RELEASE TOUR - Brokered Betrayals by Aimee Nicole Walker
Length: 52,000 words
Series: Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood Book Three
Prior Reading: required
Genre: contemporary, romantic suspense
Tropes: established couple, law enforcement, fatherhood
Trigger/Content Warnings: n/a
Designer: Natasha Snow
https://getbook.at/BrokeredBetrayals
Years of dreaming. Nine months of preparing. Fatherhood has finally arrived for Royce and Sawyer Locke.
Darla Grace is everything her fathers dreamed she’d be and more. Their precious daughter stole their hearts long before she was born and had them wrapped around her tiny fist with her first breath. But just when their lives start to feel perfect, a diabolical act triggers a chain of events they never could have seen coming. Royce and Sawyer will have to combine their fearless and relentless superpowers to take on this monumental challenge, albeit with a lot less sleep and formula stains on their shirts.
Brokered Betrayals is book three in the Felonies and Fatherhood trilogy, the third installment in the Royce Locke and Sawyer Key story arc. ** New readers should start with the Zero Hour and Matrimony and Mayhem trilogies before reading Felonies and Fatherhood. ** Brokered Betrayals continues Royce and Sawyer’s happily ever after as they move into the most anticipated phase of their lives. Heat, humor, heart, and homicide abound. You have been warned.
EXCERPT:
A surge of panic flooded through Royce. He casually leaned closer to the bed. “Are we talking minutes or hours?”
Kelsey giggled and patted his head. “She’ll get here when she gets here.” She opened one eye to look at him. “But I’d say two hours tops.”
Royce glanced at the clock and noted that it was seven thirty. He kissed the back of Kelsey’s hand and went back to studying the monitor for the next spike. Holy shit. Was he really just two hours away from meeting their daughter? Royce glanced over at his husband and found him looking just as shell-shocked.
“Two hours?” Sawyer mouthed.
Royce’s head suddenly felt funny, and someone turned down the volume in the room. The edges of his vision grew fuzzy, and black dots danced in front of his eyes. Sawyer’s mouth moved, but Royce couldn’t hear the words for the weird buzzing noise. Was that a monitor? Was something wrong with Darla? He tried to claw his way through the fog, but he felt trapped. The harder he fought, the smaller his world became until his vision narrowed down to two tiny pinpricks. What the hell was happening to him? A hand landed on his shoulder, the touch warm and comforting. Sawyer’s lips pressed to his ears, and a whisper of sound traveled through the canal to penetrate his brain.
“Breathe, baby.” Sawyer’s voice was a little louder this time, and it had the same magic effect as always.
As Royce’s vision expanded, the room became brighter, and he noticed his pounding heart and restricted breathing. He sucked in a lungful of air and coughed.
“Easy,” Sawyer cautioned, turning Royce’s stool until they were eye to eye. He took Royce’s hand and placed it over his heart. “Breathe with me. Nice and slow.”
Royce closed his eyes and concentrated on the rise and fall of Sawyer’s chest as he matched his breaths. Each inhale and exhale brought him back to his body until his awareness fully returned with embarrassment hot on its heels. He scanned the faces he loved and was relieved that he saw only concern or sympathy. “I don’t know what just happened to me, but I didn’t like it.”
Kelsey reached over and patted his hand. “Sweetheart, you’ve realized your entire life is going to change in a few hours, and you had a minor panic attack.”
“Are you sure?” Royce asked. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”
“We’re sure,” Sawyer, Kelsey, and Andrew said.
But Royce wasn’t convinced. “I think it was an alien abduction.”
Kelsey snorted. “Drama queen.”
“I recognize a panic attack when I see one,” Sawyer said, using his strong fingers to massage the tension from Royce’s neck.
“The same thing happened to Andrew,” Kelsey said. “You’re never as ready as you think you are.”
“Her nursery is ready,” Royce said. “We bought the best infant car seat on the market. Her clothes are clean and ready to go. We have diapers, butt cream, formula, and all the bottle stuff on hand. We’re ready.”
Andrew chuckled. “There’s physically ready, and then there’s emotionally ready. Buying all the stuff is the easy part.” He tapped his temple. “Preparing this is an entirely different beast. About this time, panic sets in because you realize this tiny human will depend on you for their very existence and well-being. And just when you think you know what you’re doing, life will throw you a curveball. Sleep schedules change, skin develops sensitivity to laundry detergents, and suddenly, they don’t like the baby food they loved just the day before. You just roll with it, man. I won’t tell you there’s nothing to worry about. You’re cops. You know there’s everything to fear in this insane world, but you’ll never be alone.”
Royce turned to Sawyer and smiled. “We’re ready. Not just the clothes and food. We can do this.”
“It’s a damn good thing because she’s coming, ready or not,” Kelsey said.
This beautifully written short story is filled with detail and emotion, proving that length doesn’t limit impact. Two men deeply in love discover they have even more love to give when they welcome a daughter into their lives. It’s a heartwarming read, complete with challenges and suspenseful twists that keep you turning the pages. Will their journey to adoption go as smoothly as they hope.
about the author:
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Aimee Nicole Walker is an international bestselling author of Male/Male contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels. Her stories guarantee hunks with big…hearts, lots of humor and heat, and the occasional homicide. Aimee is a lifelong dreamer, an avid reader, and an off-key singer. Only two of those traits help her craft captivating characters and charming communities where everyone is welcome. She uses the other quirk to entertain her pets during writing breaks. Love inspires everything she does, books keep her sane, and coffee is the magic elixir that fuels her day.
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