Title: A Bride for Brodie
Author: Cynthia Woolf
Genre: Historical Western romance
Book Blurb:
The Prescott Brides. A thrilling new series by USA Today Bestselling Author Cynthia Woolf!
Five outlaw brides. Five brothers. They take a chance and each find love. She might be forging a new life as a bride for Brodie, but Lottie has a past. She dreams of having children and a marriage. Becoming a mail order bride where she hopes to find a love she could only dream about. Her new groom is all she imagined. Fiercely protective and bold, yet kind and gentle, too. But Brodie’s done things that have left him in trouble. When his past becomes their present, will they have the courage to do the unthinkable to prove their love is the strongest bond of all.
Excerpt:
The night before the weddings
Brodie Campbell sat at the poker table in The Copper Lady Saloon. Smoke from cigars, pipes and quirlies hung in the air like a light fog. His back ached from playing most of the night. With his back to the wall because he didn’t like anyone behind him, he sat at a table near a window for the light. He picked up the five cards dealt to him. Two aces, a jack, a ten and a queen. He kept the aces and threw the other three cards away into the center of the table next to the pot.
Eight poker tables and one roulette table, the only one west of Phoenix in the Arizona Territory, covered most of the floor. At each poker table sat six men.
The dealer ran his hand in the air around the table. “Bets down.” He looked at Brodie. “Cards?”
“Three.”
Brodie picked up the new cards and looked at them. “A jack, a deuce, and an ace. Now he had three of a kind. He threw in a dollar.
The man to the left, John Simms, threw his cards in the middle of the table, next to the pot. “I’m out.”
The next player, Sam Evans, added his cards on top of John’s.
The third man, Amos Dickens, bet a dollar and threw it in the middle. “Call.”
The dealer for this hand, Jubal Ames, sat on Brodie’s right. “Dealer takes two and raises.” He threw two dollars into the pot in the center of the table.
Brodie pushed forward his last dollar into the pot. “Call.” If he lost this, he’d be totally broke and he couldn’t borrow anymore. He would have played most of the night for nothing. He closed his eyes for a moment and berated himself. He would be into Flannery for over nine-hundred dollars and he had no way, except poker, to repay it. He had to win. With more than one-hundred dollars in the pot, he’d have some money to pay for the wedding ring for his new bride tomorrow and to play again.
Amos also called.
Jubal threw down his cards, face up. “Two pair. Queens and jacks.” He reached for the pot.
“Wait a minute,” said Amos. “I got kings and twos. I win.”
“Wrong,” said Brodie. “Read’em and weep, boys. Three aces.” He dragged the pot to him. Elation filled him. Just a few more hands like this one and he could pay Flannery off. He said a silent prayer that his luck continue.
The din of the talking and shouting from the other tables made hearing the big man’s approach impossible. A shadow fell over the table and a deep voice sounded from beside him. “That’s the last game for you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Flannery wants to see you.”
Brodie looked up to see Joey, Flannery’s right-hand man. The tall, black-haired man’s nose had obviously been broken several times, and he appeared to be made of solid muscle. He was not as tall as Brodie’s six feet, two inches, but he looked to be just as muscular. Brodie could probably take him in a fair fight, but this man would never fight fair.
Picking up his winnings, Brodie shoved the money into the pocket of his pants and then stood. “Okay. Let’s go.” He knew Jake would want his money, but he couldn’t give him his winnings. He was barely back to even for the night and he still had to pay Ross for the wedding ring for tomorrow.
Joey led him toward the office in the back of the saloon. He opened the door. “After you.”
Brodie walked into the office. The room was small, with his mahogany desk and padded leather chair taking up most of the space.
Joey entered behind him and closed the door.
Brodie wasn’t happy being in such an enclosed space where the desk took up most of the room.
Jake Flannery pointed to the chair in front of the desk. “Sit.”
Brodie sat in the hard, wooden, slat back chair. “What can I do for you, Jake?”
Flannery gazed at him through narrowed brown eyes. His slicked back brown hair and a thin mustache made him look sinister. He wore a white shirt with black suspenders. He’d rolled his shirt sleeves up, so they just covered his elbows as he leaned on the desk, and steepled his fingers. “It’s time you paid me the money you owe me. I’ve carried you long enough. You owe me nine-hundred dollars.”
“I don’t have that kind of money, you know that.”
“Ah, but you own a big, beautiful ranch and you’ve got four brothers you can borrow from. Or, you could sell me a part of the ranch.”
Flannery getting his greedy hands on even a sliver of the ranch?
“Never.” With his fists clenched, Brodie stood.
Joey gave him a one-two punch in the stomach.
Brodie doubled over in pain.
Flannery sat back in his chair. “Wouldn’t want to mess up your pretty face…this time. You got a month. After that, I’ll have Joey, here, put your nose by your ear. Got it?”
Brodie straightened and tucked an arm over his stomach. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Get out of here.”
Joey opened the door and held it.
Brodie went through and glared at Joey.
The man looked poised to hit him again if Flannery gave him a signal.
The door slammed behind him.
He winced in pain. This is so bad. Where will I get $900 in a month? I can’t let this gambling habit continue. It’s threatening the ranch, and that is unforgivable.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-bride-for-brodie-cynthia-woolf/1143121428?ean=2940185895689
GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Cynthia_Woolf_A_Bride_for_Brodie?id=YkOwEAAAQBAJ
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Author Biography:
Cynthia Woolf is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of seventy-eight novels comprising sixty-eight historical western romances, three contemporary romances, one contemporary romance novella and six sci-fi, space opera romances, which she calls westerns in space. Along with these books, she has also published nine boxed sets of her books and two short stories.
Cynthia loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance, Tame A Wild Heart, was inspired by the story her mother told her of meeting Cynthia's father on a ranch in Creede, Colorado. Although Tame A Wild Heart takes place in Creede, that is the only similarity between the stories. Her father was a cowboy, not a bounty hunter, and her mother was a nursemaid (called a nanny now), not the ranch owner. Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband, Jim, and her great critique partners for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.
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