Page 6 of Cowboy Devil's Embrace

Shit.

When did I become such a negative fucking Nancy?

I listened to Avail opening the window, and I sucked in the familiar scent of the damp morning earth and the forest surrounding the estate.

Ever since our grandmother lost our granddad, she’s been hounding me and all my cousins to continue the family line.

Nothing is as important as family.

That’s what she always said. I knew that. Sorta. I just didn’t feel all that connected, seeing as how my parents weren’t really in my life for very long. They passed away when I was a teenager, but really, I lost them years before that.

I’d been sent away to boarding schools as soon as I could walk. Sure, Mrs. O’Hare was there for me for holidays and breaks, and the schools were the best, of course.

But I admit I did not excel. I was something of a rapscallion. Always causing mischief and trouble, whether it was a supernatural school or a normal one. Didn’t matter to me.

But Grandmother was always a harsh taskmaster. She expected her grandchildren to behave as befit our lineage.

But just what did that mean?

I never understood it. I mean, Jersey Devils came into existence hundreds of years ago. A mixture of magic, luck, destiny, and sheer will had brought us into this multiverse, and we’d claimed the pine barrens as ours ever since.

We were bound to it. To the whole bloody state. Tethered by a connection that transcended my understanding of the supernatural. Mediocre as it was.

But, as much as I loved the pine barrens, I wondered sometimes if it might actually be suffocating me. Or my devilish soul, at the very least.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? I never tire of these old estates or the barrens themselves. But I’m self-aware enough to understand it’s not for everyone. Protecting it though, that’s become my focus just lately. But it’s not just the pine barrens that need our help, cousin,” Avail murmured.

It was loud enough for me to hear with my preternatural senses as I turned off the water and dried myself with a towel.

“What are you on about? Just spit it out, man,” I said as I slipped on my pants and marched over to the mini fridge to grab a bottle of water.

“How much do you know about New Jersey’s role in the world’s produce? Or better yet, what do you know about cowboy culture in the Garden State?”

I almost spit out the large sip of water I’d just taken.

Cowboy culture? In New Jersey?

“Avail, have you been drinking? What’s in that coffee your gorgeous wife made for you?” he asked.

“Easy with the compliments. Cousin or not, my Devil will have me slitting your throat if you mention Stephanie.”

“Easy, I meant no disrespect.”

Sheesh. If that was what mating did to you, you could keep it,I thought as I shrugged on the rest of my clothes.

“And the answer is no, I have not been drinking anything other than dark roast,” Avail replied with a grin. “I have, however, been going over our assets, and this little project Grandmother wants you to take on is a good one.”

“Is it? And where does she want to send me, exactly?”

“Yes, it is. Funny you should ask. It’s called Barren County.”

“Barren? Like the Pine Barrens?” I scoffed.

Obviously, it was no coincidence.

“Exactly. The family has a bit of land up there. Although, technically, you would buy this traction of land with your trust fund,” he added.

“What? Wait. Why would I spend my trust fund on land I never even saw? What kind of land?” I sputtered, hardly believing his ears.

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