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Keegan James was all about his career in the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
Until he let his heart get in the way of his good sense and
he started thinking about marriage and future. She was too, just with someone
else. So, he did what any smart, jilted lover would do- quit his job and moved
to the beach. Sort of.
About to start his new job with the Border Patrol, Keegan
buys an old farm on a whim. It needs a
ton of work—or a total tear down—but he loves it and can’t wait to make it his
new bachelor pad. Too bad the entire property is under investigation by the DEA
for drug trafficking and the agent on the case thinks he’s involved.
What’s worse? She’s
smart, sexy and good with a gun.
Nikki has had to prove herself every step of the way to get
where she is. If her boss weren’t
her father’s best friend and her ex
wasn’t a complete idiot, maybe it would have been different. As it stands, she
is about to break the case of her career. And, possibly arrest the sexiest man
she’d met in a really long time.
It eventually becomes obvious that Keegan isn’t her perp and that drugs are exactly what’s being moved off
his property.
Here's a little sneak peak....
Excerpt 1
"Have you
thought about joining one of them online dating sites?' his mother inquired
before he even had his seat belt on.
"Mom."
He sighed as he turned the key and put the car in gear. "Give it a rest,
would you please?" Keegan pulled onto the road and back toward the more
populated area of the city and his temporary rental but Clara had no intention
of letting anything rest.
"Come on,
it's easy. You just fill out a profile and let the ladies find you."
Keegan groaned.
"It's not that easy, Ma. Finding a wife is not like going to the grocery
store. I can't make a shopping list of attributes and just fall in love because
some computer program says I should."
"Well,
nothing else seems to be working for you. Your brother found love; Logan is happy.
I just want you to have what they have."
"I'm going to
be pretty busy here for a while, Ma. There isn’t going to be time to have a
relationship with anyone except my contractor and the construction supply
company."
Clara sat back and
folder her arms across her chest. "You would deny your mother the chance
to know you are happy before she dies?"
"Let it go
already, Ma. Please. I can't force someone to love me just to make you
happy." Or for any reason at all. A lesson he had learned the hard way—at
the expense of his career hard way.
"Well, you
can't fault a mother for trying." Clara turned to look out the window and
things became eerily silent. Whenever his mother was quiet too long, Keegan got
worried. She was probably concocting some plan that he was going to hate.
"What about
one of those foreign things? You know, brides from other countries?"
Keegan slammed on
the brakes, sending the BMW into a slight fishtail before it came to a stop.
Gripping the steering wheel, Keegan struggled to maintain his composure. Clara
was his mother after all. "You. Want. Me. To. Get. A. Mail. Order.
Bride?"
"Sure, why
not? Hank, in my group has one. So does your Uncle Joe."
"What the
hell, Ma?" He turned to look at Clara. "I'm not desperate! I'm perfectly happy with my life and I would suggest you
let this drop now!"
"You would
take that tone with your own mother?" Clara clasped her hands over her
heart. "When my only wish is to see you happy and taken care of?"
Keegan put the car
back in gear and started driving again. "Let it drop, Ma."
Clara let out a
little sigh and folded her hands in her lap. "For now."
Excerpt 2:
Nikki followed
Logan's wife out the front door. After being inside the windowless house, the
morning sunshine seemed especially bright. As they walked around the side of
what Nikki had thought was a small cabin, what she saw stopped her in her
tracks. The view of the Blue Ridge Mountains was absolutely breathtaking. The
greens of the trees against the blue of the sky and tendrils of early morning
fog weaving in and out of the mountain tops painted a picture that no words
could do justice.
"Wow."
Angie looked at
her over her shoulder. "I know. It blew me away the first time too."
"How long
have you and Logan been married?"
"Just about a
year. We had a quick romance, I guess." Angelina laughed.
"That's what
Keegan said about Kaiden and Katie."
"The James
men are pretty intense and when they make up their minds about something they
go after it. No messing around."
Nikki nodded.
"They are intense."
"Keegan has
already made up his mind about you. I can see it in his eyes. He is head over
heels for you."
"We just met
less than a week ago."
"I knew Logan
loved me two days in. Of course, our courting period happened while we were on
the run from mercenaries that wanted me dead so we may have felt a bit of
pressure to get things out in the open." She laughed again and motioned
for Nikki to follow her. A few hundred feet away was a patio with comfortable
oversized chairs and an awning. Angelina lowered herself into one of the chairs
and waved Nikki to the one beside her. "So much better to sit."
"I'm not sure
I'll ever have a baby. Pregnancy seems so hard.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
Angelina smiled.
"No worries. It is hard. The hardest part is being on leave and not be
able to go after the bad guys anymore. I would give my left arm—not my right
because that's my gun hand—to be there when Salvatore goes down but they are
right, I need to stay here."
"Is there
anything you would like to say to him? I mean, I could pass on a message for
you when we get him."
"A well
placed knee to his crotch would make me exceptionally happy."
Nikki grinned.
"You got it. I mean, as long as those boys don't go all macho on me and
cut me out of the action."
"Ah, so
that's what's bothering you."
"Come
again?" Nikki tried not to sound annoyed but she wasn't very successful.
She sounded like a bitch even to her own ears.
"I read
people very well. You were pretty pissed in there."
She shrugged.
"I was. Am. This started out as my investigation. I know I have to share
it with the ATF but honestly, they have all hijacked it totally. I'm just an
onlooker now and I'm the one that did all the leg work."
"You know
why, right?" Angelina smiled and patted her arm.
"Because I am
a woman?"
"Oh, no. The
James men are not like that, Clara would kick every one of their asses off the
side of this mountain if they were."
Nikki sat forward
and looked Angelina in the eye. "Then what the hell is wrong with them? Do
I threaten their masculinity or something?"
"Nope."
"Then
what?"
"I told you,
Keegan is in love with you."
Nikki shook her
head. "No, he isn’t. We just met."
"Doesn't
matter. He has decided you are the one and once a James decides they love
someone, you are instantly inside their circle of wagons, so to speak. They are
protecting you now."
"I don't need
protection. I want to do my job."
"Then stand
up to them. Don't let them shut you out. Even though they aren't trying to do
that, they will in a heartbeat if it keeps you safe. Logan about lost it when I
was shot. He wouldn't even let me go to the bathroom alone for months. I had to
sneak away when he was asleep to go to the supermarket. They love hard, those
guys, but they love with every fiber of their being."
"I'm not sure
I'm ready for all that."
"I wasn't
either but they grow on you. Or wear you down. One or the other." Angelina
chuckled as she appeared to slip away for a moment into a private memory.
"Anyway, if you don't mind me saying, it is my opinion that you are more
ready than you think you are. I see the way you watch him and the way he
touches you whenever he can and it makes you blush just a little. Keegan is a
really good man, Nikki. I hope you won't be scared off by his intensity. He
needs someone like you to even him out."
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