The Gunslinger's Gift
Read The Gunslinger's Gift Online
Authors: April Zyon
THE
GUNSLINGER’S GIFT
Guardians
of the Light 4
April Zyon
Erotic Romance
Secret Cravings
Publishing
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A
Secret Cravings Publishing Book
Erotic Romance
The Gunslinger’s Gift
Copyright ©
2015
April
Zyon
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63105-538-6
First E-book Publication:
March 2015
Cover design by Dawné Dominique
Edited by Tabitha Bower
Proofread by Marja Salmon
All cover art and logo copyright ©
2015 by Secret Cravings Publishing
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PUBLISHER
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Dedication
To the amazing people at Secret Cravings Publishing,
thank you for helping me bring my dream to life.
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Trouble
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take his bull to Vegas.
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wheelers for a livin'. Something not a lot of women do.
Littleton
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Victoria
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She then agrees to meet their Master, who's a
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But instead of
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THE
GUNSLINGER’S GIFT
Guardians
of the Light 4
April Zyon
Prologue
In
every generation, in every breath of humanity, there is a whisper of a sound.
There is a moment in time when the realization of what is real and what isn’t
shifts and changes for people. There are also those that watch from the
sidelines. Those that aren’t exactly on the side of darkness, but don’t
necessarily walk in the light, either.
And
then, there are those that walk to their own tune, that play their own music,
and to hell with everyone and everything else around them. There are some that
are broken, that are hurt so many times, that they feel as if getting back up
again would be too hard, but they do it all the same just so that they can
fling it back into life’s face that they did.
One of
those beings would be Sophia Anne Duffy, or, as the foster kids would call her,
Sad.
Sophia
wasn’t sad, though. She was actually a soft hearted and joyful girl. She adored
her big sister, and while she missed the mother that she had never known, she
lived life to the fullest, because to do anything less was just unheard of to
her.
She was
removed from her father’s tender loving care—if you could call getting beaten
every, single day
tender loving care
—at
the age of fourteen. Through it all, though, Sophia was content. She knew that
one day all of it would change. She knew that one day there was a man who was
going to come into her life and be everything that she hadn’t had in her
lifetime. He was going to be special because he would put her first in all
things.
Fia
lived for that time and that man.
Each
day, she listened to the whispers of nature around her. She hid in plain sight
because the very Earth protected her when she asked for it to. She loved being
a part of the world as much as she loved her sister, but it all paled to the
love she had built up inside of her for a man she had never met. A man that she
only knew through the songs on the winds, through the knowledge that lived and
breathed inside of all beings on Earth, and would live and breathe inside of
humans, too, if they actually took a moment to listen.
Sophia
listened. She listened to the stories that seemed impossible—of a goddess that
had walked the Earth so long ago, of warriors brought back to life through her
will, and of a man that had been destined for her even when he had lived his
life in the true Wild West.
She
listened to it all, and it was only that knowledge that had kept her from
breaking down, kept her positive, day in and day out. When anyone else would
have given up, when any other would have let go, she had held on and persevered
because she knew that one day
he
would need her. One day, she would save him just as he would save her.
When
that day came, however, it literally took her by storm, one she wasn’t so sure
she would survive.
It was
a day like any other. She had taken on a painting job for an older couple who
lived on Vashon Island, just a few miles off the coast, and had been enjoying
it. She had felt it though—the change coming on the winds—and had done
everything in her power to finish the painting early, so that she could start
the future that she had been waiting for so long.
Sophia
had finished and opened the windows to ensure that the paint would dry before
she walked out of the house and into the backyard. She turned her face up to
the skies and smiled. Mother Nature was all but hugging her in that moment—the
feeling of the sun, the fresh air from the ocean, the breeze, all of it was
perfect.
She
heard voices, then. She had thought at first that it was finally Billy come to
find her, but she was wrong. It wasn’t him. As quickly as she had that thought,
she ran off into the woods behind the property, hiding in a tree and pulling
the thorns and thistle in front of it, so that she was hidden and protected.
Sliding down, she slowed her breathing so that her heart would stop racing.
What
happened next had been a massive surprise. A very large man approached her
hiding spot on utterly silent feet. She had held her breath, and when he spoke,
she was shocked. He knew things that no one other than her sister had known.
With those softly spoken words, he won her trust and that of nature protecting
her. The thorn and thistle moved away, and she stepped from her hiding place.
When
she walked back with him, she was stunned when the man she had been dreaming of
her entire life walked around the side of the house. For several minutes, she
couldn’t understand what he had said, all she could think was,
Billy
. He had finally found her.
And he
didn’t have a clue what and who she was to him, that much was clear when he
looked at her in disdain. But she wouldn’t give up hope. She couldn’t, because
she knew that they were meant to be, just as it was clear that Vivian and Jason
belonged together.
Sophia
was surprised and glad when Vivian allowed the man to remain behind with her
while she and Jason went back to the mainland, because she wanted some time
alone with Billy, if only for a couple hours.
She
hadn’t known then that a couple hours would turn into the night from hell.