*Ball & Chain (Cut & Run #8) by Abigail Roux

The feeling of wrapping your arms around a service member after a long deployment is one I can most certainly relate to. The feel and the smell of the one you love is the most precious thing in this world. So when Zane and Ty are reunited I felt every emotion, every thought, and every unspoken word.

The boys are back in town, baby! Under it all, though, are the whispers of trauma and the undeniable reality that things are different. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Ty and his guys have been through a lot. Now it’s back to “normal” - or what civilians call normal. Zane has had time to see how the people at work are acting, and settled on the fact that he an Ty are now a couple. It’s out and Ty isn’t sure what his reception is going to be. I gotta say, I wish we had spent more time with the guys in the office. I really like this group of people and wanted a bit more. Ty and Zane are called in the boss’s office to chat about “relationships at work’; although the FBI doesn’t care about your relationship, it does care about how it affects the work, meaning that someone has to transfer or find a new job.

As for the rest of Ball & Chain, we are all relocated to an island off the coast of Scotland. Deuce and Livi are getting married only problem is the fact that people keep getting murdered. Thankfully, Nick and Kelly are also along to add to the protection that Livi’s father deems necessary due to corporate unrest within his business dealings.

A lot of time is spent with Nick and Kelly; I don’t hate it, but I would have rather spent time with my Ty and Zane. The case is good, and the mystery is surprising as well. I really had no clue who was behind the murders or the motives until the end. It was the back and forth between Ty and Zane that I wanted more of. Now that everything was out and open to the world, I wanted more time in their conversations. They are funny and endearing in the best possible ways. The “Q&A” throughout was the best. Ultimately he got it right.

4 Stars.

T~

Home from their unexpected deployment, the former members of Marine Force Recon team Sidewinder rejoin their loved ones and try to pick up the pieces of the lives they were forced to leave behind. Ty Grady comes home to Zane Garrett, only to find that everything around him has changed—even the men he went to war with. He barely has time to adjust before his brother, Deuce, asks Ty to be his best man. But that isn’t all Deuce asks Ty to do, and Ty must call for backup to deal with the business issues of Deuce’s future father-in-law.

Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott join Ty and Zane at the wedding on an island in Scotland, thinking they’re there to assuage Deuce’s paranoia. But when bodies start dropping and boats start sinking, the four men get more involved with the festivities than