For the Heart of the Warmaker Read online

  “You play football?” she asked Damien.

  “Yeah,” he said with a shy, lopsided smile. “I mostly sit the bench, though.”

  “Yay for bench warmers!” Karis crowed, giving him a high five.

  “Someday the coach will see his potential,” Thomas said with a frown.

  “Until then, we’re gonna work a dude ranch!” Leonora said.

  “Ha. Well, your excursion will be more fun than working a ranch.” Karis gestured to the disaster zone of a barn. “If you were signed up for dude-ranching, you would be rebuilding that this week.”

  “Oh my God,” Thomas said, eyes gone round at the barn. “What happened?”

  “A storm,” she said shortly. It wasn’t a total lie. She just didn’t mention it was a storm of damn crows and mountain lions. “Follow me, and I’ll help you load up your packs with what you need. Did you get the checklist of things to bring?”

  “Yes, but I overpacked as usual,” Leonora said.

  “Ha! I overpack for everything. And no worries, Colt will get you straightened out the second he gets in from bringing in the cattle. We’re gonna keep them near the house while y’all are out riding.”

  “Do we get to pick our horses?” Damien asked.

  “Sure do. We have a few to choose from that are good for a trail ride. Some of them are our work horses and wouldn’t be patient with a ride, so those are staying home.”

  “Like which ones?”

  “Like a stallion named Harley. I’m pretty sure he was actually one of the four horses of the apocalypse in a former life. No one can ride him but my Alph—I mean the man who owns this ranch, Trigger. But come to think of it, Trigger will probably bring him on the trail anyways, because he likes wrestling with that beast. It’s like a dominance battle constantly. He likes mean things.”

  “Trigger and Colton!” Leonora exclaimed. “We remember them. They did a trail ride with us a couple of years ago. It’s really neat to come back here after all that time and see everything. Pity about the barn, though.”

  “Nah, we’ll get it up and running again. This ranch doesn’t stay down long.” She hoped.

  She led them to Trigger’s cabin and opened the front door for them. There was a guest bedroom in here, and Trigger and Ava would be staying in the little apartment in the barn tonight to give them more room. If the business took off, it would be this way until they could afford to build an extra cabin for guests. Lined up next to the door were three large packs they would fill and strap to the horses. The boys were supposed to help the Ives family pack them but… “You all showed up early, or the boys would’ve been here to greet you.”

  “Blame that one,” Thomas said through a grin, jamming a finger at his wife. “She has to be an hour early to everything.”

  “Yeah,” Damien said. “Drives me and Dad nuts.”

  “On time is late, and early is on time!” Leonora sang, flipping through a pamphlet on Two Claws trail rides that had been sitting in a stack on the kitchen table.

  Both of the men in her life rolled their eyes.

  “What color are the horses?” Damien asked. “Are they the same as last time?”

  “Um, there is a white one named Queenie. She’s easygoing. Or a dapple gray named Remedy. She’s got more spirit and is younger, but Trigger has been working with her a lot so she’s settled down enough for this ride.”

  Caw.

  Karis jerked her attention to the window, but didn’t see anything outside. She cleared her throat and continued. “And then there is a bay named King Arthur, but he doesn’t act very kingly. He’s the joker of the group. If he was a person, he would be a frat boy with a whoopie cushion—”

  Caw.

  “I want Frat Boy,” Damien said with a laugh.

  “Ha!” Karis laughed, forcing her attention away from the window and back to the Ives family. “That should’ve been his name. I’ll talk to the boys about changing it.”

  “How long have you been working here?” Leonora asked.

  “Oh, not long. About a month.”

  “What’s that on your finger?” she asked.

  Karis lifted her left hand to give Leonora a better view of the zip tie on her ring finger. Karis’s cheeks went all hot. “Well, it doesn’t look like much, but it’s a ring.”

  Leonora held up her left hand and showed her a simple, thin band. “It’s sterling silver and didn’t cost much, but it’s the meaning that’s important. Thomas gave it to me when we didn’t have two pennies to rub together. We’re in a different spot now, but it’s still the ring of my heart. Ain’t no shame in your ring.”

  Karis ducked her gaze. “It’s new. Colt proposed just a couple of days ago. I still get all mushy when I think about it. I might always feel like that,” she admitted softly.

  “Colton?” Leonora exclaimed. “He’s your man?”

  Karis dipped her chin and couldn’t help the smile that stretched her face.

  “Oh, he’s a looker from what I remember. He had scars on his face, but his smile was easy. Blond hair, tall as a mountain, muscles where muscles shouldn’t even exist. And he was very patient with Damien.” Her voice had gone dreamy, and Karis laughed at Thomas’s face.

  “Excuse me,” he scoffed. He pulled up his scrawny arm and flexed. “I’m not exactly chopped liver.”

  Leonora giggled and said, “I can look but no touching. That’s the rule, and that’s why I don’t give you shit over having a crush on that weather woman. What’s her name?”

  “Frieda Thompson?” Karis guessed.

  “I don’t have a crush,” he muttered.

  “I do,” Damien said through a toothy grin.

  “I’ve never seen a man watch so much of the weather channel,” Leonora said. “He would watch her talk about cumulonimbus clouds over watching his football teams. I would bet my truck on it.”

  “What kind of truck?” Karis asked.

  “Silverado.”

  “Well that don’t count!” she teased. “It’s a Chevy!”

  “You are not a Ford girl!” Leonora said, feigning offense. “We are not okay.”

  Karis was laughing in earnest now. “God, you guys are fun. I wish I was going on the trail ride with you now!”

  “Why aren’t you?” Damien asked.

  “Well, one of our ranch hands left last week so we’re shorthanded around here. The boys are best at the trail rides, and me and Ava, Trigger’s fiancé, are going to take care of things around here while you all are off on your adventure and eating fire-cooked steak and potatoes.”

  “Sounds not fun,” Thomas said.

  “For real. I’m still learning chores around here, and it’s a lot of work. Plus, my stomach just growled thinking about all the food the boys have been packing up. Ava said they are really good at outdoor cooking. Even better than they are at indoor cooking. Which is good because Colt has only made me like…macaroni and cheese and canned stew and beans.”

  Leonora laughed. “Sounds about right. When we were here last time, he and Trigger were total bachelors. Sounds like not much has changed.”

  Karis made her way to the fridge, grabbed four bottled waters, and passed them out. “Oh, I don’t know. Now there is a squirrel on the ranch. And a baby reindeer named Norman.”

  Leonora squealed. “Seriously?”

  “Serious as a heart attack. The squirrel is a pill on a good day, but Norman is a sweetheart. For now. The animals on this ranch tend to turn into A-holes. But his horns are just little nubs, so he can’t stab you yet. Let’s pack up, and then we can head out there to see him. We have three hours before you are scheduled to ride out.”

  As she joked with the clients and built up a rapport while they packed the necessities into the saddle bags, Karis thought to herself that she could really enjoy doing this. This business could be good for the ranch, good for her and Ava and the boys.

  It could save this place.

  At least that’s what she was thinking until she heard it again…

&nbs
p; Caw.

  Chapter Four

  Boom!

  The sound of a rifle made Karis and the Ives family all jump in unison.

  Boom, boom!

  Aw crap, that sounded like two rifles. There was a distinctive sound when a bullet hit its mark. With a miss, it echoed, but there was a faint thunk when it hit. That was three thunks, and she would bet her boots she wouldn’t hear the cawing of the crows anymore.

  “What was that?” Leonora asked, worry tainting her tone.

  “Target practice,” Karis said. It wasn’t a total lie. She just didn’t mention the targets were asshole crow shifters. “The boys must be coming in.” She petted Norman’s fuzzy little nose one last time and shut the stall door after Leonora and Damien left.

  Thomas was sitting on a bale of hay, checking his phone. “Penguins are up by one.”

  “It’s his favorite hockey team,” Leonora whispered with an eyeroll.

  When Colton sauntered into the hole where the door used to be on the barn, he looked like a tall glass of water on a hot summer day. His long legs pressed against his threadbare jeans. He wore scraped-up work boots and a green plaid shirt that was unbuttoned, exposing a white tank top underneath. The claw mark scars on his face made him look rugged and handsome, and his eyes right now were a mix of green and gold under his lowered cowboy hat.

  “You’re staring,” Leonora whispered with a grin in her voice.

  Karis clacked her mouth closed and wondered for the hundredth time how she got so damn lucky with him.

  His eyes went right to her, and his smile was instant, but it didn’t lift the scarred side of his face, which told her one thing—something was wrong, and he was trying to hide it.

  “Colt, here are your riders.”

  “Oh yeah, I remember you,” he said, roughing up Damien’s hair and then trading a few shadow boxing punches with him. He shook Thomas’s hand and then Leonora’s, giving them easy greetings.

  “Where’s Trigger?” Karis asked.

  “Burying the crows,” he said simply. He squeezed the back of her arm, laid a kiss on her forehead and then her lips. “I missed you all day.”

  “Awww!” Leonora exclaimed. “This is like one of those Wild West romance movies.”

  “Oh geez, here she goes,” Thomas said through a smile. “Run for the hills, or she’ll drown you with her mushiness.”

  Colt snorted. “Well, this one’s made for swimming in that mushiness. I found a sex novel about a pirate in her top drawer the other day. I read a chapter and felt like I needed chocolate and pink mittens.”

  Karis shoved him in the arm. “Serves you right for snooping in my drawers! I’m gonna make you finish that book now. Get in touch with your feminine side.”

  “Hell no, I had to go drink, like, four cheap beers, belch the alphabet, and chop some wood without my shirt on after that just to recover.”

  Leonora was typing something on her phone. “Well, next time you chop wood without a shirt on, give a ho a heads up so I can video tape it and send it to this sexy cowboy site I found.”

  “Mom, don’t say ‘ho,’” Damien muttered.

  Leonora turned her phone around and showed them the glowing screen. There were shirtless men in cowboy hats, jeans, and boots, and the cowboys were throwing lassos.

  “They ain’t even doin’ it right,” Colt grumbled. “They would never catch anything with those shitty loops. Ain’t even rollin’ their wrists.”

  “Babe, I don’t think the women who look at this site care about that.”

  “Well, what do they care about?” he asked, looking scandalized. “Lassos are important.”

  “They’re probably counting abs,” Leonora said.

  “Mother ffffudge…the Stars just scored,” Thomas gritted, staring at his phone.

  “I’m offended at how objectified these men are,” Colt said, hooking his hands on his hips. Whoa, his arms looked really yummy all pressed against his flannel shirt like that.

  “Look, there are eight abs on this one.” Leonora pointed to each ab on one of the models as she counted out loud. “Thomas, you need to wear a cowboy hat!”

  “Woman, why do you think I agreed to this?” her husband muttered. “To get laid more.”

  “La, la, la, la, laaaaaa,” Damien sang, plugging his ears. But then he looked at his mom, who was waggling her eyebrows at his dad, and with a defeated sigh, he groused, “I hate my life.”

  “Damien wants to ride King Arthur,” Karis said. “But he wants to re-name him Frat Boy.”

  Colt chuckled and gestured Damien to follow him toward the stall at the back. “Let’s do a brush-up lesson on how to take care of him while we’re out there. Hey,” Colt said, walking backward, his eyes on Karis. “I like you.”

  “I love you, too,” she said, her cheeks catching fire again.

  “You’re real pretty today.”

  Slightly breathless thanks to the butterflies in her chest, she murmured, “Oh, stop it. We have guests.”

  “I don’t mind!” Leonora said.

  “Dammit, Stars are up by one now,” Thomas muttered, the screen of his phone glowing up at his face.

  “Doesn’t matter how mushy you are,” Damien said, sliding the last stall open. “You can’t be worse than my parents.”

  Colton gave Karis one pelvic thrust before he disappeared with Damien into Frat Boy’s stall.

  Without a single doubt, this would be the least professional trail ride in existence.

  But at least the crows weren’t cawing.

  Chapter Five

  Karis opened the front door and paused at the ripped-up cushions on the couch. The cabin still wasn’t recovered from what the crows had done, and every time she thought of them in her home, it made her feel violated all over again. This had been her safe place, but they’d taken that away.

  And Genie was still scared. The little wishing squirrel had spent most of the day hiding in her naughty-hole in the mattress. That sounded gross, but it wasn’t. Her naughty hole was where she hid Karis’s jewelry when she was feeling like being a little demon. God, she was glad Genie liked her now. That little critter could be vengeful when she wanted to be.

  As soon as she closed the door, something fluttered on the two-seater table and caught her attention. It was a folded piece of paper. Before she picked up the letter, she already knew what it said. Colt must’ve just read it and left it here. She wanted to see the words again and imagine what he had gone through as he skimmed Kurt’s goodbye letter.

  Dear Hairpin Trigger,

  Yep, you got the full nickname. That’s how I’ll always think of you. Ain’t nobody got a temper like you and the Warmaker. I got a heads up that the Darby Clan is coming for me. They know, man. They know me and Gunner are here. I can’t stay at your ranch anymore and put your Clan in danger like that. You paid your debt to me and more. I sure appreciate you giving me and my boy sanctuary. Don’t know what I would’ve done without that break. It’s best if I don’t tell you where we’re headed. Feels shitty though. As much as I wanted to hate you for what you done to the MC, and to the Darby Clan when I was in it, you become like a friend to me. You and Colt both. Don’t tell him that though because he’ll get all emotional and be weird about it. You have a good thing going here, Trig. Don’t do to your Clan what you done to the MC. Don’t get scared. Don’t run. Keep this one. You made something worth protecting. (Except for Harley. Sell him. He’s an asshole.)

  Kurt

  There was a new rip halfway down as though Colt had decided midway through not to tear it in half.

  The words broke her heart. She and Ava had found the letter in Kurt’s barn apartment after Colt and Trig were arrested. She’d wondered where he’d been during the war, when it was just her to defend Ava, but he’d already gone. It wasn’t his fault. How could he know the Darby Clan hadn’t been after him? How could he have known that they would come for Karis and Ava, and that he was skipping out on them? Logically, she understood why he’d gone, but her hear
t didn’t pay much attention to logic. She still felt the deep cut of betrayal that he hadn’t been there when they’d needed him.

  A part of her would never forgive him for just leaving like that.

  Whether he saw himself as such or not, he was a part of the Two Claws Clan, and he’d just left without even saying goodbye. Anytime she mentioned Kurt to Colt, sadness washed into his eyes and he’d cut off the conversation. Had Colt not lost enough? Had they all not lost enough?

  From behind, Colt slid his arms around her and rested his cheek against the side of her head. His embrace was so familiar, so comforting. He didn’t say anything for a while, just rocked her gently side-to-side until she set Kurt’s letter back on the table.

  Karis swallowed hard. “I’m mad at him. I miss him and I’m mad at him.”

  “I know.”

  “There’s a hole in our Clan now. I miss Gunner. It was nice having a cub around. I had all these plans to spoil him rotten until we have cubs of our own.”

  “I know,” he repeated.

  “It’s not fair.”

  “It ain’t, but you and I both know life don’t work in a straight line like that.”

  “Yeah, well, our lives look like a kindergartener scribbled a map on construction paper with six different crayons.”

  Colt chuckled and spun her slowly. He splayed his legs and searched her face for a few moments with a troubled gaze before he murmured, “Go pack some things.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I can’t do a trail ride with them crows around and you back here alone.”

  “I’m not alone. I have Ava, and I have Genie. I don’t know if you saw her in that battle or not, but she was a warrior.”

  “Well, right now, she’s hiding in her favorite naughty place, probably surrounded by all your hair deals, Chapstick, favorite necklaces, and all your loose change.”

  Karis scrunched up her face and glanced up at the loft. Yep, there was that. “She went after the mountain lions, no problem, but something about those crows has her traumatized.”