BETWEEN LOVE & LIES (Gambling Hearts, book 1)

In a town ruled by sin, will he earn her love or her lies?

Dodge City, Kansas – 1877

Sadie Sullivan lost everything when a herd of longhorn cattle bound for Dodge City destroyed her farm. Now she works in Dodge—one of the most wicked and lawless towns in the West—at the Northern Star Saloon. But her survival in this new world of sin and violence depends on maintaining a lie so deadly it could end her life before the town of Dodge can.

The one man capable of unraveling Sadie’s secrets is Noah Ballantyne, the Texan rancher whose herd destroyed her home. Back in town and taking up the role of deputy alongside legendary lawman Bat Masterson, Noah vows he won’t leave until he’s made things right. But with the saloon’s madam unwilling to release Sadie and a rich cattle baron wanting her as well, the odds aren’t in favor of finding love…or leaving town alive.

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STEAM LEVEL: Spicy

STORY LENGTH: A novel (296 pages)

AWARDS:

• 2013 RWA® Golden Heart® – Historical Romance Nominee
• 2016 Books & Benches® Reviewer’s Choice Seal of Excellence

GAMBLING HEARTS SERIES: Between Love & Lies (Dodge City, 1877) and Between Home & Heartbreak (Texas Hill Country, 1879). Each story features characters from the other book but is also a standalone read. 

REVIEWS

• “I loved the twists and turns this book takes. If you want a top-shelf historical western romance, you won’t go wrong with this.” ~ Linda Broday, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of historical western romance.
• “An emotionally compelling, and deviously twisted storyline of lust, greed, and murder that held me in its grasp and wouldn’t let me go until the oh-so-satisfying conclusion.” ~ Diane B.
• “I couldn’t read it fast enough and I didn’t want it to end either.” ~ Bob J.
• “The chemistry in this book sizzles from the very first pages.” ~ Heather C.
• [Sadie Sullivan is] “the epitome of the perfect heroine. Strong, resilient, capable, and beautiful.” ~ Jacquie B.
• “A story spun with a complex web of emotion and conflict, love and lies.” ~ Jo-Ann C.
• “Ms. Nelson also slips in some great western lawmen’s names…and keeps the reader enticed.” ~ Annette
• “Beautifully complex characters you can’t help but root for. It’ll have you dreaming of catching your own cowboy, dust and all.” ~ N. Love

EXCERPT

South of Dodge City, Kansas—May 1876

They were destroying everything: the tiny apple tree she’d sheltered in the wagon during the long, sweltering journey from Virginia; the fence she’d devoted weeks to repairing over the winter with scraps of deadwood; the vegetable garden she’d sown during the first whisper of spring and painstakingly coaxed to life every heartbeat since.

All trampled, devoured, gone.

Sadie glared at the beasts, eyes burning with tears of hopeless rage. Graceless creatures, they wielded heavy horns that stretched out of their skulls like spears. Texas longhorns. The Devil’s helpers.

In the middle of them rode Lucifer himself, sent straight up from hell to torment her and tear away everything she’d slaved to build.

She tracked the long-legged, well-built rider as he steered his horse through the milling animals, angling toward her and her father—and their sod house. Dismay tightened her throat, left her bereft of air and hope. Even that stalwart structure was in danger of being leveled by the heaving mass in the care of the man coming ever closer.

The intruder, similar to all the other Texas drovers, was covered in a layer of trail dust so thick it hung on him like a second skin. But it was one of the only things he and the other men had in common. While the rest hollered and cracked whips over the backs of the beasts in their charge—trying to persuade them to return to the trail—this man urged his charcoal-colored mount through the river of hide and horn, making a beeline for her.

His silence, along with his ability to guide his horse with remarkably little effort, infuriated her. As the distance between them shortened, unease crept up her spine. His gaze was unwavering, never leaving her.

She tightened her grip on the ancient shotgun clutched at her side, and concentrated on her anger and frustration, transferring them from the longhorns to settle solely on him. She did not want him to come any closer.

Yanking the shotgun up to her shoulder, she took aim.

The cowboy straightened in his saddle but otherwise did not acknowledge her hostile action. Nor did he slacken his pace; if anything, he bore down on her even faster.

Damn him to hell. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

Something slammed down on her shotgun, pitching the rusted barrel earthward. The buckshot tore a savage gouge out of the clay in front of her and kicked up a cloud of dust. The blast forced her to stumble back.

Her father’s red face inserted itself between her and the cowboy. With a curse, he jerked the weapon from her grasp.

As she stood gawking at him, the cattle, spooked by the shotgun blast, bolted—fast and in every direction. Her father sprinted toward their lone plow horse, scrambled onto its back and galloped away from the melee and her.

She shouldn’t have expected anything different. Still the hurt came. Sharp and deep. Once again he’d thought only of himself. He’d abandoned her in the center of the herd, alone and defenseless.

I’m going to be trampled. I’m going to die.

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What happens next in the Gambling Hearts series?

Join Lewis Adams (Noah’s best friend from book 1) and Eldorado Jane (a Wild West trick-riding superstar) in Between Home & Heartbreak (Gambling Hearts, book 2).