Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Not everyone knows what they want out of life when they are a teenager, but TJ Taggart could always see exactly where he wanted to go. But joining the Army would require a sacrifice. Since meeting Louisa, TJ knew his cousin’s brilliant, oddball friend was the woman he wanted to spend his life with. He couldn’t ask her to live that life with him. She was meant to change the world at some prestigious research job or maybe teach a new generation of geniuses like herself at an Ivy League school. There would be a chance to sweep her off her feet when his time in this dangerous life was done, and their happily ever after could begin.
Before he can make it home on his latest leave, TJ is kidnapped by an unknown adversary. As he waits to die, all he can think of is the time he wasted and how badly he wants to be with Lou. He’s more than a little surprised when his sweet, quiet girl shows up leading a CIA special ops squad to bust him out. Back in Dallas, it’s time to claim the woman of his dreams. He has a plan to win her over, until the adversary who almost killed him returns to finish the job.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
“Are you sure I can’t kill him?”
TJ Taggart sighed because he should have known it was a bad idea to bring his cousin Kala into this particular scheme of his. It had been suggested by several members of Johnson High School’s senior class that a new “most likely to” category be created just for Kala Taggart. Most Likely to Murder Someone.
Luckily the administration had shut that right down. Probably because, like the rest of the world, they were afraid of Kala. He’d heard some talk about how relieved the entire staff would be when all the Taggarts were off to college and they never had to deal with that military mafia family again.
Their description, not his.
They would be waiting forever. His family was massive, and there always seemed to be a new addition.
“If I thought I could get away with it, I would do it myself,” TJ said under his breath as they both watched the boy in question walk across the quad toward the main building. Unfortunately for him, Kala was the only way to go when it came to taking down an asshole. His sister, Devi, would try to kick the guy in the balls, but Kala understood they needed something truly awful in order to end this thing between Lou and that fuckwad walking across the quad like he owned it.
“I can get away with it,” Kala returned.
“I think Lou’s been through enough without losing her best friend to juvie.” Dennis Sims walked up to a group of soccer bros. Assholes, every one of them. He wasn’t sure why the boys’ soccer team seemed to only recruit jerks he wouldn’t leave alone with a girl for a single second, but there they were.
“I thought you were her best friend.”
An ache went through him. Louisa Ward was…everything. Lou was his whole heart. Sometimes he wished he’d never met her because before he had, he’d never thought he was lonely. Now when she wasn’t around he felt his singularity. “I think she’s my best friend. I don’t know that I’m hers.”
Kala wore her normal uniform of ripped jeans, combat boots, and a leather jacket, even though it wasn’t cold enough for one yet. Her hair was shiny blue, and she sighed in a way that reminded him of his uncle, her dad. This was Uncle Ian’s patented “dumbass said something and now I gotta fix things” sigh. “You could change that. All you have to do is say Lou, let’s get down and dirty. She’s in love with you, TJ.”
She thought she was, and maybe it was true, but she was a grade ahead of him, and Lou Ward was an academic force of nature. She was so fucking smart, and he was…TJ. People got excited when he made a C instead of a D. People praised him for finding out he’d read an actual not-comic-book book. He’d only read it because Lou was reading it. “She’s going to college, and I don’t think she needs to be stuck with a boyfriend who won’t go to college at all.”
“Tell me you’re not still thinking about the Army.” Kala frowned his way. “You’re not dumb. I know I say it all the time, but insults are my love language. You can go to college. You can go, and then if you still feel the need to get your ass shot off at least you’ll be an officer.”
He’d gotten this lecture from more than one person. “I don’t want to. I want to get in, learn some things that will help me get a job when I get out, and start my life. Lou is going in a different direction. She needs way more than I can give her.”
Kala’s head shook. “Your loss, man.”
Yes. It was his loss because he would never be the man who kissed her and touched her and slept beside her. He wouldn’t be the man to smooth back her hair and hold her hand.
But fuck all, neither would Dennis asshole Sims.
His cousin was being something of a hypocrite. “And why do you always give me shit about the Army? You’re planning a whole career at the Agency.”
“Not the same thing. The Agency is cool, and no one will yell at me all day. Well, except Kenzie.” Kenzie Taggart was Kala’s twin, and while they seemed different on the surface, he happened to know they had a lot in common. They both wanted to be spies.
But his Lou would end up at some think tank or working at an elite university. She would be safe in her ivory tower surrounded by people who could keep up with her. She would change the world someday, and he would be so proud of her.
He would still be in her life. That was the important part. He fucked up all of his relationships. He hadn’t kept a girlfriend for more than three months. Lou was too important.