Dylan watched the police cruiser drive away and cursed under her breath. Her brother had assaulted Trey McGowan. Trey McGowan! The man was their last hope in getting a decent job in this town.

Shivering, she turned back towards the building and thought about packing up her small bag and leaving her brother to rot in the jail cell. But then a pair of piercing blue eyes popped into her mind.

The man was so different than his brothers. Different, but the same in many ways. She’d seen his brothers around the small town. How could she not? After all, it wasn’t as if Haven, Montana, was the sprawling metropolis her brother had led her to believe.

Upon arrival, they had taken up residence in a small hotel that was equivalent to their last apartment. Her brother had had an interview with the McGowan’s the first week and, no surprise to her, he’d come back empty handed.

That was when he’d informed her that he’d been misinformed about the secretary job she was supposed to apply for. Since they were down to their last few dollars, she’d taken the first job she could find.

Dressing like she was for the job was nothing new. Short skirts, high heels, busty tops—it all went to making her a bigger tip in the end. What was different was the number and amount of tips she got. She’d been shocked at how much more she made here than she had in the big city.

Angie, one of the other waitresses, had told her that oil money ran free and that if she gave the men what they wanted, she could be sitting pretty and possibly buying her own place in a year. Angie herself had just paid off her little house in downtown Haven after working at the bar for only ten years.

Ten years. Dylan thought she’d go mad before then, if she hadn’t killed her brother and gone to jail for it. Walking to the back office, she knocked on Ricky’s door. Ricky had, at one point, been married to Carrie Ann, who’d died a few years back of cancer. The man was nice enough to work for. He wasn’t handsy like some of the bosses she’d had. Plus, he was nice enough to pay her first paycheck in advance, since they had needed to pay for their hotel room up front.

“Come in,” he called out.

“Ricky, I need the rest of the night off.” She shut the door behind her and leaned against the frame.

“What for?” He frowned up at her.

“My…” She started, then sighed. “Woman issues,” she lied.

The man’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll have to work a double shift tomorrow,” he warned. “We’re supposed to have bands playing all day.”

“Fine.” She held in a groan.

When she parked in front of the police station, she sat in the car for a few minutes, debating how to handle the lack of funds to spring her brother.

She felt like banging her head on the steering wheel. Instead, she pulled herself together and stepped out of the truck. Her boots sank in the snow, and she shivered at the cold as she made her way into the building. Even her thick jacket couldn’t keep the cold from reaching her bones.

“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asked immediately when she stepped inside. The place was pretty much empty, which surprised her.

Walking over to the desk, she straightened her shoulders. “Yes, my brother was just brought in. I need to post bail for him.” She held in her emotions and tried to fight back the tears that stung behind her eyes.

The woman tilted her head and instead of looking down at the computer or paperwork asked.

“Brent McCaw?”

“Yes.”

“He’s in holding. If you want, I can call you when he’s ready, so you don’t have to stick around here and wait.”

Dylan swallowed slowly. “Um, that would be okay.”

“What’s your number?” The woman took out a sticky note pad and wrote down the number at the hotel.

“My name is Carol. I’ll give you a call. It should be around eight.”

“In the morning?” she asked, glancing at the clock on the wall. Five hours from now. Dylan doubted she could wait that long to know how much Brent had cost this time.

“Yeah, we want to make sure they’re sober before we let them out.” Carol smiled at her. “Go get some rest, sweetie. I’ll call you when we open the gates and let them out.” The woman chuckled.

Driving back to the hotel without her brother was both rewarding and nerve-wracking.

The room was quiet, too quiet. She decided on a long hot bath to try to shut off her mind.

Closing her eyes, she rested back and cleared her mind of her troubles. She wasn’t surprised when a pair of blue eyes surfaced in her mind. Blonde curly hair, a sexy chin full of stubble, and lips that she imagined would feel perfectly wonderful rubbing up against any part of her body. Trey McGowan was the opposite of her type of man, and she couldn’t understand why her body had instantly reacted to his gaze. He’d run those sexy blue eyes up and down her like he knew what she was wearing under her shorts and tank top.

Her type leaned towards beefcake bad boys in all leather, muscle-bound men who in the end revealed their true inner jerk. She had fallen for four of them so far in her life.

Her first long-term boyfriend, Jax, had been a tattoo artist. Her many tattoos, which she loved, were the only good things to come out of that relationship. Then there had been Chet. What had made her date a man named Chet had been beyond rational thinking. That relationship had only lasted two weeks. She’d called it off when the bromance between Chet and Brent was stronger than their relationship. Lee had been a blip on her radar. She’d worked with him and for almost three months they had been friends with benefits. That was until she found out that he had similar arrangements with several other women.

Corey, the last man who’d gotten her interest, had taught her a valuable lesson and had, she hoped, turned her completely away from the muscular type. She had a fresh scar along her hairline to prove that men with bulging muscles were not a good idea. Even her brother should have proven that to her, but she was still allowing him to drive their lives forward. Living in a shit-hole hotel and working one of the most humiliating jobs around was just a small part of how her brother had dictated their lives.

Still, she had to admit, working one job was a lot better than three. And the money was good. She even found herself liking the little town and dreaming about what it would be like to have a little house somewhere in the hills. She’d driven by the school once and had imagined dropping her kids off, making sure they had their lunches before they raced through the snow towards class.

Still, it was just dreams. Unless Brent suddenly got his shit together, Dylan was doomed.

When the hotel phone finally rang, she had drifted off to sleep. The shrill ring woke her up and startled her.

Carol was just as nice over the phone as she had been in person.

“We’re getting ready to release your brother. He’ll be ready for pickup in half an hour.”

“Thank you.” She had hung up without asking how much his bail was going to cost. She would find out soon enough.

Driving her brother’s truck through town, she was surprised at how many people were out already. The sun was at least an hour from rising and yet the town of Haven was awake. People were out shoveling the fresh snow from the sidewalks and driveways.

The grocery store was open, and the parking lot was slowly filling. When she pulled into the police station, the parking lot was almost full.

This time when she walked in, the lobby was packed. People sat or stood, no doubt waiting for their loved ones to be released. When she approached Carol, the woman was opening a box of donuts. When the smell of the baked goods hit Dylan, she felt her stomach growl loudly.

“Morning.” Carol smiled at her. “Want one?” She held out the box for Dylan. Dylan paused a moment, then grabbed up a glazed donut and held it. Coveted it, drooled over it.

“I need to post bail for my brother.” She felt her stomach roll and decided that she probably wouldn’t be able to stomach the donut after she found out how much it was going to cost her.

“Oh, sweetie, your brother was just put in the drunk tank,” Carol answered.

“Oh?” She waited. “So, what does that mean?”

“Well, since Trey didn’t press charges, once we open up the doors, he’s free to go.”

“He’s…” She almost dropped her donut. “You mean… I don’t have to…” She swallowed the sour taste in her throat.

Carol smiled and shook her head. “No charge.” She leaned forward. “This time.”

Dylan nodded, as the reality sunk in.

“Why don’t you go have a seat. Tony should be in in a few minutes. He’ll open up the tank and let everyone go.”

Dylan went over to stand by the front door with the rest of the group, the donut almost forgotten until her stomach growled again.

How had she lucked out this time? Then Carol’s words hit her. Trey hadn’t pressed charges. Her brother was free to go, and it was all thanks to the man who had come to her defense.

Brent had never hit her, but when he got drunk, and she complained about it, he had pushed her before, much like he’d done last night.

She’d never had someone come to her defense before though. Maybe that was why she had found herself dreaming about Trey last night. Whatever the reason, there was no way a man like him would be interested in someone like her, especially after he’d found out that it was her brother’s fault he’d ended up sitting in a jail cell all night.

* * *

“You’re the asshole who wouldn’t hire me. McGowan?” the man sitting across from him in the drunk tank said, causing Trey’s eyes to snap open. It had been almost five hours since they had been shoved in the small holding area with all the other town drunks.

It was a Friday evening, two weeks after Christmas, and half of the town’s local drunks were still deep into celebrating the holidays with no signs of slowing down.

“I’m Trey McGowan,” He frowned at the man who’d given him the bloody lip. “But I don’t think we’ve met.”

The man tilted his head. “You were there, with the other brother.”

Trey tried to remember. He knew he’d seen the man before but hadn’t been able to place it. Then the man flipped his head, pushing his hair back, and suddenly Trey remembered where he’d seen the guy before.

“You applied for the motorhand job. The one we gave to Mason,” he added. “Brian?”

“Brent,” the man corrected. “We came up here with the promise of that job. We left everything we had behind. Then we get here, and you hire someone else.”

“I’m sorry about that, but I don’t know who promised you the position. It was open, and we hired the best man for the job.” He leaned his head back and tried to let his head settle. He was already enjoying the effects of the hangover.

His answer didn’t seem to satisfy the guy.

“We had everything planned. Now, because of you, Dylan has to work at that shit-hole place.”

Dylan, Trey thought. Was that the raven hair’s name? It suited her. Jet-black hair with cropped bangs that hung over dark eyes, tattoos along her shoulders, beautiful body, and killer legs. Legs he’d been dreaming of since he’d been shoved in the tank. Dylan. He ran the name over in his mind again.

“What about you?” Trey asked.

“What about me?” The man looked at him like he didn’t understand.

“Why haven’t you found a job? There’s plenty of work here, besides working for us,” Trey supplied.

The man cursed under his breath. “Dylan makes enough for us, for now. If I know her, she’ll be looking for a second job soon enough.”

Trey’s anger spiked again. The bastard sitting across from him was a slacker, letting his girlfriend work two jobs just to keep him satisfied. He’d known plenty of men like that in his lifetime. Hell, half the women working in the many strip clubs in Haven had men sitting at home drinking away their hard-earned money.

Trey glared at the man. “You’re a real piece of work.”

Just then the cell door opened. Trey stood up, as did everyone else in the cell who was awake and alert.

Haven was a small town, and the police station was one of the busiest buildings at this time of morning since Tony usually came in at eight and released all the people who’d been held in the drunk tank for the night.

Stepping out, he wasn’t surprised to see Tony shaking his head in his direction.

“Don’t start,” he mumbled.

“What will your mother think?” The man had been seeing his mother for almost a full three months now. Trey still wasn’t sure about it but figured that his mother had a right to find happiness after losing his dad suddenly almost two years ago.

“Need a ride?” Tony asked.

Trey glanced around the room, and upon spotting the sexy beauty, Dylan, leaning against the front doors, his scan for his brothers halted. She had changed from the shorts and push-up top to more practical jeans and a black leather coat with a hoody underneath. She fit in to the small town of Haven like a nun fit in at a strip club.

He continued looking at her and realized everyone in the room was eyeing her. He watched Brent cross the room and start talking to Dylan. The woman’s eyes moved over to him, and Trey could have sworn he saw heat flash behind them as her cheeks heated.

“Sure, I’ll be back in a moment.” He walked towards the doorway, catching the pair before they left.

“Hey,” he said, getting the man’s attention. They both turned towards him. “If you’re serious about a job, we still have a few rig jobs open. Why don’t you come in tomorrow and see me?”

The man’s eyes turned from agitated to shocked. “Really?”

Trey’s eyes moved to Dylan’s. “Sure.”

“We were hoping, that is…” Dylan stepped forward. “I was looking for work as well.”

An image of the petite woman as a derrick worker flashed and he almost laughed. Then he remembered that Rea was trying to retire, and Kristen, who had been filling in for her, would now be home with the new baby. They were out a secretary.

“Can you type and answer calls?” he asked.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Can’t everyone?”

He smiled quickly and saw her eyes flash to his lips. Damn, was she flirting with him in front of her boyfriend? He was fixing to get punched again. Turning away from her, he held out his hand towards Brent. “Both of you swing by. I think we might have something.”

“Ready?” Tony asked behind him.

“Sure,” he threw over his shoulder. “Tomorrow around eight. We’re in the old brick building…”

“We know where it’s at,” Brent said. Dylan lightly slapped his side. “Thanks.”

Trey nodded and followed Tony out. He desperately wanted to look back to see if Dylan was watching him, but she was taken so he had to try to cleanse his mind of her.