Welcome Back to The Grid

Jess William Bailey has a history of being a very bad man. But that was the past—now he’s the most brutal of the bad-asses as leader of the Wires—the toughest and deadliest warriors on The Grid. He makes no excuses, feels no guilt for what he has to do and keeps both at bay with women, drink and violence. But his time is quickly running out and Jess has a solitary goal to make sure he leaves at least one good thing behind—his daughter, Sophia. A child that has been raised by the woman he still loves, Emma and the man that used to be the former dark-side of his split personality, Reno Sundown.
The last thing Jess has time for with his collapsing time frame is the beautiful, tough San Fran police detective, Beth Daniels getting in his way.

Beth has always been the one to handle everything that came her family’s way and all she has left is her mother who isn’t able to take life’s hard hits. Beth has worked obsessively in the police department to become one of the toughest detectives with a high crime solution rate. But there’s a serial killer in San Francisco and the city’s women are the targets for the cold-hearted murders. She thought she found the psycho doing the deed. But Jess William Bailey is a whole different brand of killer—one she’s told to stay away from. Which she would be glad to do—if somehow she could.

The Cowboy is totally country.
The Cop is completely rock-n-roll.
Can their two very different beats combine to form a heartbeat of a lasting kind?
And can it survive when Hell wants to kill the song?

From best-selling author Jas T. Ward, comes the newest Story from the Grid of the Shadow-Keepers Series: COWBOY

Ok yeah, I’ll admit it, I’m just a little partial to cowboys and country music.  Of course, that wouldn’t be hard for anyone to guess if they took a look at my music collection.  While I do listen to rock and any number of other genres when it comes down to it I’m country at heart.  William Jess Bailey is most definitely all country cowboy, as in 200 years old, total old west outlaw country.  Of course, this cowboy has done a stint in hell along the way to immortality.  He lived life hard and on the edge in his mortal life.  A rough childhood as an unwanted halfbreed left him mentally shattered into two personalities, Jess, and Sundown.  Abandoned by his no count abusive drunk of a father when his mother passed, Jess grew up in a bordello.  As the years flew past, Sundown would come out to play whenever violence was needed.  And when there was no violence, Sundown would cajole Jess into finding some.  That need for the next fight is what saw Jess joining an outlaw gang.  Life was all about the next job until the day he laid eyes on Meg… pretty, sweet and innocent Meg.  The woman a wanted Jess hung up his violence for and settled down to marry.  Well, he tried to anyway but how does that old saying go?  Live by the gun, die by the gun.  With one of the highest bounties in history on his head, it was only a matter of time.  And more than all the lives he’d taken over the years, losing Meg was the most devastating in the end.

Countless time in the bowels of hell suffering the torture of demons set on breaking him, Jess really has no wish for redemption.  But redemption comes calling anyway in the form of the god Bounce.  Now Bounce holds the coin that represents Jess’ soul until he finds redemption, falls in love or finds himself back in the bowels of hell.   With the way things panned out the last time he fell in love, Jess has no intention of playing his cards in that game.  Nope, his nights are spent as a Breaker for the Grid.  Fighting the good fight to save humanity from a contingent of demons set on turning earth into a dark replica of hell.  And, now the gods have separated Jess and Sundown into their own bodies…. with one fatal flaw… Jess may very well not survive the split.  With his demise looming in the near future Jess just wants to spend some quality time with his daughter when he isn’t out fighting, drinking or carousing.  Then stumbling upon a murdered woman puts him in the crosshairs of Detective Beth Daniels.  No strings loving just took a major turn and Jess is on a collision course with fate.

Beth Daniels has a full plate.  She’s worked hard to be a detective her beat cop father would have been proud of.  She’d like to think her mom would be too, except her mother isn’t really with it these days.  Her fragile mother lives her life in the past.  Alzheimers has taken its toll.  Life is a struggle maintaining her career and seeing to her mother’s care at home.  Beth knows she should consider putting her mom in a nursing home but she just can’t bring herself to do it.  Instead, she stretches her budget to the max making sure she’s cared for.  Then there is the recent spate of murders.  She knows she’s dealing with a serial killer.  No one else is seeing the pattern but Beth is positive they’re connected.  And the one time she has a suspect she’s told to cut him loose.  Jess Bailey was found at the scene with weapons that very well could have done the deed.  Worse… he was arrogant, good looking and a hell of a flirt.  He was also a temptation Beth couldn’t resist.  “Cowboy, take me away” becomes the name of their game.  Jess is Beth’s reprieve from the stress of life and she wants nothing more than the promise of a no-strings meet up when the mood takes her.  But no matter how much she’d like to keep him at arms length with a list of rules, life and love conspire to make their relationship so much more.

Cowboy was such an enjoyable read.  Jess and Beth definitely have some chemistry even if he’s all country and she’s rock and roll.  When it comes to heat and getting down to the music they definitely have the beat down pat.  The characters are compelling and there is plenty of danger and action to keep you turning the pages.  This was my first read in the Shadow-Keepers series and now I’m really wanting to pick up the first two books.  While Cowboy can be read as a standalone, I’m betting it would have been even better had I read the others in the series.  There are always things in the past that are alluded to that I can’t help but want to know more about.  Guess I’ll have to go shopping for Madness and Lust.