Prologue
Savannah scowled down at the deflating tire.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
She knew she should have paid attention to that light on the dashboard. But she’d been too busy enjoying her new-found sense of freedom to pay attention to some pesky warning light.
She certainly regretted that decision now.
One more thing added to her growing list of fuckups.
Savannah let out a sigh and looked up and down the empty dirt road. She’d driven along this lane for twenty minutes already and hadn’t encountered another vehicle, so it was unlikely a car was going to drive by now.
“This has all the makings of a horror movie,” she muttered. “Flat tire, chubby city girl, and a deserted road. Jesus, Savannah, think of the mileage momma will get out of that.”
Kidnapped, raped, and murdered? Her mother could milk that for years.
Not nice, Savannah.
She wiped her forehead and stared down at her car forlornly. It had to be ninety-five degrees out here. Even dressed in cut-off, denim shorts and a sleeveless top she was already sweaty and uncomfortable.
Reaching into the too-hot car, she grabbed her cell phone. Would roadside assistance come to this region of never-never land? They had to, right? Because Lord knew, she didn’t have any idea what she was doing.
Ladies don’t get their hands dirty, Savannah. Leave it to a man. It makes them feel important.
Another life lesson from momma dearest.
She snorted. “Well, Momma, soon as I’m settled down somewhere new, the first thing I’m going to do is learn how to change a damn tire.”
Oh, and then maybe she’d take a photo of her dirty hands and send it to her mother. Who was she kidding? She’d never be brave enough to do that.
But thinking about it sure was fun.
“Are you kidding me?” She stared at her phone in disbelief. “No service? Is that even possible?”
That was going to be a problem.
***
Logan Ferguson slowed down his truck as he came to a corner in the road.
“It’ll be good to get home,” Max said tiredly.
Logan grunted.
“Hard to believe we have a home. Something we own. All that hard work paid off.”
They’d saved for years for the deposit on a small spread. Taken on some risky jobs to build up a nest egg. And even though they owed the bank more money that he was comfortable with, it was still theirs.
“Wish Gary was here. I’d love to show him what we’ve achieved.”
Logan smiled. “Yep.”
“Old bastard is probably spinning in his grave,” Max said with satisfaction.
“One can hope.” Anything that caused that asshole grief in the afterlife was okay by Logan.
“We can make a success of this, Logan. It’s what we always wanted. It’s going to be a hard few years; we’ll have to work our butts off. But then we’ll have the loans paid off, and it’ll be all ours.”
Nothing would get in the way of their plans.
“And then we can move on to phase two.”
Logan frowned slightly.
“You having second thoughts about that?” Max asked. As twins, they’d always been more in tune with each other than normal siblings were.
Max was the outgoing one. The one who made friends easily. He always had a plan. He made things happen.
Logan was the support crew. He preferred the company of animals to people. Okay, that sounded a bit weird, but other than Max and a couple of close friends, Logan didn’t care for people.
In his experience, most just brought trouble with them.
“You don’t want a woman?”
Phase one was to build up their ranch, to make it a success.
Phase two was to find a woman to share. A wife, babies, happily ever after.
Well, that was Max’s plan. Logan wasn’t so sure.
“Not that. It’s just . . .”
“What? You’re worried she won’t want both of us?”