A Town Without Pity Book 1
A riches to rags cowboy. A hardened cowgirl. The gunshot that erases all doubt.
Laura Warner knows nothing but horses. Her entire life has been lived on a ranch. It’s her love, her dream, and aside from the love of her life, Quentin, it’s the only thing that she ever thinks about. But when tragedy strikes at Kelsey Ranch, Laura is left to care for the horses and the land with the help of her siblings. Years later, Laura feels content with life, but when a gunshot blasts only days after she has to make a difficult decision, Laura learns that everything happens for a reason…and it doesn’t always lead to more hardship … sometimes it leads to happiness. But can she convince herself that this is possible?
Grayson Thomas is an out of work lowlife, who just happens to have world class siblings that drag him out of his rut days after he loses everything, or gives everything up, depending on one’s perspective. When he makes the decision to flee from El Paso and move to Huttonville, just outside of Dallas, his brothers give him their thumbs up. Grayson has no idea that he’s about to step into the world that he does, and when a gunshot blasts on his second day in Huttonville, he’s left wondering if he should make tire tracks back to El Paso, or stay in Huttonville. When Laura’s face becomes a staple in Grayson’s life, what was once a demon craving becomes a distant memory. What he once worked hard for and lost soon becomes something that he may have again. Things that once brought him to the edges of demise, become obliterated and exist only in random nightmares.
Grayson’s tough exterior is softened through Laura’s honest and thoughtful words, and Laura sees life in a new light, and learns to laugh and have fun again with someone that isn’t family. But is this enough? Can two people who have been through so much, lost everything and worked hard to gain it back, learn to trust enough to let their guard down and see life and love for what it is? Short answer, yes. They both do. But just when they do, someone who has been watching from afar swoops in and threatens to take everything. Can they survive yet another tragedy … and more important, will they have to?
Excerpt:
Laura
They all stare at the floor with their Stetsons laying in their laps, as I chide them, one-by-one. The rickety, wooden chairs are lined up, a foot apart, like a set of dominoes, and none of the men dares to move.
“It belonged to my mother.” I continue, using a curt tone I don’t often use with my ranch hands. “It’s very special to me, and, like my mother, it is irreplaceable.”
Simon, the only one with a Fedora, speaks. “Ma’am, I apologize. I found it laying on the floor beside the beds.” He explains tritely. The ranch hands have shared living space. Only the Lead hand, Louie, has his own quarters, and I know that he didn’t take my beloved mother’s brooch. He just returned from family leave this morning.
“Then how did it get there?” I quiz him. But he just shakes his head, looking at the floor.
“I suggest that whoever did it confess. Otherwise, all of you are fired.” I say firmly. “I cannot have thieves living under my roof.”
My Lead hand, Louie, rises. He’s been with me since the beginning. Since Quentin died. Since Reggae, my youngest colt, was born. Since my family all moved on, and I was the only one falling apart. Since Huttonville, my hometown, started thriving, seemingly leaving me behind. “It was me, Laura.” He admits, holding his head down, ashamed. Louie started addressing me by my first name a year ago, after he saved my prized mare from drowning in the brook. She had escaped the pasture following a thunderstorm responsible for taking down the fence that kept her safely in our keeping.
“Donald told me he could give me a tidy sum for it. It was in jest, of course, but with Myrtle’s medical bills piling up, I figured it was worth taking a chance.” Donald runs the town pawn shop. He’s also Louie’s brother-in-law.
Utterly shocked, I feel my jaw clench. “You’re all dismissed. Get back to work.” I seethe, as I address my ranch hands, but look only at Louie. Louie is stock still. His eyes are on the floor. With a quick murmur, “Yes, ma’am,” out of all of them, they scurry out of the feed barn like a stampede of elephants is chasing them.
“Sit down.” I say to Louie. He does as he’s instructed.
“Yes, ma’am.” He says, as the chair whines with his girth. Louie is short and stout, and he’s the only one of my hands who lives close by. He never uses his living quarters, but I keep it vacant. With six children and a wife suffering from a laundry list of ailments, the man is spread so thin, it’s clear that his head isn’t on straight.
Pulling a chair out, I sit opposite him. My voice softens like I’m talking to a friend. “Why didn’t you tell me that you needed money.” I ask, leveling with him.
His face is ruddy with sweat and dirt from hard work. He has large, brown eyes, and he keeps his thick hair in a buzz cut. There is a small indentation circling his crown where his Fedora sits on his head. “Because my money problems are my business, I suppose. I was never raised to ask or tell anything regarding finances.”
That’s fair. “Louie, now that you’ve tried to steal from me, you’ve made it my business. Do you understand that?”
His eyes focus on the floor again. “I suppose so.” He agrees. I sigh. “I can’t…trust you anymore.”
“Yes, ma’am. I understand that.”
“Pick up your things. Be out by lunchtime.” I say, feeling a lump form in my throat.
Louie rises. His hat is on his chest in a gesture of good manners. “If it’s worth anything, Laura, I really am sorry. I know how much that brooch meant to you.”
“If you’d told me you were having financial troubles, Louie, I would have helped you.” Grudgingly, everyone in this town knows that Kelsey Ranch is the richest ranch in Huttonville. My parents were very well off, and now that they’re both gone, my brothers and I inherited a tidy sum, and I own the ranch that my father, Grant Kelsey, inherited that his father, Art Kelsey, built from scratch.
“I figured it was the lesser of two evils.” He states. “I was taking a chance, of course, of getting caught. But if I had that brooch, I would have had the money to pay for Myrtle’s surgery, and I wouldn’t have to beg Stan down at the bank for a loan.” His voice darkens. “Stan would have loved to see me grovel again, just like I had to do when Tommy had his appendix out.”
With his litter of children, one would think that he would be smart enough to purchase health insurance. Being the richest ranch, I pay my hands very well, even though there are no group benefits here. But Louie, although very hard working, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
“Well, now you’re out of a job, Louie.”
“I know it.” He admits. And with that, he walks towards the door, placing his Fedora back on his head. “Can we...um… keep this between us?”
“If I’m called for a reference, Louie, I’m not going to lie.” I say, my voice has returned to all business.
“Yes, ma’am.”