Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 89815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Read Online Books/Novels: | Ex Meridian (Nothing Special #7) |
|---|---|
Author/Writer of Book/Novel: | A.E. Via |
| Language: | English |
| ISBN/ ASIN: | B083C18H13 |
| Book Information: | |
Police Lieutenants, God and Day are under intense pressure from the chief to take back control of Atlanta’s streets. The last thing their task force needs is a pair of trained killers in town with a personal score to settle. Take a man and strip him of his ability to feel compassion, empathy, remorse, or any of the emotions that make him human, but leave the ones that ignite rage and aggression and you have the perfect killing machine—now imagine two of them. Code names Ex and Meridian are synonymous for ‘guaranteed death’ to international terrorists. Two broken men from the same crooked streets, recruited into an unsanctioned government program that few know about. Trained to operate most efficiently—lethally—together. When Ex returns from an op in Bolivia to learn his little brother has been accidentally killed in a feud between drug gangs, he’s stateside before he can consider the rules he’ll be breaking, and of course Meridian is right beside him. There’s mayhem on the streets of Atlanta and the police are losing control. If Godfrey and his elite team of detectives can’t get the job done then they’d be happy to lighten their caseloads for them. And Ex nor Meridian care about doing it quietly. “I know who you are.” The man grunted when Ex turned to leave. “You’re the fucking devil.” Meridian walked past, glaring one final time. “Say that loud enough… maybe God will save you.” But after their first run-in with the big lieutenant and his protective husband, Day, Ex and Meridian start to reevaluate their own relationship. Wondering if they could be even deadlier if they let loose the feelings for each other that they’ve been forced to suppress for years. Meridian’s dark eyes stayed locked on his, “A man who can fight beside the one he loves doesn’t make him weaker, Ex—it makes him more dangerous.” No multiple pairings. No cliffhangers. Ends with a HEA. ****Note: This title focuses on two new characters in the series. And while it can standalone, there are appearences from prior main characters. This is a partners-to-lovers, out-for-you, action romance. ****Note: There are depictions of violence in this novel. | |
| Books in Series: | Nothing Special Series by A.E. Via |
| Books by Author: | A.E. Via Books |
Ex sat rigidly in the dark limousine, staring out of the tinted windows as heavy raindrops pelted the hood. It was a gloomy January morning, the sky gray and overcast with storm clouds, a fitting ambiance for a funeral. It would have been senseless to waste the sun’s radiance on such a somber occasion. He kept his mouth in a firm line as he watched the funeral home attendants lower his baby brother’s casket into the ground. He shouldn’t have felt this upset or hurt—he wasn’t supposed to feel anything—but he did.
Ex had his elbow braced on the window’s ledge, his fist resting lightly against his chin. He stroked his ever-present stubble as he watched a tall, stocky man embrace his grieving mother. He unclenched his fist after recognizing Mr. Harold, his mother’s boyfriend of the past seven months. He’d researched him just like he background-checked anyone who entered his family’s life. He wished it could be him holding his mother and telling her it was going to be okay. But he couldn’t. He’d long ago accepted that harsh reality.
“I can make it happen.” His partner’s deep voice cut the silence like a knife.
Ex didn’t flinch, unable to be startled by Meridian. His imposing presence was always there. The two of them trained to function at their best when they were together... and they were. He knew what his partner was offering him but it was forbidden. They were already breaking too many rules by being on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, not to mention being in his hometown. What if someone saw him and recognized him? But he couldn’t miss his brother’s funeral. I should’ve been here for him, then he would still be alive. Ex was an only child now, although technically he wasn’t supposed to have a family at all, his past having been stripped away from him over the years, transforming him into someone else—someone his own mother wouldn’t have recognized. She hadn’t seen him since he’d said goodbye to her eight years ago, when he was eighteen. “I wouldn’t dare ask you to compromise yourself—”
“You didn’t ask... I offered.”
Ex considered Meridian’s words as he stared at his mother. If only he could hug her, just once, just to let her know she wasn’t childless. That he was still alive, watching her, protecting her, regardless of the fact that he couldn’t be there to be the son she wanted. That’d been Evan’s job—his little brother. A great kid with his whole life ahead of him. Correction had had ahead of him. Evan had been an honor roll student who’d always worked hard to make their mother proud. He’d avoided the riffraff in the neighborhood, staying focused on his future enough to earn him a partial scholarship to the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Fuck! It’s not fair! Ex’s mind screamed and warred with his emotions that he hid well as he sat as still as stone in the warm leather seat. Anyone on the outside looking in would’ve assumed he wasn’t the least bit bothered by the disappearance of his brother’s silver casket as it was slowly lowered six feet beneath the cold earth. His fists tried to shake with his rage but he held them steady, not showing emotion.
“Why don’t you let me tell Mom that I’ve at least spoken to you this year, she worries so much,” Evan said after releasing him from a tight hug. “I worry too. We don’t know what it is you do and why you have to be dead to us.”
Ex leaned against the metal bars beneath the stadium bleachers behind Evan’s high school. While he was between assignments, he’d gotten a cryptic word to his brother for him to meet him there late on a Sunday. His partner was scrambling the school’s surveillance cameras on the back side of the property so he could remain undetected.
“I wish I could, Ev. But this way is safest, trust me. You know I’m already breaking the rules by speaking to you.”
“How come you can’t have a family? I would never tell anyone where you are or what job you’re doing. I swear,” Evan pleaded, his emotions wide open. So much so that it overwhelmed Ex.
He sighed at the sincerity in his brother’s gray eyes, eyes he knew were similar to his own. “I know you wouldn’t, pipsqueak, but this is for your own good. I can’t have anyone trying to use you and Mom to get to me.”
“Jesus, dude. What the hell do you do in the military?”
Not the military, but a branch of the government, yes. Ex didn’t answer. He never did. The last his mother and brother knew he’d boarded a bus at Fort Benning eight years ago to take him to boot camp and was never heard from again. Until he’d broken down and contacted his brother on his thirteenth birthday with a secure cell phone he’d sent wrapped as a gift.