It's 1895 when Luke Straily returns to Gunnison, Colorado, after a twelve-year absence and reluctantly heads to the cattle ranch owned by Jack Hinch, the only man he’s ever loved. Looking to make amends for an intolerable act, Luke hires on at the ranch, but Jack makes it perfectly clear he's unable to forgive or forget just yet.<br><br>It'll take everything in Luke's power to set things right with the man he wronged and placed in jeopardy before he ran away, but he aims to earn back Jack's trust no matter the personal cost.  Complicating matters, though, is ranch foreman Tim Dutcher, who’s been enjoying a sexual relationship with the handsome rancher during the intervening years and thoroughly resents Luke's intrusion.<br><br>As Luke and Jack gradually rebuild their severed friendship and renew their former passion,  jealousy flares, leading to a volatile confrontation. Can the men settle matters without any shots being fired?

A River of Time

When I turn, I find his pistol pointed at me.


“The hell I will. What are you about?”


“You damn well know. You come in here like you belong, which you don’t. Jack Hinch is myman. I’m the one who sucks his dick. I’m the one he feeds on and looks to for all manly needs. You are nobody here. Jack is mine and he damn well knows it, so you’d best clear out. You tell him you quit and you leave Gunnison, because I’ll tell you here and now, if you don’t go alive, you’ll go out dead.”


Dutcher rides closer, gun still on me. His eyes are narrowed, jaw set. When I offer no reply to his threat, he cocks back the hammer of his pistol. This is where a fellow becomes truly dangerous.


Chapter 19