The Ballad of Luke James

By Keegan Kennedy

Set amidst the backdrop of the Battle of Little Bighorn in the days of the Wild West, The Ballad of Luke James is the story of a handsome and hung cowboy outlaw, who happens to be the first cousin of Jesse James. At 24, Luke realizes that it is only a matter of time before a younger, quicker cowboy comes along to shoot him in the back. Looking to pull off one last job before moving on to greener pastures, Luke's gang kidnaps the son of a wealthy rancher to hold for ransom. Luke's world is turned upside down when the rugged cowboy falls for the submissive rich teen boy. Will Luke and young Dillon Donovan be able to ride off into the sunset together or will the gunslinger go down in a blaze of glory?

The erotic, historic novella is approximately 26,500 words.

All characters in this erotic tale are 18 years or older. This work features several fetishes including dominance & submission, bondage, as well as graphic sex.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keegan Kennedy
• Release date: Oct 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301269440

Keegan Kennedy

Originally hailing from Mississippi, Keegan Kennedy is a writer based out of Memphis, TN. He's a self-described, ‘aging, former sex symbol’ with a kinky imagination. Keegan is fascinated with the natural power exchanges between dominant and submissive males, and his stories reflect that fascination. The fantasies that he shares are full of adventure, peril, bondage, and a dry wit. And he has a knack for uncovering love and romance in the darkest of places. With a tendency toward the melodramatic, he does more than arouse or excite the reader - he engages them.Author of Homecoming: International Number One in four countries: The United States, The United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. Author of Homecoming: International Number One in four countries: The United States, The United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. Author of eBook Number Ones: The Substitute Wife, Magnificent Pretense, Captivated, Ganymede 4, West Texas Rivalry, Taken, The Christmas Bottom, The Party Favor, Stupid Jocks Make the Best Submissives, College Endowment, Who Wears the Pants in the Family?, Saving Drake McKenzie, Heisting Hogan, Half Past Midnight, Crossroads, and Man of the House.

Book preview

The Ballad of Luke James

By Keegan Kennedy

Copyright October 2012 by Kennedy-Empire Media

Smashwords Edition

Edited by J. Sami Harvey

Email Sami at [e-mail]

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher or author.

This book is a work of fiction. Places, events, and situations in this story are purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is coincidental.

The opinions and comments made by the characters are not necessarily indicative of those of the author, Keegan Kennedy, the publisher, Kennedy-Empire Media or the e-Book platform from which this work was published.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Other Titles from Keegan Kennedy

About the Author

Chapter One

I was born in 1852 in Clay County, Missouri. My cousins, Jesse and Frank, who I’d always looked up to, had fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, but I had been too young to take my rightful place and fight along their side. When I was 13, during the closing days of the Civil War, I snuck off to enlist and help the Southern States. Of course, this was against my Daddy’s wishes.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I had taken off on my old horse, Pearl, and got as far as Hannibal before he caught up with me. After tanning my hide and giving me a talking to, my Pa drug me back––kicking and screaming––to Clay County. It wasn’t two days later that I heard that we’d lost the war.

It wasn’t a year passed that my cousins started leading a gang of renegade outlaws, and they were a tough bunch of motherfuckers. They robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains. Anywhere there was easy money; the James Gang was there.

Contrary to popular opinion, Jesse and Frank’s gang did not take from the rich and give to the poor. That was just Robin Hood bullshit. They kept what they took and killed who they killed.

My home state of Missouri had not seceded from the United States of America, but my family and many others had been seen as Confederate sympathizers. It was no secret that the James family had fought on the side with the Southern States. In 1867, this sympathy led to the murders of my Pa, Ma and my baby sister in a fire set by some locals under the direction of some crooked Union carpetbaggers.

I had been helping my Granny with the harvest at the time and came home to find them all down and the home place in smoldering ruins. In the end, the fire was called an accident, and no one was ever prosecuted. The State took our land, and I had no homestead of my own. I was only 15 at the time.

I hopped on the first wagon train heading west and earned my keep as I moved from place to place. Inspired by my cousins, and sick and tired of working for pennies, I began to live my life through the barrel of my 36 Colt revolver.

My cousins were often associated with the Wild West. During the late 1860’s and early 1870’s, Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota were mostly civilized areas.

But there was a James Gang that rode in the far west above the Rocky Mountains, in the land of the Big Sky, far away from the long arm of the Federal Army.

This world was filled with wild, vengeful Indians, corrupt local sheriffs, gunfights, hookers, cowboys, fire whiskey, saloons and gunslinger justice––and that world was the savage and brutal land of the Wyoming and Montana territories. My James Gang was led by me, not my cousins, Jesse and Frank!

My name is Luke James, and this is my story…

The date was June 24, 1876, and the place was called Brimstone. It was wild and wicked little outpost in the southern Montana Territory, with only a saloon, a whorehouse hotel, and a general store. Brimstone was located about ten miles southeast of where Hardin, Montana, sits today. Of course, no such place appears on the maps anymore, but that will all be explained.

Up until the day before, my James gang had been the most feared gang for hundreds of miles around. That all changed, though, when we robbed a stagecoach about twenty miles south of Brimstone.

Even though we got the contents of the Wells Fargo metal strongbox, the unexpected arrival of some Federal soldiers heading north to Little Big Horn caught us off-guard, and we suffered a staggering blow. The Luke James Gang was gunned down by half––from a group of eight, down to four.

In the end, we had only made off with a hundred dollars in United States currency and a pouch that contained some gold nuggets. I didn’t care much for this new-fangled currency, but that seemed to be the way the world was moving.

After being chased for miles by the Federals, who didn’t know the lay of the land like we did, we lost them and hauled ass toward Brimstone. Brimstone was a lawless place with no Federals soldiers and no other law enforcement to speak of. We would be safe there. There, we would have time to lay low, rest, lick our wounds and get a little sexual diversion.

I had lost some good men: Sancho, Hiram, Snake and One-Eyed Nick. All that was left was me, Hershel, Reno and Crazy Wolf.

Out of the three men I had left, Hershel had been riding with me the longest. He was from somewhere down in Texas. I forgot the exact place. He had long, scraggly beard and scraggly black hair to match. In his mid-thirties, he had dark and narrow eyes. I think his momma might have been Mexican. I wasn’t sure, though. He was a smart one, and he was a decent feller. Hershel could also come up with some decent schemes from time to time.

Reno was a son of a bitch with a bad attitude! He had only been riding with us for a couple of months. He was younger than me. I believe he’d once said he was nineteen. He was a handsome kid and a ladies’ man. Like me, Reno was clean-shaven, but he had a real hard look on his face. None of us knew where he was from, and he was not one to volunteer much about his past. He was a damn good with a revolver and the Winchester rifle––almost as good as me. Sometimes, I wondered if he was a little too good. I had sized him up as a cold-blooded killer without a trace of remorse. He would rather kill a man than look at him. Frequently, he’d challenge my orders, but he’d end up falling in line with the rest of them. Needless to say, I didn’t trust him for shit.

Crazy Wolf was a Crow Indian. None of us could pronounce his Crow name, so Crazy Wolf it was… He had long black hair and tanned skin. He was a sure shot, an excellent scout and knew this land like the back of his hand. He also had the unbelievable knack of getting the scoop on any subject, so he made a damn fine investigator.

And then there was me… During the fateful summer of 1876, I was only 24 years old. Although most would’ve considered me to be a young man, I had seen so much death, dying and bullshit, that I felt like a man of 120 years. Standing at almost six-foot, six-inches tall, I had close-cropped brown hair and a handsome enough face that most women spread their legs for me, and most boys spread their cheeks for me. It wasn’t much of a secret that

Reviews for The Ballad of Luke James

[AntMan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

the author has proven in this book that he does indeed have an imagination and can spin an entertaining story. the 1st 3 books i had read were all so much the same that i thought that was all he wrote_ to that point- he does mention large feet in this book as well. we get it keegan- you either have large feet you like licked or you like licking large, stinky feet-- could you plz try keeping them out of a book or 2_ or is that how you sign all your work.
regardless- i enjoyed this story of luke james and the old west.
the pic of you posted here doesn't look anything like the pic you use on your facebook author link that's in this book.