Three For The Win

Three For The Win

Contemporary Romance

(A Biker Boyz Novella)

By

Keta Diablo

Copyright © 2016 by Keta Diablo

Copyright © Cover Art The Book Khaleesi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission of the author except where permitted by law.

Published by Keta Diablo

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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About Three For The Win

Contemporary Romance

(A Biker Boyz Novella)

Eli Trace and Hollis Rowan have been best friends in the small town of Barrows since childhood. Their lives are changed forever when Stede Marrow rides in on his big, shiny motorcycle. After Stede saves Eli from drowning in the creek, he meets Hollis.

One look is all it takes for Stede and Hollis to fall in love. Now Eli realizes he just crushed his own dreams of happiness. Stede asks himself why he didn't just keep riding that road to nowhere and Hollis wonders how one can love two men?

Stede's on the run from the law. Telling his new best friends the truth will put their lives in jeopardy and that's the last thing he wants. Danger has come to the town of Barrows and it twists and turns like a viper.

Not everyone makes it out alive.

Note: This is not a ménage

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Chapter One

Hollis peered across the reception desk at Mane Squeeze Salon and glanced between the two most handsome faces in Barrows—possibly in the entire state of Wyoming.

Best friends Stede Marrow and Elias Trace couldn't have been more opposite in looks or personality, yet the bond between them ran deeper than the water in Fremont Lake near Glendale.

Chin resting in his hands, Eli leaned forward. "Hey, beautiful girl, what time do you get off work?"

"Same time as yesterday, the day before and the day before that. Why, what's up?"

"Roundup Days, or have you forgotten?"

"Not likely I'd forget with all the traffic stampeding out of town."

Stede ran his hands through the black tangle of hair at his forehead. "We're headed there soon. Think Erline would let you off early?"

"Did I hear my name mentioned?"

Hollis didn't have to turn around to know her boss had materialized behind her. Erline would be beaming ear-to-ear and fluffing her bright auburn hair. The woman adored men, particularly young, virile men.

Eli's eyebrows flew upward and he laid on the charm. "Well, if it isn't the woman of my dreams."

"Oh, bah, Eli Trace." She blushed and then showered him with a winning smile. "I might be old but there's nothing wrong with my hearing. You and that wild stallion beside you are here to drag Hollis into another cesspit of trouble."

Stede snorted and Eli placed a hand over his heart. "On Ma's grave, Erline, I swear trouble is the last thing on my mind tonight."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard that before, and don't go using Jessamine's name, bless her dear soul, to advance your agenda." She flicked her thumb toward Stede. "Trouble follows that one like flies on cow dung."

Eli clapped a hand to his friend's shoulder. "Ah, come on, that's not fair. He's as mild as a pussycat underneath all that bluster, isn't that true, Stede?"

Stede crossed his heart. "Pussycat, that's me, Erline."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Did you just launch into Pig Latin, cuz somehow pussycat and Stede Marrow don't jive, don't even dwell in the same universe?"

Eyes the color of charred wood, with a fringe of thick, dark lashes every woman would die for, narrowed before they looked into Erline's. "They tossed Flea into a dumpster, Erline, after they stripped him naked. What did you think I'd do after finding him like that?"

"Take it to Sheriff Freeman, and don’t play into Ned and Jasper Mabry's hands. No good white trash," she added under her breath. "Flea's been a hobo for years and can watch out for himself. I'm sure that wasn't the first time he ran into the likes of the Mabrys."

"You're right. But damn, at the time—"

"Look, I understand, truly I do. But you dang near put Ned in the hospital, and you broke Jasper's nose when you caught up with them. You're walking a thin line with the law now, Stede, probation and the whole ball of wax."

'Those thugs had it coming," Eli snarled. "You know they did, Erline."

"Maybe so, and, I admit, it did my heart good to hear they got their comeuppance but I have to think of Hollis. I promised Cynthia before she passed, I'd watch out for her. Bad enough I was on my knees at her grave the other day telling her Hollis is living in sin."

Hollis came to her feet. "Will ya'll stop talking about me as if I'm not here? Pussycats, white trash and trouble with the law…don't I have anything to say about whether or not I want to go to Roundup Days or anywhere else for that matter? I'm a grown woman now, Erline, nineteen years old, or haven't you noticed?"

Eli flashed a cheeky grin. "I noticed."

Stede's beautiful face swam in Hollis' line of vision. "Do you want to go with us or not?"

"Yes," she said, aware her knees had turned to jelly, like they always did when Stede looked at her.

She still marveled over it, how this man had burrowed so deep into her heart in two short years. No one, including her, knew where he came from. He didn't talk about his past and not one resident of Barrows would be foolish enough to ask. The gossips that frequented the salon had a field day over Stede Marrow's history. Some said he hailed from a long line of mobsters in Chicago and was on the run from the law; others said he once belonged to a dangerous motorcycle gang and went into hiding to stay alive. Hollis thought it less dramatic than either of those scenarios, but figured he'd tell her one day when he was ready. In the meantime, she'd savor every minute in his arms, relish the wild, crazy feelings he summoned from her, feelings she'd never felt with another and would no doubt ever feel again if he walked out of her life.

Erline's gentle touch at the side of her head jolted her back to the conversation. "'Course I noticed you're a woman grown, Hollis Ivy Rowan. I just want to make sure you're safe."

Stede's somber tone settled over them. "She's safe with me."

Erline stopped fussing over Hollis and pivoted to face him again. "I'm taking your word for that, Stede, and holding you to it." She waved a dismissive hand in the air. "Ah, go ahead, run along and have a good time."

Hollis delivered a kiss to Erline's cheek. "Thanks, I'll make up the hours next week."

Before she pulled away, Erline whispered in her ear, "Things go south with these two misfits, you get the hell out of Hades."

"I will, promise," she whispered back.

Eli held the door while Stede and Hollis passed through. And then he slid into the driver's seat of his Ram 1500.

The engine roared to life and Eli pulled from the curb. Barrows' Main Street ran for two long blocks with one stoplight smack in the middle. A rundown motel anchored the north end of town while the Methodist Church and Bill's Superette and gas station secured the south. In the middle, and on the left, Hertha's Diner sat between two bars, The Hog Pen and The Cattle Trough. Seated between Eli and Stede, Hollis shifted forward and peered out the passenger window. The jail and Sheriff's Office, run by Ezekiel "Zeke" Freeman and his deputy, Buck Jonas, came into view on the right. Next door, an ice cream store took up space and, on the other side, Spurs and Saddles beckoned ranchers and curious shoppers.

For as long as Hollis lived there, Barrows hadn't changed one whit. It seemed to stand strong against time, while industry and progress snuffed out the character of every town surrounding them. Despite its quirky storefronts and tittle-tattle residents, Hollis loved the quaint, rustic ambience. Every bleached-out building and weathered awning held a special memory.

As a child, her mother would take her into the ice cream parlor when they were done shopping, and how many times had she frequented Hertha's with her friends for a chocolate malt and greasy fries?

The Hog Pen and jail she could toss together as another memory, far too recent and one she'd like to forget. Was it only three weeks ago Eli bailed Stede out of jail? And not for the first time. What started out as a night of fun, ended in a brawl that involved half the town, or at least those who happened to be in The Hog Pen. So, yeah, half the town.

That day, Stede had roared into Bill's Superette on his Harley Low Rider, intent on filling the gas tank. When he heard the faint cries for help coming from behind the store, he went to investigate. That's when he found Flea, the old Vietnam vet who called Barrows home, in the dumpster. Someone had removed the old man's clothes and tossed them onto the ground nearby, and someone had managed to carve a deep gash in Flea's forehead. Stede leaned over the rank garbage bin, reached down and hoisted Flea up and over. After helping the elderly man dress, he managed to pull some names from his quavering lips…the Mabry brothers.

Hollis didn't understand how two people from the same family had contracted such strains of evil, but it sure did reek from Jasper's and Ned's pores. Trona miners from up Glendale way, the brothers specialized in dynamite, she wondered if too much soda ash or TNT had spiraled up their noses and rendered them pea-brained.

The other day, Hollis had asked Eli why Ned and Jasper hated human beings. His answer still made her smile. “You need to have your eyesight checked. Maybe you need new glasses.”

With hands on her hips, she had cocked her head to side and gave him a deadpan look. “You know right well I don’t wear glasses, Eli Trace, and what’s my eyesight got to do with the Mabry brothers hating their own kind?”

Eli had given her one of his famous snorts. “Just wondered if you noticed how ugly they were, that’s all. And that’s why they hate life. Hell, Hollis, I don’t know. Don’t you recall how they terrorized everyone in grade school?”

She had nodded.

“Things went from bad to worse by the time they were in high school. Guess they had graduated from snippin’ off the girls’ ponytails when they weren’t lookin’, to slashing tires, turning over outhouses─with the occupant inside─and setting fire to Ol’ man Peeples barn. Remember that?”

“Now that you mention it, yes.”

“They hate themselves or maybe they hate their lot in life. All I know is, they been traipsing down the wrong path for as long as I can remember.”

“Yeah, and no one has stood up to them; made them pay for their evil deeds.”

Eli had flashed a wide smile. “Not until Stede caught them messing with Flea.”

“Don’t encourage him, Eli. He’s in enough trouble as it is.”

Rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefinger, a thoughtful expression had overtaken his features. “I tried not to, but I felt all warm and fuzzy when I heard how Stede gave them their due.”

“Oh, you’re impossible.” She’d given him a dismissive wave of her hand. “And so is Stede most of the time.”

A long list of petty crimes followed Ned and Jasper through life, but those citations and police reports never made it beyond the County Prosecutor's desk…thanks to a man who'd held that position in Glendale for a decade—their uncle, Vernon Mabry.

Stede's offenses didn't have any problem winding their way through the Courts. After the melee at The Hog Pen, he was charged with assault and placed on probation for two years.

One day, Ned and Jasper would get their real comeuppance, but right now they'd reached the city limits of Glendale, and Hollis would much rather think about the fun awaiting them at Roundup Days.