Release Date: 2/25/2015
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Evernight Buy Link:
Author: April Zyon
Series: Massey Texas
Author Stalking Links
Author Website: www.april-zyon.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HJames.AZyon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HJames_AZyon
Blurb:
When handed the Intel on a potential threat Martin Carver had no
idea it would be what led him back to the town of his birth. At age nineteen
he’d left Massey , Texas
Taking over her father’s practice had always been in the cards
for Athena Rhodes. What she didn’t expect was to take over from him was the
baggage that came along with the business. Law abiding woman that she is,
Athena reaches out to get some help. Not in the cards was having the only man
to ever hold her heart walk through the door, and tell her he was there to get
her out from under the mob.
Everyone has always believed Martin to be the classic do-gooder.
Building homes in third world countries, off saving the whales from drilling
platforms, or any number of stories that have filtered through Massey through
the years. To find out every single one of those stories were nothing more than
fairy tales is one thing, to find out he’s actually an FBI agent will take some
getting used to.
Athena’s running out of time, the mob having set a time limit on
what they require her to do. If she fails to follow their demands to the letter
it will mean her father’s life. Unsure what to do she will lean heavily on
Martin, and hope he doesn’t let her fall.
The clock is against them to keep the woman Martin loves and her
dad safe. He’ll do whatever it takes to end the threat rising against them.
Because he’s got an all or nothing plan. What could go wrong?
Excerpt:
He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there staring at the
sign announcing, “Welcome to Massey, TX Population 5,609 and growing!” but the
hood under his ass was cooling, and the sun had reached its highest point.
Hell, it was starting the slow slide toward the horizon.
It had been a long, long time since he’d been home. The last
time he’d been there he’d flown in for his pop’s funeral, stuck around for the
meal, and then got the hell out of Dodge. Since then, he hadn’t been home once.
He called, though, every single weekend right after his mother had finished
breakfast on Sundays. They would chat for exactly one hour and fifteen minutes.
No more, no less. The woman always had enough gossip to fill that time, so he
rarely had to say much of anything.
Yet, here he was. Staring into the abyss of the quintessential
small town. Ranches and farms spread out as far as the eye could see and
beyond. Nestled in the middle was Massey. His hometown, and the place he’d
burned rubber to get away from the moment he’d turned eighteen. Unlike his
brothers, Martin had always hated coming back. To him, it had felt
claustrophobic. Whether from his family’s expectations, or from his own uncertainty
about the future, he didn’t know.
This time was no different. So, there he was, sitting on the
hood of his ‘66 Mustang. While she maintained her shape, he’d given her a few
tweaks over the years. A new paint job when he was eighteen, and a new hemi
engine when he was twenty-two. There were a few other not exactly legal
additional elements to Eris, named after the goddess of chaos, strife, and
discord. His brothers had actually named his car, but he’d let it stick. Hell,
he’d even gotten a little name plate that was attached to the dashboard right
over the speedometer.
Martin shook his head, leaning back on his hands as he continued
to stare in the direction of the town. He remembered back in high school a
rumor Frank had told him about. His older brother had apparently also started
it, but he denied it with a smirk every single time Martin confronted him.
According to the “rumor,” if a girl managed to talk Martin into
taking her out a date, she prayed he’d be driving Eris. If he showed up in his
pop’s old pickup truck, then she knew she would be getting walked to the front
door, given a peck on the cheek, and he’d promptly leave to never call her for
another date. But if he showed up in Eris, the girl would be getting a tour of
the backseat, on her back, and things would be a rocking.
Not once had Martin ever taken a girl out in Eris. There’d been
one he’d thought about, right before leaving town for good, but she’d been too
young, and he definitely hadn’t needed that sort of thing to follow him or her around
for the rest of their days.
Athena Rhodes. Named for the virgin goddess of reason,
intelligent activity, arts, and literature. A more perfect name for the woman
in question there never would be. She’d always had an ethereal quality about
her, always thinking before leaping, and was the one woman who still had him
jolting up out of bed in the middle of the night from the dreams she starred
front and center in.
Not the teenage version of Athena Rhodes either. Nope, he knew
exactly what she looked like as of four weeks ago. Hell, he even had her photo
in the folder sitting on the passenger seat of his car. The rest of what was in
the folder was why he was there, despite digging in his heels with the director
of the FBI. Fucking bastard found it funny that Martin didn’t want to go home
for a visit and deal with the trouble Athena found herself in. In the
director’s mind, it was two birds, one stone. In Martin’s, it was a colossal
fuck up in the making. Especially if Athena was anywhere near it.
Athena, bane of his existence. She’d been just starting to come
into the woman she would one day be when he’d left Massey. Now she was more
than he could ever have imagined. Five-foot-seven, long, rich red hair the
color of a wine with hints of copper and strawberries. Green eyes that could
lighten with amusement or darken like a coming storm. Athena had the
stereotypical redhead temper, though he knew from his mother’s gossip she
rarely showed it any more. So she’d gotten it under control. Should be
interesting to test that theory.
Pale golden skin, just a hint of a tan, with a smattering of
freckles over her nose and upper curve of her cheeks. A slightly rounded face
with amazing bone structure, straight nose, slightly pointed chin, gave her
face a heart-shaped look. A long ,elegant neck he’d imagined nibbling on in his
quest to discover if there were freckles anywhere else on her body. His dreams
said yes, but Martin didn’t think he’d really ever find out.
To top off his perfect woman’s image, Athena had some meat on
her bones. She was built like a woman, sturdy, and not like one of those twigs
from Hollywood
His other problem with the woman. She got him all twisted up
inside, and turned him into a babbling fool. Or she had. Martin really hoped
she still didn’t have that particular effect on him. ‘Cause that would just be
the fucking icing on the cake for this whole damned trip.
The sound of an engine pulled his attention back, and he let out
a sigh when the truck got close enough for him to recognize it. All the time in
the world seemed to have passed, and the damn pickup truck that was used around
the Carver Ranch was still exactly the same. Squinting slightly at the
reflection off the windshield, he waited for his brother to swing it around and
park it behind the Mustang.
The crunch of boots to gravel told him where his big brother
was, yet still, he waited. Only when the other man slid onto the hood next to
him did he give a nod. “Frank,” he said quietly.
“Martin.” That was it, nothing else.
Course they didn’t really need to say much of anything else.
Despite rumors to the contrary, ones sort of started by him, he and Frank had
worked together more than once. They even talked on a fairly regular basis.
While Frank had worked for a different branch, and under different mandates for
the US
“Eris is looking good,” Frank said after another ten minutes of
silence.
“She held up well on the drive. Only got a bit cranky with me
outside of Dallas
Frank snorted out a laugh at that. “I can’t believe you still
have her.”
“Dude, she’s family. Quit trash talking my car.”
Hands up, Frank cracked a grin. A real grin. As in teeth and
everything. While Martin was staring in shock, he missed what his brother was
saying. “What? Sorry.”
“I asked you how long you plan on sitting out here. According to
Willard, you’ve been here since eight this morning. It’s now nearly two in the
afternoon.”
Heaving a sigh, Martin shoved his hands through his pale blond
hair. Out of all the Carvers, his was the lightest in color, but his eyes were
the darkest. The oddities of the familial gene pool. “Working up the nerve to
drive across the county line is all.”
“Uh-huh. You do know that Mama’s already heard you’re here. And
the fact you are sitting here, and not at her kitchen table where she can
smother you with all that built up motherly love, means you are in seriously
deep shit, little brother.”
Martin winced at that. Yeah, his mama would hug him, weep all
over him, and then likely bean him with her rolling pin. Theresa Carver was in
no way a pushover. She might play the part occasionally to lure the unaware in
close, but then she struck. She could make a grown man in a full rage cry like
a little girl in under two minutes. Without even batting a lash. She was that
good.
“So, what has you here?” Frank asked.
Normally, he wouldn’t discuss it, but Frank still held his
beyond top secret clearance level, and likely would as long as he was still
breathing. “Athena Rhodes, or rather her dirty, lowdown scoundrel of a father.”
Frank’s head whipped around to look his way. “Shit. You got
handed that one?”
“Yup.”
“Well fuck me.”
Yup. Pretty much Martin’s exact thoughts on the matter.
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A small aside about the series, Massey Texas
I’ve always been fascinated with Cowboys. I know, most people
are but to me there is just something super sexy about a man who is willing to
work his ass off for a living. Something that’s incredibly hot about a man who
knows how to work the land with his own hands.
When I originally started Massey Texas
Massey Texas has been a wonderful thrill-ride fro me, each time
the characters spoke they tended to throw me for a loop, so to speak, and I
loved every single moment of it.
While I’m tentatively ending this series at this book, the 9th in the series, it doesn’t mean that I
will never revisit it one day in the future. After all, there were a couple of
babies born to the Carver family that might eventually need their stories told!
I truly hope that you have all enjoyed the Massey Texas series
as much as I have, and I hope that you will continue to read the books that I
put out as either April Zyon, or Honor James.
~~~ Peace and love my
friends, and be good to each other!
April Zyon (Also known as
Honor James)
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