Shelter: A Heroes Of Big Sky Novel Read online

  Shelter

  A Heroes Of Big Sky Novel

  Kristen Proby

  Ampersand Publishing, Inc.

  Contents

  Title page

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Newsletter Sign Up

  Also by Kristen Proby:

  Shelter

  A Heroes of Big Sky Novel

  By

  Kristen Proby

  SHELTER

  A Big Sky Novel - Heroes of Big Sky

  Kristen Proby

  Copyright © 2021 by Kristen Proby

  All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect are appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

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  Cover Design: By Hang Le

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  Cover Image by Wander Aguiar Photography

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  Published by Ampersand Publishing, Inc.

  * * *

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63350-107-2

  This is for Seth.

  For the little boy who tugged at my heartstrings all those years ago.

  And for the man he’s become.

  Prologue

  ~Seth~

  “If the kid wasn’t in the car, I’d give you the best blowjob of your life right now,” my mom says to her boyfriend and then scowls at me as I sit in the back seat. We’ve driven all the way from Texas to Montana in this horrible car with the smell of his cigarettes, and they don’t stop when I tell them I have to go to the bathroom.

  “He’ll be gone soon,” he says and grabs her boob.

  My stomach feels queasy. I don’t like it when she lets men touch her like that in front of me.

  At least, it’s not as bad as what she lets them do to me. As long as they get to touch her, they leave me alone.

  I hope she leaves me and never comes back.

  The road to the ranch is bumpy, and I have to pee so bad, I’m afraid I’ll go in my pants. But I don’t say anything because we’re almost there, and then I won’t have to be with my mom anymore.

  I hope. I hope that Gram and Gramps let me stay. What if they don’t?

  My stomach is even queasier when I think about that, so I just push it away. They were always nice to me before. They let me help with the animals and gave me all the food I could eat. And, sometimes, Grandma even made pie for dessert.

  “Thank God, we’re here.” Mom opens her car door. “Get out of the car, Seth.”

  I climb out and eye my grandparents warily. They’re both standing on the porch. Uncle Josh is here, too, but he doesn’t look happy.

  Will they send me away?

  Mom tosses my bag onto the ground next to me. I don’t have much in there. She didn’t let me take very much because she said they didn’t have room in the car.

  “What’s this about?” Uncle Josh asks.

  “Seth’s your problem now,” Mom replies. Her voice is hard. It’s been that way for a long, long time.

  I don’t look up at any of them. I just stare at the ground and make circles in the gravel with my shoes.

  What if they don’t want me?

  “Seth isn’t a problem,” Grandma says and rushes down the porch steps, pulling me against her. I instinctively stiffen.

  No one ever touches me in a nice way. It’s usually just to push me aside or give me a whoopin’.

  “He is for me,” Mom says. She and Uncle Josh talk about how she doesn’t want me anymore because she has Cole now, and she doesn’t like being a mom.

  She’s not good at it, anyway.

  But then she starts talking about my dad, and I want to yell at her to shut her mouth. To stop talking about him.

  All he ever does is leave. He doesn’t even want to talk to me when he calls.

  I hate him.

  But I don’t say anything. I just stand with Grandma and hope with all my might that I get to stay here with the animals, where it’s safe. Where I can eat until my belly is full, and no one will put their hands on me if I don’t want them to.

  I don’t even care when Mom starts screaming, throwing a fit in front of Uncle Josh and the others.

  She does this all the time.

  “Seth is always welcome here,” Uncle Josh says, and for the first time since I can remember, I take a deep breath.

  They’re going to let me stay!

  He walks over to my mom and stands over her. He’s big. Really tall. And I can tell by the way her eyes get wide that she’s scared of him.

  Good. I want her to be scared. Like she made me feel for so long.

  “But you are not. Seth will stay with us until Zack is back in the States in a few months. You are never to come back here.” He gets even closer to her. “If you ever show your face here again, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing, and I will ruin your pathetic life.”

  Mom sputters, steps back, and then gets her mad face back on again.

  “Why would I ever come back here? There’s nothing here I want.” She doesn’t even look at me before getting back into the car. They zoom away, headed for the highway.

  “Oh, honey,” Grandma whispers and kisses my head.

  I just shrug and pull away.

  I don’t like being touched.

  “Can I stay here, Uncle Josh?” I ask, just to make sure. Magic, my favorite horse, makes a noise, and I let my gaze flick her way.

  “Of course, buddy. You always have a place here.”

  I want to smile. I want to jump and dance with relief. But I’m just so tired. And sore. And hungry.

  So, I only nod and look down at the ground until they tell me what to do.

  “Come on, Seth,” my grandfather says. “Grandpa will show you to your room. You can have your dad’s old room.”

  Anger boils up in my throat, and I shake my head, my hands balling into fists. “I don’t want anything of his. I’d rather sleep in the barn.”

  “Okay, the spare room it is, then.”

  “Come on, honey, let’s get you settled, and I’ll fix you some lunch,” Grandma says with a smile. She wraps her arm around me, and I don’t pull away. It’s kind of nice. And she’s going to make me something to eat! My stomach growls. “We’ve missed you so much. There are some fish out in the creek that need to be caught, you know.”

  Fishing is what I like the best. Well, next to the horses. When I was here a few years ago, Uncle Josh and Dad took me fishing every day. Maybe we’ll go again.

  Maybe today.

  Grandma takes me upstairs to my new bedroom. It has a nightlight so I won’t be in the dark all the time.

  I don’t like the dark.

  “Would you like a sandwich?” Grandma asks.

  “Sure.” I shrug and secretly hope I can have chips, too. I don’t want to ask for them, though. Whenever I ask, Mom
takes everything away.

  “Let’s go down to the kitchen, and you can hang out with me while I make lunch. We have potato salad and chips if you want them. And I even made a chocolate cake yesterday, if you want some dessert.”

  My mouth waters at the thought of all that food.

  I love it here.

  I hope I can stay forever.

  Chapter 1

  ~Seth~

  “Got one!” I smile in triumph and show the trout off to my uncle and dad, who are just about twenty yards away.

  We’re at the creek behind the house on the King ranch, enjoying a rare, late-summer day off with a little fishing.

  It’ll be good as long as they’re biting.

  “That’s a tiny one,” Uncle Josh says with a smirk, and I scowl down at the wiggling fish in my hand.

  “It’s not that tiny.” Still, I unhook it and drop it back into the water. “Have you heard from the fish and wildlife people about the wolf problem?”

  “They’ll be here tomorrow morning,” Josh says with a grim sigh. “This happens about every five years or so, and we end up losing a lot of calves. It pisses me off.”

  “I hope they can get it figured out. I’ll help if I can,” I offer.

  I have a degree in wildlife biology, and I’ve been working with Glacier National Park for the last several years. I have experience. And, frankly, I have a personal stake in this.

  This is King land. And I’m a King.

  I plan to be here for the rest of my life.

  “If you have time to meet them with us,” Dad says as he casts his line, “that would be great.”

  “I’ll make time.”

  This ranch and the family on it are everything to me. They saved me from the pits of hell and showed me what it is to belong somewhere. To be loved.

  To feel safe.

  And I’ll be here for the rest of my life, taking care of our home and proving to them all that I’m worthy of it.

  “How is Melinda?” Uncle Josh asks with a grin.

  “Ah, well.” I shrug and pull in my line, frowning when I see that the worm is gone, but there’s no fish in its place. Reaching for fresh bait, I answer. “She started talking about babies.”

  Dad’s head whips around to mine. “You’ve dated for what? Three months?”

  “Two.” I cast the line. “So, I had to end that one. She said I needed to figure out what I want in a relationship.”

  “Jesus, after two months?” Josh demands and then shakes his head.

  “Well, to be fair, you knew within two months that you loved Aunt Cara.”

  “I knew the minute I laid eyes on her.” Josh winks at me. “But it doesn’t always happen like that.”

  “Yeah, Melinda was a little clingy. And it didn’t exactly break my heart when I broke it off, so it clearly wasn’t meant to be.”

  “You’re young,” Dad says with a shrug.

  “What do you say we drink beer and watch football tonight?” Josh asks.

  “Can’t. I’m going out with Gage to shoot some pool.”

  “How’s Gage?”

  “I think he’s doing well. He’s been busy. Haven’t talked to him much lately, but I’ll catch up with him later. Cara’s making spaghetti for dinner, and I’m sticking around for it.”

  Josh’s phone rings.

  “Speak of the devil,” he mutters and answers the phone. “Hey, Carolina. What?”

  He frowns and then hides a laugh behind his hand.

  “I understand. Well, I’d like to keep my balls, so we’ll be right there. We’re coming. Yes, we’ll hurry.”

  He hangs up and then lets the laugh go.

  “What’s up?” Dad asks.

  “She found a mouse.” We all reel in our lines and make our way up the small hill, walking through the woods toward the house. “It’s the second one this week.”

  “Wonder where they’re coming in from,” I mumble.

  “I was supposed to look around, but I forgot,” Josh says. “You can bet your ass that I won’t forget now. She’s losing her damn mind.”

  “Jillian would burn the place to the ground,” Dad says, referring to the woman who raised me.

  “Cara threatened it.”

  We climb the back steps and walk into the newly renovated house, stopping short at the scene before us.

  My aunt Cara, a woman who is always calm and collected, is sitting on the dining room table, holding a shotgun.

  Her blue eyes look a little crazy.

  “Uh, babe?” Josh steps forward and gingerly takes the firearm from her. “You can’t shoot a mouse with a shotgun.”

  “Says who?” she demands. “You didn’t see the size of the son of a bitch. It was bigger than a tomcat.”

  Given that we have several toms out in the barn, she would know.

  Of course, there are no mice in the barn—because we have the cats.

  “Where did it go?” I ask.

  “Under the couch,” she says and shudders. “It laughed at me.”

  I smirk but school my features immediately when she narrows her eyes at me.

  Pissing off the other woman who raised me is not something I ever want to do.

  “We’ll find it,” I promise her. “Get a bowl from the kitchen.”

  “You’re not putting that monster in one of my bowls,” she says, shaking her head. “That’s disgusting. We eat out of those bowls.”

  “Don’t you have an old one that we can throw away after we relocate the mouse?”

  “Relocate?” She tilts her head and stares at me like I’m crazy. “That sucker doesn’t get to relocate. I want it dead. I want its whole family dead.”

  “She’s really homicidal,” I mutter to my uncle.

  “Babe, why don’t you go over to the big house and hang out with Jillian while we take care of this?”

  “I’m not getting off this table.”

  Josh just smiles gently at his wife and lifts her into his arms, grabbing her purse as he carries her out the front door.

  “They’re still really mushy, even after all this time.”

  “Are you saying I’m not mushy with your mom?” Dad asks.

  “No, you are. It’s gross.”

  Dad laughs, and then we see the offending rodent run across the living room.

  “Shit, that is a big sucker,” I say in surprise. “I need something to pick it up with.”

  Josh hurries back inside and turns to my dad. “Okay, she’s headed over to your place. Holy shit, is that it?”

  “Yeah. It’s a monster. She’s right. I need something to hold it in. What about Tupperware?”

  “We have something,” Josh says and rummages through the kitchen, returning with an old to-go container that clearly held spaghetti sauce at some point given the red stain.

  “Perfect. Okay, we have to corner it.”

  The three of us work as a team, laughing as the mouse darts around the room. Finally, I jump onto my belly and stretch to cover it with the container.

  “Success!” I grin as I slide the lid under it and secure it in place. “I need to go let it go before it suffocates.”

  “Don’t tell Cara that we let it live,” Dad suggests.

  “Oh, I won’t. Trust me. Now, let’s figure out how they’re making their way inside.”

  I walk out to the field behind the house, close to the woods that lead to the river, and let it go.

  “Now, don’t come back. Be smart. Stay out here.”

  When I return to the house, Josh is pulling a piece of duct tape off the roll.

  “Find it?” I ask.

  “Yep. Looks like there’s a hole under the sink that didn’t get repaired correctly during the remodel. We’ll keep them out with this for now, and I’ll call the contractor to come back and do this correctly.”

  “I’m sure Aunt Cara will be relieved that you solved the case.” I check the time. “I’m going to go get some work done before dinner.”

  My little house is new and sits on two acres
, less than half a mile from the house I grew up in. Josh and Dad gave me the land as a gift for my twenty-fifth birthday a couple of years ago, and I got to work building my place.

  It’s a farmhouse-style ranch house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It has plenty of room, especially given I don’t plan on it being more than just me living here.

  I’m not going to have kids. After the early childhood I had, I shudder to think what kind of parent I’d make.

  Hell, I don’t even plan to get married.

  This house is perfect for a life-long bachelor.

  I kick off my fishing boots, strip out of my sweaty T-shirt, and make a beeline for the shower.

  “Out of practice,” Gage says with a laugh when I miss the pocket.

  “I don’t exactly have time to work on my pool game,” I remind him as I reach for my beer and watch him circle the table. “How’s it going with your client? Is Tate starting to feel better?”

  Gage frowns and then nods slowly. “It’s a damn slow process. I’ve been working with her for a while now, but she’s standing.”

  “By herself?”

  Tate Donovan, Aunt Cara’s cousin, had a massive stroke last year. At just over thirty, it was a complete shock to everyone. The stroke was severe enough that it put her in a wheelchair, and she’s had to go through many months of different therapies.

  Gage is back from the Army and took the job of helping Tate regain the use of her legs and find her balance.

  “By herself,” he confirms. “But I found out she’s been doing too much on her own and fell the other day. Damn stubborn woman.”