” Alex said, rubbing his eyes.

  “You," Gage said as he pointed his finger at Alex. "You started the whole damn thing with all the, 'I see dead people' shit. Now I am talking to dead people! ALL YOUR FAULT!” Gage barked as he shook his finger at Alex.

  Excerpt from Deadly Spurs

  Taming Team TEN Book Three

  by Jana Leigh

  Arden closed the lid on her laptop, she hated she couldn’t let her boss know what was going on, but she refused to bring him into this mess. No, she needed to trust in West Trete, and the rest of them if she could find a phone number she would call. Maybe he would know how to get in touch with the guys from Dag’s team. She had a feeling this was something she was going to have to tell them.

  Arden turned, hopefully she had time to clean up and make herself presentable. It was sad and scary what she looked like in the review mirror. Hell, even the freakin' dog at the station took one sniff of her and backed away.

  She crawled into the back seat, her windows were all tinted so no wandering person could just see in, and the SUV was big enough she shouldn’t have to worry about someone looking in unless it was the Swamp Creature. She laughed to herself, of course, she would think of the only movie Dagwood and her loved to watch on Friday nights when the weather sucked.

  Her bag held everything she needed to clean up. Arden pulled out the last set of clean clothes, and underwear she had packed, the wet wipes, and her extra strength deodorant. Damn, she swore as she undress and began to wash herself off, she was going to have a nice long bath with no interruptions when she finally got to a hotel. Then smelling her clothes, she added a new wardrobe, a spa day and a fucking shopping spree at Victoria's Secrets to her list. These assholes didn’t know who they were dealing with right now. If she were to be face-to-face with the bastards, she would kick them in the nuts, and give them something to cry about.

  She kicked open the side door when she was done and used her water to brush her teeth. Good lord she felt like shit. Probably from sleeping in a Hummer for six nights and seven days. Well it was over, she refused to even think about having to do this one more night.

  The sound of an engine turned her gaze to the entrance to the road she had parked on. Hopefully it was West. Arden waited and then the SUV with black tinted windows pulled to a stop about a hundred yards away from the front of her vehicle. Maybe he was trying to make sure she was comfortable enough for him to approach but this didn’t feel right.

  Arden eased back into her Hummer and then locked all the doors and slowly crawled back over to the driver seat, thank goodness her car was as big as it was. The SUV was lower and she shimmied so whoever it was would not know she was moving to the driver seat. Once there she paused, what the hell was she doing? Arden knew she was feeling paranoid.

  Peeking over the dash she saw there was still no movement in the front of the SUV, after squinting her eyes she realized she didn’t even see the driver that she had seen moments ago when he pulled up. Where the fuck was he? She cussed to herself in her head.

  Slowly she pushed herself up a little more so she could see the area around the Hummer. He had to be thinking she was nuts at this point, certainly there was that possibility since she was wondering that herself a few minutes ago when she had been bathing with wet wipes, but there was her being dirty from hiding in her Hummer for seven days, and then there was down right gross if she hadn’t washed up. Where is he? she wondered and looked out the back window, and still didn’t see him.

  As she turned around, thankfully the morning sun was at the right angle, she saw the flash of metal and ducked quickly before she heard the first shot. Fuck, he was shooting at her? Why in the hell would he do that? She called him for help, not to kill her. She covered her head and waited while she heard the rapid shots breaking her front windshield. Fucker.

  She finally focused, he had a gun, well so did she. Moving quickly, Arden opened her dash, and grinned. Dag took her to buy her first gun, she remembered her hesitation. However, he started her off small, a lady's gun, he called it, but it fit her fine. Dag took her to the shooting range and made sure she knew how to use it. Surprisingly enough, Arden found she enjoyed the release shooting a weapon into a silhouette of a man on the target more than she would have thought.

  When her brother died, he left her a Beretta, one she knew she could handle. Over the last few years, Arden had become quite the shot, with many different styles of guns. The guys at the range like to challenge her to a competition and of course, she would never pa
ss over beating a guy who thought he was all that. These assholes had no idea who they were dealing with. How dare they shoot out the window of her baby. Did they know how much those cost to replace?

  There was a pause in the firing, she could hear two men shouting at one another in another language. What the fuck? Had she pissed off a country now?

  Excerpt from Fire and Ice

  Taming Team TEN Book Four

  by Jana Leigh

  “Where in the fuck are we?” Jessie said, grabbing the GPS and shaking it.

  “Call the hospital again,” Drake said helpfully, hoping to distract his friend enough so he wouldn’t damage anything important in the truck.

  "I did and they won’t tell me a damn thing,” Jessie said.

  “Four more miles until you reach your destination,” the woman’s voice said and Jessie relaxed a little. They had been on the road all night and he had plenty of time to think. That and Mark kept annoying him with updates. Apparently you could go from place to place quickly when you were dead. According to him, she was in her final stages of dilation and there was a stranger helping her. That didn’t sit well with Jessie, but he held his tongue, he was the asshole who got her into this mess, and he would be the one to get her out. During the drive, he promised all sorts of things to whoever was listening as long as Brin was safe, and the baby was fine. One of the most important was to marry Brin and give their child a name.

  He knew firsthand what it was like to be fatherless, and his child would not grow up without him. His mother had done a great job raising him and Jessie would never say anything different. However, growing up without a father was hard. Jessie always felt like he had to help take care of his mother. Watching her work her fingers to the bone just to put food on their table was hard. His worthless father, who showed up only when he needed money, was Jessie’s idea of what not to do when you father a child.

  He saw the small medical center ahead and gripped the ‘Oh shit’ handle as Drake whipped into the drive and braked fast, kicking up gravel. His child was going to know his father loved and cared about them.

  Jessie jumped from the car and his only intent was getting to the birthing suite that held Brin. Mark and his other friends appeared at the end of a hallway and they were all pointing and smiling. As he ran down the hall he heard the guard from the front chasing him, as well as a nurse yelling at him to stop. He was not going to, not until he saw Brin.

  “Sir,” the nurse yelled as he rounded the corner and kept running.

  A man stepped out of the doorway at the end of the hall. The only thing he registered was that he was wearing hip waders and was frowning at him.

  “BRIN?!” he yelled loudly and desperately.

  Another man stepped out into the hallway and frowned. “Hey?” the guy said and Jessie skidded to a halt.

  “Do either of you know where the birth center is?” Jessie asked, in most hospitals it was a locked ward.

  “Right here,” one of the men said.

  “Jessie?" the other man said and Jessie snapped to attention when the second man had stepped into the hallway. He was tall, and had sandy brown, shaggy hair. He had green eyes and when he looked in them, he recognized a boy from his past. Wait…Grant was here? Why was Grant in nowhereville?

  “Grant?” Jessie said and looked at his childhood best friend in shock. But the other man had other ideas as did the nurse who finally caught up with him, and the security guard who was yelling in his radio.

  “Why are you looking for Brin?” the other man demanded and Jessie’s attention snapped to him. He was big, and a little more than threatening but Jessie was desperate.

  “Because I am,” Jessie growled and the man looked at the people behind him. “Wanda, Roy, I got this,” the man said as he heard a grown from the room to his left.

  “Jessie?” He heard a woman say. BRIN! Jessie took a step toward the doorway. He heard Drake make a noise but didn’t turn.

  “Now hold on there a minute, big guy. Brin is one of ours now. What do you want with her?” the man said and Jessie frowned.

  One of whose?

  He turned slowly and saw the man was bowing his shoulders and standing even taller than the mountain of a man did already. Jessie stood his full height as well and then scowled at him. Most men would have backed off when they saw the look on Jessie’s face. The guy must have a death wish—he laughed at Jessie.

  “Why don’t you scoot along, I will have the Sheriff come and talk to you when Brin is available,” the man said.

  “Who the fuck do you…” Was as far as he made it when the man reached into his large wading pants and pulled out a pistol.

  Excerpt from Healing Hearts

  Taming Team TEN Valentine’s Day Special

  by Jana Leigh

  Cynthia Plater drove to the road that would lead her to Healing, Wyoming. She was finally going home. After four years of college, she finished with her degree in finance, taken a few months off to travel. It was New Year's Day, the first day of the rest of her life. Finance wasn’t the normal degree someone in Wyoming would need, but there were a lot of ranches in Healing, and she was opening an accounting office in the town.

  Ever since her sister, Brin, offered to let her live with her when she graduated high school, Cyn had dreamed of this day. She loved the town of Healing. Brin and her husbands had come to her graduation, when her sister saw the bruise on her hip from where her father had kicked her, Brin had offered to take her away.

  Mark, her brother, had never known how bad it was in that house after he left. If he had, Cyn was sure he would have come and rescued her. Nevertheless, Mark had been killed on a mission, Brin had been in college, and Cyn was left alone in the cold and unfeeling household they had grown up in.

  The abuse hadn’t started until Cyn had been twelve. Her father had been pissed when he found letters she had written to her brother. He ranted and raved about Mark leaving them in disgrace and forbid her from contacting him again. Cyn just did it in secret, but when her father found the letters—that had been the first time. She still remembered having to stay home from school to heal. That was the only time he hit her in the face. After that, he had been more careful to make sure the bruises were able to be hidden.

  If she had stepped out of line, or disagreed with him at all, Cyn had been disciplined. Terrified to tell anyone, Cyn just made sure she didn’t get in his way most of the time. Apparently, it had gotten easier for him to find things to take out on her. Because no matter what she did, she had gotten hit. But that all ended the day Brin, Jessie, and Grant had come to visit. Her father wouldn’t speak to her sister because he said she was an embarrassment for marrying two men.

  Cyn hadn’t cared; she liked both men on site, and loved her nephew, Marcus. However, because of her parents’ refusal to meet with Brin, Cyn had to see her in secret, just like she had when Mark had been alive. Her father had been pissed when he found out.

  Cynthia never knew what happened when Jessie and Grant had gone to the house she grew up in to get her things. But when they came back, she saw the bruises on their knuckles when they handed her the bags she requested. They never spoke of the incident again. For that she was grateful, Cyn moved to Healing, and entered college in Laramie, Wyoming. She loved the small town, and knew she would make a home there when she graduated.

  Mark had left her money in his will. That paid for college and she still had a chunk to buy the small little spread across from her sister. Cyn got excited when she thought about it. The house was small by farming standards, but perfect for her. It was a two story Victorian with a wraparound porch. It had twenty acres of land, and a nice looking barn where she planned to keep a few horses. The best part was the small building the previous owners had intended on making a mother-in-law house. She was opening her accounting business in there. It was perfect. There were only four rooms, the living area, which she was going to turn into a waiting area, and one large bedroom, which would be her office. A bathroom, and a kitchene
tte, which she could use for keeping drinks and stuff. Plus, if she hired a secretary, they could use it as a break room.

  Cyn had it all planned out. Now she just had to get into town, and put an offer down. Closing wouldn’t be a problem because it was empty and Brin knew the owners. She grinned in the mirror and wanted to jump for joy when she saw the small town sign. She was finally home.

  JK Publishing, Inc.