by Jane Jamison
Men for Hire 3
Cowboy Rough
Sienna North takes the money her boss stole from his clients and gets out of town fast. But when he catches up to her, demanding she return the money—money she no longer has—in exchange for her daughter, she has no one to turn to except the Cowboys for Hire.
Joe, West, and Collin Young come to Sienna’s rescue after she admits that she’s stolen a duffle bag full of money from her boss. Once they get a taste of riding her the cowboy rough way, they know they’ve got to take this little filly home with them. Problem is, first they have to save not only her, but her child from a man hell-bent on getting revenge.
Sienna’s ready to love, but will it cost her the life of her child? Or will the men she’s put all her trust in come through with the rescue she so badly needs?
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among the men.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 44,600 words
COWBOY ROUGH
Men for Hire 3
Jane Jamison
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
COWBOY ROUGH
Copyright © 2013 by Jane Jamison
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-107-4
First E-book Publication: June 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
Dear Readers,
I’ve always been a sucker for sexy, daring men who come to the rescue. Thank you for making my new Men for Hire series a hit.
Enjoy!
Jane Jamison
COWBOY ROUGH
Men for Hire 3
JANE JAMISON
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Sienna North studied the quaint bed-and-breakfast house situated on the outside of the small town of Destiny, Oklahoma. She’d taken a risk by accepting the recommendation from Jimmy, the bartender at the club in Tulsa, but so far, it appeared that he’d been on the up and up with her. He’d told her where to find a nice, quiet place where she could “think things out.” She’d told him that she’d needed to get away from an abusive husband, and he’d listened with a sympathetic ear. Then he’d given her directions, telling her that she would find what she was looking for in Destiny.
Although she thought she could trust Jimmy, she couldn’t take any chances. Not when she had over a hundred thousand dollars in the duffel bag resting on the other seat of her old car. Perhaps even more important was the black book that held the names of those who’d gotten swindled and lost the money. She had to be careful not only because of those two factors, but because of Shelby, her five-year-old daughter.
She punched in Melissa Standard’s number, knowing that before long, she’d have to get rid of the phone. She wasn’t sure, but she worried that her whereabouts could be tracked by her cell phone use.
“Sienna?”
She breathed a sigh of relief when her friend answered. “Yeah, it’s me. How’s my baby?”
“She’s fine. I know you told her, but I had to explain again about how you had to go out of town for business. I told her that we’re going to have a terrific time at my cousin’s home in Florida and that you’ll join us as soon as you can. She can’t stop talking about going on all the rides even though I don’t think she knows what most of them are.”
Sienna laughed even as the tears came to her eyes. Her heart ached, already missing her sweet little girl.
“You’re leaving soon, right?” The faster Melissa got Shelby out of the state, the better.
Melissa had been stunned when Sienna had given her cash to pay for their trip, but Sienna had lied, telling her that she’d been saving up for the trip of a lifetime. If an emergency business conference hadn’t come up, then she would’ve taken Shelby herself. As it was, she’d join them once the conference was over, thus not having to disappoint her daughter. Or at least that was what she had to let Melissa think.
“We’re leaving in a few days. I’d have gotten out of here sooner, but you kind of caught me by surprise.” Melissa paused and the silence grated on Sienna’s already shattered nerves. “Is there a reason why we need to leave right away?”
Yes.
But she couldn’t tell her why. “Not really. Just get going as soon as you can, okay? I don’t want to keep Shelby waiting much longer.”
“I’ll do my best, but it may take a few days to get my time off cleared with my boss.”
Had she made a mistake taking Shelby to Melissa? Yet she didn’t think Dan knew about her friend. If he did, she wasn’t the one who’d told him. “Did you get a message to Shawna and Michael?”
Her younger sister and brother were at separate colleges in Oklahoma, and as happened a lot, she’d had a difficult time reaching them. She had to make sure they didn’t pop over to her home unexpectedly or miss her if they tried to call the landline in her apartme
nt. She wasn’t even sure if she should answer if one of them called her cell phone.
Damn you, Dan. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be in this mess.
Big Dan, as he was called by most people and even by her at times, had never asked about her family, and sensing that he didn’t care, she’d never mentioned them. Now she was glad she hadn’t. She needed to tell them the same lie to explain her absence.
“I did.” Another uneasy silence followed. “Are you sure you’re not in trouble, Sienna? You’d tell me if you were, wouldn’t you?”
She wanted to tell Melissa everything, but if her friend knew, she’d call out the National Guard to protect Sienna. “Sure I would. There’s nothing going on. Other than a stupid phone that won’t stay charged. And the conference, of course. Don’t bother trying to call me unless it’s an emergency. I’ll get hold of you.”
“It all sounds suspicious to me. ’Fess up, girl. Have you found yourself a hot honey and are hanging out in some hotel for a week of sex?”
“Don’t I wish? Hell, don’t you wish?” She laughed, not surprised that Melissa would use her sex life—or rather the lack of one—as a joke. Melissa knew Sienna hadn’t dated anyone since Dan, and her friend often urged her to get back into the dating game.
“Well, of course I do. I’ve got to live vicariously through someone.”
She was pushing it by staying on the phone so long. “Hey, the boss just wagged his finger at me so I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll check in soon, okay? Give my baby a big kiss and hug for me.”
“The boss, my ass. You should’ve quit working for that creep the minute he denied being Shelby’s daddy.”
Sienna closed her eyes, then opened them, letting herself remember what she could never forget. After coming to Tulsa six years earlier, she’d gotten a job as an assistant with Big Dan the Accountant Man—so corny, but a great advertising tool—and then made the colossal blunder of getting involved with him on a romantic level. When she’d turned up pregnant a couple of months later, he’d accused Sienna of cheating. Using her vulnerability at the time to talk her into it, he had “allowed” her to keep her job if she promised to never mention the baby again. She’d spent too many years scratching out a living for herself and her siblings to turn down his offer. With the economy the way it was, she couldn’t afford to find another job, especially since it would probably pay half as much. Then, once she’d figured out that the excellent pay was contingent on keeping Big Dan’s secrets, she’d figured she was in too far to back out. Besides, her brother and sister, not to mention her baby, relied on her support too much for her to leave.
But Melissa hated Dan for it and never missed a chance to bash him. “Just give her a hug and a kiss, please.”
“Of course I will. And try to have a little fun while you’re slaving away with that bastard.”
She pressed the End button, then stared at the phone. She needed to dump it since Dan paid for it and knew how to access her account, but so far, she hadn’t gotten enough nerve to do so. Losing the phone meant losing contact with Shelby.
I’ll hang on to it a little while longer.
She forced her mind away from missing her child and back onto Miss Daisy’s B&B. The house was a simple white three-story building, but Miss Daisy—whoever that was—had made the place as cute as it could be. The weather was still warm, although the never-ending Oklahoma wind whipped leaves around in the air. Sienna could tell that the gardens surrounding the exterior of the home sported flowers in the spring. A colorful fall wreath of oranges and greens already hung on the front door in anticipation of the coming season, while rockers draped with plaid blankets waited for visitors on the wraparound front porch.
She let her gaze skim around the house toward the gravel parking lot in the back. She could see one older blue car out back that she assumed was Miss Daisy’s. Either the place didn’t have any current customers or they were all out doing whatever one could find to do in a town the size of Destiny.
They’re probably at a county fair or picking apples or whatever small-town people like to do.
She’d never understand the attraction of the country. Aside from bugs, dirt, and wild animals, what else was there?
Moving from Los Angeles to Tulsa had taken her as close to the land as she’d ever wanted to go. But she hadn’t had much of a choice. She’d wanted to get her then twelve-year-old brother, Michael, and her fourteen-year-old sister, Shawna, out of the big city, not to mention away from their drunken mother. Sienna had done most of the raising of her siblings as she’d tried to juggle work and her accounting courses at the local community college. In the end it had been too much. She hadn’t bothered to ask her mother’s permission before taking her siblings with her. Her mother wouldn’t have missed them anyway. At least not until she needed money for booze and couldn’t find them to sponge off of.
Maybe I should keep on going. At least that way I could lead Dan away from my family.
She turned the ignition and heard nothing.
Not now. Please not now.
But the fact that her old car didn’t start wasn’t a complete surprise. In fact, she’d expected it to have given up its last turnover long ago. She should take it as a blessing that she’d gotten as far as she had. But at least that made the decision to stay or to leave easier.
Besides, even as she’d turned the ignition key, she’d known she couldn’t go. Leaving Tulsa, her siblings and her child behind, especially without saying good-bye, had been difficult enough. Yet although they counted on her for support, she could no longer stand by and watch Big Dan rip off his clients. And involving the authorities wouldn’t have worked. She’d turned a blind eye to his underhanded methods for far too long and felt partially responsible for what had happened.
If she could give most of the money back, wouldn’t it be okay to take some of it to tide her over until she could get settled somewhere else? Preferably somewhere outside Dan’s reach. She figured part of the money was his, and since he’d never paid any child support, she was due a portion of it. Plus, he’d said he’d invested a small part of her paycheck every month, so some of it had to be hers as well.
Still, she had to admit that she should’ve given her plan more thought. But when she’d accidentally found the combination to his safe that he didn’t know she knew about, she’d taken it as a sign that it was her chance to give Big Dan a payback he’d never forget. Even then, she hadn’t expected to open the safe and find stacks of cash inside.
Didn’t the man believe in banks? Or offshore accounts?
But she hadn’t thought things out. Instead, she’d grabbed the money and run. Now here she was in a small town, ready to hide out until she could figure out what to do next.
Jimmy, I hope you told me right. If not, I don’t know what I’m going to do.
She opened the car door as she slung her purse over her shoulder, walked around to the passenger side, then grabbed the duffel bag out of the seat. She’d hauled ass out of the office and then to Melissa’s to hand over Shelby and a large envelope filled with cash. The only clothes she had were the ones on her back and a cheap set of pj’s she’d hurriedly purchased at a small store on the highway. She hadn’t dared to stop and get anything from her place. She knew Dan well enough to know that he wouldn’t hesitate to come after her once he figured out where she’d gone. If she had any say in it, he’d never find her.
She pulled herself straight and strode toward the front door. Once she had only a few feet to go, the door swung open, stopping her in her tracks.
“Hiya, honey!”
She’d expected the stereotypical small-town grandmother wearing a flowery dress and sporting graying hair that was lacquered so much with hairspray that it wouldn’t move if a tornado hit her. Instead, a red-haired Asian lady greeted her with a smile that could’ve outshone the sun. She was perky and trim in her black skinny jeans and bright pink T-shirt emblazoned with the fierce face of a tiger. Her hair stood out from her head in a
wild splay of red curls and her feet were bare. Sienna guessed she was younger than her own twenty-five years.
Wait a sec. Did she just call me honey?
Sienna plastered on a smile. “Hi. Am I at the right place? This is Miss Daisy’s B&B, right?”
“It sure is.” The girl motioned for her to come on. “Come on inside before the wind picks you up and whisks you away.”
The wind would never “whisk” her away. Not with her hundred-and-fifty-pound chunky frame. But she appreciated the girl’s welcome. “Thanks.”
She eased past her and walked into a home that was the epitome of a bed-and-breakfast. A cozy living room was off to the right and boasted a large fireplace that had a roaring fire going strong. Country-style quilts and pillows accented the two large couches, and along with an oversized armchair, a rocking chair, similar to the ones on the front porch, offered a warm place to sit next to the edge of the fireplace. A grandfather clock clicked over, announcing the five o’clock time. Oak stairs were in front of her, leading up to the second and third floors, while the large dining table and eight chairs welcomed visitors to take their meals in the room to her left.
“This is really nice. May I speak to the owner, Miss Daisy? Or do you check visitors in for her?”
The girl’s laughter was immediate and contagious, making Sienna return her smile. “You’re talking to her, honey.”
“You’re Miss Daisy?”
“Yep, that’s me. Daisy Winters. Here, let me help you.”