by TA Moore
Disappointment flashed over Morgan’s face. It was gone too quickly to pin it down. Maybe he’d just miss the bed. Either way, he shook it off. “Yeah,” he said roughly as the Uber pulled up. “It does.”
IT WAS nearly five when Boyd finally made it to Morgan’s door at the B and B. He rapped his knuckles against the painted wood and fidgeted from foot to foot while he waited. When Morgan opened the door and saw Boyd, he exhaled in unmistakable relief.
“I thought I’d—”
“Wait. Before you say anything,” Boyd interrupted, “I have something to show you. It’s downstairs.”
Morgan looked confused and slightly disappointed, but he followed Boyd downstairs and out through the time-capsule lobby, all silver trays and heavy furniture with carved feet. They went out through the narrow side door and into the crooked, K-shaped parking lot.
Shay’s car was parked right in front of the door, angled crosswise over two spaces.
The fire had left the old car more charred cherry than black cherry. The heat had taken the high gloss off the paint and left singed, blackened pocks that exposed the gunmetal undercoat. Smoke stained the windscreen in opaque streaks, worked too deep into the glass to clean off.
“Shay said this was the car you want,” Boyd said as he held out the keys. His voice was rough, and he had to clear it and try again. “It’s not worth what it was before the fire, but it runs. The engine is fine. It’ll get you where you need to go.”
Morgan hesitated for a second and then walked over to run his hand over the charred hood in consolation.
“You got me a car,” he said. “So I could get out of your life faster?”
Boyd tossed the keys over the hood to him. They rattled, hooked together on a rabbit’s foot key ring as Morgan easily grabbed them out of the air.
“You’ll need a car to get where you’re going,” Boyd said. “Wherever that is. At least I won’t have to worry you’ve hitchhiked and gotten yourself killed.”
“Again,” Morgan said.
Boyd grimaced as he absorbed. “Again,” he agreed. “It will take some getting used to, that you’re him.”
“You were the one who tried to convince me that I was last night,” he pointed out as he wiped soot off the window so he could look through at the heat-warped leather seats. “What changed your mind?”
Boyd leaned back against the wall and tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Nothing,” he said. “It’s just… a bigger idea now it’s here. I guess I hadn’t thought it through. Anyhow, the car’s yours. You can drive it out of town whenever you like. Or… you can stay.”
An odd expression flickered over Morgan’s face. He laughed tiredly. “I’m such an asshole that I’m glad you asked, even if I have to say no. Come on, Boyd, what have I got here?”
“Me,” Boyd said. If he thought that would be enough, he wouldn’t have brought the car. “Donna Calloway—”
“She hates you.”
“She doesn’t hate you,” Boyd countered. He gestured at the car. “A newish car.”
Morgan was coaxed into a laugh as he picked a large, dandruffy flake of paint off the white car and flicked it away from him. “Newish, lightly bonfired,” he said.
“And once Shay gets the garage back on its feet, however many shares of the company the ten grand I’ll get back from your bail can get you,” Boyd said. “Shay agreed. So… stay.”
Morgan inhaled. “You think I don’t want to? I can’t go back to jail, and Lo’s gunning for me—”
“He’s after Morgan Graves,” Boyd said. “No judge in their right mind is going to turn ‘Sammy Calloway came home’ into ‘Put Sammy Calloway in jail.’ I don’t think being Sammy is going to come with a lot of advantages, so you might as well make use of that one. And if they try, we’ll fight it.”
There was a long, uncertain pause—or at least it felt long—and then Morgan cracked a quick, ruthlessly charming smile.
“Do you want me to stay?” he asked.
The urge to “up to you” him, to pass on the responsibility, caught in Boyd’s throat. He always tried to be no trouble, to not want anything for himself. As though he didn’t deserve it. But… he wanted this.
“I want you to stay,” he said clearly. “Please?”
Morgan exhaled raggedly and walked over to Boyd. He caught Boyd’s hips in his hands and pulled him a step closer. Their bodies pressed easily together from chest to thigh.
“You’d have been ten grand and a car richer if you realized all I needed was you,” Morgan said. “But I don’t know what’s next. I don’t know what I’ll find out, about who, when Mac starts to pick my life apart. Or what you’ll find out.”
“You’ll stay?” Boyd checked.
Morgan hesitated and then rested his forehead against Boyd’s. “I’ll stay.”
“Then—” Boyd kissed him. “—whatever you find out, I’ll be here for. I can’t change the past, but I won’t let anyone hurt you again. We’re in this together.”
More from TA Moore
A Blood and Bone Novel
Agent Luke Bennett proved that humans could rise just as high in the ranks as their vampire colleagues—until a kidnapper held him captive for a year and turned him without his consent.
Now he’s Took: a reluctant monster afraid to bite anyone, broke, and about to be discharged from his elite BITERs unit.
When an old colleague suggests he consult on a BITERs case, Took has little to lose. The case is open and shut… but nothing is ever that easy. As he digs deeper, he discovers a lot more than one cold case is at stake, and if he wants to solve this one, he’ll need the help of the BITERs team. Even if that brings his old commander, Madoc, back into his life.
Divorce lawyer Clayton Reynolds is a happy cynic who believes in hard work and one-night stands. He also believes that being an excellent lawyer means he never has to go home to the miserable trailer park where he grew up and that volunteering at a women’s shelter will buy off the conscience that occasionally plagues him. So when Nadine Graham comes in with a broken arm and a son she desperately wants to protect, Clayton can’t turn down their plea for help.
Taking the case means appealing to investigator “Just Call Me Kelly” for help. That wouldn’t be so bad if Kelly weren’t a hopeless romantic… and the hottest man Clayton’s ever met.
Kelly has always had a crush on the unobtainable Clayton Reynolds. He agrees to help, even though he has enough on his plate with the motherless baby his widowed brother left him to care for.
As Nadine’s case turns dangerous and the two seemingly opposite men are forced to work together, they discover they have a great deal in common—but solving the case and saving Nadine’s life might cost Kelly everything.
A Story from Plenty, California
As one of the top trauma surgeons in Plenty’s ER, Dr. Taggart Hayes knows how to fix broken things—fractured legs, ruptured spleens, allergies, and traumatic brain injuries. He can put them back together good as new.
A broken heart, though? That’s a bit trickier. Especially when it’s his own.
When Tag swipes on the photo of the hot man in the dating app, he just wants a distraction from the wreck that used to be his life. A one-night stand with a safely inappropriate stranger, no names, no feelings, and no complications.
But the headless photo on the app belongs to a man who isn’t so easy to forget the next day… or the next week. And it becomes increasingly clear that Bass is neither safe nor uncomplicated. Drawn into the dark, criminal underworld his lover inhabits, Tag has to decide if the cure for his broken heart is worse than the disease.
You don’t end up an ex-car thief and ex-con because you’re good at resisting temptation… and Cal Tate’s rich new boss is very tempting.
Cal has always been the bad boy lovers don’t bring home to Mom, but now he’d like someone other than a debt collector waiting for him at home. He has a legit job as a driver with his brother’s company, he’s got a doctor on the hook,
and he still can’t help crawling into bed with Joseph Bailey.
Joe has never met anyone as easy in their own skin as his new driver. Or as ridiculously beautiful. He’s in London to downsize the family business… and to investigate the abusive emails that imply a dark secret around his mother’s death. But unpicking the lies he’s been told makes Joe realize he isn’t sure who is without them.
When his life falls apart, the only person he can be himself with is Cal. But with the anonymous stalker’s threats increasing, Joe worries that someone will finish the job they started over two decades ago—and end any chance for a happy future between him and Cal.
Island Classifieds: Book One
His mother. His best friend. The barmaid at the local pub. Everyone is determined to find Nathan Moffatt a boyfriend. It’s the last thing Nathan wants. After spending every day making sure his clients experience nothing but romantic magic, the Granshire Hotel’s wedding organizer just wants to go home, binge-watch crime dramas, and eat pizza in his underwear.
Unfortunately, no one believes him, and he’s stuck with lectures about dying alone. Then inspiration strikes. He needs the people in his life to want him to stay single as much as he does. He needs a bad boyfriend.
There’s only one man for the job.
Flynn Delaney is used to people on the island of Ceremony thinking the worst of him. But he isn’t sure he wants the dubious honor of worst boyfriend on the entire island. On the other hand, if he plays along, he gets to hang out with the gorgeous Nathan and piss off the owners of the Granshire Hotel. It’s a win-win.
There’s only one problem—Flynn’s actually quite a good boyfriend, and now Nathan’s wondering if getting off the sofa occasionally is really the worst thing in the world.
Readers love TA Moore
Dead Man Stalking
“The characters are so richly written that it is easy to be seamlessly drawn into the story and to become invested in them.”
—Paranormal Romance Guild
“…Dead Man Stalking is compelling and absorbing…. This is a world I want to explore more deeply, and in the company of these characters.”
—Reading Reality
Take the Edge Off
“Such a great read, one that keeps you entertained the whole way through!”
—Diverse Reader
“TA Moore does a great job combining romance and suspense in this story and I really enjoyed Take the Edge Off.”
—Joyfully Jay
Skin and Bone
“…this book checks all my boxes. I could not put it down.”
—Love Bytes
“I would totally read the next book in the series given the quality of writing and emotional engagement I had with the first two books in the series.”
—Gay Book Reviews
TA MOORE is a Northern Irish writer of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance novels. A childhood in a rural seaside town fostered a suspicious nature, a love of mystery, and a streak of black humour a mile wide. As her grandmother always said, “She’d laugh at a bad thing, that one,” mind you, that was the pot calling the kettle black. TA studied history, Irish mythology, and English at University, mostly because she has always loved a good story. She has worked as a journalist, a finance manager, and in the arts sectors before she finally gave in to a lifelong desire to write.
Coffee, Doc Marten boots, and good friends are the essential things in life. Spiders, mayo, and heels are to be avoided.
Website: www.nevertobetold.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TA.Moores
Twitter: @tammy_moore
By TA Moore
Every Other Weekend
Ghostwriter of Christmas Past
Liar, Liar
Take the Edge Off
BLOOD AND BONE
Dead Man Stalking
DIGGING UP BONES
Bone to Pick
Skin and Bone
ISLAND CLASSIFIEDS
Wanted – Bad Boyfriend
LOST AND FOUND
Prodigal
PLENTY, CALIFORNIA
Swipe
Bone to Pick
Skin and Bone
WOLF WINTER
Dog Days
Stone the Crows
Published by DSP Publications
Devil Take Me Anthology
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Prodigal
© 2020 TA Moore
Cover Art
© 2020 Reece Notley
[email protected]
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64405-801-5
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-800-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952344
Digital published February 2020
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
