Freedom isn't free. Too Hot To Handle explores the sacrifice of war.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Two brothers, Rod and Cade return from being deployed overseas as Marines in active duty. What they've survived is kept housed deep within themselves.

Like everyone on the planet they've got skeletons in their closets. Cade and Rod weren't perfect when they enlisted. Returning to Evermore Ranch, they splinter, each choosing a path toward self-destruction. Only when they're forced to the brink, does each man veer away the edge and commit to a different means to deal with their pain.

 
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~T E A S E R ~
 
 
“Don’t waste your breath. Margo is on her own,” Campesino retorted bitterly. “Until she comes to her senses, I don’t care what she does. And I don’t speak only for myself. Her father is in full agreement with me. She needs a dose of humility, and if you’re the man to teach it to her, so be it. Frankly, I hope you’re the biggest asshole she comes across, so she realizes just what she threw away.”

Anger flickered on the periphery of my mind like a flame ready to burst into existence. “You’re mistaken if you think she’s going to miss whatever it was you supplied. I’ll make sure she’s taken care of.”

“Let me know when she wears you out.” He glowered, waving off the hotel security. “We can all go out for a drink and trade Margo war stories.”

What was it like for her as a small child to grow up around this conniving SOB? A venomous river laced his barbed words and the cold expression he wore as he talked about Margo were telltale of a greater brutality. I’d seen shit—mountains—but this was incomprehensible. He was talking about his niece and included Nate in his heartless outlook.

“She’s a young woman. What stories could you possibly have on her?” Inhaling a lungful of air, I forced out some of the fury this asshole inspired with a sharp exhale.

“Lots.” He walked away without another word.

Without looking back.

What if he wasn’t lying about Margo’s dad? Is this how they’d leave her tomorrow? A young woman without a net. And thanks to my fucked-in-the-head brother, I now had no doubts that when she implied things were hard at home, she wasn’t being overly dramatic.

“Happy jackass?” I walked up to Cade and he shrugged.

“Never thought I’d hear a man say that about his niece. Got yourself permission to fuck the girl and fuck her over from her own family. Her own father. Campesino said he spoke for Nate. Who would’ve thought those fuckers were such pricks?”

 Prick,” I corrected him. “Don’t include Margo’s dad. If you believe everything that piece of shit just spouted, then you’re an idiot. You’ve crossed a line. It’s only because I understand how screwed up you are that I don’t beat you senseless.”

“What do ya want me to say? Thanks and I’m sorry?” He chuckled, bending to pick up the pieces of his phone. His laughter was saturated with the same darkness I’d heard since we were discharged.

“Everything in this world isn’t expendable,” I growled.

“Oh isn’t it? Guess you conveniently forgot this is the throwaway culture. You. Me. Every Marine we served with can be replaced. Just a set of hands, feet, eyes. People give zero fucks what we went through.”

 “Just because a few asswad politicians and some folks act like the military is a disposable commodity, doesn’t give you an excuse to do the same. Drugs, porn—you’re on a road trip through hell. A journey you’re not taking me on, bro. I shed the target on my back, the moment I boarded a plane and returned home. If you don’t get help, I’ll track your ass and when you make your next score, I’ll contact the DEA. You’re a moron if you believe I’ll sit around and effectively allow you free rein to fuck me over.”

“Then I’ll fuck over that girl,” he said as if Margo were nothing but a bargaining chip in his warped little world.

It was like a low-level burst of electricity discharged over my scalp and down my spine. Time slowed. “This is about you and me. No one else.”

“Not anymore. Margo is invited to this party. If I don’t get what I need, I’ll crucify her.”

I ate up the distance between us and got right in Cade’s face. Close enough to look into his sky blue eyes. The exact color of our mother’s. But he wasn’t anything like our mom. And I hauled back and swung, punching him square in his face, so hard a jolt of pain tore across my knuckles.

“What the fuck, Rod?” He cupped his hands around his nose as blood streamed between the cracks of his fingers.

I went over to the deserted hotel bar and grabbed a handful of napkins. Walking up to Cade, I practically threw them at him. “To help you remember, I’m dead serious. Go near Margo, and there won’t be a place you can run.”
 -o-x-
In Too Hot To Handle, Rod and Cade battle using their fists and ineffective words. It'll take a raging storm to unlock them from their past. Margo is that force for Rod.
 
 
 

 
 



 



 



Too Hot To Handle (Book #10) is also available in paperback

418 pages of sizzling Western heat!

 
Amazon Print Link
 

In Love You Harder (releasing this in late spring), the doors are blown off what these brothers went through before the war.


The last book (actually two: novella book #11 and L.Y.H. #12) in the Bad Boys series ties all the threads together, starting with who is Carolina Rodriguez? Really?

Why was the tinge of organized crime so interested in Annona, Texas? What secret is housed with Evermore? With those initial answers, you'll begin to understand why it's possible for a band of brothers and cousins to decide to make the ultimate sacrifice to save their family and town.
The finale of this series will punch you in the solar plexis. If you've read the series, grown to love the McLemore family, there is no way around, you will rage, vent and possibly hate me as an author, but you will remember: FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!

 


NOT FICTION...
Coming out of fantasyland, it's usually in the evening when I take a spin around reality
and see what the heck has gone on.

 





 

And I find how truly weird, wacky or wacko the world has been.

From El Nino to the H-bomb (thank you not N. Korea!)
to a photographer reminding us that freedom isn't free!
 
Sergeant Kirstie Ennis: “There’s never a reason to give up”

 
CALL TO ACTION: PLEASE, HIT THE GOOGLE BUTTON OR SHARE VIA FB, TWEETER, OR INSTAGRAM
#FREEDOMISNOTFREE
 
AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER (SILVER SPROCKET) ARE DONATING THEIR PORTION OF THE JANUARY 2016 SALES TO SEMPER FI FUND.
THANKS FOR SPREADING THE WORD TO RAISE FUNDING FOR THIS AWESOME RESOURCE FOR OUR WOUNDED MARINES!
 

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