Whatever it Takes
By MJ Markovski
ISBN-10: 1633633772
ISBN-13: 978-1633633773
White Bird Publications
Paperback: 324 pages
February 26, 2019, $18.99
Language: English
Genre: Romantic suspense/thriller
Also available for Kindle
Regan Argent inadvertently uncovered a dark conspiracy that has her on the run, forcing her to return to her childhood home, a small town just outside of Dallas, to seek refuge. Unexpectedly, she bumps into Hunter Grainger, a man she never saw coming. He’s an Air Force pararescueman, on leave, with only one person who knows of his return home. Their unexpected meeting ignites a chain of events where they will be forced to help each other or be executed.
Excerpt
Chapter One
Regan
More than five years had passed since Regan last walked into her brother’s rank and musty service open garage in Parker, Texas. Her stomach jittered at the manly smells—a mixture of gasoline, WD-40, brake parts cleaner, grease, welding smoke, and tires. Heavy metal pounded from old speakers, nearly drowning out the garage noises of a drill, distant traffic, and the light chirping of birds. It was just another Monday in a town where whispers during summer were as steamy as the day’s barometric reading. And in late June, the temperature climbed high, so those secrets would hang as heavy as a curtain. Her teeth clenched; she’d grown up in Parker and was accustomed to the mind games the locals played. There’s no way she’d have ever come back if she didn’t desperately need her family’s help. But if anyone could tell her how to deal with the mess she’d left behind in New York, how to navigate what she’d discovered, it was her brother, Theodore. She just hoped that this surprise wouldn’t blow up in her face. She’d been barely sixteen when she left for a full scholarship at New York University. Five years, after all, was a long time between visits home.
She peeked inside the service door, remembering that Theodore had a military mind and kept god-awful early morning hours. Before stepping through, she scanned the dimly lit shop, but she didn’t see her brother. Instead, she spotted a man with sapphire-tipped faux-hawk, standing on a small stepladder, bent over a monster pickup truck. Mr. Faux-Hawk’s shirtless arms displayed a jaw-dropping, hot-flash-inducing art canvas. Corded muscles flexed as he continued to tinker with the engine.
When Regan stepped onto the concrete floor of the garage, a chime rang. She observed a tattooed hand move, and with a click of a remote, the tunes lowered to a background hum.
“Can I help you?” He lifted his head from under the open hood and propped an elbow on the side of the newly-painted, black and silver frame. Predatory deep blue and purplish eyes bore into her, the long-feathered lashes, making them all the more menacing. Her breath caught. There was something disturbingly familiar about him. “Yeah—yes, I’m looking for Theodore.” Her voice echoed, too loud inside the open garage. She hid her fidgeting fingers behind her and clasped the bronze bracelet that did not quite cover the spidery scars littered from her elbow to wrist.
“Who’s asking?” The rolling timbre of rock-on-rock in his voice made her insides curl. He stepped down from the engine.
Her lips lifted in a slow smile. “Excuse me?” She was not the swooning type, even if he was dreamy. Okay, smoldering. Thank God she wasn’t tongue-tied around guys anymore.
They began a staring contest. His skin glowed like smooth copper. All hard angles and fierce planes, his face boasted a sharp blade of a nose and black-as-the-devil’s-heart eyebrows.
Regan gulped as she studied him. Oh, crap. It was Hunter Grainger. Boy, had he changed. But unfortunately for her, he’d only gotten hotter in the time since he’d broken her heart. Her pulse raced. In his presence, her tongue became knotted.
“Damn, Regan, you grew into those long legs.” His lips relaxed a bit, and they curved up in one corner. Then he winked.
Her smile faded. Warmth flooded her cheeks. From the smug look pasted on his face, he knew she had recognized him. Blinking seemed to break the spell she was under.
“Holy shit. Hunter Grainger?” She took a deep, unsteady breath. “What are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He had an inappropriate asinine smile on his face and took a slight step back, pointing toward the engine.
She blushed hotter if that was even possible.
“Yes—yes—I can see you’re working. What I meant is...” She stretched her fingers and began again. “What I meant to say is, what are you doing back in Texas?”
The smirk settled in deeper. “I could ask you the same thing, but I don’t want to appear rude.”
“Rude?” her voice colored with anger. “You don’t want to appear rude? What about the time—”
She was not prepared for this. Not at all. She was a fool for not recognizing him immediately. Every girl had been in love with the bad boy, including her.
All the things she’d sworn she’d say if she ever ran into Hunter flew from her mind. Here he was, right in front of her as she’d so often imagined, and again she was at his mercy. She’d have kicked her own backside if she could.
He finally dropped his work tools back into the toolbox with a deliberate clank, then snatched the rag sitting on top.
“It’s complicated.”
She waited, but it was all the explanation he intended to offer.
In high school, her responses were one or two words. But now she was bolder with her speech and told others her piece of mind. Her choice of clothing reflected her personality—brightly colored shorts that molded to her body paired up with a snug top.
He stepped away from the side of the monster truck and strode with confidence toward Regan, rubbed his rag across his neck before he stopped in front of the monster truck. He leaned casually against the front fender, crossed his ankles, and stared right at her, daring her to say something.
She had a purpose in coming here and again asked about her brother. “So, where’s Theodore?” Trying to avoid Hunter’s eyes, her gaze went to the high-end Italian sports cars neatly lined in the front to the left of the monster truck. Further back, she could see bays with more cars.
Her head snapped back to that damn rag, now clutched between his tattooed knuckles. It drew her gaze to his sculpted chest and downward to his chiseled abs. However, his abs did not hide the horrible scar across the length of his ribs. She didn’t look away fast enough before he cocked his hips toward her.
“So, I couldn’t help noticing you were checking out the goods.” He said it with a lazy smile, winding the rag between his knuckles.
“Which goods are you referring to?” She slipped a glance at him, and he flexed his biceps. He had an array of tattoos on his arms, and her gaze stopped at the large scorpion on his right hand. The extended tail fished down, making the loop to the R on his ring finger inked across his four knuckles that spelled out CROW. “Maybe it’s time for you to get another tattoo.”
He did a half twist showing an outline of wings beginning between his shoulder blades and finishing down the back. “Already there. Try again.” He raised one eyebrow and slightly tucked in his chin when her mouth made a small ‘O’ of surprise. He flashed her a smile.
She tried to recover by crossing her arms and taking a step back, but she stumbled over a wrench. He grabbed her arm. Had he not, she would’ve fallen. She shivered when he pulled her up close against him.
His eyebrows scrunched, and his voice lowered. “Tell me why you came back.” He breathed his words against her face.
Thoughts of her job as a clerk for a law firm back in New York, of the treacherous secret she’d discovered there, flittered across her mind. The phone calls, the threats. She shuddered and dismissed it. There was no way she would utter that to anyone, least of all to Hunter Grainger. Instead, she focused on the questions Hunter hadn’t answered about her brother. “Family,” she said. “I returned because I’m big on family passion. I mean affairs.”
Dammit. She should’ve worn thicker patting on the cut still healing. It had begun forming a scab on her right side of her hip. She forced herself to keep smiling, to hide her embarrassment.
His gaze dipped down and ran back up the length of her body. Her spine tingled, and it felt like it might burst out of her skin.
“Passion, you say.”
MJ Markovski
Marija Salapanov Carpenter writing as MJ Markovski was born in Detroit, Michigan to Macedonian immigrant parents, raised very sheltered, and then moved to Arizona for college. Ended up staying in Tucson.
Two words to remember her by are tenacious and complicated.
The journey to writing Whatever It Takes series came to her not only in a form of a dream but also when her husband at the time left her and her children. They had been together since she was eighteen.
But her journey to writing seriously began 2009/2010 when she became disabled from a major attack from multiple sclerosis. Doctors thought at that time she would die but here she is, and the worst of it was she is currently in an electric wheelchair for mobility. For now. She views it as God’s way for her to have more time in writing.
She doesn’t allow her illness to define her.
MJ loves stories that explore characters and origins. It thrills her to get inside their minds and find out what makes them tick. That’s why she loves writing third person limited because it’s intimate. What if on the surface a person comes up to them you think one character views him as granite steel emotions but he truly speaks in his mind is actually passionate and driven but you can’t see that on the outside you’ll find it out till Chapter Five but his actions show it? She loves the weave stories with their theme another fuel for her many books to come forth. Angst, passion, romance, (she’s a romantic at heart but don’t tell anyone that) and suspense/thriller.
MJ graduated with her Masters from the University of Phoenix in Accounting. She’s worked with government contractor as a Financial Accountant as well as an advisor for taxes. She ran a small business of doing taxes for family and friends for a while in the early 2000’s then stopped because of the MS exasperation that landed her in the hospital. But when she retained her health, she put that business aside and she began seriously writing. That self-run business reignited her passion in her writing and to help others as well when the opportunity comes to help other fellow writers.
MJ enjoys spending time with her family and friends when she can, loves reading, watching a movie once in a great while with her daughter, spending some time outside (when it’s cool and not in the heat of Arizona) life is full of complications but every morning getting up in writing with her vitamin smoothies and coffee is a perfect start of the day. www.mjmarkovski.com
