Mac leaned back against the tree and waited. The ring of oaks around the cemetery was enough to offer cover and at the same time provide a vantage point to observe. He had three clear exits marked in his head, and his hands itched to be holding his weapon.
Spider would be there any minute, and if Mac knew him, which he did, he had way more than three exits organized before he came anywhere near. That was part of the job. Of their former job. To know how many exits there were from any situation. This whole attending the funeral shit was a long way past dangerous and tipping over into stupid, but their brother was dead in a casket, and there was nothing that would keep them from honoring him now.
“He’d hate we were here, y’know?” Spider drawled from next to him. Mac didn’t flinch. He was used to Spider and his ninja-like infiltration skills. But he heard the words and emotion tightened in his chest. Spider was right: Wade Gillis would have told them to keep their fucking heads down and not to do anything stupid.
Mac was only worried about one thing. “Are Jane and the kids gonna be okay?” Although Mac had been made the team leader, Spider was still a skilled strategist and prided himself on thinking outside the box and covering all eventualities.
Spider nodded. “I put some feelers out, have eyes on them. She reckons she’ll go home to Tacoma to be with her family, so I can’t see that they’ll get dragged into it.”
Standing here in the cemetery was the very definition of stupid, and Mac was utterly convinced there was no way Spider could put any kind of spin on what they were doing, positive or not.
He backed closer to the tree when a dark sedan made its ponderous way toward the main chapel. The car didn’t look like a funeral car, more like an unmarked cop car. If anyone was coming to this funeral in the hope of finding Mac and Spider, they were going to be disappointed. But neither of them should even be there since they had all agreed in better times they would never attend each other’s formal funerals.
They’d been scattered to the four winds in August 2011. Wade had stayed a Marine but over in Intelligence. He’d been the one up on the ridge, the sniper, the one who saw what happened, but was cocooned from the horror of it all. And now he was dead.
Bear had never come home from that horrific summer night. Hell, his funeral was the burning pyre of that mission, with his teammates watching in silence.
Spider, he’d kind of done okay; he was a shadowy security expert with a good line in ready money and dealings that he didn’t share with Mac.
That was the three of them, and then there was Mac himself. The broken one. Wounded, a brave soldier, with a medal and all, he hadn’t called himself an active Marine for three years, even though his blood was Marine to the last cell. Once a Marine…
“You ever hear anything else from Wade before the accident?” Spider asked.
“After we met up three months back? Just the email,” Mac said. He shrugged his jacket closer around his shoulders. There was a chill here on this fall day, and his chest ached with the ice of it in his lungs.
Spider grunted his agreement. The email had been for both of them from Wade, a newsletter of sorts, news, photos of his kids, a link to a news article about someone they’d known in the Marines, nothing special. Apart from one word. Abseil. A code word that meant his suspicions had been confirmed. A simple instruction to get the hell out of dodge and lay low.
Read Last Marine Standing
A Reason To Stay
“A sexy and fast-paced romantic thriller.”
It takes a Navy SEAL's training to keep them alive, but when the mystery on the mountain is solved, will Viktor and Aiden's love story survive the fallout?
Viktor left small-town Vermont to become a Navy SEAL and had no intention of tying himself down or falling in love. A succession of men and women share his bed, passion and danger are his addictions, and he's the first of his team to run headlong into trouble. When his nephew witnesses a murder, Viktor returns home to protect his family and lands in the middle of an active case led by none other than the man he left behind. He can handle getting punched out by Aiden, but teaming up with the sheriff to find a killer is not on the cards. For Viktor, love is dangerous, makes a man vulnerable, and one mistake could get Aiden killed.
Aiden never expected to find lasting love with a decorated active SEAL, but he didn't anticipate Viktor would leave his bed never to return. Even two years later, disappointment simmers below the surface, and he never wants to see Viktor again. But, when seemingly unrelated deaths draw Viktor back home, Aiden has to find a way for them to work together despite their past. With Viktor's training and Aiden's local knowledge, they partner to work the case, but Aiden isn't just fighting the bad guys and mother nature; he's falling in love with a man who will surely leave him again.
What links the string of deaths in the Green Mountains? Can hate and distrust turn back to love? And if they make it down from the mountain alive, can Aiden persuade Viktor he has a reason to stop running?
More info →
Last Marine Standing
When the people you trusted turn on you, when you are the last one standing, should you take your secrets to the grave? Or make the murderers pay?
Former Marine Recon, Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Jackson has secrets. The things he did for his country, the things he saw, must never be spoken about. Until that is, his team is targeted. A shift in political alliances means one particular mission undertaken by Mac and his Fire Team needs to be wiped from the history books. Starting with the team itself.
Forest Ranger Samuel Larson wants to find the Marines who saved his life. He just wants to say thank you. What he can’t know is that he's walking into a firestorm of betrayal and murder.
When Samuel arrives at Mac's place he throws Mac's plans for hiding out of the window. Abruptly Mac has to protect a man who threatens his heart, only this time he can't be sure he will succeed in keeping Sam alive.
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Deacon’s Law
Someone wants Rafe dead and the murdering drug dealer who broke his heart is the only one who can save him. How can he ever trust Deacon? And how can Deacon protect Rafe without falling in love all over again?
Undercover cop Deacon Shepherd lost everything trying to maintain his cover - the man he loved and the future he craved. He walked away and never looked back because it was the only way to keep Rafael alive. The last thing he needs is to be dragged back in that world, but an attempt on Rafael's life is enough to make him risk his heart again.
Rafael 'Rafe' Ramirez wakes up in the hospital, the victim of a hit and run. He’s stunned when the first face he sees is that of the man who betrayed him and left him for dead three years before. Witness protection had stripped Rafe of his family and friends and now it seems his sacrifice to bring his Uncle to justice was for nothing.
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Heroes Box Set
A Reason To Stay (Heroes 1)
It takes a Navy SEAL's training to keep them alive, but when the mystery on the mountain is solved, will Viktor and Aiden's love story survive the fallout?
Viktor left small-town Vermont to become a Navy SEAL and had no intention of tying himself down or falling in love. A succession of men and women share his bed, passion and danger are his addictions, and he's the first of his team to run headlong into trouble. When his nephew witnesses a murder, Viktor returns home to protect his family and lands in the middle of an active case led by none other than the man he left behind. He can handle getting punched out by Aiden, but teaming up with the sheriff to find a killer is not on the cards. For Viktor, love is dangerous, makes a man vulnerable, and one mistake could get Aiden killed.
Aiden never expected to find lasting love with a decorated active SEAL, but he didn't expect Viktor would leave his bed never to return. Even two years later, disappointment simmers below the surface, and he never wants to see Viktor again. But, when seemingly unrelated deaths draw Viktor back home, Aiden has to find a way for them to work together despite their past. With Viktor's training and Aiden's local knowledge, they partner to work the case, but Aiden isn't just fighting the bad guys and mother nature; he's falling in love with a man who will surely leave him again.
What links the string of deaths in the Green Mountains? Can hate and distrust turn back to love? And if they make it down from the mountain alive, can Aiden persuade Viktor he has a reason to stop running?
Last Marine Standing (Heroes 2)
Former Marine Recon, Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Jackson has secrets. The things he did for his country, the things he saw, must never be spoken about. Until, that is, his team is targeted.
A shift in political alliances means one particular mission undertaken by Mac and his Fire Team needs to be wiped from the history books. Starting with the team itself.
Forest Ranger Samuel Larson wants to find the Marines who saved his life. He just wants to say thank you. What he can’t know is that he's walking into a firestorm of betrayal and murder.
When Samuel arrives at Mac's place he throws Mac's plans for hiding out of the window. Abruptly Mac has to protect a man who threatens his heart, only this time he can't be sure he will succeed in keeping Sam alive.
When the people you trusted turn on you, when you are the last one standing, should you take your secrets to the grave? Or make the murderers pay?
Deacon's Law (Heroes 3)
Undercover cop Deacon Shepherd lost everything trying to maintain his cover - the man he loved and the future he craved. He walked away and never looked back because it was the only way to keep Rafael alive.
The last thing he needs is to be dragged back in that world, but an attempt on Rafael's life is enough to make him risk his heart again.
Rafael 'Rafe' Ramirez wakes up in the hospital, the victim of a hit and run. He’s stunned when the first face he sees is that of the man who betrayed him and left him for dead three years before. Witness protection had stripped Rafe of his family and friends and now it seems his sacrifice to bring his Uncle to justice was for nothing.
Someone wants Rafe dead and the only way he can stay alive is to go with the murdering drug dealer who broke his heart. But how can he ever trust Deacon, and how can Deacon protect Rafe without falling in love all over again?
More info →
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