Free Undeniable by Alison Kent

one of your sorry asses anyway.”
    “Well, we’re all here now,” Boone said, slamming the ball of his foot into the stubborn wheel, then a second time for good measure. “And we’ve got our own legal counsel not tied to Crow Hill. Faith’ll shit a brick if we have to get him involved, but we’re not floating without a life raft. So thick or thin, I’m staying. I’m ready for a place of my own, even if I have to share it with you two assholes.”
    Casper swung into his saddle, tugging back on the reins when Remedy started thinking for himself. “Tess leasing the place says to me she wanted us to have it. She’d have sold it to Henry otherwise, taken the cash and split. Dave was gone. She didn’t have any reason to stick around. It may look like she made the easy choice, but I’m not sure that’s the case. I don’t have family to keep me here, but I’m staying. For Tess.”
    That left Dax holding his third of the Dalton Gang bag. “Shit. I was hoping we could flip this bitch for a quick buck and get out of town before the mob showed up with pitchforks.”
    With Casper snorting like a pig, Boone said, “We’re gonna have to pay for our sins, Dax. No way around it.”
    Dax thought of Gavin Stokes. Of Henry Lasko. Of his father and Arwen’s old man. “Hell on earth?”
    “It’s Crow Hill. You were expecting something else?” And then Casper gave Remedy his head, the horse’s hooves stirring up a choking cloud of dust so thick and brown Dax couldn’t see Boone or the flatbed on the other side.

EIGHT
    F AMILIES . L ORD . W HAT minefields. Arwen should’ve known better than to bring up the Campbells while in the tub with Dax. With his history? What had she been thinking? Especially with the beginning of their affair so full of promise, Dax open to more than what she gathered he was used to from the women in his bed.
    Their sex play had been arousing, the warm water around them relaxing. His taking her against the kitchen door had left her sex drunk and stumbling, but having him naked and hers to explore had introduced her to true intoxication.
    Then came her offhand mention of his family and the earthquake shift in Dax’s mood, like a switch thrown from make-believe to real life. And real life, when she wasn’t looking and least expected it, always got in the way.
    She’d been thinking about it since—his leaving the tub, dressing while half wet, saying good-bye but barely—and wonderingif he’d disappeared because of her big mouth or because she’d been too bold. Wondering, too, if it had been something else entirely to cause him to withdraw in the middle of everything, as if he had places to go, people to see.
    And that’s what had bothered her most of all. She’d known from their kitchen encounter that he’d treat her well and be thorough. But even wanting him only for sex, she hadn’t expected the sex to be so… impersonal. And that contradiction made her want to kick herself. She couldn’t have it both ways.
    No involvement meant just that, and expecting more couldn’t serve any good purpose. Dax Campbell was a man like any other. That’s what she had to remember. That all the hours she’d spent dreaming about him in high school would’ve been better spent acing small business accounting or finding a way to separate her father from his booze.
    A loud Hellcat roar erupted in the far corner. The whoops and hollers that followed rose to the rafters. Conversations in the great room ground to a halt, and the background music dropped behind the din. The nightly ritual was crazy wild and not for the faint of heart, but it brought back her regulars and converted first-timers to fans.
    It was also what Arwen loved best about the saloon. The uninhibited nature of her Kittens, the spontaneous explosion of energy in the room, the absolute willingness of the customers to play along, clapping their hands, stomping their feet—and for those who arrived during the bar-top routine, waiting to be