Lean Stroud is wanted for robbery and a murder he didn't commit. On the run to California with his partner-in-crime, Kenneth, he spots the relentless bounty hunter, Thomas Grady, on the train. The only way to protect Kenneth is to create a distraction, and that's what he does when he flees the train at the top of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He forces Thomas to chase him, but nothing can prepare him for what it means to be caught.<br><br>Thomas Grady always gets his man, and Leon Stroud is no exception to that rule. But almost from the moment Thomas touches Leon, he wants the outlaw for something besides his bounty. Driven by desire he doesn't understand, he repeatedly claims Leon's body on the long journey from Soda Springs to San Francisco -- and Leon only begs for more. An even bigger threat, with a larger bounty, could be the very thing they need to drive them together. Or tear them apart.

Stealing West

“It’s put me on the straight and narrow, didn’t it? I can’t go back to that, not on my own, and definitely not with my shit ankle.” He set his empty glass back on the table. “I would’ve thought you’d say that was worth it.”


“Sure, it’s worth it to get back on the straight and narrow. If that’s where you want to be, or where you intend to stay. But something pushed you off the straight and narrow once before.”


“Plenty of people live their life without turning to hurting innocent people,” Thomas said mildly. “But what’s going to stop you from veering off the straight and narrow again?”


Thomas regarded him for several beats, his face impassive. “Because if you keep up the way you’ve been, you’re going to meet a lawman who can shoot straight, or a bounty hunter who needs that five hundred enough to chase you down, or a sharpshooter who doesn’t take kindly to being robbed.”


Chapter 31