Love Under Two Detectives by Cara Covington (good books to read for women txt) 📗



The Lusty, Texas Collection 40

Love Under Two Detectives

[Siren Menage Everlasting: Erotic Romance, Contemporary, Menage, Romantic Suspense, Cowboy, Small Town, MFM, HEA]

Mary Judith Kendall, sister to Norm and cousin to Will, has relocated to Lusty, Texas, happily living quietly in the tiniest house in town. She’s never told anyone that she’s mystery author MJ Kendall. And she sure as hell hasn’t mentioned that several months before she was attacked in her own apartment by an intruder who very nearly killed her. The psycho was arrested, tried, and convicted. End of story.

Lieutenants Anthony Corbett and Wyoming transplant Toby Kendall set their sights on sweet Mary. But there’s a complication. Toby left Casper with unanswered questions hanging, and it’s possible the biggest one of all followed him to Texas.

Anthony and Toby plan to get to know Mary and build a future with her. Provided of course that an unknown stalker, an escaped mental patient, and a world-wide pandemic don’t singly or combined end up changing their plans and endangering all their lives.

Length: 62,000 words

LOVE UNDER TWO DETECTIVES

The Lusty, Texas Collection 40

Cara Covington



Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

Love Under Two Detectives

Copyright © 2020 by Cara Covington

ISBN: 978-1-64637-238-6

First Publication: August 2020

Cover design by Harris Channing

All art and logo copyright © 2020 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at legal@sirenbookstrand.com

PUBLISHER

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

Acknowledgements

What does an author do when she’s faced with a decision and she has no idea what it should be? In this case, and when I sat down in the last week of March to begin this story, I asked my wonderful, kind and generous readers. I appreciate all y’all more than I have words to say.

I posted my first ever poll in my readers group in March, and I asked a big question: should I include the Pandemic in the story I’m about to write, or not?

I got a lot of response, and overwhelmingly two answers, “yes” and one that a reader added, “follow your muse” took the majority of the votes, by far.

But as I read my readers’ comments, I knew I needed to do something more: I needed to give everyone who read this story a good dose of Grandma Kate.

In Love Under Two Detectives I introduce the virus, and the pandemic, through the eyes and the heart of the nonagenarian who had been a nurse all her life, and who had also run a world-wide relief organization, Maria’s Quest. In future stories, my intention is to have Covid-19 as a piece of reality that’s in the background. It won’t be front and center, but it won’t magically disappear, either. It will be mentioned for as long as we here in North America are in its grip.

And as much as I do tend to pick themes that touch my readers, that let them know they’re not the only ones “going through” the trials and tribulations of life, well, including the virus in that light is the best thing I could do.

So thank you to all who participated that poll. And thank you for your words of encouragement to me as I, like you, make my way through these strange and sometimes difficult days. We are all in this together. We really, truly are.

Thanks to my wonderful group admin and beta reader, Angie Buchanan Jones. Thank you for your keen understanding and amazing ability to show me what I sometimes don’t see myself. And thanks for using your amazing talent as a graphic designer for my benefit.

Thanks to Sandy Ebel for reading my manuscripts and giving me your honest opinion. I am grateful for your “editorial” intuitions.

Huge thanks go to the professional women and men of Siren-Bookstrand publishing. I’m grateful to my amazing editor, Devin, for her high standards and her hard work. And I am especially grateful to my publisher, Amanda Hilton, for continuing to say “yes”.

DEDICATION

As always, to my husband, David. Thanks for continuing to be my biggest fan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morgan Ashbury, also writing as Cara Covington, has been a writer since she was first able to pick up a pen. In the beginning, it was a hobby, a way to create a world of her own, and who could resist the allure of that? Then, as she grew and matured, life got in the way, as life often does. She got married and had three children, and worked in the field of accounting, for that was the practical thing to do, and the children did need to be fed. And all the time she was being practical, she would squirrel herself away on quiet Sunday afternoons and write.

Most children are raised knowing the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Morgan’s children also learned the Paper Rule: Thou shalt not throw out any paper that has thy mother’s words upon it.

Believing in tradition, Morgan ensured that her children’s children and their children learned this rule, too.

Life threw Morgan a curve when, in 2002, she underwent emergency triple bypass surgery. Second chances are to be cherished, and with the encouragement and support of her husband, Morgan decided to use hers to do what she’d always dreamed of doing—writing full-time.

Morgan has always loved writing romance. It is the one genre that can incorporate every other genre within its pulsating heart. Romance showcases all that humankind can aspire to be. And, she admits, she’s a sucker