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

The door shut out the light, and for a moment, Leon could only hear the other man. He tried to follow Thomas’s progress through the room, but he walked lightly. When the lamp flared to life, he was surprised to find himself looking at Thomas, and Thomas gazing back.


“The sheriff will be giving me the money tomorrow morning. I do have five hundred in cash, though, if you want to take it now.”


He didn’t want to think about the money, not just yet. That was too real, too definitive, and he had enough going through his head already. “How’s Susie?” he asked instead. “Did you see her?”


“No, I didn’t. But the official story is that I shot him in self-defense, so you don’t have to worry about that following you around.”


Chapter 36