By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Dale Mayer

He’s all about second chances…

Anders loves winter and the wilderness, so a trip to the Swiss Alps to retrieve a glaciologist is right up his alley. When he realizes who he’s picking up, he can’t help but smile at fate.

He’d walked away last time he’d seen her because staying was so damn wrong… Now he can’t wait for a chance to reconnect – especially now that she’s no longer engaged…

An expert in an otherwise male-dominated field, Angelica has spent her life studying snow and ice in order to cope with the never-ending heartaches associated with her parents’ divorce and her own ex-fiancé’s betrayal. When Anders comes barreling back into her life, to take her home on her father’s orders, she’s not amused… and she has absolutely no intention of obeying.

Particularly not when she understands why her father demands her return.

Anders can feel the undercurrents, but she won’t explain what’s going on…

Can they bury their differences before danger overtakes them both and his dream of a future together dies before it’s ever had a chance to start?

Ander’s has just finished up the mission with North and is enjoying Nikki’s grandfather’s company when Levi gives him his next assignment. He’s not that far away, it’s in Switzerland. The job is to extract a Parliament member’s daughter from the glacier she’s working on and keep her protected until she’s home and safe.

Angelica Winthrop is a glaciologist, she’s been studying ice and snow for years all over the world. This work in itself is dangerous, there are many variables in play, the cold and weather to name a couple. On this trip Angelica and her team, Nate, Steve and Hannah are at the mercy of the weather as a blizzard comes in.

Unable to contact Angelica, Anders, Harrison, Desi and Reyes plan their trip up the mountain. However when they discover others are already climbing they request helicopter support to get them to their destination quickly.

For the guys, it comes as no surprise when there is sniper fire just as Anders reaches Angelica and her team. They knew others were out there looking for her.

This is a favorite scene as Anders joins up with Angelica’s team.

“So how’s married life going?” he asked caustically. “You would have been better off married to me.”

“To get ordered around all the time? Like hell.”

“You didn’t bother answering about how married life is going.”

“It’s not going because I never got married.”

He froze for a moment, then turned to look at her. “Really?”

“You were right. He was an asshole. He betrayed me at the next conference. I found him sleeping with one of the staff in my own hotel room that I had paid for.”

“Wow. Okay. So that’s a serious kind of asshole.”

“Exactly.” She glanced around. “Did you come alone?”

“No. I’m waiting for a signal that they’ve taken out the sniper, or at least that it’s safe to get up and move.”

She snorted. “We need to get Nate down to the cabin fast.” She motioned at the others. “We all need to get inside where it’s warm.”

“That might be, but we’re not taking Nate anywhere and getting you shot in the meantime.”

“Speaking of which, why the hell are you here?”

“Your father.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want anything to do with him.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Anders said tiredly. “Somebody is trying to use you to get at him, possibly to kidnap you for leverage over your father. If a bullet hole in your friend here isn’t enough proof that you’re in danger, what is? I highly suggest you stop fighting me on this.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” she asked with spirit. “If anything, I’m even less likely to take orders from you.”

“I thought you’d have seen what we had,” he said, his voice low. “But apparently you can’t see past your own nose.”

A hawk’s cry ripped through the air.

Finally the signal. Anders stood, packed Nate’s wound tight with a bandage from his pack. He then hefted Nate high on his shoulder, staggering under his weight, then set out. The other three crowded around him.

“What the hell happened?” Hannah cried out.

He glanced at her, recognizing her face from the conference where he’d met Angelica. “It’s Hannah, isn’t it?”

She shot him a hard look. “Yes, it is, but I sure as hell don’t know you.”

“Meet one of our fine American military officers,” Angelica said, “always out to protect and to serve. Naval Officer Anders Renau.”

“No longer in the military, thank you very much.” He swore as his foot came down, reaching the crust and breaking through. This was treacherous footing. It would help a lot if somebody broke the trail for him, but he wouldn’t ask any of these guys. Once his own men joined them, it would be easier going. Anders kept up the silent march, packing Nate, who had to be at least 180 pounds himself. But, with all his gear, he topped the two hundred mark. “Keep an eye out for a blood trail behind us,” he said. “If you see it, make sure you bury it. We don’t want anyone or anything anything able to follow us.”

One of the other men stepped forward and said, “I’m Steve. Let me break trail for you.” He traipsed in front and moved ahead.

“Thanks,” Anders said. “I’m not sure how many miles we have to travel, but we need to get there as fast as we can.”

“I don’t even know where the hell you came from, let alone that bullet,” Steve said. “It all happened so fast. Next thing I know, Nate was down, and you were tackling Angelica.”

“He does that a lot,” Angelica said. “Apparently Carlo is in trouble again, and they’ve come to retrieve me.”

She had said it with such disdain that Anders groaned. “You know we’re trying to keep you safe …” And something more was going on with Angel and her father for her to resort to calling him by his first name.

“Sure. I wish you’d kept Nate safe instead,” she said bitterly. “If he’s been shot because of something Carlo has done, … I’ll never forgive him.”

“Your father is a member of parliament. He makes enemies,” Anders said, “but this is less about him and more about the danger you are in. As such, why not let us keep you safe?” He walked a moment. “I didn’t know who you were, you know?”

At that, he could hear her tone of disbelief with a single huff.

“Okay, fine. I knew your name, but I didn’t realize you were the daughter of a member of parliament.”

“That’s because I deliberately don’t advertise that,” she said. “You know what it’s like growing up with a political figure as a parent?”

“It would have been a different lifestyle for sure,” he said.

The going was treacherous with a slight decline, and his boots were slipping. The last thing he wanted was to drop Nate.

At the end of the line, Hannah said urgently, “Somebody’s behind us.”

He slowed his footsteps, opened his throat and sent out a wild cry. When the answer came back, he said, “Not to worry. It’s one of my men.”

“One of your men?” Hannah asked. “How many are here?”

“Four of us good guys. As for the assholes who shot Nate, I have no idea, but it definitely won’t be just one.”

“Did your friends take out the shooter?” Hannah asked.

“Not sure. None of us are safe here.” Anders’s tone was hard. “Somebody went to a lot of effort to come up here after you.”

“Here? Why? What have we done?” Steve asked. “And I get that you and Angelica have a history, but what kind of history? Details please,” he added with a big grin.

“The only history we have,” she said in exasperation, “was a moment of friendship.”

“Only so far as a friendship can go when you’re engaged to be married,” he said. “And that guy was a plain asshole anyway. If you’d listened to me, it would’ve saved you a lot of heartache.”

“Maybe I don’t like know-it-all men,” she snapped. “And you telling me to ditch my fiancé because you’d be a much better man for me wasn’t helpful.”

“Yeah. How about now?”

Steve, still breaking the path in front of him, started laughing. “You two are hilarious. If you were like this before, you must have ruffled her feathers plenty.”

“Angel definitely wasn’t an ice queen back then,” he said with a sigh. “There was plenty of heat. Which is why I knew she had no business marrying that idiot. Especially when he sat at the bar surrounded by women.”

“It was a business networking session,” she said defensively.

“Yeah, he was networking all right,” Anders said.

“Body language doesn’t lie. He was networking into anybody’s bed he could get into.”

Angelica remained silent.

He realized that airing their dirty laundry in front of her research team was not a smart idea. “At least all is well that ends well,” he said in a conciliatory tone. “He’s out of your life. And you’re much better off.”

She groaned. “Okay. Can we change the subject from my personal life please?”

“Do we have to?” Hannah asked in an attempt at lightness. “It’s the most fascinating conversation we’ve had in the last week.”

It was a good way to keep people’s minds off the harsh pace Anders had set.

“And why is your friend following us anyway?” Hannah asked.

“He’s removing our tracks to make it harder to follow us.”

At Steve’s quick twist to look at Anders and then to immediately pivot back, walking a little faster, Anders realized the others understood.

“How much longer?” Hannah’s panic rode the edge of her voice.

“I’d say about fifteen minutes,” Anders said. He refused to keep checking the time. The hike would end when the hike would end.

He was accustomed to marching, but the differing terrain, the snow and the hills made this trek a little bit more dangerous. The fact they were out in the open made it that much more dangerous. He could have gone to the tree line and stayed hidden for a little longer, but the end result was, they would still have to march out in the open at this point. The cabin was below them. Nate was still tied up with the connecting rope to the others, and, since Anders carried Nate, Anders was part of the rope chain. But, if one of them went down, … that wouldn’t be a good idea, considering Nate and Anders. And he couldn’t slide the next couple hundred feet either. Although they would move much faster, it could also cause them a lot more injuries.

Just then Steve tripped and went down. He rolled until his rope grew taut. Anders hit the brakes, knowing the rope around Nate would soon pull on them both. Anders grabbed it with his free hand and pulled backward to stop Steve’s stumble. The two women were caught up in the rope behind Nate. With Steve in the lead and now on the ground, the ropes were even more important.

Slowly Steve made it to his knees. He stopped and took a deep breath, looked around him and said, “Well, that wasn’t much fun.”

“Let me break the trail,” Angelica said.

“No,” Anders said. “You stay right at my side.”

“That won’t help us much,” she said in exasperation. “We have to get Nate to safety. And fast.”

“That’s fine,” Anders said, “but what I don’t want is anybody else falling. If we have to slow it down a little bit, then we will.”

“You’re the one carrying Nate. Aren’t you tired?”

Steve slowly made his way to his feet. “I can’t say this is a pace I’m terribly comfortable with. My legs are already killing me and so are my lungs.”

“The cabin is up ahead,” Angelica said reassuringly. “This has ended up being quite the nightmare.”

Steve shot her a look. “You’re not kidding. If Nate doesn’t make it …”

“Nate has brand new twin sons at home,” she said firmly. “We’ll do everything possible to get him back to them once again.”
Mayer, Dale. Anders’s Angel: A SEALs of Honor World Novel (Heroes for Hire Book 16) (pp. 47-54). Valley Publishing Ltd.. Kindle Edition.

With Nate safely at the hospital and doing well, they get the rest of the team ready to leave the country.

Angelica doesn’t like where she is headed though and makes her position very clear. She wants nothing to do with her father. Circumstances prevent the guys from taking here anywhere else and things just keep ramping up from here.

Anders and Angelica are perfect for each other and as all the pieces start coming together it becomes clear that this is a relationship that will last.

Plenty of action and intrigue, with just the right amount of sizzle.

5 Contented Purrs for Dale!

Dale Mayer

Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).

She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.