Clay's Commitment

He's a prospect hungry to prove himself with fists and fury. She's a farrier who won't back down from men twice her size. When a predatory loan shark marks her for death, only an outlaw with nothing to lose can deliver the justice the law refuses to touch. Jessie Cole built her farrier business from nothing after watching her parents lose their farm to the bank. Five years shoeing horses across three counties taught her to trust her hands and her backbone equally. When she pulls horses from a burning barn and asks too many questions, she stumbles into Emmett Slade's loan operation—and gets a hand around her throat with a promise: mind your business or disappear into Alabama clay. Jessie doesn't scare easy. But four men cornering her at a client's farm changes everything. Tyler "e;Clay"e; Richards is a Crimson Kings prospect who's been chasing belonging his whole life—ever since he found his mother dead from cancer they couldn't afford to treat. He fights like a man with something to prove because he is one. When Slade's collectors threaten a farrier in Kings territory, Clay volunteers for the rescue. One look at Jessie swinging a horseshoe rasp at men twice her size, and Clay knows—she's his. But claiming the farrier means war with a man who's been bleeding rural Alabama dry for thirty years—a predator in a grandfather's cardigan with corrupt officials, hired muscle, and ledgers full of stolen lives. Clay doesn't care. He'll bury every one of them in red dirt before letting anyone touch his woman. Jessie never wanted an outlaw's protection. But when Clay's possessive fury makes her feel powerful instead of trapped, when his brutal violence eliminates the men who threatened her life, when she kills a man with her own hammer and his brotherhood calls her family for it—she chooses the desperate prospect over standing alone. Together they'll fight through ambushes and assaults, defend the compound against Slade's army, and prove that some debts can only be paid in blood. He'll earn his patch protecting her with savage devotion. She'll stand beside him and fight. Some claiming is forged in fire and sealed in forever.