Title: Catch and Release
Series: The Release Series book 3
Author: BA Tortuga
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 19, 2016
Heat Level: 1 – No Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 75000
Genre: Romance, cowboys, ex-con, lawyer, sweet romance
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Synopsis
Dakota Landry just got out of prison after twelve years. If anyone can understand how that feels, it’s his new friend, Sage, who is determined to help him get used to life on the outside—and believes Dakota didn’t commit the crime he was in for.
Jayden Wilson is a former prosecutor who agrees to look into the case at the request of Sage’s lover, Adam. He sets out to prove Dakota is just another “innocent” ex-con, but once they meet, Jayden is more and more convinced Dakota just didn’t do what everyone thinks he did.
Trouble follows Dakota, and nothing is easy as he struggles to figure out how to live, now that he has choices. And Jayden isn’t sure how Dakota, or any lover for that matter, fits into his life. Their path from friendship to romance is a slow one, but Dakota begins to believe he deserves a chance at life, and Jayden falls a little more for Dakota every day. Now they just need to tell each other how they feel.
Excerpt
“One wallet with six dollars and eighty-three cents. One pair of jeans, T-shirt, pair of boots. Belt with buckle. Sign here.” The paper bag was shoved over to him, and Dakota Landry scratched his signature on the paper, his hand shaking harder than he wanted to admit.
One wallet with six dollars and eighty-three cents.
One pair of Wranglers.
Twelve years, three months, and eight days.
Dakota sighed and rolled his shoulders. The Unitarians had donated a gently worn pair of tennis shoes, a button-down from the Walmart, and a pair of new jeans, which hung on his scrawny ass like a bad costume. They were what he had, though. He’d lost seventy pounds since he was twenty, and he read way more bull rider than bulldogger these days.
The rest of the processing flew by, and he walked out of the gate half an hour later, blinking at the late-afternoon sun. He was gonna puke.
He had a suitcase of his shit from his cell and this paper sack and….
A white pickup pulled up, the window rolling down to expose this weathered face peering out from under a straw brim. “You Landry?”
“Yessir.” He braced himself, waiting for a barrel to appear from the window. God hated him, he had no doubt, and it would be just like the evil bastard to have one of the McCarthys come to shoot him as soon as he walked outside as a free man.
It wasn’t a pistol that appeared, though. It was a gnarled cowboy hand. “Sage. Sage Redding. You want a ride, man?”
A lump lodged in his throat. Sage. Okay, he knew this guy from letters and the occasional call. When he knew he was getting out, he’d been assigned… what? Sage was no counselor. He was a godsend, though. “I do, yeah.”
“Cool. Come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Please.” He climbed up into the truck, breathing in the smell of horseshit and Old Spice and hay, and suddenly he was thirteen again and had a whole summer in front of him and all these dreams and….
“Hey.” The word was short and sharp, dragging his attention right to Sage’s face. “Stay here. Stay with me, man. You start thinking and the fucking world goes straight to shit.”
“I just….”
“We’ll go to the next town over, and we’ll grab some burgers and a Coke. You ain’t a vegetarian, are you?”
“I’m pretty fucking sure they put all of them in minimum security.”
Sage hooted, the sound natural as breathing. “I bet so.”
“Thanks. I didn’t expect….” He hadn’t known what to expect. He had the numbers for the Salvation Army and a halfway house, neither of which he intended to call.
“No sweat. I been there.”
“Yeah.”
Manslaughter, Sage had said, and the man never once claimed to be innocent. But he was out and living on a ranch, doing his parole and writing prisoners in this exchange deal. Dakota wasn’t sure what the fuck Sage got out of it, but it looked good to the parole board, and to his credit, Sage had written a letter to them.
Sorta like the murderers speaking for the rapists. Whoopdi-fucking-doo.
Purchase
Dreamspinner Press | Amazon
Character Top 5 Lists
Jayden’s Top Five Austin
Hey y’all! I’m BA Tortuga, resident resident and long-time Austinite, even if the mountains called and I had to go.
Jayden had lots of top fives in Austin. While he grew up in Dallas, his real love is keeping Austin weird, and hitting all the hole in the wall places that would make his rather high class momma sniff and roll her eyes.
Jayden’s Top 5 restaurants
- Amaya’s Taco Village North
http://www.amayastacovillage.com/menu.html
Get the #21 Jayden says
- South Congress Café
http://www.southcongresscafe.com/
A little more trendy and down in the shopping district on South Congress. Get the migas with the smoked gouda potato pancake
- Halal Bros on West Campus at UT
Shawarma and kebabs. Good falafel and real garlic sauce
- The Salt Lick BBQ
Jayden prefers the Driftwood location but will take Round Rock in a pinch. He’s not one to stand in line for hours at Franklin or one of the more trendy places. If he’s in a hurry, he’ll hit a Rudy’s.
- Justine’s Brasserie
Jayden had to put one trendy place on the list. Open from 6pm to 2am, this is late night dining for Jayden’s special clients, serving good French classics.
NSFW website https://www.justines1937.com/
Jayden’s Top 5 things to See
- The Bullock History Museum
Like all Texans, Jayden is proud of his history and this tells it all. You can also park there safely and see the capitol and more!
http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/
- The State Capitol Building
Totally worth the tour. Amazing building.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Capitol
- The bats at the Congress Ave Bridge
Go in through the Austin Statesmen parking lot to the little park and watch the bats fly!
http://travel.usnews.com/Austin_TX/Things_To_Do/Austin_Bats_11055/
- The LBJ Presidential Library
Jayden is a law and history nerd…
- Barton Springs Pool
A spring fed pool in Zilker Park
https://austintexas.gov/department/barton-springs-pool
Jayden says this is just the tip of the iceberg, natch. Grins. Man, he was chatty today! Hope you get to see his Austin someday!
Much love, y’all.
BA
Meet the Author
Texan to the bone and an unrepentant Daddy’s Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds and her beloved wife, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she’s not doing that, she’s writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting and surfing Pinterest in the name of research. BA’s personal saviors include her wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Really good coffee.
Having written everything from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast Texas, but has heard the call of the high desert and lives in the Sandias. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery menages, to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by anyone but the voices in her head.
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Tour Schedule
December 19 – Dog-Eared Daydreams
December 19 – Andrew Grey
December 20 – Divine Magazine
December 20 – Happily Ever Chapter
December 20 – Prism Book Alliance
December 21 – Because Two Men Are Better Than One
December 21 – BFD Book Blog
December 22 -Two Chicks Obsessed with Books and Eye Candy
December 22 – Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
December 22 – Bayou Book Junkie
December 23 – V’s Reads
December 23 – Dean Frech
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