Fighting For Love (Carson Hill Ranch: Book 4)

By Amelia Rose

A contemporary cowboy romance novel.

It just wouldn't be Texas without the occasional unpredictable storm, but when a twister rips through Carson Hill Ranch and demolishes almost everything in sight, the family has a long road ahead of them as they try to pick up the pieces and put them back together. In the chaos of the storm, no one notices that Joseph's wife, Emma, has disappeared. A mysterious phone call lets them know that there are some fates worse than death.

As brothers Anders and Joseph rush in to save the women they love, the end result tears apart the Carson family in ways that no one saw coming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gold Crown
• Release date: May 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310936111

Amelia Rose

Amelia Rose holds a PhD in Literature and Language; she specializes in teaching positive, self-reliant principles to children and adults of all ages.  Dr. Rose lives with her husband and three children in the Hudson Valley, New York area, where she enjoys the outdoors and spending time with her family and friends.   Matthew Maley is an artist with nearly twenty-five years in the fields of Illustration and Design. His work has appeared in publications such as Archie Comics, Marvel, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Children’s Television Workshop. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, daughter, and a variety of animals.

Book preview

Fighting For Love

Carson Hill Ranch: Book Four

AMELIA ROSE

~~~

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Amelia Rose.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To YOU, The reader.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for your emails.

Thank you for your reviews.

Thank you for reading and joining me on this road.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Other Books by Amelia Rose

Connect with Amelia Rose

About Amelia Rose

CHAPTER ONE

The sky over Carson Hill Ranch took on an eerie gray glow as the puffy wall of thick clouds began to blot out the sun. Billows of dust drifted upward every so often as another brief but powerful gust of wind would shake the very ground. The horses whinnied pitifully from the stable, stomping their hooves and rearing back until they drummed against the wooden doors loudly.

Casey and Carey, twins and the oldest of the six Carson sons, stopped their work of loading hay bales onto the hoist that deposited them in the loft over the main barn, looking around in concerned wonder at what was causing the racket.

You don’t think another rattlesnake got in the barn, do you? Carey asked his minutes-older brother, already fingering the gun he wore in a holster slung low across the top of his broken-in jeans. The gun was as necessary a tool as any other when working an isolated 800,000 acre ranch filled with wildlife, most of which could take down a fully-grown man.

I dunno, Casey answered with a huff, tossing another hay bale and wiping his forehead with his sleeve. Anything’s possible, ‘specially since I’d have never guessed it would be this hot in November. I’ll go check it out; I could use some water anyway. Casey walked to the barn on stiff legs, straightening after all the bending and throwing for the better part of the hot afternoon. He approached the first stall and stuck out a hand to pet the velvety muzzle of an agitated horse. What is it, girl? What’s got you all knotted up today, huh?

A loud whistle pierced the air above the barn, blaring for ten long seconds before a tinny automated voice came through a digital speaker: The National Weather Service indicates a line of thunderstorms through west central Texas with winds reaching two hundred miles per hour. Rotation has been seen on radar. Residents are advised to seek shelter from this dangerous line of storms.

Well, that explains it, Casey answered nervously. You girls in here can smell bad weather, I suppose. He stepped back out into the unseasonably warm afternoon and felt his own senses prick at the turn in the weather. If I was a horse, I’d be kicking my stall door, too, he thought ominously, looking over to where Carey was also watching the sky. As if nature had somehow timed it, the thick clouds seemed to drop almost above their heads as they continued to slide swiftly toward the horizon.

Let’s head in. We’ll check in with Dad and make sure everyone is off the ranch, Carey suggested. I know there were two teams of guys going out today with the herds, but I don’t know when they’re due back.

Casey nodded, shouldering the bag of tools they’d brought so it didn’t get left out in any bad weather headed their way. They hadn’t walked more than a couple of feet when a loud metallic screech caused them both to duck. They looked over to see one entire panel of the roof over the barn being peeled back like the skin on an orange, bits of wood and nails falling away, carried by another howling gust of wind. A voice from the house coming through the radio on Casey’s belt squawked with what they already knew: the storm was on top of them.

Get inside! Casey yelled to his brother, screaming at him as he saw Carey turn back toward the barn. Forget the horses, and come on! Carey shook his head and pointed behind Casey, yelling soundless words, whose meaning was carried away on another gust of wind. Casey turned to look where his brother had pointed and saw the tornado forming, dropping down out of a cloud in the distance. Across the vast open ranch, he could see two other funnel clouds that had already touched down and were snaking their way across the grassland.

As he stood there, staring at the phenomenon in front of him, Carey ran toward him and pulled him back toward the stable. Inside what remained of the barn, Carey explained, We can’t go out there. It’s coming this way, we’ll never make it to the house in time! Find a place to get low to the ground in here and cover up!

Carey ran down the length of stalls, lifting the latches and throwing open all the stall doors, yelling hi-yahs! at the frightened animals as he frantically ushered them out of the barn. The twins each took a side of a heavy, unfinished stable wall and leaned it against an interior stall, crawling under it like a lean to. They scraped the ground with their hands to gather hay around themselves and up over their heads and shoulders, lying flat on the hard-packed dirt floor and waiting it out. The frightened horses continued to voice their protest over the roar of the storm, their hooves flailing about nervously.

An eternity passed as Casey and Carey huddled under the plank of wood, hoping it would be enough to save them from the flurries of debris being thrown around outside the barn. We could have made it to the house by now, Casey thought to himself, even as Carey continued to keep his hands on the back of his head to protect himself from falling matter.

Just as Casey thought to sit up and try to make a run for it, a loud roar began like the sound of howling wind that became higher and higher and louder and louder, but never came back down. In the middle of the roar, an inexplicable noise, a sound Casey couldn’t place, surrounded them. The barn became the very center of the chaos, as though he and his brother were the only two breathing creatures in the middle of destruction.

His confusion was short-lived, turning to surprise as the barn came down around them. Walls simply moved away in slow motion, leaving behind a scattering of splinters to rain down on the twins.

And then it was over.

Casey looked around him from where he still lay prone on the ground, the weight of the wooden stall pressing on him uncomfortably. He turned his head, but couldn’t see Carey. Casey tried to push up to sitting but the wall he’d hidden beneath was now flat on top of him, more weight from scattered objects and debris keeping him pinned.

Carey? Carey, I need help! There was no answer. Casey began to worry, sucking in a deep breath to give him the lung power to call for his brother. CAREY! Nothing. Casey began to work himself out from beneath the pile of wood and twisted metal, moving inch by painful inch across the ground, first his elbows, then his stomach, and finally managing to pull his legs free. He sat back on his heels to catch his breath and was stunned to discover he was no longer in the barn.

There was no barn.

Turning around slowly, Casey braced himself for what he might see behind him to the west, the direction from which the hateful storms had come. He looked toward the sprawling two-story ranch house, a fixture on Carson Hill that had room for the entire family and a slew of guests, as there always seemed to be guests around. It housed the kitchen and dining area that fed the ranch hands, three shifts at every meal to finally feed all forty or fifty ranchers and laborers. It also held the office where Bernard Carson managed the ranch he’d inherited from his father, generations of Carsons dating all the way back to the days of homesteading before Texas was even a part of the country, let alone a state.

There was no house.

Instead, Casey struggled to take in the sight of a massive pile of wood and cinderblock, portions of the structure only barely recognizable. As he focused, here and there, a piece of a staircase jutted up out of the rubble, a sink lay thrown in the yard some fifty feet away. The roof itself had peeled back and been slammed into the ground with such force, it stood straight up, pointing to the sky that even now was turning to a mild blue.

Casey heard a loud groan nearby and sprang into action. With this many workers on the ranch, the time to sit dazed and numb would have to come later. He struggled to his feet, testing out his limbs, patting himself down to feel for any pains. Other than a cut on the back of his head that steadily dripped toward his shirt collar, he was fine. He walked in the direction of the groaning and didn’t have far to go before he found Carey, half under and half out from beneath a large tractor.

Carey! he called, rushing to his brother and dropping down to the ground beside him. Can you hear me? Carey answered with another groan, then slowly let his eyelids roll open.

What happened? Carey whispered, opening and closing his eyes in an effort to bring everything into focus. He looked up at Casey for confirmation.

I…don’t know…the storm… Casey began, suddenly at a loss for words now that his fear over losing his brother was relieved. Carey struggled to sit up, but Casey put a hand out to stop him.

Wait, not ‘til we know if you’re okay. Just lie still. I’ll go look for someone. Casey took off at a run, ignoring the throbbing headache that was starting to pound through the back of his skull. He sprinted toward the wreckage of the main house, relieved for a moment to see that some of the smaller houses beyond it were still standing, how that could be, he didn’t know. At least that would mean there was hope that the families of the property’s permanent ranch workers were all right.

Casey reached the house and would have laughed at himself at the absurdity when he realized he’d walked up to the front steps as though he could enter the front door. Habit, I