Ball & Chain (Cut & Run series book #8) by @abigailroux | Tams 5 Star Audio Book Review + Excerpt { @RiptideBooks } ~ '

Home from their unexpected deployment, the former members of Marine Force Recon team Sidewinder rejoin their loved ones and try to pick up the pieces of the lives they were forced to leave behind. Ty Grady comes home to Zane Garrett, only to find that everything around him has changed—even the men he went to war with. He barely has time to adjust before his brother, Deuce, asks Ty to be his best man. But that isn’t all Deuce asks Ty to do, and Ty must call for backup to deal with the business issues of Deuce’s future father-in-law.

Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott join Ty and Zane at the wedding on an island in Scotland, thinking they’re there to assuage Deuce’s paranoia. But when bodies start dropping and boats start sinking, the four men get more involved with the festivities than they’d ever planned to.

With the clock ticking and the killer just as stuck on the isolated island as they are, Ty and Zane must navigate a veritable minefield of family, friends, and foes to stop the whole island from being destroyed.

Buy links: Riptide | Amazon US | Audible

When Ty's brother, Deuce, asks Ty to be his best man at this wedding... in Scotland... all expenses paid, Ty and Zane welcome the almost vacation from their otherwise chaotic lives. Having just returned from a six month deployment, Ty comes home with more baggage than what he carries in his Sea bag. He isn't back two days when their boss calls both men into their office and tells them that since Zane is now in a Supervisory role, they can no longer be partners. Furthermore, since their relationship is now out in the open, Mac wants to transfer one of them to another state. Ty does the only reasonable thing he can think of, he quits. The one thing Ty is no longer willing to do is put his job before his lover.

The call from Ty's brother, Deuce, comes at the perfect time. An all expenses paid trip to Scotland for a week to be Deuce's best man with a plus one. Providing security for his niece should be a breeze, right? Come on now, this is Ty, Zane, Nick and Kelly we are talking about. Wrong! The tension between Ty and Nick is thick, Nick still fuming over events that happened in NOLA. When the bodies start piling up, the two men have to put their differences aside if they want to survive. No one is safe, and to spite having four of the most dangerous men in the world on the island with a crazy killer, the bodies continue to drop, at a maddening pace.

Stuck on an island in Scotland sounds like a dream, right? Again, wrong! A storm knocks out the phones and internet, a tree falls on the boathouse and all the boats are either destroyed or drift out to sea in the sub-zero waters, Zane's laptop has been fried. Murphy's law should probably be redefined in Webster's dictionary to Grady's law. The bonds are friendship, loyalty and love are put to the test as the four men race against time to figure out who the killer is and whether or not this is about Deuce's future in laws, or a threat that is far closer to home.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph... you seriously cannot take these two anywhere, and after the last couple of books, I'm convinced that Nick and Kelly aren't far behind that statement. Once again Roux delivers an action packed, non-stop, thrill ride of a story. It's intense, suspenseful, passionate and completely engaging. I was reminded of the movie Clue while listening to this book. Between the storm, the bodies piling up, so many possible suspects, the hilarity that ensues during it all. I can assure you that it was not the cook, since she is in the kitchen with the knife, in her back. In the midst of the madness, Ty is trying to convince Zane to marry him. I think I would have to agree with Zane, stuck on a deserted island with a killer(s) in their midst, not conducive for a happy engagement. Hell, they aren't even sure they'll survive long enough to attend the wedding they came to Scotland for.

JF Harding continues his narration of this motley crew. I love that he continually carries the same accents and tones from one book to the next for all the recurring characters. He also has the ability to convey the characters emotions at any given time to fit the words with the mood of the story. Let me just say, this book probably has the most secondary characters of any in the series thus far, and you can hear a distinct difference in each and every character.

Definitely a must read series, especially if you like the strong, overbearing alpha male type, and want to read or listen to a story where both men have those characteristics so you can see how the navigate a relationship and try to stay on a level playing field. The relationship between Ty and Zane the way they balance each other out, it's something amazing to behold. Not to mention that hot, monkey sex on the carpet by the fire. Yowza!!!

Excerpt...

“All right, funny guy,” Zane said. He smacked Ty on the hip. “You’re clearly entertained without my help.”

Ty reached out for his wrist, laughing out loud as he pulled Zane toward him in the dark. “No, don’t. I’ll be good.”

“You being good isn’t a problem,” Zane said as they bumped together. “Focused, yes. Good, no.”

Ty nodded determinedly and cleared his throat. “I’ll be focused,” he said seriously.

Zane leaned forward, his lips skimming from the corner of Ty’s mouth, along his cheekbone, and to his ear. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he whispered.

Ty moved his head, trying to meet Zane’s lips with his own, but Zane moved away too quickly for the kiss. Ty wrapped his arms around Zane’s shoulders. “I think you should do something I’ll be ashamed of in the morning.”

Zane gripped his hips and pushed their groins together. “Hmmm. What could I do that would make you blush if you thought about it tomorrow?”

“If I don’t get a kiss soon, I’m going to reach critical mass, understand?” He barely got the last word out when Zane’s mouth was on his, hot and hungry. Ty groaned and let Zane take control of it, hoping his lover knew which way the bed was. Zane ran one hand up his back to cup his head as he deepened the kiss, his other hand moving between them to pull at Ty’s shirt, drawing him into the darkness.

“So, how embarrassed would you be if someone at breakfast mentions hearing screaming from this end of the island?” Zane drawled.

“Just tell them I saw a crab, no one will ask questions.”

Zane laughed. He pulled his shirt over his head and then he was right there again, all muscles and hot skin. After another long kiss, Zane asked, “What’s your pleasure, baby?”

“You know exactly what I want,” Ty answered breathlessly. He pushed Zane toward the nearest of the two beds. They could see the bed in the moonlight, the bright white bedcover practically glowing blue as their eyes adjusted to the darkness. They came to the edge of the bed and Ty pulled Zane closer and kissed him hungrily as he fell back onto the soft mattress.

It wasn’t until it was too late that he remembered the gauzy rings of mosquito netting that hung over both beds. The clingy material wrapped around them as they fell into it, getting caught up between them and around their limbs and tightening as their weight pulled the net above and spun the supporting ring around and around.

“Hell.” Zane pushed off Ty and began batting at the netting, trying to find his way out of it. “Shit, I can’t see. Quit moving!”

Ty shook his head and started laughing all over again. He held his hands up obediently, trying not to move. But he was hopelessly encased in netting. He laughed harder, until he could barely catch his breath, and his laughter went from loud and ringing through the little loft to nearly silent as he tried and failed to pull in air. Zane’s cursing and struggling just made it funnier.

Finally Zane got loose and rolled away, his weight leaving the bed.

“Get some rest,” Zane said quietly as he moved around the dark room and out of Ty’s visual range. He sounded disgruntled. “You don’t want too much of a hangover tomorrow.”

“Wait, Zane, don’t go,” Ty said through his laughter. He tried to roll to go after him but wound up tangled even more in the soft netting. “It’s not funny, I swear,” he tried even as he snickered and tugged at the netting.

He heard Zane snort from the other bed. “Be careful.”

“You’re seriously leaving me here?” Ty asked, his voice a higher pitch than it usually was.

Zane was quiet for a long minute. He finally sighed. “No.” He moved, and a light flipped on, blindingly bright.

Ty winced away from it and tried to cover his eyes, but that only served to tangle him further in the netting, which was for some reason wildly funny.

Zane threw up his hands. “I am not even dealing with this,” he said, his voice trembling with laughter. He turned the light back off. “You’re a mess”

“No, Zane! Don’t leave me here!” Ty said in the most pitiful voice he could muster, which was ruined by the continuing peals of laughter he just couldn’t stop.

“Good night, Ty.”

After long moments of trying desperately to calm down, Ty finally managed to stop laughing and come to terms with the fact that Zane probably wasn’t going to fuck him tonight. He probably wasn’t even going to untangle him, and Ty was much too drunk and pleasantly sleepy to try to do it himself.

“Well,” he sighed, his movements accompanied by the clanking of the spinning wheel above him. “This was not what I had in mind when I told you I wanted to be ashamed of myself in the morning.”

To read this entire excerpt head over to Riptide Publishing.

Abigail Roux was born and raised in North Carolina. A past volleyball star who specializes in sarcasm and painful historical accuracy, she currently spends her time coaching high school volleyball and investigating the mysteries of single motherhood. Any spare time is spent living and dying with every Atlanta Braves and Carolina Panthers game of the year.

Abigail has a daughter, Little Roux, who is the light of her life, a boxer, four rescued cats who play an ongoing live-action variation of Call of Duty throughout the house, a certifiable extended family down the road, and a cast of thousands in her head.

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