Chapter One

Cowboy's Sinful Bargain

A Cross Creek Ranch Story

AJA FOXX

Copyright ? 2024

~ Jos ~

"Boss man wants to see you up at the big house, Jos."

I grunted as I glanced toward the main house sitting off in the distance. I had a shitload of work to get done before I could even think about going to sleep tonight. I didn't have time to stop by the main house and talk with the boss.

Except that Montgomery Cross was the boss, and that meant I would have to make the time.

The Cross Creek Ranch had been in the Cross family for decades, longer than I had been alive. It had been passed down from generation to generation and currently belonged to Montgomery Cross, the great-great-great grandson of the man who settled and built the ranch back in the 1850's.

I had been here for ten years and I couldn't really think of anywhere else I'd rather be in the whole world. Cross Creek Ranch was in my blood, even if I wasn't a member of the Cross family.

I planned to be here until I died.

"Tell him I'll be up as soon as I'm done getting the stock bedded down for the night."

Wade gave me a clipped nod before turning his horse around and riding back toward the house. I watched for a moment, wondering what Monty wanted with me before dismissing that thought and getting back to work. I wasn't going to find out any faster by sitting there gathering wool.

I snapped the reins and steered my horse back into the throng of cattle, herding them through the gate that led to the pasture closest to the barn. In a few days, it would be time to take them up to the meadows high up on Cross Mountain. They'd stay there until late summer or early fall, fattening up for winter. Once they came down, the calves would be separated from the mama cows and the cattle headed to market would be culled from the herd.

It was the same process that happened every year and had been happening since Cross Creek Ranch was a single room shack with three head of cattle that Cyrus Cross had brought across the plains from back east.

It was monotonous, but soothing in its repetitive nature. I always knew what was required of me. There was something peaceful in that knowledge. I didn't have to try and guess what I needed to do. I already knew.

That did not mean I knew what Monty wanted. The old man could be surly on his good days and aggravating on his bad days. He was almost always bad tempered and brisk, sometimes even cruel.

I actually kind of liked that about him. I didn't have to guess where I stood with the bastard. Monty had no problems letting everyone know. He was still someone who commanded respect just by standing there and he usually received it from everyone he met.

I couldn't imagine working for anyone else. Montgomery Cross had given me a job when no one else would. I would be forever grateful for that. It had been hard working my way up from ranch hand to ranch foreman, but I'd done it. I now had more power on the ranch than anyone, barring Monty.

It was a good place to be.

I finished getting the stock settled down and then rode my horse toward the barn. I would have just tied him up in front of the house, but I had no idea what Monty wanted or how long it would take. I wasn't about to leave my horse standing outside for a long period of time.

I dismounted before leading him down the large corridor to his stall. After removing the saddle, I gave him a scoops oats. While Bucky ate, I brushed him down.

I was procrastinating and I knew it, but as long as it wasn't an emergency, I would see to my horse before anything else. I'd been the one to deliver Bucky when his mama had a breach birth. I'd cared for him, loved him, and raised him. I'd even paid Monty a fair price for him.

Bucky was my horse.

Once I was all done, I patted Bucky gently on the neck then walked out of the stall and closed the gate. Knowing I had no other choice at this point, I headed for the main house.

It was a huge, ten thousand square foot, three story ranch house. It boasted of ten bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, a large kitchen, a formal dining room, an office, a den and over five river rock fireplaces. There was also a large open space on the third floor that had been a nursery at one time. Now, it was used for storage.

With its large wraparound porch, white exterior, and tin roof, the main house had always looked like one of those large plantation houses from Australia I'd seen in the movies.

Monty and Mrs. Gibbons, who was the ranch house cook and housekeeper, were the only ones who currently lived in the main house. I had my own room in the bunkhouse along with the rest of the ranch hands.

I climbed up the steps and crossed the porch to the front door. I knocked once and then opened the door. Before stepping inside, I wiped my feet on the doormat. I wasn't crazy enough to walk across Mrs. Gibbons hardwood floors with dirt on my boots.

That was just stupid.

I walked directly through the house to the back where Monty's office was located. I knew that was where he'd be. That's where he always was.

The door was open, so I stepped inside. "Monty, you wanted to see me?"

The old man turned from where he'd been looking out the window to the fenced pastures beyond. "Come in and take a seat, Jos. Shut the door behind you."

That was an unusual request.

I shut the door and walked farther into the room, taking a seat across the desk from Monty. My eyebrows lifted a bit when Monty got up and walked over to the shelf on the side of the room and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and two glasses without using his cane.

After a stampede where he'd had his legs trampled, Monty had had to use a cane to get around. It was one of the main reasons I had taken over as foreman. As much as Monty loved the ranch, he wasn't physically able to be in the saddle all day long.

Monty poured us each a glass of whiskey then handed one to me. The man did not sit down. Instead, he carried his glass over to the window and went back to looking out at the pasture land.

"You never met my father, did you?"

"No, sir." The old man had died before I arrived on the ranch.

"He was a hard man, a cold man, but I always knew he loved me in his own way. It was never anything he said really." Monty chuckled. "He didn't say much actually, but the knowledge was there when he'd look at me at times."

I wouldn't know. Both my parents died before I was an adult. I missed my mom, but my father could rot in hell as far as I was concerned. Monty had been more of a father to me than he ever had.

"I was in the Marines twenty-six years ago, stationed in Okinawa, Japan when news came in that my father was ill. I flew home, believing that I would be here for a little while and then go back, but then he died and I was tasked with taking over the ranch and ensuring my mother was cared for." Monty glanced back at me. "Since I was an only child, I was the only one who could do it, you understand?"

I nodded.

"I never went back to Japan." Monty turned to look out the window again. "The Marines let me out and I started running the ranch." Monty drew in a deep breath. "And I never went back."

I squinted at the guy. He'd said that twice. "Monty?"

"I have a son," Monty replied. "A son I knew nothing about."

"Holy fuck!"

Monty chuckled, but it wasn't a happy sound. "Apply put."

"Where is he?" I asked. "Is he still in Japan?"

"He's actually on his way here."

My mouth dropped open. "He's on his way here?"

Monty nodded before taking a large drink of his whiskey. "Mitsuaki's mother died when he was born and he was raised by his maternal grandfather, who passed away last week. The family doesn't want him there, so they are sending him here."

Wait, that didn't sound right.

"Who cares what the family wants?" Monty's kid had to be at least twenty-five, which meant he got to make decisions about his life, not his family.

"That's not the way things are done in Japan, at least not in traditional families, and Akari's family is very traditional." Monty snorted out a rude sound. "Hell, I'm surprised they even let Mitsuaki live."

"What?"

Monty grimaced as he looked at me. "Half-American bastard child. I doubt he was greatly accepted by Akari's family. They were very much into the traditional Japanese way of life. They had her whole life all planned out for her from the day she was born, right down to who she would marry, and it wasn't an American Marine from Montana."

I leaned back in my chair and then lifted my glass to my lips and took a sip, and then I took another one. A bigger one.

I needed it.

"So, your son is coming here then?"

Monty nodded. "He's already on his way here."

Right, he'd said that.

I had worked my ass off for the Cross Creek Ranch, planning to spend the rest of my life on this little plot of land. Now, I wasn't sure if that was going to happen. It ignited an anger in my gut that I might have to rethink my plans.

"We've never discussed it," Monty said, "the reason why you've never married or brought a girl home to the ranch, but you know I've never had an issue with it."

I gulped, caught off guard, and then nodded. "Yes, sir."

"I've always kind of figured as long as you did your job," Monty continued, "it wasn't my concern who you had in your bed. What you did on your down time was your business."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I'd never discussed my preference for men because it wasn't widely accepted in our little part of Montana. I usually drove up to Helena to relieve my itch when it came. I never indulged myself close to home.

"You know I never married, although not for the same reason. With the ranch and all, there just never seemed to be time to have a family. I always thought I'd get around to it eventually, and then one day, I discovered I was old."

I nodded even though I didn't believe Monty was that old. The accident had just made him seem that way. "Yes, sir."

"I never had any children either." Monty chuckled. "At least, I didn't think I did."

I knew that, too.

"I had planned to leave the ranch to you when I died, Jos."

Well, fuck.

"I still want to give you the ranch. You love it almost as much as I do, but I can't. I hope you understand that. I have to leave something for my kid."

The kid he knew nothing about until now.

I pressed my lips together to keep from shouting at Monty. The man had no idea he had a kid until this Mitsuaki popped up. I, on the other hand, had worked my ass off for this place, taking over when Monty got hurt and could no longer work the ranch.

And now all of my hard work meant nothing.

"Which is why I want you to marry Mitsuaki."