Her Rough Mountain Outlaw

by Madison Faye

  I’d give it all to make sure they were safe.

  I pulled away from her slowly, taking a breath. It was go time. I yanked my boxers back on, checked the shotgun, steadied myself, and sprang into action. I jumped out, leveling the shotgun at the lights and pulling the trigger before any of those wannabe cowboys could react. The blast boomed out of the garage, shattering the spotlight in a shower of sparks and broken glass before I dove back down covering her with my body.

  Bullets slammed into the workbench, my bike, the wall, the windows, sending glass and splinters cascading across my back as Jackie screamed into my chest.

  “Mommy!!” There was the sound of screaming from the cabin, and my heart turned to ice.

  Brooke. Kennedy.

  Fuck it. It was now or never. I could have this standoff here, safe behind my workbench at least for a little while - either until I ran out of bullets or until they got smart enough to surround me. But Jackie’s daughter and her sister were the wild cards. I couldn’t chance that.

  So act it was. And just like before, I didn’t think. I just fucking moved.

  I vaulted the workbench, a roar on my lips and the gun raised as I charged. I got one shot off, knocking one of them off his feet sending him slamming back into the door of his car. I barreled into the second one, knocking him down and sending the butt of the gun crashing across his jaw, before suddenly, they were on me.

  I roared as they piled on, fists crashing into me and boots digging into my sides as the guns were ripped from my hands.

  “Run, Jackie!” I roared, reaching out and grabbing one of them by the neck, hard. “Fucking r-”

  “EVERYONE FREEZE!”

  And suddenly, the whole fucking place lit the fuck up, and a shitload more guys suddenly came running out of the woods. I roared, tensing and ready to take every single one of them, if only to buy Jackie time to get her family out of there. But then, something else happened altogether.

  The new guys were suddenly yanking the “cops” off of me and throwing them to the ground, leveling guns at them and whipping out handcuffs. I didn’t know what the fuck was happening, but I was ready for whatever it was. I lurched to my feet, snarling as more and more of them streamed out of the woods and out of black SUVs suddenly pulling up outside my cabin. Until suddenly, my eyes landed on the lettering on their jackets.

  FBI.

  What the fuck?

  “Mr. Rivers.”

  I whirled, and when my eyes locked on him, my jaw dropped. Standing there, a gun in his hand and a hard look in his yes, was the older man Jackie and I had bumped into at the site of her car crash.

  “You-” I frowned. “Hang on.”

  I lurched past him, throwing my gun aside as I ran for the cabin and crashed through the front door.

  Thank God.

  The breath I’d been holding since the sound of Brooke screaming for her mom came rushing out in a whoosh. There, kneeling in the middle of my floor in her PJs was Jackie, hugging Brooke so tightly. Kennedy stood to one side wiping a tear from her eye, and when I turned, she smiled.

  “We’re good,” she smiled through her tears of happiness. “We’re just fine.”

  “Thanks to you.” I turned back to see Jackie beaming widely at me, tears trickling down her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered over Brooke’s shoulder, her eyes locked on me.

  “Mr. Rivers.”

  I let my eyes linger on Jackie and her little girl for one more second before I turned to face the mystery man again.

  “Who the fuck are you,” I growled, folding my arms over my chest and eying him. “FBI?”

  He smiled thinly. “Sort of. Not quite though. More of an independent contractor.” He holstered his gun and stuck his hand out.

  “Cormac. Cormac Alderson.”

  I took his hand hesitantly, but shook it firmly.

  “And you know me because…”

  He chuckled a gravelly laugh.

  “Only through her, Stone. And before you get all macho again, no, we’re not after her at all. It’s her piece of shit ex and his crew we’ve been watching for months. She’s been one of our potential star witnesses, and when she ran, they called me in.” He shrugged. “It’s kind of what I do.”

  “Hunt people down?” I growled.

  He smiled thinly. “Keep them safe, actually.” His hard eyes locked on mine. “I think we can probably see eye to eye on that count.”

  “You know my name though.”

  He shrugged. “Darrel wasn’t the only one with a tracer on her car. When it crashed, I poked around and found out she was holed up with you. I figured out who you were based off of some of the guys I spotted at that garage.”

  He arched a brow.

  “Lost Devils, huh?”

  “No idea what you’re talking about,” I growled, my voice edged in warning.

  Cormac just smiled thinly. “Tough crew. They used to be on our radar.”

  “They’re all dead.”

  Cormac held my gaze, and slowly, he nodded. “That’s what the file says.” He shrugged. “Guess it’s correct.”

  He arched a brow at me, and I nodded grimly. “Thank you.”

  “I’m not here to bust your chops, Stone. I knew who you were and knew she’d be safe with you. But when we figured out Darrel knew where you were, we acted.”

  “How the fuck did he find us?”

  Cormac’s brow furrowed. “He’s a piece of shit, but he’s still a cop. Near as we can tell, he fingered your van and four other cars at that checkpoint as potential leads. Had you tagged with a tracker while you were chatting with him. Later, when someone called in spotting the little girl at the motel, he put two and two together and traced you back here.”

  “Where is she!?”

  I glanced past Cormac to see Darrel, struggling against the two FBI agents holding him and straining at his handcuffs.

  “Where’s that fucking whore!?”

  My jaw clenched, my muscles coiling in rage. His eyes darted around, until they landed on me and narrowed.

  “You fucking hillbilly,” he spat. “You fuckin’ her? Huh? You fucking that slut?”

  Slowly, I turned to Cormac.

  “Do me a favor?”

  Cormac raised a brow.

  “Take his cuffs off for one sec.”

  “Why.”

  “Cause I’m not hitting a guy in handcuffs.”

  Cormac chuckled, grinning before he turned to the two agents. “I got this one.”

  They nodded, letting Cormac step forward and grab Darrel by the cuffs before they headed back to the rest of the crowd. Cormac yanked a key out, and with a click, Darrel’s arms swung free.

  “Have at it, boss,” Cormac growled.

  I was on the fucker before the words were even out of his mouth. Darrel screamed as I barreled into him, crashing to the ground on top of him and letting the full swing of my fist crack across his jaw. He groaned, blood pouring from his lip as I hauled back and hit him again, and again, before I finally held myself back. Somehow.

  “Look at me,” I hissed.

  Darrel groaned, spitting blood. “Fuck y-”

  I hit him again. anger thundering through me - the thought of this piece of garage hitting her and having threatened Brooke making me see fucking red.

  “I don’t care what they put you away for, or where you go, or how long you’re there. If you ever come near Jackie or Brooke again, I will bury you.”

  “Fuck you,” Darrel spat. I turned to Cormac, who just shrugged and turned away.

  …I think I was starting to really like this guy.

  Darrel shrieked as the blade of my knife glinted in the flashing lights of the FBI cars, and when I brought it against his neck, he whimpered pitifully.

  “Tell me I’m joking,” I said quietly.

  Darrel’s face paled, and he suddenly nodded eagerly. “Okay, okay, chill.”

  “You never deserved a girl like that,” I hissed, pressing the point of my knife against his skin. “And y
ou never deserved a family like them. And now, you’ve lost them both. Try me on that. I’m begging you to. Try me and see how fast I put you in the fucking ground.”

  Darrel didn’t say anything, but he nodded again, his face still white.

  Slowly, I got up and stepped away. Cormac turned, grinning at Darrel lying on the ground before he whistled and beckoned to FBI guys over.

  “Get this piece of shit out of here.”

  I watched Darrel get dragged away, and suddenly, arms were circling around me from behind. Tiny arms. I turned, beaming as I scooped Brooke up. Her arms flew around my neck, catching me off guard as she hugged me tight.

  “Thanks for keeping the sharks away,” she whispered.

  “Any time, kiddo,” I said quietly, holding her tight. “Any time.”

  I looked up to see Jackie coming towards me, and when she slipped into my arms too, damn if my whole damn universe didn’t just align right for the first time ever.

  Cormac cleared his throat, and I looked up to see him handing me a card.

  “Here, I’ll be in touch if we need anything.”

  Jackie frowned. “So you’re FBI too?”

  Cormac smiled thinly. “Not exactly.”

  He looked around, nodding up at the tall pine trees surrounding my cabin.

  “Blackthorn Mountain, huh?” He shrugged. “I might have to come back here.” He turned and nodded at me. “Thanks for your help.”

  We watched him storm back over to the main scene where they were hauling Darrel and his crew away. I pulled Jackie and Brooke close, and I could feel my heart beating faster and stronger than anything I’d ever felt before.

  Years before, I’d almost died. I’d seen the light, and I’d somehow pulled myself back from it to live another day. But I’d only been half living here since. I’d still had one foot out the door, so to speak, just waiting for that other shoe to drop.

  But then I pulled Jackie out of that wreck, and something inside of me changed. Then I met Brooke, and, shit, everything changed. And for the first time since even before the night I almost checked out, I truly felt like I was living.

  …And that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Live - with Jackie. With Brooke. With a family to call my own.

  A family to protect.

  A family to guard with my life.

  A family to love with all of my heart.

  “I love you.”

  Her words whispered into my ear, and I blinked away from my thoughts to look down into Jackie’s eyes.

  “I love you too, angel.”

  She bit her lip. “Hey, uh, how are the schools around here?”

  “From what I hear? Great, actually.”

  “Good,” she breathed, her eyes locked on mine. “Hey, Brooke, honey?”

  “Yeah?”

  “How’d you like to live on a mountain?”

  “Can we?!” Brooke squealed.

  I grinned, my heart hammering out of my chest as I slowly nodded.

  “Hel-" I caught myself. “Heck yes,” I growled.

  “Look, we can talk about it later if you want to-”

  “I don’t need to think about it later,” I growled quietly, setting Brooke down. My arms slid around Jackie, and when I pulled her close, she grinned up into my face, her hands landing on my chest.

  “I don’t need to think about it, I just need you to stay.”

  “Mom,” Brooke hissed, beaming up at the both of us, her eyes darting between her mom and I. “Can we?”

  “Yes.”

  Jackie and I said it at the same damn time, and as Brooke cheered, I pulled Jackie into me, pressed my lips to hers, and kissed her fiercely.

  Mine to hold. Mine to protect.

  Mine to hang on to with everything I have.

  For always.

  Epilogue

  Jackie

  Stay we did, and it was the single best decision I’ve ever made in my life.

  We did move in with Stone into his cabin at first, but it didn’t take more than a week or so before we knew we had to get something bigger. Well, Brooke was more than happy to keep sleeping the loft, but after a week of sneaking off to have quiet sex in the garage or outside, we knew one thing: if this was going to work, he and I needed our own damn room.

  As luck would have it, we found a perfect spot. Our friend Ryker had a half-converted barn on his property, and when he found out we were looking to move out of the cabin and closer to town, he offered it right up. The top part had already been renovated into an apartment, where, funny enough his now wife Addison had lived when she was working as the nanny to his little girl Kyrie.

  …Scandalous, I know. But if you met them and saw how in love they were, it’d seem a lot less tawdry, I promise.

  It took some time, but slowly, with Ryker and Axe’s help, we started to renovate the rest of the barn into a home. The other guys from the little mountain community came to help out too. There was Vlad, the Russian guy. Braun was married to Addison’s cousin, Katrina. And then there was Austin and Dallas, the two twin brothers who were apparently both with Stella - a thought that made me blush almost as much as it tickled my curiosity how that whole thing worked.

  Eventually, our home was ready. Ready and amazing. We’d managed to keep a lot of the old wood of the barn, which gave the new house this gorgeous old farm and woodsy feel, which we both loved. Plus, Ryker’s daughter Kyrie was basically the same age at Brooke, and with them living right across the backyard from us, both girls were in heaven to finally have a playmate so close.

  And a home isn’t the only thing we built on Blackthorn. It took some time to convince ourselves we weren’t completely crazy, but eventually, we pulled the trigger on The Pines - Blackthorn Mountain’s first real restaurant and bar. Austin and Dallas actually knew of this ridiculously talented chef they’d known when they were still living in the city, and the guy was apparently looking for a change of pace.

  And, well, if Blackthorn is nothing else, “a change of pace” it’s got down.

  Oh, yeah, and Brooke and I weren’t the only ones who stayed on Blackthorn. I was in the middle of trying to figure out how the hell I was going to pitch the idea of her staying to my sister when decided out of the blue to just go ahead and stay anyways, before I could even say a thing!

  Turns out, she was pretty miserable at the clinic she worked at anyways. She did some hunting around, and even with Blackthorn Mountain having a fair amount of folks with livestock in the area, there isn’t a veterinary clinic closer than a three-hour drive away. Well, my sister being the headstrong type she is, she went out and got a business loan, rented a space, and soon enough Blackthorn had a vet as well as a bar and restaurant.

  …I could tell you about the tattoo parlor we got too, or how the two resident tattooist helped Kennedy get her clinic open, but then, well, that’s a story that might be more fun coming from my sister.

  I guess I could also tell you about how that night wasn’t the last we saw of Cormac either, but again, that’s a story for another story.

  Darrel and his goons went away for life after they hit them with RICO level racketeering charges. And not a single tear was shed. Stone was the man I’d always been meant to find, and honestly, the father Brooke was always meant to have. And I don’t give a shit about biology or whatever, for all intents and purposes, Stone was Brooke’s father, she was his daughter, and we were the family we’d all always been looking for.

  We had our new lives together.

  We had the whole future open.

  And we had love.

  And really, that’s all you need.

  The End.

  Also by Madison Faye

  Blackthorn Mountain Men:

  Claiming His Mountain Bride

  His Captive Mountain Virgin

  Her Mountain Baby Daddies

  His Big Mountain Axe

  His Hard Mountain Wood

  Her Rough Mountain Outlaw

  Sugar County Boys:

  Bucking Bronco


  Long Hard Truckers

  Rough Rider

  Royally Screwed:

  King Sized

  Royal Brat

  Daddy Duke

  Prick Charming

  Filthy Ever After

  Once Upon A Scandal (Oct. 2018)

  Her Daddies:

  Double Daddies

  Triple Daddies

  Bad Medicine Series:

  Doctor Babymaker

  Doctor O-Maker

  “Dirty Bad Things” Series:

  Hard Core

  Pretty Dirty

  Rough Stuff

  “Innocence Claimed” Series:

  His Little Bad Girl

  Tempting Daddy’s Boss

  Paying The Debt

  “The Triple Crown Club” Series:

  Royally Shared

  Royally Claimed

  Royally Tempted

  “Possessing Beauty” Series:

  Beasting Beauty

  Stealing Beauty

  Sharing Beauty

  Hunting Beauty

  Possessing Beauty

  “Forbidden” Series:

  Flirting With The Law

  Breaking Her Innocence

  “Three Times” Series:

  Bossed Three Times

  Taken Three Times

  Paid For Three Times

  “Twice” Series:

  Twice Driven

  Twice Bossed

  Twice Tackled

  “First Time” Series:

  Legal

  Professor

  Freshman

  Standalones:

  Trick And Treat

  Sugar & Spice

  Five Card Studs

  Dear Stepbrother, I Want You

  About the Author

  #1 bestselling contemporary romance author Madison Faye is the dirty alter ego of the very wholesome, very normal suburban housewife behind the stories. While she might be a wife, mom, and PTA organizer on the outside, there’s nothing but hot, streamy, and raunchy fantasies brewing right beneath the surface!