By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Caitlyn O’Leary

What Happens When You
Might Be Sleeping with The Enemy?

Navy SEAL, Mateo Aranda, was used to fighting the good fight. He had successfully carried out missions in dozens of countries, and he never once wavered.

The thought of terrorists following his team home and targeting his friends’ families was unimaginable. Knowing how high the stakes were, he was damn sure this would not be the first mission he would lose. Mateo was on the hunt, and he intended to destroy the Kraken Elite once and for all.

When a lead points to Lainey Simpson, his mind tells him he has to do whatever is necessary to squeeze her for info, but his gut tells him something else entirely. Mateo is left trying to figure out if Lainey needs his protection, or if his team needs protection from Lainey and the people she might be working with.

The prologue of this book shows Mateo as he visits his mother in hospice. He hadn’t known she was there until two days ago. He’s able to speak with her a bit before her medication takes her back to pain free sleep. Unfortunately, that was all the time he got with her before she passed away.

This book opens as Mateo joins the chaos of a birthday party at Gideon’s house. The festivities that started at a putt-putt golf and games had been cut short by a storm. The other members of his team were at a local pub watching the game and would join them later. He’s dripping wet from the storm and is greeted by Amber and Lachlan Drakos. Amber gives him a rundown on who’s there, both children and adults. Amy Linden greets him as Lachlan gives him a towel, she suggests borrowing one of Gideon’s t-shirts until his is dry. I love his interactions with the kids especially two scared little girls with Amy. As they handle that crisis Mateo hears a dog barking.

Gideon’s dog Lucy hardly ever barks, and Mateo needs to check on her. What he sees has a prickle starting up the back of his neck and that only gets worse when Bonnie tells him Lucy was barking and scratching at the sliding doors when they arrived. Her barking was scaring the kids, so Bonnie wrangled her into the mud room but didn’t call Gideon.

Mateo calls Gideon and when he describes Lucy’s actions, Gideon informs him she’s on alert, he needs to get home. He also tells Mateo to get everyone out and away from the house.

Mateo finds a bomb attached to the pool pump. Braxton’s on his way but there’s not much time. Lucy has him running after her again to the HVAC unit on the side of house. He’s working on getting the housing off when Bonnie calls out to him that one of the kids is still in the house.

This is a favorite scene.

As soon as they got inside the great room, Bonnie careened to a halt. “It’s bad, right?” She was trembling, her face the color of parchment.

“There are two bombs. I don’t know if we can diffuse them in time,” Mateo burst out. “We’ve got to get her out of here. What’s her name?”

Bonnie didn’t bother to answer him, just turned around and shouted, “Laura!” at the top of her lungs. “Laura, honey, you need to stop hiding. Your dad is worried about you.”

The house was two stories, and massive. There were at least four bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs.

“You take downstairs, I’ll take upstairs.” He didn’t wait for Bonnie’s response; he just ran to the staircase and took the steps three at a time as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

“We’re in a car and on our way,” Gideon said as he answered his phone.

“You’ll be too late.” Mateo looked at his watch. “We have six minutes and fifty-five seconds. Two bombs and one girl hiding in your house. Are there any hiding places we should know about?”

Mateo hit the first bedroom on the right. “Laura, I need you to come out and stop playing. The other kids are worried about you.”

He scanned the room. Just a bed, dresser, chair, and closet. She was little, but she wasn’t behind the curtains or the chair. Not under the bed, and not in the bathroom or the glassed-in shower. Next door was a closet with towels and sheets. He yanked out the folded sheets at the bottom of the closet and found nothing.

He hit the next room; it was another guest room. He checked the closet first. It was piled high with shoeboxes. He tore through them, seeing if the girl was behind them.

“Mateo!”

Shit, he’d forgotten that Gideon was still on the line.

“What?”

“Don’t forget to check the deck off the master. Jada washed out the planters. They’re empty. She could be there.”

“Got it.” Mateo shoved his phone back into his pocket and raced to the room at the end of the hall, hoping it was Gideon and Jada’s room. As soon as he opened it, he struck gold. The size of the bed told the story. He glanced at his watch.

Three minutes, seven seconds.

“Laura?” Mateo called out in a normal tone, trying not to scare the girl so she’d come to him. “I need you to come here. Bonnie’s worried about you, honey. Your dad is worried. I need you to quit hiding.”

With the storm outside, he was pretty damn sure little Laura wouldn’t be hiding out on the deck, but he checked out the potting containers, anyway. They were empty. He checked under the bed. Nothing.

He went to the bathroom and didn’t see her. Then he flung open the door to the toilet and saw a tiny huddled little girl staring up at him with wide, terrified eyes as she tried to jam her body between the wall and the back of the toilet bowl. But she couldn’t. He would have loved to have coaxed her out of hiding and soothed her fear, but there was no damned time.

No damned time.

He grabbed the little girl underneath her armpits and she whimpered. Then he grabbed her around her waist.

“I want my Daddy,” she pleaded.

“Hang on, we’re going to go fast.” He glanced at his watch.

One minute, twenty-eight seconds.

“I’ve got her, Bonnie!” he yelled as he raced for the stairs. “Bonnie? I’ve got her.”

When he got to the first floor he saw that the front door was wide open.

Bonnie came from down the hall and almost bumped into them. “Let’s go!” he yelled.

He took a millisecond to turn toward the open sliding glass door that felt miles away.

“Braxton, stop what you’re doing. I’ve got the girl,” he roared at the top of his lungs. He turned back and ran out the front door, thankful that there were no steps leading up to the house. Instead, he just hit the circular drive, making sure that Bonnie kept up with him.

He couldn’t check his watch, not with Laura in his arms.

Then he was at Bonnie’s side when she stopped at the open door of a minivan. He put his arm around her and forced her to run beside him. There was no time to drive, only run.

He didn’t have time to look behind him to find Braxton, not while helping Bonnie run.

If the bomb in the HVAC unit was anything like the pool pump, Braxton wasn’t going to survive the blast, not with three bricks of C-4. But he had to get Bonnie and Laura to the end of the drive. He counted in his head. He knew he was down to seconds.

He knew it.

They were halfway down the drive. He looked over his shoulder.

He had to.

No Brax.

Bonnie slipped on the wet drive and fell to the ground.

It was a done deal. He dropped down on top of her, making sure to cradle Laura’s head and little body so she wasn’t hurt.

The noise pummeled his eardrums as Laura shrieked, and then his body jolted so hard that he was lifted up then dropped back down onto the two bodies underneath him.

“Fuck!”

Before he could agonize over hurting Bonnie and Laura he was punched in the ribs. He took another shot in his ass. Then he was battered over and over again by hot rain. He gritted his teeth, trying not to scare Laura as he took the beating. The fiery hammer that hit his head forced a cry from his lips.

“Mateo?”

Something was shoving at him. He groaned as his back hit concrete. He peered up into the sky. It was wet and ashy. Ashy?

Smoke.

He tried to sit up. Mateo rolled over and pushed himself up onto his knees. Everything was coming together. He squinted and saw Laura and Bonnie. Both standing. That was good.

Real good.

Laura was sobbing, but she didn’t look hurt.

“Braxton? Did you see Braxton?”

Bonnie’s mouth was moving, but he couldn’t hear her.

“What? Did you see Braxton?”

Her mouth moved again.

“I can’t hear you!” he yelled.

She finally shook her head. That was when he realized that besides the rain, she was crying.

“No! That can’t be right,” he yelled.

Mateo turned to look at Gideon’s demolished house. He didn’t hear anything.

Nothing.

“Braxton!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. At least he thought he did; he couldn’t hear shit. He started to run forward, but his knees gave out and he fell on his face.

He lifted his head. “Braxton!” he yelled again.

Was he hearing sirens? Who the fuck knew.

“Braxton!” Over and over and over again, he yelled for his friend.

He felt something touch his head. A hand. He looked up. It was Bonnie.

“Lucy?” he croaked out her name.

Bonnie slowly shook her head.

The smoke seemed to swirl around him, turning everything gray. He watched the tears drip down her face, leaving clean tracks through the ash. Then his world went black.
Caitlyn O’Leary. Her-Brave-Warrior-Kindle-2024-06-24 (Kindle Locations 423-483). Kindle Edition.

Mateo wakes in the hospital and Braxton is at his side. This is a huge relief as well as learning Lucy is okay as well.

As expected, the team is in an uproar over their families being targeted and the most logical suspect is The Kraken. Even though they took out the head of that organization Amanda is still around. The question is would she go after this sort of retribution.

Their best bet as always is to follow the money, so that is what they do. It leads to money being converted to cryptocurrency and transfers to banks in the Cayman Islands.

This is where Mateo comes in to investigate who is doing the transfers. MacLaine Taylor Simpson handled the latest transfer and that is who he will need to get information from.

Maclaine ‘Lainey’ Simpson is part of the bank’s management trainee program. Her boss, as she started this phase of the training went on vacation leaving her with only one coworker. Janice had applied for the program but didn’t make it and as such she keeps throwing things at Lainey and offering no help whatsoever.

From here the investigation heats up as Mateo makes contact. He doesn’t expect to fall for his subject or to have to prove her innocence to his team.

I love the way this story unfolds. There is plenty of suspense and intrigue as the romance slowly goes from simmer to sizzle.

I can’t wait for the next book in this series.

5 Contented Purrs for Caitlyn!

Caitlyn O’Leary

Caitlyn O’Leary is a USA Bestselling Author, #1 Amazon Bestselling Author and a Golden Quill Recipient from Book Viral in 2015. Hampered with a mild form of dyslexia she began memorizing books at an early age until her grandmother, the English teacher, took the time to teach her to read — then she never stopped. She began re-writing alternate endings for her Trixie Belden books into happily-ever-afters with Trixie’s platonic friend Jim. When she was home with pneumonia at twelve, she read the entire set of World Book Encyclopedias — a little more challenging to end those happily.

Caitlyn loves writing about Alpha males with strong heroines who keep the men on their toes. There is plenty of action, suspense and humor in her books. She is never shy about tackling some of today’s tough and relevant issues.

In addition to being an award-winning author of romantic suspense novels, she is a devoted aunt, an avid reader, a former corporate executive for a Fortune 100 company, and totally in love with her husband of soon-to-be twenty years.

She recently moved back home to the Pacific Northwest from Southern California. She is so happy to see the seasons again; rain, rain and more rain. She has a large fan group on Facebook and through her e-mail list. Caitlyn is known for telling her “Caitlyn Factors”, where she relates her little and big life’s screw-ups. The list is long. She loves hearing and connecting with her fans on a daily basis.