When they were teenagers, Quinn MacGregor and Aaron Larsen fell in love over the course of one magical summer. It ended in bloodshed and tragedy. Now, ten years later, Quinn is back in Spruce Creek, Nevada, to inherit his family’s criminal cartel. His cousin Jimmy has been making friends -- and enemies -- in dangerous places, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy to hand over leadership to Quinn. And Jimmy might not be the only one who wants Quinn out of the way for good, especially if Quinn’s secret comes out. Aaron Larsen is back in Spruce Creek to sell his former family home. Aaron lost a leg in Afghanistan, and he’s drinking too much and battling depression and PTSD. The last thing he needs is for Quinn MacGregor to drop back into his miserable life. But when Quinn is shaken by the news that he left more behind in Spruce Creek than his bad memories, he turns to Aaron like it’s old times, and Aaron doesn’t know how to say no. The events of ten years ago cast a long shadow, and in a town where they can’t trust anyone else, Quinn and Aaron just might have to learn to trust each other again.

A Desperate Man

Quinn swallowed hard and ignored the way Jimmy put the battered tin on the coffee table, took out a mirror, and expertly tapped a pile of coke on top of it from a baggie.


“There’s a word out that Burned Skulls are looking for a business partner around these parts.”


Jimmy chuckled low and dark. Then he chopped up the coke with a razorblade he’d gotten out of the tin and divided it into three neat lines.


He grabbed a rolled up bill from the box and held it to Quinn. “You want a line?”


And this was it. The moment where Quinn could snort the coke, get his cousin’s trust, and maybe, just maybe make a difference in the future decisions of the MacGregor family. If he just threw away his sobriety and…he wanted to. He really fucking wanted to. He couldn’t take his eyes off the bill.


It took everything he had to lift his gaze from it to look at Jimmy.


“Come on, cuz. You really gonna do me like that? You know I just got out of rehab.”


Chapter 31