By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Amy Ganet

He must protect
the woman who betrayed him…

Sloan Dvorak came home from basic training to find his girlfriend married to another man. He went on to become a Navy SEAL and did his best to forget her, proudly serving his country until he lost his arm in Kandahar. Now he’s a member of HERO Force New York, wondering if one arm is enough to truly fight for anyone.

Joanne Regan had been separated from her husband for a year when he died in a brutal homicide. But before they could lower his body into the ground, the mob demands she pay up on her husband’s debt—millions of dollars she doesn’t know anything about. Now she’s on the run, desperate for help with no one to turn to—a sympathy card from Sloan’s mother guiding her like a beacon in the night.

Joanne shows up on Sloan’s doorstep with her three kids, looking for his mother with the mob hot on her tail. Sloan is thrown into a dangerous spiral, drawing him closer and closer to the one woman he desperately needs to avoid, determined to save her and the children from a danger unlike any he’s ever known.

Joanne and her husband David had been separated for a while now. She never expected and didn’t want him to die. Now she’s alone in a way she didn’t expect. Her children are all handling their grief differently, April the oldest is more withdrawn and clinging to social media for comfort. Fiona and Lucas were clinging to her more and the funeral was anything but comforting. Her husband’s mistress was there with her husband. She wondered if he knew about the affair, he was one of David’s biggest clients. What she didn’t expect was the threat he made as she was leaving the cemetery. According to Richard Bannon, David had a lot of his money and he wants it back. Even as Joanne protests she knows nothing of David’s business since they separated, the man threatens her children and gives a deadline to return it.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, when the reach their home it’s been ransacked, obviously someone had been looking for the missing money. All Joanne knows is she has to protect her children. A sympathy card from Evelyn Nowak gave her comfort than none other had. It was also the one place she would always feel safe.

We see Sloan in his family home holding a poker game with his friends and coworkers from Hero Force. I have to say the snacks he serves are very much out of the ordinary, filet mignon and brie to me are serious hors d’oeuvres not poker fare. It’s as this game breaks up that Sloan tells Mac he’s thinking of quitting, that he can’t do what he needs to do to protect people with only one arm. Then from that moment to the next his world turns upside down as there’s a knock on the door and Sloan is faced with his old girlfriend. The girl who broke his heart now a woman looking for his mom.

Jo needs money and to hide away with her children somewhere where Richard Bannon can’t find her. She should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

Now Sloan knows somethings not right and when he gets the answer he calls in HERO force to help.

This is a favorite scene.

Sloan winked at the teller, a sixty-year-old woman who used to serve him lunch in the school cafeteria. “Twenties will be fine, thanks, Mrs. Martin.”

“I don’t have that much in my drawer. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Ten thousand dollars in twenty-dollar bills was sure to be a little cumbersome to deal with, but he suspected Jo would prefer the smaller bills. She’d only asked for a few thousand, but he wanted to make sure she had enough, and suspected if he pressed her she would clam up. Talking to her today was like walking barefoot over bird spikes. Her defenses had always run high, and her behavior this morning was no exception.

The teller returned and counted out bills. After this was over and Joanne was on her way, maybe he’d take a vacation. Let his toes sink into the sand someplace warm and forget all about Joanne Buckley and whatever the hell she was hiding.

Like you’ll be able to do that.

The thought brought him up short. Of course he’d be able to forget her. He’d been over her for longer than they’d been together, and nothing was going to change that. Besides, clearly she was knee deep in some kind of mess and wouldn’t even tell him what was going on. If he had half a brain in his head, he’d let her go just like she wanted. He sucked his cheeks in.

“Here you go,” said the teller, returning with a bound stack of bills. “Want me to count it out for you?”

“No, thanks, I trust you.” He took the stack in his hand. Ten thousand dollars. A simple stack of bills. This was all she wanted from him. He turned on his heel.

What was the alternative? He couldn’t force her to let him in. She was a grown woman who got to call the shots in her own life, and if that put his back up, it said more about him being a nosey bastard than anything about Joanne. Yes. He should definitely let her get back in that Porsche of hers and drive away.

That car was easily worth well over a hundred grand. Anyone with a car like that shouldn’t need to borrow a few thousand dollars, much less drive all the way from Chicago to New York to do it. And it was just days after her husband died, for Christ’s sake. She should be in mourning, not desperate for cash and anxious as a bird flying over the ocean.

He rounded the service desk, nodding at a neighbor, more convinced with every step there was more to Jo’s situation than met the eye. What kind of person would he be if he just let her walk out the door, ignoring his sense that something was terribly wrong? Lucas had said they couldn’t go home. What did Sloan need? A personal invitation to intervene?

He could convince her to stay with him for a while, at least a few days. See if he could get her to open up, even if that meant walking on ice that had barely frozen over. He’d cared for her once. The least he could do was be a true friend to her now, or at least try.

He pushed out of the bank and got into his car.

Jo was frantic. “We have to get back. We shouldn’t have left April and Lucas alone.”

“What’s going on?” He drove out of the parking lot. “Did something happen?”

“Please, just hurry.”

“Damn it, Joanne! What the hell is going on?” He swerved through traffic and ran a light as it turned red, his tires fighting for traction on the snow-covered road. “Are you in trouble? Is someone trying to hurt you?”

“I thought I could just get away, that we could start over somewhere new and he wouldn’t find us.”

“Who?”

“David owed someone millions of dollars and if I don’t give it back to him within a week…” She looked over her shoulder at Fiona. When she spoke again, it was a whisper. “He’s going to kill one of the children. He said if I went to the police, he’d kill them all.”

“Jesus, Joanne, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m telling you now. He was at the bank.”

“Who?”

“The man! Richard Bannon. I think he’s a mobster. I’m not honestly sure.”

Sloan twisted in his seat. “Just now?” “I don’t know how he found us. I didn’t think we were followed. I was careful.” She let out a single panicked sob. “He said I shouldn’t have left the other two home alone.”

“Goddamn it.” He drove even faster, passing a minivan over a double yellow line. “They must have put some kind of GPS tracker on your car.”

“I didn’t intend to bring you into this. I thought with some money I could hide and keep us safe.”

“We need HERO Force.”

“I can’t afford—”

“I’ve got it.” He punched in Mac’s number on speed dial. When the old man answered, he barked, “Mac, we’ve got a problem. I need backup at my house, pronto. As many men as you can spare.”
Gamet, Amy. Holding his Hostage (Shattered SEALs Book 3) Kindle Locations.(608-641). Kindle Edition.

HERO Force steps in and starts following the clues, what they find is not what Jo had assumed. Her daughter April causes more than a couple of issues and Sloan is ever so patient.

An RV trip, some interesting interactions, a lot of suspense, plenty of action and the realization that their love never died. Make this book a page turning read. I can’t wait to see what’s next in this series.

5 Contented Purrs for Amy!

Amy Gamet

Amy Gamet is a USA Today bestselling author who lives in upstate New York with her husband, children, too many pets and the occasional litter of foster animals. She likes to swim in the sunshine, make jewelry, and lobbies professionally for household remodeling projects. She owns an unusual number of brightly colored T-shirts and black yoga pants, and her children always ask who’s coming to visit when she runs the vacuum cleaner.

By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Amy Gamet

She was offered the chance of a lifetime… literally.

Pregnant Jackie Desjardins struck a deal with the man who didn’t have the heart to kill her—he would let her live if she faked her death and never returned. But when the scales of power tip unexpectedly, that deal expires, putting Jackie and her young daughter in the crosshairs of evil.

Former Navy SEAL and HERO Force doctor Ian “Razorback” Rhodes was injured in the line of duty when an oxygen tank he was holding for a patient exploded in a battle zone. Now he must protect Jackie and earn her trust to untangle the web that surrounds her, bringing her back from the land of the dead to defeat the forces that threaten to end her life once and for all.

Jackie Desjardins had been given a reprieve eight years ago, she faked her death, moved to Mexico and had her child. Now with a hurricane bearing down on her resort, Jackie has a feeling of being watched. As the storm draws closer, she is attacked in her home, saved by the former Navy SEAL protecting her all these years. Unfortunately Bill dies of a heart attack after the incident, but not before telling her who to call for reinforcements.

Hero Force operators Ian “Razorback” Rhodes and Sloane Dvorak are assigned to protect Jackie and her daughter Selena. The problem is there is no information on who they are to protect her from. Jackie has been rather closed mouthed about it, and they are going to have to get her to open up if they are to do their job. Of course the weather isn’t co-operating on their journey either causing them to walk the last three or so miles to the resort.

When they arrive they pretty much have to go right to work as Jackie had heard something or someone in the hall to the kitchen.

This is a favorite scene.

“We’re with HERO Force,” called the man through the thick wooden door. “Mac sent us.”

Relief flooded her. She turned off the alarm system and unlocked the door, hitting the switch for the outside light. “You scared m— ” The word died on her tongue as she stared at the man and gasped. One side of his face was nearly normal, with a single wide gash across his cheek, but the other was heavily scarred and disfigured, probably by fire, the warm brown tone of his skin mottled with bits of pink and washed-out red. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean… Sorry. How did you get through?”

“We walked the last few miles. I’m Ian Rhodes. This is Sloan Dvorak.”

They were both tall and broad shouldered, though the scarred man was lean and muscular where the other was stocky and solid. Ian and Sloan, she reminded herself. All Ian had done was introduce them, yet she instantly sensed he was formidable. Perhaps it was the steel that seemed to structure his frame, holding his body erect and seemingly ready to attack, or the power barely concealed within his stare. She had offended him, she was sure.

No, Jackie. He probably likes it when women gasp upon seeing his scarred face.

She chastised herself for her stupid thoughts, turning her attention to Sloan. He was softer looking than his partner, or maybe it was just the hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth that made him appear friendlier, more helpful. Kind. Yes, Sloan appeared kind, with sandy-brown hair framing his fair face and just the shadow of a beard. Jackie instantly liked him far better than Ian.

Sloan pointed to her hand. “Can you stop pointing that gun at us, please?”

“What?… Oh.” She looked at the Glock, having completely forgotten it was in her hand, and remembering why she held it. “I heard a noise down the hall.”

The men shared a look, each pulling out his own handgun. Ian brushed past her. “Where was it coming from?”

“Back there. The hallway that leads to the kitchen.”

“Stay here,” said Sloan, following the other man. She nodded, pulling the front door closed and leaning back against it. She was no longer certain of exactly what she’d heard, the noise having been nondescript and possibly even a figment of her imagination. She had nearly convinced herself of this when Ian returned.

“Did you leave your office window open?” he asked.

She frowned. “No.”

“You sure about that? Because it’s open now.”

An icy heat spread from the base of her neck over her shoulder blades, goose bumps covering her arms. “Positive. I made sure everything was locked up.”

Sloan reentered the room. “There’s no one in here, but the alarm system sensor on the office window has been tampered with. Wire’s cut.”

“That can’t be. Bill checked the alarm system after the attack.” Her eyes darted from one man to the other, understanding slowly dawning, dragging fear in its wake. “Someone did it after that.”

Again Ian ignored her. He gestured to Sloan. “Let’s check outside.”

“But what if there’s somebody in here?” she blurted.

Ian was already heading for the door, but he stopped and turned back to face her. “It’s clear. We checked. Stay put.”

She nodded, sinking down onto a wooden bench in the foyer. The man who’d attacked her had barely been dead twenty-four hours, but someone else was already on her trail. She brought a trembling hand to her mouth, her fingers lightly skimming her bottom lip.

The men returned a few minutes later.

“Tracks in the sand leading to and from your office window. Did you make them?” asked Sloan.

She shook her head, feeling faint as the remaining blood drained from her head. “No.”

“Looks like we got here just in time,” said Ian. “We’re going to search the rest of the grounds. Lock this door.”

She sat for what could have been an hour, but she wasn’t sure. Her sense of time was off, the events of the last day circling through her mind like a hamster on a wheel. The intruder in her house. The attack. Bill killing her attacker. Bill’s heart attack and death. Her heaving a dead man off a cliff into the ocean.

A tear slipped down her cheek and she left it there. She was grateful the SEALs were here, that the men had arrived to protect her and Selena. She just didn’t know what would happen next. Kill another man, toss another body? Or pack up a few things and run for their lives? How could she possibly pick the right course of action when she didn’t know what had changed, putting her in danger once more?

This time when the bell rang, she was not surprised. She let the men inside. “Coast is clear, as far as we can tell,” said Ian. “We used night vision goggles with thermal imaging. Nothing.” He unstrapped his pack from his back and set it heavily on the floor. “How about you bring us up to speed on what’s been going on here?”

She told them about the intruder and subsequent attack, wondering just how much of the truth she should share with these men. Bill trusted Mac O’Brady, but these men were strangers. She opted to keep her attacker’s demise to herself, at least for the time being, instead telling the SEALs Bill chased the man away.

“Looks like he isn’t giving up so easily,” said Sloan. “Don’t worry. We’re here now, and we’ll protect you.” He turned to Ian. “You got first watch, man? I’m starving.”

Ian nodded. “Sure.” He eyed Jackie. “Sloan’s an eating machine. A bottomless freaking pit.”

“I can make you something,” she offered, coming to a stand. “You, too, Mr. Rhodes.” She forced a smile to her face, attempting to make up for her initial reaction to his appearance.

“I’m not hungry.”

His tone implied he’d rather starve than eat her cooking, and she frowned. She didn’t know how long the men were going to be here, but that time would have been easier for all of them if she and Ian Rhodes had gotten off on the right foot. He went back outside.

“Razorback’s like that with everyone,” said Sloan. “Don’t let it get to you.”

“Razorback?”

“Yeah.” He gave her a conspiratorial grin. “Suits him, don’t you think? Like an old boar living alone in the forest.”

“Maybe he’ll warm up to me as I get to know him.”

Sloan shook his head with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t count on that. But you go ahead and try if it will make you feel better.” He rubbed his hands together and grinned. “Now, what do you have to eat?”
Gamet, Amy. Resisting his Target (Shattered SEALs Book 2) Kindle Locations (331-384). Kindle Edition.

Frustrated by Jackie’s refusal to open up, Sloan and Ian search her room while she was in town with Selena and her neighbor. What they find is the answer they were looking for, more important this wasn’t something that was going to go away easily.

Now Jackie has some decisions to make as Ian finds her packing up to run. Things ramp up from here, especially when they figure out who’s after her. They call for reinforcements but the weather is going to be a factor. There is even a bit of push back between Mac and Cowboy the owner of Hero Forces, as the guys face the mercenary crew sent to take out Jackie and Selena.

Getting her back into the US was going to be difficult and the attraction between Ian and Jackie continues to build from a simmer to sizzling heat.

Fast-paced with plenty of action and excitement as the clock runs down for Jackie and Selena to be truly free from harm.

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

5 Contented Purrs for Amy!

Amy Gamet

Amy Gamet is a USA Today bestselling author who lives in upstate New York with her husband, children, too many pets and the occasional litter of foster animals. She likes to swim in the sunshine, make jewelry, and lobbies professionally for household remodeling projects. She owns an unusual number of brightly colored T-shirts and black yoga pants, and her children always ask who’s coming to visit when she runs the vacuum cleaner.

By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Amy Gamet

Scientist Summer Daniels is a witness to a bombing by an ex-employee who now wants her dead. Luke “Wiseman” Arroyo is a broken Navy SEAL on the verge of quitting HERO Force who must now stay and protect her. They’ll work together to find a rare element stolen during the attack, but Luke’s hiding a bombshell secret that could detonate a lot more than the explosive chemistry between them.

This book opens with a literal BOOM! A bomb has gone off in the testing area of Daniels Aerospace. Summer Daniels had been up in the office watching when an alarm went off, she was racing down the stairs when she collides with a former employee Steven Galbraith, just before the blast. In the aftermath she is almost run down by a van driven by that man. She’s a witness, she knows what he’s done. Now with the death of their chief engineer and the discovery the rare element needed for the testing is gone the demise of her father’s company was an almost certainty.

Fearing for her safety she recalls the article her father pointed out to her. A security company HERO Force run by former Navy SEALs is now operating in NY. Her brother Edward was a SEAL, one who didn’t survive. Perhaps they could provide both her father and herself with the protection they need and also help them find the stolen element.

Luke ‘Wiseman’ Arroyo was in the process of quitting his job with HERO Force. His boss Mac was trying to talk him out of leaving when he’s interrupted by the intercomm announcing a Summer Daniels to see him. Luke immediately recognized the name, Edward ‘Buckeye’ Daniels’ sister, his pen-pal for a while. No way was he leaving now, he had to know what brought her to them.

The phone rang loudly on the stereo speakers.

Damn

It was Mac. “We’re going to stop at the diner and get some coffee while you grab the dog. You want anything?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll take a coffee,” he said, turning to her. “You want anything?”

“Coffee sounds good. Black.”

“Got it. See you in a few,” said Mac.

Luke hung up, driving over the hill before turning onto a dirt road that ran along a creek. This was his sanctuary, and while it felt strange to bring her here, it was stranger still that he wanted her to see where he lived. No one but Mac had been to the cabin in years, and even he hadn’t been invited.

“What were you going to say?” she asked.

“I forget.” His cabin came into view, the fist of tension that held his nervous system in its grasp finally releasing as he pulled into the unplowed drive. He turned to her. “You want to come in for a minute?”

“Sure.”

He opened the car door, getting hit in the face with a biting wind. The dog barked loudly as they made their way through the snow. “You like dogs?”

She bared her bottom teeth warily. “Cute little puppies? Yes. Ferocious beasts? Not so much.”

“Zeke is only ferocious to bad guys. He’s a sweet puppy dog to everybody else.” He unlocked the door.

“Zeke?”

“Yeah, I’ve had him since my SEAL days. He was in Afghanistan with our team.”

She was looking at him strangely and he cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“Is this my brother’s dog?”

Crap. How could you forget that?

Buckeye had been the dog’s handler. He’d even wanted Zeke to come back to the States with him after their tour was through, or whenever the navy was done with the animal. But Buckeye died and Zeke wouldn’t listen to anybody else. He was bordering on being a danger to their own men.

The large German shepherd had good instincts, bred and raised to be a fighter, but those days were done. Mac had pulled some strings and had Zeke transferred to Walter Reed to be with Luke under the pretense that he was some new kind of therapy dog.

The animal couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. It was his relationship with that dog that damn near saved his life. After what happened, Luke had struggled, barely alive. It was the angry dog without his handler that had given him a purpose, the slow battle for Zeke’s respect that had brought him back to life.

“That’s the one,” he said, his voice tight.

He opened the door, commanding the dog to heel. Zeke sat, his eyes locked onto Summer.

“Is it okay if I pet him? Edward said only the handler is allowed to touch him.”

“He’s retired. You can pet him all you like.”

She got down on the ground, taking his face in her hands and stroking his thick fur. “Hello, baby.”

The dog whimpered and licked her face, something Luke had never seen him do, then the dog rested his head on her shoulder as if he were giving her a hug.

“Yes, sweetie. It’s okay.” She wrapped her arms around the dog, saying soothing words as Zeke continued to whimper.

“It’s like he knows you.”

“I feel like I know him, too. My brother used to talk about him all the time. That’s all we ever heard about. Zeke, the weather”—she lifted her eyes—“and you.”

Goddamn, she’s beautiful.

He swallowed against the tightness in his throat. What was this woman doing to him? She’d already cracked through the shell most women didn’t get through, ever. And while he knew her relationship to Buckeye would be his downfall, he also understood it was that relationship that had allowed her to break through that barrier.

Her voice was wistful. “Edward wanted to keep him when he got back to the States. I wondered what happened to him.”

“Been right here the whole time.”

She met his eyes, the look she gave him stirring something deep in his gut. “You have, haven’t you?” She smiled.

His throat was working, conflict churning in his gut.

This was his house, that was his dog, and right now Summer felt a hell of a lot like his woman. It was a good thing Mac was less than a mile away waiting for them to return, or else he’d be sorely tempted to make his second bad decision in as many days and take her into his bed.

Really? After what you did to Buckeye?

Luke turned away, moving to the kitchen and busying himself with Zeke’s food and supplies, throwing a small bulletproof vest emblazoned with K-9 ZEKE into his pack. He felt Summer walk up behind him. He’d always been able to feel people, their presence seeming to change the atmosphere in the room even before he could see them.

Summer made everything feel golden, sun-kissed, just like her name. She touched his arm, tingling pleasure shooting up it and down his spine. He wanted it to continue, wanted to turn around and touch her like she was touching him, and then some.

“This is so much more than I expected,” she said. He was fighting for control, fighting to do the right thing when he desperately wanted to throw right and wrong over a goddamn cliff. He closed his eyes. “The dog?” “Everything. HERO Force. You. I didn’t want to come to you guys for help, and already I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
Gamet, Amy. Protecting his Witness (Shattered SEALs Book 1). Kindle Locations (646-676). Kindle Edition.

Even with all the things that need to be solved, there is no denying the chemistry between these two. However Luke is going to have to come to terms with a lot of emotional baggage.

Summer is more than determined to break through Luke’s walls not knowing what will be revealed.

I loved this book so much, the dog, Zeke, the memories and the simmer to sizzle romance is perfect.

5 Contented Purrs for Amy!

Amy Gamet

Amy Gamet is a USA Today bestselling author who lives in upstate New York with her husband, children, too many pets and the occasional litter of foster animals. She likes to swim in the sunshine, make jewelry, and lobbies professionally for household remodeling projects. She owns an unusual number of brightly colored T-shirts and black yoga pants, and her children always ask who’s coming to visit when she runs the vacuum cleaner.