Donnatella Dekanogi'a Oxendine had it all. The only daughter (read: spoiled) of a judge and
a senator, she earned a Bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music and for sh*ts and giggles
she picked up a degree in Cinema Studies while she was there. In addition, she holds a Masters in Music
from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from UNC-Pembroke. She’s interned for Fortune 50 Companies, traveled
extensively, and is fluent in both Cherokee and French. With her church, family, and university connections,
she could have her pick of jobs, so why is she sitting in a badly-decorated room evoking her fifth-amendment rights while
waiting for her daddy to get there so she can explain to him that just because she had a bandana covering her face and a high-powered
rifle in her hand, and had in fact wielded it, that she was categorically not trying to rob a train. Oh
yeah, because of the videotape.
On a good day, MountDenali (yes, it
was one word and yes, that was his legal first name) Mann was 6’10” 280 lbs of mean MF. With
a demeanor that threatened a sound beating, a build like a lumberjack, thighs like redwoods, and the surname of Mann, no one
dared try him … which was a good thing because he harbored a strong dislike for pretty much everyone and everything.
That’s part of the reason he’d become a freight engineer in the first place. That whole
freight doesn’t talk to you thing. So he wasn’t prepared for a run-in with well, anyone.
Who the hell robs a train in the 21st century?
Though he’d never had a gun pulled on him, he decided right then and there that he didn’t care for it
one bit. Using his lightening-quick reflexes, he had the rifle out of the would-be robbers hands, unloaded
and the robber in chokehold in the blink of an eye. If it wasn’t for the cameras he would’ve
simply dealt with the rifle-toting cowboy in his own way, but they did have the cameras and those pesky federal agents who
had a thing about throwing people on the tracks and running them down with a locomotive.
And then there was the fact that through his red haze of anger, he felt
something that no cowboy should have … that being a body like a wetdream. He might spend the majority
of his time avoiding people but he knew breasts when he felt them. Regardless of how annoyed he was, there
was simply no way in any kind of h*** could he hit a woman. So here he was surrounded by authorities shooting
questions at him that required more than a yes/no response; getting cussed out by the would-be train robber; and, getting
the stink eye from her mother. Meanwhile, her father was the only one not trying his patience.
He couldn’t find it in the space where his heart was rumored to be, to be mad at the man. How
could he when the judge wore the same ‘why in the name of all that’s holy?’ look that he did.
