Escaping Heart’s Barriers (Preview)

Chapter One

Thea pulled against the ropes holding her hands together. They were tight, almost too tight. The fibers chafed against her skin. She strained as hard as she dared, giving one of her hands enough room to pull through; after one was out, the other was easy. She stood up and searched around. 

As far as she could tell, she was alone. She turned toward the direction she had been brought in and started to run. Her lungs burned with effort as her feet pounded the ground. Someone was chasing her. She turned the corner and her house became visible in the distance, the little cabin where she’d lived with her father for the last eighteen years. 

She pushed herself harder. She could make it, she had to make it. Strong arms reached out and grabbed her, pulling her to a halt. 

“I’ve got you.” 

Her father was standing behind her, shaking his head. 

Thea’s shoulders fell. She’d tried her father’s exercise four times this week, and she was never fast enough. 

“Is this really necessary?” she asked him. Her father had been the town’s sheriff for a long time, and she couldn’t remember the last time there had been a kidnapping. 

“Yes, it’s very necessary. Haven’t I taught you anything? You can’t trust anyone, ever. Anyone you meet could mean danger.”

“Pa, are you sure? You work hard to keep the town safe. Why do I have to practice these things?” Thea tried to keep her patience, but the truth was, it was getting harder with each passing day. Her father trusted no one, with no exceptions. 

Perhaps the one person who was close to an exception was Vanessa, her best friend. Their fathers had been friends for years, which made it easier for him to treat her family with less suspicion. 

“I try to keep this town safe, but that doesn’t mean it always is. There are dangers everywhere, even where you would least expect them. I had to learn that the hard way. One day, you’ll understand I was just trying to protect you. You never know when these skills might come in handy.” 

“All right. We should go inside now. I need to get dinner ready.” To Thea’s relief, her father didn’t suggest they run the practice again. 

She could see that knowing how to defend herself and escape was a useful thing, but her father was too cautious, in her opinion. He always thought people had the worst intentions. He would constantly tell her that you could never be certain about someone’s true motivations, no matter how well you thought you knew them. 

There were times when Thea was resentful about his mistrust of people. Vanessa told her about her friends, how she would spend the day with them, and how much Thea would enjoy visiting in town, walking the streets and seeing the shops together. But her father forbade her from such activities. It was nothing short of a miracle that he allowed her to spend the day at Vanessa’s sometimes, or would let her spend the night at her friend’s house. 

She wanted to get to know more people, to have the experiences that everyone else did, get to know people in town and make connections with others. Her father was just too distrustful to let that happen. She’d always dreamed of getting to know a special someone and falling in love. It was still a dream she held close to her heart. At the current rate, she would never even have the opportunity to meet this special someone because she seldom left the house. 

She sighed. Perhaps if her mother were still alive, those things would be more possible. She often wondered if her mother had shared her father’s overcautiousness. She had never met the woman who gave birth to her—she’d passed away when Thea was born. Thea loved her father and all of the sacrifices and things he had to do in order to raise her and keep her safe over the years. Just sometimes, she wished that he would give things a chance before assuming the worst about situations and people. 

Thea busied herself about the kitchen, pulling out vegetables to chop and prepare. She also found a pound of salted beef her father had brought in from the smokehouse. Before long, she had a large meal waiting on the table. Even though it was just the two of them, she liked cooking more than what was necessary so there were leftovers for the next day or if they happened to have an unexpected visitor drop by, something that rarely happened. 

When the plates were set, Thea went outside and rang the dinner bell to let her father know it was time to eat. He came into the house a few moments later, stomping his boots at the doorway to rid them of any extra dust or mud from working in the barn. 

“Are you going into town to work tomorrow?” Thea asked. 

Most days, her father would spend in the sheriff’s office in town, from sun-up to at least mid-day. He was a good sheriff, and from everything she’d heard, people in town loved him. They trusted him to keep them safe and so far, he hadn’t let them down. Thea knew he cared a lot about his job. Sometimes, if there was a case or something he couldn’t figure out, he would bring papers home with him and spend hours brainstorming, or sharing with her how frustrating it was. 

With her father as sheriff of Santa May, Texas, crime in the town was almost nonexistent. He took pride in training the two deputies that worked with him to be their very best and to know how to deal with things properly. They were skilled and always got things done. 

Thea set a large cup of water down in front of her father’s plate.

“I’m going to be staying a bit late tomorrow. We heard there might be some people making moonshine in the mountains, so the boys and I are going to try and track them down. The last thing we need around here is more moonshine.” 

Her father shook his head in disapproval. There was no saloon in town like there was in some other towns, and her father was trying to keep it that way. He believed alcohol was not good for people and ruined lives. Thea knew he wasn’t wrong. 

“All right. I wanted to spend the day with Vanessa, if that’s all right, or at least the afternoon.” 

“Why don’t you walk with me in the morning? I don’t want you walking to town on your own.” 

Thea nodded. “I’ll be ready early, then.” 

She’d expected that sort of response. She was just fine with her father walking with her to town. For the most part, she got along well with him. It was only on the topic of trust that they differed. 

The rest of their meal was a calm affair. They spoke of the different rumors running around town, or the latest cases that her father was trying to solve with the deputies. Thea didn’t mind their quiet life so much. She just wished that, sometimes, there were more people in it.

—*—

Thea heard her father outside, checking his hidden wires and traps before bed. She had to be careful if she woke up earlier than her father since he made sure to lay traps outside, to know if anyone was coming close to their home in the middle of the night. Thea didn’t think that was necessary, but her father had done it for as long as she could remember. He always took the side of caution.

Thea looked over at the bedside table within reach, and the glint of metal in the moonlight caught her eye. She knew how to use the pistol her father left on her nightstand. Shooting was one of the first things that her father had taught her when she was old enough to understand what a gun could be used for. 

Thea spotted her father waiting for her in front of the house. She set her empty clothes basket down and walked over to him. 

“What’s that for?” Thea asked, nodding toward the pistol in his hand. 

Usually, when she was done with her chores for the day, her father would spend time teaching her different things about surviving in the woods, how to escape if she was tied up, and how to keep herself safe in general. 

“I think it’s time you learned how to shoot a pistol. You’re fourteen, which is plenty big enough.” Her father grinned. “Come, this is important.” 

“I don’t know, Pa. When will I ever need to use a pistol?” Thea had seen her father’s pistol and had even held it before, but she’d never felt the desire to shoot one. With the amount of time she was left alone, she doubted she would need to use one any time soon, if ever. 

“You’ll see that it’s an important skill to have, and you never know when you might need to use one. Imagine someone got into our house one day and you needed to defend yourself. It’s much safer to know how to deal with a pistol when you need it than it is to be using it without any prior knowledge or practice.” 

Her father led the way into the woods behind their house, where he had set up a board with several different objects sitting on it, starting with a squash and ending with an old bucket. Thea assumed it was to practice shooting. She had seen her father use a similar technique to train his deputies. 

Her father placed the weapon in her hand. “Here, this is where you will pull the trigger. You want to line up your target with this part here.” 

Her father took a step back before continuing to teach her. Thea listened to everything he said, hoping she would never need to put these skills to use. 

Thea bit her lower lip. She’d asked her father before what caused him to be so cautious. He would often tell her that something happened in his past that had helped him realize how dangerous the world really was. He never went into detail, no matter how much Thea asked. It was because of this that she tried her best to be patient with his teaching and training. Something her father had been through had made him think that no one was trustworthy.

She turned over in bed and faced the window, looking out at the moon. Tomorrow, she and Vanessa would finish coming up with their plan. Thea had waited so long to explore the world. She’d thought when she turned eighteen that things would change, that her father would trust her more and allow her to do more things, but that hadn’t happened. 

It was time for her to get out and start to learn things for herself. She and Vanessa had been talking about their plan for weeks now, and soon, their moment would come. For the first time in her life, Thea planned to go against her father’s advice and explore the world on her own terms. 

He would be furious if he found out, but Thea was willing to take that chance. She couldn’t sit back and wait anymore. She remembered her mother’s diaries, one of the few things she had to remember her mother by. In those diaries, she talked about how she had met Thea’s father and how the two of them had fallen in love. 

Thea wanted a story like that and she wasn’t going to get it by living in a town where she wasn’t allowed to talk or spend time with anyone outside of Vanessa. She wanted to go to other places to explore and get to know the world no matter what dangers there were. Her father was allowing his fear to control him. Maybe it was time to let trust and hopes for a better future guide her. 

When her father found out about her plan, hopefully, it would prove to him that she was ready to take on the risks of the world alone and that she could handle herself out there. She hoped he would forgive her once he knew what she had done. Thea sighed. Thinking about all of that was too heavy for nighttime. She would have plenty of time to discuss it the next day with Vanessa. 

Chapter Two

Gregory Davis sat on the edge of his bed. His lamp was burning low, but there was still enough light to see by. He sighed. Today had been a rough day. Whenever Thea questioned their practices, he tried to maintain his patience and remind himself that she didn’t know everything he’d been through when he was younger. 

She had never come face to face with a betrayal that chilled her to the bone. He was grateful for that and worked hard so she would never have to, but sometimes, it was difficult when she questioned him. She was so young, full of spirit and fire, just like her mother had been. 

His problems with trust had started a good time before he had met her mother. He leaned against the wall of the house, propping his stocking feet up on the bed. He let his memories carry him back to when he was a young man, not even twenty yet. Even then, he’d started his job in law enforcement as a deputy in Chicago. Back then, he’d never imagined what sort of trouble his choices could lead to. 

“You’re right on time, Gregory. When Tobias gets here, we will start.” The sheriff was organizing some papers on his desk. 

It had been a dream come true when Sheriff Elwin had approached him and offered him a job as a deputy. Gregory had been looking forward to his training for the past three weeks, counting every day as it passed. 

A few moments later, a young man burst through the door. He couldn’t have been much older than Gregory. In fact, he looked to be about the same age. His black hair was ruffled and his brown eyes were wild as if he had been thrown out of bed and had run all the way to the sheriff’s office. Even though this young, frazzled-looking man wasn’t what Gregory had expected as the deputy he would be learning alongside, he was ready to make friends. 

“Tobias, you’re here. Good, now we can get started.” Sheriff Elwin stopped at the front of the room. Gregory smiled. This was their first day as deputies. 

The next couple of weeks passed quickly. Sheriff Elwin used each day to teach him and Tobias new things. They would spend some time in the sheriff’s office, learning, and the rest of the time out in the city, taking care of the easier jobs that the more experienced deputies didn’t have time for. Gregory loved being a deputy as much as he always thought he would, and he had become fast friends with Tobias. 

The two of them got on much better than Gregory ever expected. 

“I’m wiped out.” Tobias sank onto one of the chairs sitting by one of the currently empty jail cells. “I love this job, but some days are certainly hard.” 

Gregory nodded in agreement. “Amen to that. Do you know what the sheriff wanted to talk to us about?”

“Honestly? No idea. He was certainly mysterious about it. I wonder what it could be. Maybe he’s finally going to send us to do something important.” 

Sheriff Elwin stepped into the sheriff’s office. “Good, you’re both here. I have a new assignment for the two of you. It’s going to be harder than anything you’ve done up to this point.” The sheriff looked serious, but all Gregory felt was excitement. Ever since he’d started as a deputy, he had been hoping to be involved in a bigger, more important job. 

“What are we going to be doing?” he asked. 

“The Raven Brothers gang… I heard they’re here in Chicago. We have a very brief opportunity to get someone into their gang undercover.” 

“You’re talking about us going undercover with the gang?” Tobias sounded surprised and Gregory didn’t blame him. They hadn’t even done serious jobs around the city yet.

“It’s not ideal, but you both are the age that the gang normally targets. I would prefer to do it, but it would be too suspicious. It’s a dangerous job, I’m not going to lie. Chances are, your lives will be at risk until you get out, and I don’t know how long that will take. I’m not going to force either of you to do this job, but it’s your opportunity to put away some very bad people who have hurt a lot of innocent folks.” 

Gregory exchanged looks with Tobias. He wasn’t about to turn this down. This was exactly what he had been waiting for since he became a deputy. He wanted to help people, to make a difference. 

“I’m in,” Tobias said. 

“Me too.” Gregory was glad Tobias had also agreed; doing this job would be much better with someone to help him out with it. 

“All right, then. I’ll go over the details with you, and hopefully soon, both of you will be the latest members in the Raven Brothers Gang.” 

Gregory frowned as he thought back to that day. If only he would have known how it would all finish. He wished he could have had the insight that would protect him. He would have never gone on that mission, or let Tobias go, either. The two of them hadn’t been prepared or skilled enough to be successful. Things had seemed like they were going all right, but they had fallen apart very quickly. 

He’d never thought there was a risk of Tobias turning against him, but he was wrong. The young man who had become his best friend had chosen the wrong side of things when it came down to it. The sheriff had put them into a situation while underestimating how much danger they would be in and how much they would have to deal with mentally. 

He had never seen the betrayal coming. He had come to trust Tobias long before the assignment. That had been the beginning of his trust issues. He just didn’t want to have Thea go through any of that. He could still remember the moment when he’d realized that even those closest to you could not be trusted. 

“Today is the day.” Gregory kept his voice down, glancing toward the others who were sitting around the campfire. 

“We shouldn’t be discussing this right now.” Tobias looked nervous. He had been avoiding Gregory more and more over the past few weeks. 

They were supposed to be partners, and yet lately, Tobias had seemed embarrassed to even be seen with Gregory. On one hand, it made sense, but Gregory was starting to think the time in the gang was getting to him more than it should be. 

“What’s going on with you? We have to talk about this. The bank robbery is going down tomorrow. We need to get word back to Sheriff Elwin. That’s why we’ve been undercover here for the past three months. Come on, Tobias, what’s going on?”

Tobias’s countenance fell, and Gregory was really worried about him for the first time. Why was there guilt in his eyes? 

“I’m sorry, Gregory. I never thought things would happen like this, but you should leave. Get out tonight, while you still can.” 

“What on earth do you mean?” Chills ran up and down Gregory’s back. He’d come to think of Tobias as the brother he had never had. At this moment, it felt like he was about to be betrayed. He swallowed hard. “What did you do, Tobias?”

“When we came here, I never expected it to be this way. I thought these men would be terrible criminals, men who hurt people and deserved to be locked up for the rest of their lives.” 

“They are, Tobias. They plan to rob a bank and send many families into poverty, losing everything they’ve worked for. Doesn’t that matter to you?”

“They’re doing it for a reason. They all have reasons for why they are here. Haven’t you learned that since we’ve been here? Sheriff Elwin just doesn’t understand them.” 

“You’ve been talking with Lewis.” Gregory frowned. 

He should have paid more attention when the gang leader, Lewis Raven, started showing a special interest in Tobias. He hadn’t thought much of it and had even considered it a good thing, as it meant they would be able to get closer to the leader of the gang and learn his secrets. 

“I have been talking with Lewis, and he makes a lot of sense. You know I never had much of a family. My uncle, who was supposed to be my family, treated me awful. I never thought I would have a group of people accept me, and here in this gang, I feel like I belong. I never did quite feel like I belonged in the sheriff’s office, and when I came here, when I could forget I was undercover, I felt normal.” 

“You can’t really be considering becoming one of them. You know these are bad people. You became a deputy to help people, just like I did.” Gregory searched for the man he’d gotten to know, but Tobias had changed in the past few months. He just hadn’t realized it until now. And now it was too late.

“I’m sorry, Gregory. I told him, I told him that we were sent undercover. He knows that we are working for Sheriff Elwin, and the bank robbery tomorrow is just a ruse. He wants you to tell Elwin and I don’t really know what he is planning to do when the sheriff and the other deputies show up. I’m only telling you because of our friendship. After today, I’ve decided what side I’m on.” 

“Tobias, you didn’t…” Gregory’s stomach turned. 

They were walking into a trap. If he called Sheriff Elwin to come, he would be leading them into grave danger, if not death. 

“Even if you did slip up and tell him, we could leave tonight. We could go back to Chicago and explain to Sheriff Elwin that you had a lapse in judgment. He would understand. He told us that going undercover would be hard, that there would be moments when it would be unclear which side we were on.” 

Tobias shook his head. “That’s not what’s happening here. I always felt so out of place. I kept searching for a place where I would fit in. Everything I did was to try and find my permanent home. I thought taking down this gang would finally solidify my place in the world. Lewis… well, he made me see that anyone who truly cared about me wouldn’t need me to prove myself. He didn’t ask me to prove anything, and when I told him the truth, he understood. He didn’t hold it against me.” 

Gregory wanted to continue to argue, but Lewis stepped out of the largest tent in the clearing and looked their way. Gregory could see that this was all true, as much as he hated it. His friend had still given him a warning because of their past friendship, but that would be as far as his help went. He remembered one of Sheriff Elwin’s lessons when he’d trained them to go undercover: 

“If you feel that your cover has been blown, get out and get out fast.” 

This was that moment. He would be lucky if he managed to get away without being shot. At least he could take some information back to Sheriff Elwin, like some of Lewis’s tactics in recruiting new men, and what his current members looked like. 

“I wish you would have chosen the right path,” he said softly to Tobias. “There’s always time to turn back.” 

Tobias’s eyes flashed with momentary regret before he turned and walked over to Lewis. While he was distracted, Gregory turned and slipped into the woods, taking off at a run as soon as he was out of sight. The operation had not only been blown, but it had cost him his best friend. 

Gregory heaved a deep sigh. If only that was the end of the story. As much as losing Tobias in that job had hurt, it wasn’t the worst of the memories he’d held onto. He had at one time trusted Tobias with his life, all of his secrets, and every bit of his truth. They had turned into mortal enemies, and he still was roaming free out there. Gregory always looked over his shoulder, wondering if their next encounter would end well. For all he knew, they might be planning to get back at him for stopping their plan.

Gregory blew out the lamp. There would be more time, later on, to remember the past that he could never change or make up for. One day, he would be faced with the decision to put Tobias behind bars. 

On one hand, he thought he was prepared for that. After all, the many years he had served as sheriff had taught him that sometimes the best of people were actually the worst of people. On the other hand, he dreaded the day. Deep down, he missed the young man who had become his best friend and who was like a brother when they worked together. 

He knew Tobias had always wanted a family, and that he’d found that with the Raven Brothers Gang. However, he still hoped it was Lewis’s manipulation tactics that had made him turn. He liked to think that Tobias had had little choice in the matter and that he had simply been coerced into doing something that he didn’t want to do. That was wishful thinking and there was no evidence to support such a theory, and yet it still made Gregory feel a bit better about the past. 

Thea thought the world was a beautiful place full of good people and potential, and she wasn’t completely wrong. There were some good people out there, like his late wife, his old mentor Sheriff Elwin, or even his friend in town Vernon Morton, Vanessa’s father. But good people were few and far between. The bad people were the ones who often approached you, the ones who took advantage of blind faith. 

Where had he gone wrong? He couldn’t answer that. But somehow, his efforts to make Thea cautious had only made her more open to trusting new people and thinking that no one would ever do her any harm. 

One day, she would see that just by being his daughter, she was already a target. She was already in danger from the many bad men he had put away. Some of them were no longer in jail and held their time behind bars against him. Some were resentful family members, and then there was Tobias. The history between them was ugly, full of misunderstandings and promises of revenge from their multiple encounters over the years. 

He loved Thea more than life itself, and he didn’t want to see his decisions from the past come back to haunt her. He would do anything to keep her safe, even if that meant keeping her close when she didn’t understand his reasons for doing so. 

He’d seen families torn apart when something unfortunate happened to them. He wasn’t going to allow that to happen to his family. Thea was all he had left. He could still remember his wife, how she spoke of the children they would have together and how excited she had been when she’d gotten pregnant with Thea. 

Protecting Thea was the most important job of his life—more important than being a sheriff, more important than anything that came before. He didn’t know if she would ever see the efforts he was making, but he hoped she would.

---

“Escaping Heart’s Barriers” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!

Thea Davis’s childhood was shaped by her overprotective father, who barred her from experiencing anything her heart desired. Desperate to get to know the world, she secretly sets out on a trip with her friend where she meets a mysterious man who enchants her but betrays her in the worst possible way…

As she desperately needs his help, will she take the risk of trusting the man who broke her heart?

Chester Montoya learned how to deal with pain at an early age ever since he was abandoned at an orphanage. Until his path crossed with Thea’s, he never expected to feel so strongly about anyone. However, bitter memories will resurface when he unintentionally hurts her feelings, and he fears he will lose her once and for all…

Can he compensate for a rocky start and earn her devotion once he opens his heart to her?

With her father’s past coming after him, Thea must put her anger aside and work with Chester in order to save him. When complicated emotions get in the way, hanging on to their connection seems impossible. The love they secretly want may be closer than they think, but how long will it take for them to realize it?

“Escaping Heart’s Barriers” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Get your copy from Amazon!