ZIN

My main concern is protecting those I love. I keep them out of harm’s way and out of legal trouble. These are my brothers through and through. And I would do anything for any of them. But when one our own is kidnapped and tortured, it’s up to me to take care of her—whether her brother likes it or not.

JADA

I’ve grown up with these men most of my life. I know them all inside out. But the chilly Zin doesn’t stop me from wanting more of that sweet taste on my tongue all over again. And he’s the only one I trust right now. He’s been doing my bidding to keep me safe and secure. Now, it’s time for me to make the bid that’s going to change everything.

NOTE:
WARNING, this story may cause triggers.

As this book opens, Jada is at the Butler Ranch recuperating from the injuries incurred during her captivity. Luisa, her best friend and the one her captor wanted comes to apologize but Jada kicks her out. She even kicks out Vaile Oliver/Zin, who she’s been seeing for years. She really doesn’t understand the depth of his feelings for her, nor he hers.

Her brother Montana/Onyx is there as well and he’s really angry with Zin and the Los Caballeros. Onyx was leading the rescue mission and Zin rushed in before them, saving Jada’s life but Onyx doesn’t see it that way. Now he wants to get rid of the group before anyone ever does something like that again. He and Zin get into it, and both get a bit bloody.

Disgusted with both of them Jada tells them to go away and leave her alone. They won’t leave her alone and it’s Tryst who saves the day.

When he sits with Jada, he tells her a story.

This is a favorite scene.

“Hi, Tryst,” I said when he walked over to the bed, leaned down, and kissed my cheek. The man wasn’t my uncle, although I’d always thought of him that way. My mother’s sister had been married to his brother before he passed away.

“How bad is the pain?” he asked.

So bad I didn’t know how to respond. He meant physical pain, though, not what was really torturing me. “I don’t know, maybe a seven,” I responded.

“I am sorry this happened to you, Jada.”

While I had no doubt others, maybe even everyone, felt the way he did, he was the first to say the words. “Thank you.”

“What can I do to help?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“Are you able to rest?”

I looked at him with wide eyes and shook my head.

“Will you hold my hands?” Tryst put his on my lap, and I put my palms on them. “Make yourself comfortable but keep your eyes focused on mine.”

I rested my head on the pillow, but my gaze stayed on him.

“I’ll tell you a story.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“I was on a walk in Mexico one day. I was young, younger than you are now, and I got lost.” He smiled. “Since I was in the Army at the time, I couldn’t admit to anyone that a survivalist got himself lost in the wilderness, so I kept going, hoping I would come to a trail or, better, a road.”

“Or another person?”

Tryst smiled a second time. “While you may think you know the story, I’m going to share a few things I’ve never told anyone.”

I drifted in and out of sleep, trying so hard to keep listening as he told me about the day he’d stumbled on the property that was now his ranch. It was the same day he’d met the woman who would become his wife. Like him, Rosa had been visiting Mexico. She with her family, him with the military.

I’d never visited the place he called El Lugar de Curación, but listening to his story, I felt like I had. I could hear the rush of water in the creek he and Rosa had walked beside, and I could feel the warm breeze on my face when he described how soothing it felt.

“We crested a hillside and gasped as our eyes took in the view of the entire El Palomar valley. I told my Rosa I’d build her a house on the very ground we stood. It was a promise I kept.”

I drifted deeper into sleep, but then woke with a start.

“What did you see?” Tryst asked when I gripped his hands and my eyes bored into his.

“A coyote. It was approaching me.”

He nodded and closed his eyes, as if in prayer. When he opened them, he smiled.
Heather Slade. Zins Sins – Heather Slade (Kindle Locations 270-292). Kindle Edition.

Zin starts working the vineyard, giving up his law practice. It’s there he starts seeing the coyote, there’s a message here.

The process for Jada to heal is a complicated one, and Zin manages to get close but not near her by staying with Brix and Addy and working on the home they are building on property given to them by Tryst.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how Zin and Jada were going to work this all out. Neither of them have been honest about their feelings and keeping their relationship a secret from everyone hasn’t help things either.

There’s lots of tears in this book, and yet so much healing and joy as this story winds to it’s conclusion.

I can’t wait to see what Heather has in mind for us next.

5 Contented Purrs for Heather!

Heather Slade

USA Today and Amazon Top 15 Bestselling Author Heather Slade writes shamelessly sexy, edge-of-your seat romantic suspense.

She gave herself the gift of writing a book for her own birthday one year. Forty-plus books later (and counting), she’s having the time of her life. The women Slade writes are self-confident, strong, with wills of their own, and hearts as big as the Colorado sky. The men are sublimely sexy, seductive alphas who rise to the challenge of capturing the sweet soul of a woman whose heart they’ll hold in the palm of their hand forever. Add in a couple of neck-snapping twists and turns, a page-turning mystery, and a swoon-worthy HEA, and you’ll be holding one of her books in your hands.