Table of Contents

  Books by Bailey Bradford

  Title Page

  Legal Page

  Book Description

  Dedication

  Trademark Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

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  About the Author

  Pride Publishing books by Bailey Bradford

  Single Books

  Breaking the Devil

  Dark Nights and Headlights

  Texas and Tarantulas

  Belt Buckles and Cowboy Boots

  Something Shattered

  Yes, Forever

  The Jasper Soul

  Southwestern Shifters

  Rescued

  Relentless

  Reckless

  Rendered

  Resilience

  Reverence

  Revolution

  Revenge

  Reluctance

  Renounced

  Retrograde

  Southern Spirits

  A Subtle Breeze

  When the Dead Speak

  All of the Voices

  Wait Until Dawn

  Aftermath

  What Remains

  Ascension

  Whirlwind

  Love in Xxchange

  Rory’s Last Chance

  Miles To Go

  Bend

  What Matters Most

  Ex’s and O’s

  A Bit of Me

  A Bit of You

  In My Arms Tonight

  Where There’s a Will

  My Heart to Keep

  Leopard’s Spots

  Levi

  Oscar

  Timothy

  Isaiah

  Gilbert

  Esau

  Sullivan

  Wesley

  Nischal

  Justice

  Sabin

  Cliff

  Mossy Glenn Ranch

  Chaps and Hope

  Ropes and Dreams

  Saddles and Memories

  Fences and Freedom

  Riding and Regrets

  Broncs and Bullies

  Hay and Heartbreak

  Vaqueros and Vigilance

  Spotless

  Hide

  Hunt

  Home

  Heart

  Mystic Tattoos

  One Too Many

  Valen’s Pack

  Run with the Moon

  Exodus

  The Vamp for Me

  My Life Without Garlic

  Don’t Stake My Life on It

  Sunshine is Overrated

  Don’t Drink the Holy Water

  The Trouble with Mirrors

  That’s One Cross Vamp

  Calendar Men

  Mr. January

  Mr. February

  Mr. March

  Mr. April

  Mr. May

  Mr. June

  Mr. July

  Mr. August

  Mr September

  Mr. October

  Mr. November

  Mr. December

  The 13th Month

  Coyote’s Call

  Off Course

  In from the Cold

  Blue Moon Rising

  Power

  Exchange

  Submit

  Dominate

  Hooked on You

  In Deep

  Intrinsic Values

  Artifacts

  Antiques

  City Shifters

  Bearly There

  Harey Situation

  Wild Ones

  Destined Prey

  Destined Predator

  Destined Prize

  Fire and Flutter

  Dragon Dreams and Fairy Wings

  Wyvern Ways and Elven Magic

  Griffin Days and Pixie Nights

  Triple Threat

  Howling for More

  Anthologies

  What’s his Passion?: Unexpected Places

  What’s his Passion?: Unexpected Moments

  Racing Hearts: The Lonely Ones

  Intrinsic Values

  BYGONES

  BAILEY BRADFORD

  Bygones

  ISBN # 978-1-83943-264-4

  ©Copyright Bailey Bradford 2023

  Cover Art by Claire Siemaszkiewicz ©Copyright May 2023

  Interior text design by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

  Pride Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Pride Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Pride Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2023 by Pride Publishing, United Kingdom.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors’ rights. Purchase only authorised copies.

  Pride Publishing is an imprint of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book”.

  Book three in the

  Intrinsic Values series

  Jonas Abrams, bookish historian, has never met anyone like hard-hitting Texas Ranger Gabe Ryland before…

  After a false accusation derailed his academic career, reserved history professor Jonas Abrams left teaching, and left town. Taking a job at San Antonio’s Intrinsic Value antiques store gave him the confidence to work with people again, and he’s even ventured back into college teaching and volunteering at a local museum…but none of that could have prepared him for Gabe ‘Rye’ Ryland.

  Texas Ranger Rye is an old-school lawman to his core. When his partner is killed on his watch, Rye’s instincts tell him there’s more to things than meets the eye, and he burns to investigate. Facing a suspension for dereliction of duty, he accepts a bullshit assignment out of town…to San Antonio, the place he intends to dig around for answers.

  Rye is not just out of Jonas’ league—he’s out of his comfort zone, and not the kind of person Jonas would ever have imagined he’d fall for. But he does, hard, from the get-go, just as Rye does him. The academic and the Ranger shouldn’t make sense as a couple, but they do. Or at least, they were just starting to, until the case Rye is investigating heats up to flashpoint, engulfing them both in the flames…

  Dedication

  To everybody who’s ever had difficulty in getting through. Hang in there. It gets better.

  Trademark Acknowledgements

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  American Pie: Don McLean

  Buckhorn: Twisthorn Holdings; Buckhorn Museum and Saloon Limited

  Coca-Cola: The Coca-Cola Company

  Colt AR-15: Colt’s Manufacturing Company, LLC

  Dirty Harry: Warner Bros. Pictures

  Dodge Challenger: Stellantis N.V.

  Every Breath You Take: Sting

  Ford: Ford Motor Company

  Glock: Glock Ges.m.b.H.

  Google: Google LLC

  Greeley: Greeley Hat Works, Inc.

  Jetta: Volkswagen AG

  Kleenex: Kimberly-Clark Corporation

  Lexus GX: Toyota Motor Corporation

  Lone Ranger: Fran Striker

  Lucchese: Lucchese Bootmaker Company

  OnlyFans: Fenix International Limited

  Sig: SIG Sauer GmbH & Co. KG

  Hilton: Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

  Chapter One

  “So, if you could just stand there against the wall for the photo, Professor Abrams?”

  It wasn’t really a question. At least, there was no way Jonas could refuse either the young woman’s not-really-a-request or her pointing arm, as much as he’d rather turn and leave the building. He ran his hands through his dark-brown hair to settle the curls that tended to form and look more casual than professional. He needed a veneer at the moment.

  “Won’t take a minute,” she assured him, telling him he was hesitating. “Promise it won’
t hurt!”

  He tried to match her professional smile, to show that her small joke had put him at his ease. She used that upspeak intonation that made her sentences not-quite questions. Everyone her age did, or so it seemed to Jonas, teaching them. Students at his prior college in Dallas had been fans of that pattern too. It was even catching, something he had to guard against for fear of seeming a try-hard, this millennial trying to be a zoomer.

  “Perfect.” She said this more briskly and brightly, doling out the word of praise like a cookie when he stood against the wall with its lines that marked out heights. Another blonde clicked the camera, taking his photograph, and although the lights weren’t hot, Jonas wanted to wipe his forehead. And wouldn’t that just make me look ill at ease?

  “Now turn your face to the side?” And they were back to the rising intonation.

  “A real mug shot,” he couldn’t help saying.

  Her perfunctory laugh showed he was far from the first to make that remark. He’d bet he was the one who hated having his picture taken the most, though. Well, they could hardly use the one from the history faculty page on San Antonio’s Laurel Heights University website. As an adjunct professor in the history department, despite his master’s in art history and PhD in American history, not even his name was listed.

  A fellow adjunct had raged that the university was wary of including them on anything official because it might make them look like legitimate faculty members, not just paid-per-semester hired guns, which could give them leverage for getting onto the tenure track. It was the same at most institutions these days, and Jonas counted himself lucky he had his work for Intrinsic Values antiques store, sourcing items for clients, and working at the store itself, to make up his salary.

  “Hm…maybe to the other side? Perfect.” His tormentor gave him another automatic word of praise for obeying and signaled to her henchwoman to take his photo again. She raised her eyebrows to the photographer to ask if it looked okay. When she received an A-okay sign back, she nodded at Jonas. “So, if you’re ready, and would like to go through for a few questions…?” She gestured at a smaller room.

  And now he really wanted to turn tail and run. A few questions was the polite way they’d put it before, back in Dallas, their name for the repeated rounds of inquiries about the same thing put by different people. Interlocutors? No, that was more the panel when he’d defended his thesis. Interviewers? Interrogators? Whatever, they’d included his department head, the assistant dean, the welfare officers…the police. Then Human Resources, with their offer he couldn’t refuse and didn’t want to refuse, by then, for all he was innocent.

  After all that, this. Why was he here? He’d tried to keep the lowest possible profile. He’d even left teaching for a while, before making his tentative way back in. But oh, how he’d missed it, missed engaging with history, missed reading and researching and even the smell of libraries and books. If only that was enough, if the quality of his work and his thoughts on the existing courses spoke for themselves. But they didn’t, and certainly wouldn’t get his ideas for new courses, ones he’d be excited to develop and teach, off the drawing board.

  He knew how the game was played, that if he wanted to get on, or get in, he had to make an effort, to become more a part of things. So when the department had needed someone for this and the associate and assistant professors had looked his way, his vague smile and nod had been taken as him volunteering.

  He took off his black-framed glasses, breathed on them, wiped them with a cloth and put them back on, giving a sly pat to blot his forehead as he did so. And the interview hadn’t even started yet. Well, putting himself out there made him break out into a sweat.

  “You know what we do here at Academically Speaking?”

  That was the name of the radio show he was here at the Laurel Heights campus media building to take part in. He nodded at the girl, Ainsley’s, question, taking a seat at her direction at the small console in front of the equipment.

  “Great name!” praised another guest, hurrying in and taking the remaining empty chair on the other side of the host. He looked to be a little younger than Jonas’ early thirties but a lot more energetic. “The Hill’s station rocks! Well, all the media facilities do. And I love how seriously you take the content you produce, with the professional yet quirky photos and a summary of the day’s highlights for your social media. And this program’s an arts versus science thing, right?”

  He swept a flop of dark-blond hair from his blue eyes that crinkled at the corners with his smile. Jonas couldn’t help staring—discreetly, he hoped. Trying to see if the man was wearing makeup, for the photographs, and to place his accent meant Jonas tuned out a little from proceedings as they got underway, then he snapped to when Ainsley pointed at him to speak.

  “I’m Jonas Abrams, and I’m in the history department teaching Introduction to History Studies,” he said, trying to put a smile in his voice, as everything he’d looked up about speaking on the radio had advised.

  Ainsley’s bulging-eyed nod and the quick hand-roll gesture had him dredging for more. “I recently taught Introductory History of Art too, all to freshmen, and I’m hopefully getting students enthusiastic about history.” He added a physical smile to compensate for how lame that sounded. A private person—more so these days—he wasn’t about to give out further personal details. He slid the department prospectus from his briefcase so he could describe any or each of the courses they offered, should he need to.

  “And with us today we also have…” Giving up on Jonas, their talk show host cued the other guy in.

  Professor Bruce was Australian, Jonas learned, and a lot bouncier and bubblier than Jonas would ever be.

  “My big dream in teaching is to make mathematics accessible to all Heights students, no matter their background or major,” Professor Bruce enthused.

  “Oh, how?” their host asked, sounding genuinely interested.

  “Well, for starters, making mathematics relevant to other disciplines like biology, economics, physics or engineering,” the professor continued. “Putting the emphasis on mathematical concepts and their underlying ideas, not techniques and details.”

  Adjectives such as interactive and enjoyable bounced loose from his speech, and Jonas leaned over to a small table to help himself to water from a jug, hoping the noise of pouring it into a plastic cup wasn’t audible. He needed the water before he launched into the speech he’d prepared. This radio program was all about justifying the teaching of the subjects in question, both the arts and science, and Jonas had a lot to say about the vital importance of history, and about learning from the past to understand the present.

  “History gives us a better understanding of the world,” he began when cued in.

  “Erm, no disrespect,” Professor Bruce interrupted, “but I’d say mathematics gives us a better understanding…of the universe! You ask me, history is learning a dry and dusty string of dates and facts, like 776, the first Olympic Games, or 1770, Captain Cook arrives in Australia or 1917, the Russian Revolution.” He paused. “Hey, anyone else think that’s a load of sh…sevens?”

  “Yes!” Ainsley replied, with a tiny giggle.

  “It’s more than memorizing numbers. I think you’re confusing history with mathematics,” Jonas couldn’t help replying.

  “Ooh!” His opponent feigned being wounded, which got a laugh from their host and a studio technician. “And the problem with these dry facts is that a lot turn out to be wrong, and a lot we’re bloody ashamed of and try to ignore or lie about!”

  “Like what?” Jonas snapped, stung.

  “Like… Oh let’s see. You’re an expert in American history, you said? Well, like who discovered America? It wasn’t exactly Columbus, was it, although every schoolkid was taught that? He was one of a long line of explorers, and he didn’t even get the place named after him!”

  He drawled the word ‘after’ as ‘aaaaftah’ and paused for the laugh. “What he did do, though, was destroy old civilizations and enslave and kill a few million Red and Brown people along the way, right? Correct me if I’m wrong, Prof, but didn’t he torture and mutilate indigenous populations while stealing millions of acres of their land?”