She tries to distance herself from the game by getting a degree and trying to do something positive with her life. When the system takes her older brother prisoner and death’s knock takes her daddy and her other brother away from her, those beliefs are more evident than ever. Never knowing her mother, since she died during her delivery of Fawn, Fawn feels all alone in this world aside from having her best friend, Amiko. Still reeling from the loss of her father, she is confronted by his right-hand man to learn she controls her daddy’s empire. Although she wants no part of the street-life, he’s able to convince her to attend a meeting that will change her life forever. Meeting Lark ‘Law’ Gutierrez makes Fawn want to reevaluate all her life choices. The only problem is that he is kingpin in the streets of Laredo. It’s like she can’t escape the streets that have taken her family, because something about Law is pulling her to him like a fish on a hook. He shares her sentiments. This meeting forces her to take some sort of control of her father’s empire, and she soon learns that the hate that took her family from her isn’t over. As she and Lark become close, she realizes that he has her back in more ways than one, and will protect her, whatever the cost of that may be. Can she withstand the grit of the street-life and hang on to what she’s built with Lark? Or will it overtake her and swallow her whole?

     PART I When Deputy Carson Wheeler goes to the One Hart Ranch to investigate a report of cattle rustling, he finds himself face to face with Melody Hart. Melody is the last of the Harts left to run the old ranching operation. She’s fierce and hardworking and Carson finds himself fascinated in spite of how prickly she seems with him. But they’re going to have to work together to unravel the case of the animal rights activists looking to shut down what they see as an abomination against cattle and the ranching tradition itself. PART II One of Deputy Lilliana Martinez’s favorite stops every morning is at the food truck parked not far from the sheriff’s office. There are Burrito Trucks everywhere in the valley. But lately, there have been several very strange robberies. When Lilli witnesses a robbery, she takes a personal interest in the case. Lilli thinks that it’s an inside job and she even has her suspect. Oscar Garcia certainly looks the part. But the more Lilli gets to know Oscar, the more she realizes that he only looks like a thug on the outside. On the inside, he’s a prince among men. And in fact, it’s the one who looks like a prince that is really the devil in disguise. PART III Deputy Rico Attencio is not a big fan of art and yoga weekends. Maybe that’s why he’s not all that surprised to get a phone call from the artists’ retreat saying that they have a problem. What Rico could never predict was how attractive he finds the owner. Sara Sellers is nothing like what Rico expected. Sara is absolutely sure that someone is poisoning her guests. But it will take more than a little bit of sleuthing and good old fashioned common sense to find the culprit before someone winds up dead. PART IV Deputy Tom Mason is just as supportive of this resurgence of the homestead movement as anyone else. That is until it starts to spawn a herd of livestock and children who seem determined to wander through the streets of Dos Brazos. First chickens. Then a bull. And then eventually there are goats and children roaming just about everywhere around town and getting in the way of normal things like traffic. When Florence Fiskars from the Department of Social Services asks Deputy Tom for a hand, he is sure that the state is just going to make a mess of things. It does not take long for them to discover they’ve stumbled onto a little more than the average negligence case. Tom always heard about the “orphan train” in history class as a boy. He just never thought he’d discover that someone was attempting to use orphan labor in the here and now. PART V There have been a lot of changes in the valley, but when someone starts putting pressure on Clarissa Maestas to sell her family’s farm, she digs in her heels and says no. Then a string of strange things begins to happen within the Maestas family’s Farm to Table operation. That’s when Clarissa calls in the help of her oldest school friend, now sheriff of the Dos Brazos Valley. What Wyatt and Clarissa dig up has them realizing that someone has huge plans for the valley that leaves no room for any of the locals. It’s up to Clarissa and Wyatt to put aside their childhood quarrels and put a stop to the Hollywood invasion before it’s too late.

    But when she comes out she finds that her whole world has changed. Her best friend, Meesha, who was supposed to pick her up from prison is murdered. Her trifilin', wellfare stealin' evil mother won't give allow her to take her son back. And her baby daddy has gone M.I.A. What type of man abandon's a woman who took a bid for him? To make matters worse, Heaven has nowhere to go nor a single dime to her name. All Heaven wants to do is get Blake back and start a nail salon but the streets has different plans. Eventually Heaven is taken in by CoCo, a friend that she met in prison. When Heaven meets CoCo's oldest brother Sin, her life takes a turn for the best. Sin is the Trap God of ATL. They eventually fall for each other but his love and lifestyle comes at a cost. Now Heaven has to decided whether she wants to take that risk again. Will Heaven get her life on track so that she can get custody of her son? Find out in this action-packed hood romance!

    Her desire to give the children the same love she once received as an orphan shines through her work as a teacher. In an instant though, her life turns upside down when a seemingly simple school trip turns into a harrowing ordeal on Christmas Day. The moment one of the children disappears, she is forced to rely on the sheriff for help as her desperate search begins...If only she knew this encounter would also make her heart flutter for the first time…Virgil Cooper is excited about the prospect of retiring from his role as sheriff, eager to put a life of violence and hardship behind him. Even though love has never been on the cards for him, he doesn’t want to be alone any longer. Yet when the mayor asks him to go on one last mission in search of a lost child, he finds it impossible to refuse. Little does he know he is about to cross paths with the most beautiful and kind woman he has ever known...When the chance comes, will Coop be brave enough to follow his heart and voice his feelings?A perfect Christmas seems to be falling apart, but Delia and Coop are determined to untangle the mystery together. The puzzle pieces will slowly start to fall into place, revealing the truth about the child and maybe even about themselves. Will they be able to find the missing boy? At the end of the day, could they also find true love along the way?"The Teacher Who Saved Christmas" is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    That was until Keylon committed the ultimate betrayal and Jalisa finally decided she’d had enough. She swore off trying to be with someone until she met Smoke. Smoke was probably the most gorgeous man she had laid eyes on. After experiencing heartbreak, Jalisa wasn’t sure moving on with Smoke was smart, until she realized she was connected with Smoke long before she laid eyes on him. Cortez ‘Smoke’ Campbell is hood royalty. After experiencing tragedy at a young age, Smoke did what he had to do to take the financial burden off of his Granny. Smoke is hesitant on giving his heart out until he and Jalisa ran into each other... literally. Being crossed by the last person he ever expected, Smoke realizes Jalisa is more for him than he could have ever imagined. Or is she? Even though they both had trust issues and were skeptical at first, Smoke and Gunz decided to give love a chance. Take a ride on this love journey to see if Jalisa is really ready to move on wholeheartedly or will her past destroy the new future she wants so desperately. Some say love conquers all, but does it?

    After fifteen years of marriage, Kameron is demanding a divorce on the night of their anniversary, leaving Camille shattered and confused. Needing a relief from the pain and anger that seems to now live where her heart once lived, Camille finds herself in the bed of a handsome stranger. Despite her one night of unforgettable relief, Camille runs for the hill the next morning, making sure not to awaken the man that she only knows by the name of, DJ. Even after things between Camille and Kameron comes to an end, Kameron continues to shake her world with his lies and betrayals. Dion ‘DJ’ Roberts is a twenty-five-year-old NFL quarterback, who had made up in his mind that he is done with love and relationships. After learning the woman that he once loved, loved the money and fame more than him, DJ vowed to never be weakened by the four letter word again. To DJ, the only woman that was worth loving is his sister, until a one-night stand left him wondering… On a night out in the town, DJ and Camille finds themselves in the same club, and neither had not forgotten one detail of the night of passion they shared together. This time, DJ refused to let the lovely Camille disappear without a trace. Even though Camille is finally now divorced, her life is still far from drama free. Will DJ be able to put the broken pieces of Camille’s heart back together, or will his own trust issues alone with obstacles in the form of people make them both walk away, sticking to their vows to never love again?

    Her body washes away with the rain.Her killer remains a mystery.Sheriff Elven Hallie has been longing for a new case that would add some excitement to his small-town life.But a dead girl wasn’t what he expected.On the last murder case he worked, he was just a deputy with an experienced Sheriff to guide him and they were looking for an outsider.This time, he’s in charge, and the killer is part of their community.Short-staffed, and newly elected, Elven has an entire West Virginia county to police. With the help of his new deputy, Maddison Cook, Elven must navigate between Dupray’s rich and poor.It’s an uphill battle the entire way.With pressures mounting from the townspeople, county officials, and his own sense of duty, will he be able to catch the killer? Or will another body surface, pulling Elven in over his head?If you’re a fan of C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett, Craig Johnson’s Longmire, Jeff Carson’s David Wolf and Patrick Logan’s Damien Drake, then you will be sucked into this page-turning mystery with an ending that you’ll never see coming!

    

    Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Milo Books; First Edition edition (10 Jan 2002) Language: English ISBN-10: 1903854113 ISBN-13: 978-1903854112 Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 3 cm

    When the action heats up on the pitch, emotions in the dugout boil over. Grown men lose control. The normally sane turn into irrational agitators. And every decision, no matter how minor, is hotly contested. Tales From The Dugout is a fantastically entertaining collection of incidents and memories gathered from managers, players, referees, linesmen and broadcasters, which encapsulates the unique environment of the technical area and reveals how even limited exposure to it can transform people unrecognisably. And when the red mist descends, the consequences can be almost unbelievable - and frequently hilarious. With contributions from a host of those who have been at the sharp end and lived to tell the tale, Tales From The Dugout is a unique insight into life in the technical area. There are tales from Scotland manager Gordon Strachan, Craig Brown, Pat Nevin, Kenny Clark, Pat Bonner, Scott Booth, Terry Butcher, Jimmy Calderwood, Billy Dodds, Jim Duffy, Alex McLeish, Alex Smith, Willie Young and Chick Young - amongst many others. And brilliant stories about legends of the game like Tommy Burns, Walter Smith, Martin O'Neill, Ally McCoist, Jim McLean and, of course, Sir Alex Ferguson. And it explains why that small area by the side of the pitch is no place for the faint-hearted.

    His mum hides her grief by working all the hours God sends and Cosmo lives with his grandparents. They've been carefree days as Granddad buys him a horse called John and teaches him all he knows about horses. But the good times have to come to an end and although he doesn't want to admit it, Cosmo knows his Granddad is losing his mind. So on one of the rare occasions when Granddad seems to recognise him, Cosmo is bemused that he gives him a key to Blackbrick Abbey and urges him to go there. Cosmo shrugs it off, but gradually Blackbrick draws him in...Cosmo arrives there, scared and lonely, and is dropped off at the crumbling gates of a huge house. As he goes in, the gates close, and when he turns to look, they're rusty and padlocked as if they haven't been opened in years. Cosmo finds himself face to face with his grandfather as a young man, and questions begin to form in his mind: can Cosmo change the course of his family's future?

     As he rides through the gates of the hellhole called the Wyoming Territorial Prison, Jess Hazzard's only desire is to get far away from people as fast as possible. Sitting atop the old, worn-out sorrel they gave him, he has only his meager gear, his guns, and his reputation. Loathed for being half Apache, feared for his lightning-fast draw and deadly aim, and distrusted wherever he rides, he heads for the mountains to rest his soul and avoid the trouble that has dogged him his whole life. Little does he know his horse and a wounded man will soon set him on a new trail, one that will force him to question his beliefs, and survive being shot, beaten, blinded, and more as life challenges him in ways he never imagined possible. Summer of the Eagles is a story of perseverance and stamina, of a man determined to overcome his past and make his dream of a future a reality.

    Between looking after her grandmother, their farm, and working at the diner in town, she has no time to spare for thoughts of marriage. Then, one night, Summer finds a baby on her doorstep. Bewildered and overwhelmed, she’s suddenly faced with choices she never expected. When the handsome town doctor starts visiting her farm to help out though, she’s torn...Will she open her heart, or shut him out the way she has most people her entire life?Terrence Swanson moved to Texas knowing that all he wants is to help people as a doctor. He's noticed Summer for quite some time now, but respects that she isn't looking for romance. When she comes to him for help with caring for an abandoned baby, he can't turn her down. Yet the more he helps her, the deeper he falls in love with both her and the baby. Will Terrence be able to overcome Summer's walls and show her that letting others in isn't always a bad thing? When a new arrival in town threatens everything they hold dear, Summer and Terrence will be tested in ways they never imagined. Will their fragile connection withstand the most difficult of times ahead and blossom into life-changing love? Or could they end up losing everything they care about?"Guided by a Shared Miracle" is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    Nevertheless, she has little hope of finding true love, as it seems that no one truly appreciates her golden heart and boundless intelligence. Fate smiles on her though when she meets a dashing lord, whose presence will give her butterflies. Little did she know that her own sister would be jealous of her sweet romance...Will the imperfectly perfect Lady capture the charming Lord’s heart?Lord Lovell Trenowden is a man who cares deeply for his family. When their lives are falling apart along with their estate, Lovell accepts that he has no choice but to marry for money. Luckily for him, Lady Grace not only has wealth, but also the most beautiful soul from all women he has ever met. When she accepts his marriage proposal, he feels he is the luckiest man in the world. However, what Lovell hasn’t confessed to Grace, is that finding a wealthy wife was his only option...Will Lord Lovell manage to both save his family estate and marry the woman of his dreams?The more time they spend together, the more Lovell and Grace's romance blossoms into something neither was expecting. Everything crashes down though the moment Grace’s spiteful sister tells her that Lovell was on the hunt for a wife to merely secure a fortune. When Grace calls off the engagement, will Lovell manage to convince her that she is the love of his life? In the end, will Grace and Lovell follow the truth of their hearts, defying anything that comes between them?"When a Lady says I Do" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

     Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection If You Liked School, You'll Love Work.