With the help of their ball-busting daughter, some questionable morals, and an important job to get done, Casey and Boone will steal you away to the grit and glitz of Las Vegas in this fast-paced romance.
I’m not supposed to do this job without Boone.
We may not share genes, but it’s been us against the world since his mom took me in as a toddler. The rowdy O’Sullivan boys who raised all the hell that Vegas could handle. Not that all my memories are wild and make my heart race. After all, I realized I was in love with the bastard at some point, so there’s been plenty of pathetic yearning and jealousy too.
Even so, it’s been him and me. Brothers, partners in crime, and, for the past six years, co-parents to an amazing little girl. But that’s another story. Right now, I gotta focus on the job our cousin gave us, and I need Boone by my side.
The problem is we haven’t really been on speaking terms for four years now.
This story takes place in Cara Dee’s Camassia Cove Universe, a fictional town where all books stand on their own, unless otherwise stated, and the reader can jump in wherever they want.
Series: Standalone, Camassia Cove Universe
Genre: MM Romance/Crime Romance
Tropes: Organized Crime, Comedy Romance, Suspense, Bad Boys, Family, Single Dad, Hurt/Comfort
Amazon – Kindle Unlimited 
“By the way, do you love me, Daddy?”
I shrugged to myself. “You’re all right, I guess.”
She giggled and peered up at me.
I smirked and dipped down, pressing a smooch to her forehead. “Of-fucking-course I do. What do you want, and how much is it gonna cost me?”
She knew that one. “Lunch at Denny’s. And I want Dad to come along.”
Fuck. This was one of those times I didn’t allow myself to hesitate or get bitchy. “Okay.” I nodded and swallowed the resentment that bubbled up. Not at her, just…our fucked-up situation. “The three of us will go out after the game.”
“Yes!” She fist-pumped the air, only making me feel like a dick.
Boone showed up shortly after, and she forgot I existed for a beat. She ran over to him and jumped into his arms, to which he picked her up and positioned her on his hip like back when she’d been little. To him, she was still tiny, I guessed. He dwarfed most people around him, including me, even though he only had a couple inches on me in height.
“Can you braid my hair?” she asked, holding up a rubber band.
“Sure thing.” He set her back on the ground when they reached me, though he paid me no mind whatsoever.
Something was wrong with him, and it pissed me off. He looked tired and couldn’t pretend to be happy to be here. He usually loved coming to her games.
As soon as he finished with her hair, Ace beamed up at him and gave him a big hug before she ran off to join the team. With the game about to start, I bent down and picked up the two camping chairs I’d brought and my cooler and walked off to the side.
I glanced over my shoulder and noticed Boone wasn’t following. “Oi. You comin’ or not?”
He looked my way, visibly exhausted, and made no reaction. He followed, but his face was blank. It was as if someone had punched the life out of him.
It rattled me. My hatred toward him took a shitload of energy to maintain, and if something was seriously wrong with him, I feared what it would do to me.
I unfolded the chairs in a spot where we’d have the perfect view of our daughter scoring goals, and I sat down and opened the cooler.
“You want a beer?” I asked.
“Sure.”
I popped two cans into a couple koozies and handed him one.
Like shit attracted flies, one of the mothers was quick to come over to us.
“You can’t drink beer here,” she snapped.
I eyed her over the brim of my shades and held up my can. “Are you blind? It says right here.” I pointed to the text on the koozie. “‘It’s just soda, dumbass.’” Last year’s Father’s Day gift from Ace.
“You think this is funny?” The woman did not like me. “For heaven’s sake, it’s ten in the morning.”
That one pissed off Boone. “Never you fuckin’ mind what we do at ten in the mornin’. Take a hike.”
For one brief second, I was flooded with energy and memories from better times when it’d been Boone and me against the world. When it’d been us, like a team, raising Ace together. Working together. Spending most of our time together.
It was a kick in the gut.
I’ve fairly recently discovered Cara Dee. I know, I know. I’ve loved everything I read so I jumped at this. I started reading and I wasn’t connecting. So after a couple pages I went back to read the review request and saw that it recommends reading Auctioned, Deserted and Stranded as they are loosely connected. So guess what I did? Read Auctioned, Deserted and Stranded. Then I started The Job over (I was only like 10 0r 20 pages in) and it made more sense. Now I knew who Darius was and why he was asked these 2 main characters to do something for him.
So back to it!
Best friends who literally became brothers when the mom of one adopted the other. And when another friend dies, they are tasked with raising her daughter. Together.
Flash forward 4 years. Now they share custody- they each get a week at a time- and they barely tolerate each other. Huh. It takes some time before we find out what exactly that is all about. But when their cousin calls with a job for them, they immediately fall back into their established roles when doing a job. They pretty much stop bickering and sniping at each other AND Boone weasles his way back into living with Casey. And their daughter.
Their daughter. OMG she is hilarious. She has a potty mouth on her, which usually seems forced like it is only there for comedic purposes, but that mouth of a trucker completely fits the 8 year old’s personality. And for a kid who’s mother died when she was 4, doesn’t know her real father, is being raised by brothers who don’t really speak and has a grandmother who watches her often- she is pretty well grounded. And I LIKED that. Yes, a lot of kids would have trauma from any one of those things. But not every kid would. It was nice to see.
Casey and Boone work great together on the recon for Darius. Working together also gives them the time to work on their relationship. Because Boone doesn’t understand why Casey kicked him out of his life and Casey doesn’t understand how Boone doesn’t see him pining over him.
The entire story, from them doing the job to reconciling, just flows. Nothing was awkward or forced. And above all else- these two guys put their daughter first. Everything they did was to make her life better.
Do you HAVE to read the first three books? Nope. Is it worth it to read the first three books? Yup. They are different and definitely not a normal romance story AT ALL.
Fun, hot, funny with a good story to back it up. Definitely recommend.
4 pieces of eye candy
I love Cara Dee‘s books. I will say though I didn’t read the Auctioned series, simply because I can’t do angsty generally. That’s Erin’s cup of tea. 🙂 However, this book was a great departure from angsty, as it was full of humor, action, and a whole lot of “when are they going to just go it already”. My favorites.
One of my favorite things about this book was how different the MC’s were from what you might normally read. Quite often, the MC’s are good “upstanding” citizens, working their day jobs, saving kittens, etc. However, these guys are petty criminals, have done jail time, are in the process of committing crimes in the book, and yet are still really good guys, who just want to do right by their daughter. They don’t care that they live in a trailer park, or that she curses as much as they do. Just that she is healthy and happy, and can count on them both to be there no matter what.
I really enjoyed this book, and these two were great together. And even better with their sweet daughter, Ace. I would love to read more about these three. Recommend!
4 pieces of eye candy
I’m often awkwardly silent or, if the topic interests me, a chronic rambler. In other words, I can discuss writing forever and ever. Fiction, in particular. The love story—while a huge draw and constantly present—is secondary for me, because there’s so much more to writing romance fiction than just making two (or more) people fall in love and have hot sex.
There’s a world to build, characters to develop, interests to create, and a topic or two to research thoroughly.
Every book is a challenge for me, an opportunity to learn something new, and a puzzle to piece together. I want my characters to come to life, and the only way I know to do that is to give them substance—passions, history, goals, quirks, and strong opinions—and to let them evolve.
I want my men and women to be relatable. That means allowing room for everyday problems and, for lack of a better word, flaws. My characters will never be perfect.
Wait…this was supposed to be about me, not my writing.
I’m a writey person who loves to write. Always wanderlusting, twitterpating, kinking, cooking, baking, and geeking. There’s time for hockey and family, too. But mostly, I just love to write.
Find Cara on social media here: https://www.caradeewrites.com/cdwlandingpage