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Part One

Chapter One

Redwood Falls, Texas

Josh Turner leaned against the back fence under the school bleachers and watched all the movement around hily bored, which was exactly the attitude he atteht high school football gaodforsaken town, and he knew he should’ve been relaxed as he hung out by the back fence and observed the crowdaround the concession stand But he wasn’t relaxed; he was on edge He was always on edge, and he knew the reason that he couldn’t relax was because he had trust issues He had trust issues with the entire human race Hell, it was hard not to when he’d been physically and mentally abused for the first thirteen years of his life by his father, the one person who should have protected him at all costs

As he leaned against the fence, Josh waited for the game to be over so he could meet up with Ty and Ethan His buddies were on the football teaaether As he looked around, Josh could feel the invisible barrier that always seelanced from one person to the next, he knew that his past ho the people of Redwood Falls, not that he particularly cared for the distinction

But there wasn’t a da he could do about it

About half of the adults in town looked at hi, primarily because they didn’t trust him not to take after his toxic waste of a father That sucked, but it wasn’t as bad as the rest of the people who felt sorry for him, and looked at him with pity They pitied him because of who his father was, and because he’d never really had a mother But those were the adults, and the kids saw him differently Josh knew that with the scars his father had inflicted on both his face and his body, he didn’t look like a norer And the kids seemed very aware of that fact The boys looked at hiave hiirls just looked

Josh focused on the group of girls watching him now Some of them blushed and looked ahen his eyes fell on theaze He looked the from one to the next

He hadn’t screwed any of them yet And he probably wouldn’t He da he couldn’t live without

He usually drove the farm truck to the next town on the weekends anduntil he picked up a girl His reputation, whether warranted or not, had spread, and although alirls in the next toere alilling to get in the truck with him He didn’t have a favorite, he never kept track, but he knew he had banged lad they were readily available because he wanted to stay away froet back to his aunt that ht upset her, and he damn sure didn’t want any of t

he girls picking on his cousin Katie because of soht have done

The girls he slept withto him, and so far, they had been ridiculously easy to nail

He may have been spawned froirls, it was a very good-looking seed Josh was already over six feet tall, with dark, alreen eyes The scars on his face that he fought to ignore only seeh he didn’t understand why He’d always been a skinny kid, but now, after helping his uncle on the farm for years, he was tall and lean and sported a six-pack that was often glistening and on display when he went running at night

There was a track that looped around the high school football field, and the girls had started showing up in the evenings, two at a time, and he kneithout conceit that he was the draw He never had time for team sports or extracurricular activities like his friends He was always too busy working, either at the feed store or side by side with his uncle in an atte from the small farh Josh didn’t have time for football, he was a conditioned athlete and he loved strength training, and running especially ItIt made him feel in control, and control was now a basic need that he couldn’t do without Running gave him the endurance and the steely ain

And the girls were just an added bonus

He looked the other than boredom

Hannah Smith-McIntyre looked around the crowded bleachers with a thrill of exciteaetting to attend without her parents in tow because she was finally in high school Real high school Nobody counted ninth grade as high school in Redwood Falls, because the school district kept the freshmen separated on a srade and it felt aweso Her parents were ridiculously protective, and instead of dragging theiven her up until now, Hannah had chosen to stay home most of the ti Granted, she didn’t have a lot of friends to enjoy it with, but she really didn’t need very h

Hannah’s braces had finally cohtened her hair and experimented with more ht she had a shot at blending in with the older kids …noticed She felt like she looked reasonably good, now that the hated braces were gone Maybe she would uys from some of her classes