Some people make their own luck...

Ariel

I swore I would never return to Echo Valley.

When I was eighteen, I escaped it and everything the small town in Montana expected from me. But life has a funny way of working out and now, more than fifteen years later, I find myself heading back to the one place that's ever really been home.

In some ways, Echo Valley is exactly the same. The nosy neighbors, the judgy gossips, and how the entire damn town is at the mercy of the Outfit. Formally known as the West Montana Cattlemen's Association, everyone knows them as the Outfit: the local syndicate that rules our corner of the state—including Echo Valley.

But in others? It's like nothing I remember. You'd think that would be an improvement. After what I'm leaving behind... running right into the past isn't the greatest idea. But I've been hardened over the years, and I just want to hide away from the rest of the world in a town that is known for keeping out any outsiders.

Except for him.

Lucky.

I don't know him. Trust me, I would've remembered him if he was a local, though he's spent the last decade in town, taking over the old Walker Ranch where I once worked. There's something about him that catches my attention, and when he gives me a sunny grin and offers to let me work with his horses, I agree.

Maybe I shouldn't have. Because Lucky might be a man that everyone in Echo Valley looks up to, but he has secrets just as dark as mine. Worse, really, because being a rancher? That's only his day job. And when I stumble upon what he does for the Outfit at night... well, I swore I'd never return to Echo Valley.

Once Remy "Lucky" Butler decides I'm his, there's no way he'll let me leave again...

Lucky

Everybody in Echo Valley knows who I am.

Need your truck pulled out of a ditch? Call Lucky. Your horse throw a shoe? Lucky's got it. Fence blown down in a storm? I've got my tools handy and I'm ready to go.

See, I like helping people. I always have. But it doesn't stop at just keeping the Butler Ranch and my corner of this small town running. When the Outfit's got a problem they need solving, or a competitor they need to disappear, there's only one man who they call to take care of it.

It ain't glamorous, but somebody's gotta do it. Especially since there's this sense of justice inside of me that wars with the darkness that not even my easy-going personality can hide for long. So I kill those who deserve it—and some who just get in the way—and I make them disappear all while getting up with the sun to take care of my land.

I'm a one-man operation... until she walks onto my territory, and there's no way in hell that I can let her go.

Ariel Watts is trouble with a capital T. She's running from something, or maybe looking for somewhere to hide, and I'm quick to offer her a spot at my ranch. She's got a thing for horses, if nothing else, but when I see the blonde beauty, I can't help but think of her as mine. She's my darlin', even if she doesn't know it yet, and I'll do anything to make her see that I'm the only cowboy for her.

Even if I have to eliminate any other fella who tries to get in my way...

*Lucky is a dark cowboy romance with a western mafia twist. Despite his dark side, he's the sunshine to Ariel's grumpy, black cat personality, and he'll stop at nothing at keeping his darlin' on his land... but when she discovers the truth of what's buried beneath the wildflowers under her boots, she has to decide whether she should chance running again--or stay where she's always belonged...