Stepbrother Breaks Bad: The Complete Series
Table of Contents
About
Title
Copyright Notice
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Part Two
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Part Three
Chapter Nine
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Hey Readers!
About Stephanie Brother
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CONTENTS
About
Title
Copyright Notice
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Part Two
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Part Three
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
If you liked this, you might also like...
Hey Readers!
About Stephanie Brother
Other Books
Stepbrother Breaks Bad: The Complete Collection
You know that one bad thing you shouldn’t do? For me, it’s my stepbrother…
I’ve always been good with numbers. It’s why my father relies on me to cook the books in his crooked operation here in this two-bit crooked town. But even I could never make my life add up after my stepbrother left us all behind to become a lawman…and broke my heart in the process.
When Colton Marbray left me, I was a smitten sixteen year old and he was a sexy straight-shooter on the verge of becoming a man. But now that he’s back in town, sexier and surlier than ever—and with a badge to boot—I don’t know how I can fight this forbidden temptation. The memories are too powerful; the love is too deep.
The truth is, I don’t know if Colt is back for me or if he’s just using me to put my father in jail, but either way, I know, deep down, that I’m his for the taking.
STEPBROTHER BREAKS BAD
The Complete Collection
Stephanie Brother
© 2015 Stephanie Brother
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
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Part One
Chapter One
SHELBY
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” my father drawled from behind the bar. He’d been pouring a mid-afternoon shot for the town drunk when the door jingled open, but now a strange tension rippled through the empty joint. And I looked up from the table in the back where I’d been quietly fixing the account books to explain away the mysterious stacks of cash my daddy came back with each morning.
I was good with numbers, so that was my job. It’d been my job for the past six years, since the day I had my heart broke and gave myself over to my father’s mercy. So when I looked up from the ledger, the last person I expected to see was Colton Marbray—my stepbrother—the very reason I took the job in the first place.
“A big howdy to you too, Buford,” Colton said, chewing on a toothpick, all casual good looks, scruff and attitude. Then Colton’s hazel eyes fell on me, and softened, just before he gave me a tip of his hat. “Shelby.”
Hearing Colton speak my name caused me to gasp, as if I was taking a breath again for the first time in years. And maybe I was. Because the stepbrother I’d known as a an angry sarcastic teenager was all grown into a man now, leaning in our doorway like some old-time cowboy in a saloon. And I couldn’t stop staring.
Of course, even when he was eighteen, Colton had a way of leaning into a doorway so that all six-foot-four-inches of him seemed to block off any escape. I always remembered him that way—standing in his Momma’s kitchen, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, fixing that world-weary gaze on me, murmuring that he was leaving Boone County for good.
My sixteen-year-old heart had cracked that day—cracked in half. I swear I heard it crack. Then I cried myself to sleep for every night for almost a year after, wondering how I was supposed to get on in life without the only guy I’d ever loved.
Of course, I wasn’t supposed to love Colt.
He’d told me that, too, when he walked out that door. Said it was wrong and forbidden and twisted, because he was my stepbrother and he’d never look at me as anything more than a kid sister. Until his Momma died, when I guess I was demoted from little sister to stranger.
In fact, I had to hear from a neighbor lady that Colt did a tour of duty overseas, then trained up to be some kind of lawman working halfway across the country in New Mexico. Never knew what kind of lawman. Never thought I’d see him again. Which is why you could’ve knocked me over with a feather to see him now darkening my daddy’s door.
“To what do we owe this unpleasant surprise?” my father asked, slamming down the gin bottle with a bit more force than necessary. “Business or pleasure?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t deign to call it either,” my stepbrother said, wrangling himself up to the bar and slinging one long denim-clad leg over a stool. Everything in Colt’s posture was a provocation, in spite of that deceptively sunny smile. “Let’s just say that the Quick-Shop doesn’t carry my brand of poison, and I don’t want to drive all the way to Madison to get a whiskey.”
“You living here in Shiloh township again, boy?” my father asked, hesitantly, as if he was still considering not serving him; there was bad blood between Colton and my daddy that went way back.
Time and distance clearly hadn’t thinned it out one bit.
“Just here until my next assignment,” was all Colt said.
I was so curious I nearly snapped my pencil in half. Didn’t Colt work in New Mexico? What was he doing back in West Virginia now after all these years? My father must’ve wanted to know too, because he crossed his meaty arms over his chest and said, “Thought you was destined for big city living when you turned tail and left your sainted Momma behind.”
It was a taunt, clear as day, and Colt’s fingers gripped the edge of the bar. For a moment, I thought there might be a brawl. It wouldn’t be the first time the two of them came to blows, after all. They’d never gotten along when we all lived under the same roof. Colt hadn’t cottoned to having a stepfather back then. I suppose he liked even less having an stepfather now. But maybe all that law-enforcement training paid off, because Colt reigned in his temper and smirked. “Now, why would you wanna go and do a thing like mention my mother when you were never fit to say her name much less have her take yours in holy matrimony? I’d almost think you wanted a trip down memory lane. A trip that’s likely to jog some memories of mine about your business that could land you in jail, don’t you think?”
Colton didn’t move a muscle, but I sensed the tightening in his body, as if preparing for violence. Maybe hoping for it. “The days you put a hand on me without coming away bloody are long done, Buford. And though I’ve been itching for about a decade to put you face down in the dirt, I’m in a good mood today. So I’ll just remind you that there are consequences for assaulting a federal officer…”
My father dropped his arms, clenching his fist. He wasn’t used to being challenged. Around these parts, my daddy was a big man. A dangerous man. But he didn’t get that way by being stupid, and so his fist relaxed. “If you want some whiskey you’d best drive to Madison, because I’ll be goddamned if I pour you a drop.”
With that, my father whipped the bar rag from his shoulder and threw it to the bar. But before he stalked off into the back, he added, “And listen here, son. Think twice about bragging on your credentials. If you think that just because someone was fool enough to give you a badge, you can wave it around Shiloh township to settle old scores, think again. We take care of our own. And you ain’t one of us anymore.”
“Well, that could’ve gone better,” Colton said, eyes narrowing into a bit of an expectant smile as he looked my way. I guess he thought I should serve him that whiskey he wanted.
And I never could stand leaving a thirsty man waiting. Not even Colton. Maybe especially not him. Not when his smile alone felt like the sun on my face. Still, I couldn’t let him see—much less admit to myself—the affect he still had on me, so I coolly slipped from my booth to take my father’s place. “You shouldn’t provoke my daddy like that, Colt. There’s no love lost between the two of you, and you’re lucky he didn’t reach for the shotgun we keep under the bar.”
Sitting back a little bit so that I could see he was wearing a holster—and a gun with a very shiny handle—Colton asked, “What makes you think I wasn’t hoping he’d reach for that shotgun?”
I shivered at what sounded like a cold threat. Had my long lost stepbrother actually returned from parts unknown just to get into a shootout with my father?
My back stiffened.
Which made Colton chuckle. “By god there’s a lot of tension in here. Relax, Shelby. It was a joke.”
I wasn’t so sure it was a joke, but it made me breathe easier to hear him say it was. “I don’t know what kind of reception you were expecting around here. Did you think the town was going to throw a welcome parade to celebrate the return of one of Shiloh’s favorite sons making good?”
The corner of Colton’s lips twitched up wryly. “Making good. Is that what I did? Guess you haven’t kept up with the news…”
“What news?” I asked, going up on my tiptoes to pull down a bottle from the top shelf. If he was going to drink, he was going to pay for the good stuff. In spite of his good-old-boy flannel shirt, the dark wash jeans gave me the impression he could afford it.
But when I turned back around with the bottle, I realized Colton was staring at me. And I don’t think it was because my choice in whiskey gave him pause.
I felt the heat of his gaze sweep over me like a brushfire, singing the curve of my shoulder beneath my white tank top, then dipping lower to where my jeans hugged my hips.
He exhaled, long and slow. “Damn, Shelby. You sure grew up pretty.”
I did and I knew it. I’d been a a little fleshier than fashionable at sixteen, but most of that had melted away into raw sex appeal now that I was twenty-two. With my feathery blond hair and a tight body to match, I spent most of my Friday nights tormenting men whose lust for me was only slightly less potent than their fear of my father. So I knew I was pretty. But pretty didn’t count for shit and it didn’t pay the bills. “Thanks. It’s just about the only thing I got going for me since you left.”
Colton winced. It felt good to know that I could say something to hurt him, even just a little bit. Because it wasn’t his fault that he never felt the same way about me as I did about him, but he knew what life was like for me under my father’s thumb and he’d told me that he cared. Yet he left me behind as if I wasn’t nothing but dirt beneath his shoe.
The memory made me hard. “So, what news, Colt?”
“Hmm?” he asked, tilting his head as I slid a glass to him on the bar.
“Just making small talk. We still do that kinda thing here in Shiloh. You said you guessed I hadn’t kept up with the news. I asked you what news.”
Colton gripped the glass while I poured. “Just a bust gone bad with me in the middle of it. The end result is my being reassigned to West Virginia. A temporary situation, I hope.”
“Of course you do,” I said, trying to keep the bitterness from my voice and failing miserably. Because everything about his body language told me that he felt like he’d been exiled.
He wouldn’t be back here if he hadn’t been forced and that didn’t make me feel any more charitably toward him. Except…well, except for one thing. “I’m sorry about your Momma. I always loved Darlene. I hope you know that.”
“Well, I thank you for that.” He stared down into his drink. “I was on assignment when she died. Didn’t hear about it till after the funeral.”
There were plenty of folks round here who commented on his absence at the time. Plenty more who thought maybe Darlene wouldn’t have died if her son had been around. But Colton’s mom had been a sweet, long-suffering sort who refused to go to the doctor and whose cancer snuck up on her so quickly she scarcely had a few days of lucidity to prepare. I’d cooked her meals until there came a time she couldn’t keep nothing down. And I sat by Darlene’s bedside and read to her at the end. It seemed the least that I could do, given that she’d been more of a mom to me than my own. But now, with Colton sitting across from me so miserably, I wish I’d done more. “I’m glad she left you the house, Colt. But it must be lonely without her, rattling all alone up there on that hill.”
I’ll be honest. I didn’t say it just to make small talk. Or to be kind. I didn’t see a wedding ring on Colton’s hand, but that didn’t mean he was alone. And though I told myself it shouldn’t matter to me if he brought some girl home with him, it did.
I was curious. Painfully so.
“Just me and the memories,” Colton said, and a rush of relief flooded me. Then he smiled. “Some of ‘em aren’t bad memories either.”
I smiled too. “You and Newman Pritchett had a few good times together, as I recall. You should go see him. He still thinks kindly of you even though you broke his nose.”
Colt grimaced a bit at the mention of his old high school buddy. Then he gave a shrug. “Guess I was a bit of a bruiser back in the day. I still get a chuckle remembering the time I caught Huey Tidwell trying to put his hands under your dress, and I sent him sprawling at the foot of the porch.”
I smirked, though I didn’t find that memory nearly as amusing as he did. “That was my first real date, and you ruined it for me. Glad at least one of us still gets a chuckle out of it.”
Colton chomped on the toothpick between his teeth. “Oh, c’mon Shelby. You can’t tell me you wanted that short-stack Huey slobbering all over you…”
I put a hand on my hip. “You saying you would’ve cared if I wanted it?”
Colton sobered, as if maybe he was just coming to understand how his overprotective big-brother routine had sent mixed signals. How, as a teenaged girl, I’d taken it for jealousy and encouraged it for just the same reason.
I’d loved him. I’d loved him hard. But to him, I was just a kid…
Colton cleared his throat. “Well, if I didn’t care what you wanted then, I care now. I’m sorry I ruined your date.”
Sensing that he was in earnest, I softened. “Well, I think I could steer my way clear to forgive you…�
�
“Mighty kind of you. After all, I trust that after all these years you and Huey Tidwell can patch things up if you still want to.”
“Asshole,” I said, swatting him with the bar rag.
He grinned, taking the toothpick from his mouth just long enough for another long swig from his glass. “Unless there’s another man in your life…”
Was he asking? My heart beat a little faster at the thought, but I had to squelch any hope that it was more than just catching up. Because I’d always read too much into everything Colton Marbray ever said to me when I was a teenager, and I’d be damned if I did it now.
“No other man,” I said, dismissively, giving a wave around the dive bar with its broken overhead lamp and a dart board on the wall. “As you can see, I live for my work.”
“That’s too bad,” Colton said, but he didn’t sound like he meant it. Then he leaned forward, elbows on the bar, a near-flirtatious note in his voice. “I thought for sure some lucky man would’ve snapped you up by now.”
“I guess nobody ever measured up to you.” I shouldn’t have said it, but at least I put enough sarcasm behind it to make it sound like I didn’t mean it. And once I’d started down the path of bravado, there was nothing else but to see it through. To make him as uncomfortable as he was making me. “So, are you gonna let me see it?”
“See what?”
“Your badge…unless you got some other big proud thing in your pants you’d like to show me.”
Colton’s lips parted slightly in surprise at my audaciousness. Then I swear I saw a flush creep up his unshaven cheeks. I didn’t know if it was embarrassment or sexual heat, but either way, score one for me.
He recovered with a suggestive and sultry, “Well, maybe I do and maybe I don’t. But let’s take things slow and start with the badge.”