A series by Lita Stone and Max Redford that follows the trials of three brothers from the rural town of Cut And Shoot, Texas, as they struggle with the current hardships of life and the dark deeds of their past, while a serial killer dubbed The Cupcake Killer is terrorizing women, many of them closely associated with the three brothers.
Titles in the series:
- Always
- Maybe
- Sometimes
- Never
- Rest
- In
- Peace
- Come Again (a Cut And Shoot novella)
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Cam and Ajay’s biological father Tony.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Ajay and Jags often annoy Cam.
- Bad Ass Family: All three of the brothers are badass in their own right.
- Badass Pacifist: Jags.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Jags again.
- Big Brother Instinct: Ajay and Jags often refer to Cam for advice.
- Children Raise You:
- Combat Medic: Ajay, though he doesn't use his medic training very often but it's still there.
- Damsel out of Distress: Maggie doesn't want a hero and even says as much on several different occasions while also proving time and time again that she match wits with anyone she comes up against.
- Declaration of Protection: Cam is this with his brothers and Gramps and later with Maggie. Ajay with Emily and Jags with Star.
- Defiled Forever: Maggie sees herself as this.
- Happily Adopted: Cam and Ajay were adopted by Jag's father after marrying their mother. So in actuality, Cam and Ajay were adopted into the Wolfe family.
- Missing Mom: Cam and Ajay's biological mother has gone missing right before the events of Always.
- Promotion to Parent: Maggie becomes her niece's legal guardian. Cam as well.
- Rape as Backstory: Maggie.
- Rule of Romantic: Most of the relationship between Cam and Maggie in Always. Some of the things Cam does would probably make most women run far, far away.
- Shed the Family Name: Cam and Ajay take on their step-father's last name (Wolfe) because they want absolutely no association with their abusive alcoholic father.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Or else Maggie and Cam wouldn't be the first choices for Bree, but Maggie does come from a wealthy family (not to mention her father is the Mayor of Cut And Shoot.)
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Cam.
- Tangled Family Tree: Cam and Ajay were adopted by Doug Wolfe, Jag's father; Cam and Ajay's biological mother and grandmother have gone missing before the events of Always; and while Cam is the main caretaker of Gramps, he's not even his biological grandson.
- There Are No Therapists: Cam killed his own father who was violently abusive to his mother and little brother Ajay when they were young, and Ajay even starts a violent gang in high school, yet no one tends to want to talk about these dark past and so they deal with them privately.
