Dangerous: Delos Series, Book 10 Read online

  Dangerous

  By Lindsay McKenna

  Praise for Lindsay McKenna

  “A treasure of a book . . . highly recommended reading that everyone will enjoy and learn from.”

  —Chief Michael Jaco, US Navy SEAL, retired, on Breaking Point

  “Readers will root for this complex heroine, scarred both inside and out, and hope she finds peace with her steadfast and loving hero. Rife with realistic conflict and spiced with danger, this is a worthy page-turner.”

  —BookPage.com on Taking Fire

  March 2015 Top Pick in Romance

  “. . . is fast-paced romantic suspense that renders a beautiful love story, start to finish. McKenna’s writing is flawless, and her story line fully absorbing. More, please.”

  —Annalisa Pesek, Library Journal on Taking Fire

  “Ms. McKenna masterfully blends the two different paces to convey a beautiful saga about love, trust, patience and having faith in each other.”

  —Fresh Fiction on Never Surrender

  “Genuine and moving, this romantic story set in the complex world of military ops grabs at the heart.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Risk Taker

  “McKenna does a beautiful job of illustrating difficult topics through the development of well-formed, sympathetic characters.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review) on Wolf Haven

  One of the Best Books of 2014, Publisher’s Weekly

  “McKenna delivers a story that is raw and heartfelt. The relationship between Kell and Leah is both passionate and tender. Kell is the hero every woman wants, and McKenna employs skill and empathy to craft a physically and emotionally abused character in Leah. Using tension and steady pacing, McKenna is adept at expressing growing, tender love in the midst of high stakes danger.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Taking Fire

  “Her military background lends authenticity to this outstanding tale, and readers will fall in love with the upstanding hero and his fierce determination to save the woman he loves.

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Never Surrender

  One of the Best Books of 2014, Publisher’s Weekly

  “Readers will find this addition to the Shadow Warriors series full of intensity and action-packed romance. There is great chemistry between the characters and tremendous realism, making Breaking Point a great read.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “This sequel to Risk Taker is an action-packed, compelling story, and the sizzling chemistry between Ethan and Sarah makes this a good read.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Degree of Risk

  “McKenna elicits tears, laughter, fist-pumping triumph, and most all, a desire for the next tale in this powerful series.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Running Fire

  “McKenna’s military experience shines through in this moving tale . . . McKenna (High Country Rebel) skillfully takes readers on an emotional journey into modern warfare and two people’s hearts.”

  —Publisher’s Weekly on Down Range

  “Lindsay McKenna has proven that she knows what she’s doing when it comes to these military action/romance books.”

  —Terry Lynn, Amazon on Zone of Fire.

  “At no time do you want to put your book down and come back to it later! Last Chance is a well written, fast paced, short (remember that) story that will please any military romance reader!”

  —LBDDiaries, Amazon on Last Chance.

  Available from

  Lindsay McKenna

  Blue Turtle Publishing

  DELOS

  Last Chance, prologue novella to Nowhere to Hide

  Nowhere to Hide, Book 1

  Tangled Pursuit, Book 2

  Forged in Fire, Book 3

  2016

  Broken Dreams, Book 4

  Blind Sided, BN2

  Secret Dream, B1B novella, epilogue to Nowhere to Hide

  Hold On, Book 5

  Hold Me, 5B1, sequel to Hold On

  Unbound Pursuit, 2B1 novella, epilogue to Tangled Pursuit

  Secrets, 2B2 novella, sequel to Unbound Pursuit, 2B1

  2017

  Snowflake’s Gift, Book 6

  Never Enough, 3B1, novella, sequel to Forged in Fire

  Dream of Me, 4B1, novella, sequel to Broken Dreams

  Trapped, Book 7

  Taking a Chance 7B1, novella, sequel to Trapped

  The Hidden Heart, 7B2, novella, sequel to Taking A Chance

  2018

  Boxcar Christmas, Book 8

  Sanctuary, Book 9

  Dangerous, Book 10

  Harlequin/HQN/Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  SHADOW WARRIORS

  Danger Close

  Down Range

  Risk Taker

  Degree of Risk

  Breaking Point

  Never Surrender

  Zone of Fire

  Taking Fire

  On Fire

  Running Fire

  THE WYOMING SERIES

  Shadows From The Past

  Deadly Identity

  Deadly Silence

  The Last Cowboy

  The Wrangler

  The Defender

  The Loner

  High Country Rebel

  Wolf Haven

  Night Hawk

  Out Rider

  WIND RIVER VALLEY SERIES, Kensington

  2016

  Wind River Wrangler

  Wind River Rancher

  2017

  Wind River Cowboy

  Christmas with my Cowboy

  Wrangler’s Challenge

  Dangerous

  Copyright © 2018 by Nauman Living Trust

  ISBN: 978-1-929977-63-5

  Kindle Edition

  Excerpt from Redemption

  Copyright © 2018 by Nauman Living Trust

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Blue Turtle Publishing, PO Box 2513, Cottonwood, AZ 86326 USA

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Blue Turtle Publishing

  www.lindsaymckenna.com

  Dedication

  To Dr. Steve Vergara, Dentist, his ten women assistants, among them Jan and Julieanne at Arizona Smile Designs. And, Dr. Danny Ripplinger, dental surgeon from Las Vegas, Nevada, who saved a tooth with a 2 ½ hour root canal. He’s also an author of science fiction novels, and we had a great time talking about his book during the root canal! We are sister-brother writers, so that made this procedure well worth the trip. Thank you, Steve, for all your fine work on my teeth. Thank you, Danny, for your kindness, your humor and discovering a wonderful new storyteller!

  Dear Reader,

  I love action combined with romance. Dangerous is one of those books. I have always longed to write about Africa. Owning my own publishing company, I can do that now.

  I’ve never been to Africa, but I’ve always wanted to go. It’s on my bucket list! I spent six months researching Khartoum, the capitol of Sudan, an African country in the north of the continent. I also bought a bunch of cookbooks because I have scenes where dinners are being served. What do the Sudanese people eat? I found I loved these recipes and have been trying them o
ut for myself!

  My heroine, Sloan, was a fierce woman warrior and soldier. She was part of an Army A-team in Afghanistan, their medic, and she was a strong person knowing why she was over there. What she hadn’t banked on was having a year and a half torrid affair with a vaunted Night Stalker helicopter pilot.

  Meeting Captain Dan Malloy, a hunk by any other name, changed her life. He was honest with her; he was only interested in women who wanted sex, not love. He didn’t want a long-term relationship. Malloy was irresistible to Sloan, so she abided by his rules. But life changed both of them when a traumatic landing in enemy territory, occurred.

  Sloan fell deeply in love with Dan, regardless of his regulations when it came to a relationship. He was boarded up, unavailable emotionally and shortly after the incident, she split up and left the Army.

  Four years later, Sloan is working for Artemis Security in Virginia, when she’s given an assignment to a Delos charity in the Sudan. The pilot who works for the charity was charged with drinking alcohol before flying a U.S. medical team into a village. She’s been sent to find out the details. More shocking is that the pilot being investigated is none other than Dan Malloy.

  But shock turns to dismay upon meeting Malloy and Sloan realizes with a jolt that she STILL loves this man with a secret past. Now? Was it a second chance? Or the mission from hell? Danger swirls around them as Sloan finds out that Malloy has a price on his head from a terrorist organization. Will they survive?

  Hang on! This one has twists, turns and surprises.

  If you enjoy Dangerous, please think about writing a review on it for me. Reviews are VERY important and helpful in bringing new readers to my series. If you would love to review but never have, just get a hold of me at [email protected] and I’ll send you my little article on how to write a dynamite review! Thank you!

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Praise for Lindsay McKenna

  Available from Lindsay McKenna

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Dear Reader

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Excerpt from Redemption by Lindsay McKenna

  The Books of Delos

  Everything Delos!

  CHAPTER 1

  What the hell! Dan Malloy groaned in his sleep, his body covered in perspiration, the bedsheets twisted and caught between his lower legs. His breath came hard and fast. It felt as if his heart was going to rip out of his chest, the pounding so loud that it sounded like kettle drums pulsing in his ears. He heard the blades of the MH-47 Night Stalker he was flying. Heard the calm voice of his copilot, Lieutenant Andy Gantry, talking to the Special Forces A team hidden nearby in the inky darkness on a rocky slope in the Hindu Kush mountains. They had been out for nearly three weeks hunting HVTs, high-value targets.

  The winds were erratic, trying to toss the bird around. His Nomex gloves were soaked as he gripped the cyclic and collective, his booted feet playing lightly on the rudders, trying to bring the helo in and not crash it.

  His teeth ached, he was clenching them so tightly, his entire focus oriented to the green dials in front of him, trying to land safely to pick up the twelve-member team. The weather was stormy and quixotic, trying to throw Dan off course. Below, through his NVGs, he saw the chem lights tossed out by the A team to show him where to land. Sweat trickled down his temples. His nostrils flared as he smelled the kerosene used to power the MH-47. His only focus was landing this damned thing. Lightning flashed, blinding him momentarily.

  Shit! Blinking, Dan halted his descent, trying to give his eyes time to adjust.

  He knew that Taliban often camped for the night in nearby wadis that ran vertically up and down the rugged slopes of these mountains—and there was one within a thousand feet from where he needed to land. Dan wished for an Apache escort and an overhead drone right about now, but none had been available. A drone had infrared capability and would have been able to pick up the heat signature of anyone hiding nearby. The MH-47 had that same capability, but that instrument went belly up halfway to their assigned LZ, landing zone. Now, they were blind, and it bothered the hell out of him.

  Dan mentally cursed, knowing that the inclement weather conditions would have torn the drone apart with the sixty-mile-an-hour wind gusts pummeling his helo, throwing it off course from landing, again and again. The storm was racing directly down at them—and it was a violent son-of-a-bitch. But Night Stalker pilots, the cream of Army aviation, were expected to fly through all weather conditions to pick up a black-ops group. These were brave men and women who got the job done, despite the challenges and potential life-and-death of their assigned mission.

  His eyesight came back, and he began to breathe again, nudging his helo forward toward the landing zone once more. In the back of his mind, he knew if Taliban were camped in that nearby wadi that they could throw an RPG and AK-47 bullets at his bird. They would aim for the rotor assembly to stop the blades from turning. The MH-47 had two rotors, and one sat up near the pilot’s cabin, the other was near the rear of the helicopter. If either were hit by a bullet, they’d crash—and they’d all die.

  Son-of-a-bitch. He’d been on hellacious missions before, but this one took the cake in his many years of experience. Thunderstorms would pop up at the most unexpected times simply because these dragon-toothed mountains made their own weather. Right now, he was at nine-thousand feet on a steep scree slope. The A team had found the levelest spot for them to land, but it was not level at all. They’d done the best they could, being hotly pursued by Taliban. Landing on a slope was perilous. It was possible, but with a thunderstorm looming over them, and the possibility of tangos in that nearby wadi, Dan knew they were trapped between a rock and a hard place. His chief gunner had the ramp down and was sitting behind the fifty-caliber machine gun, looking for the enemy.

  Andy’s calm voice continued to give him directions and elevation. There was so much that could go wrong. His body was so tense Dan thought he might snap in half. His fingers ached, the perspiration making them slippery.

  Come on…come on…

  He focused again on the chem lights, tiny green dots on the black skin of the mountain slope. The wind gusts were powerful, and the bird shuddered violently. The engines changed and deepened, Andy played with the throttles between their seats, trying to give Dan the power he needed to neutralize the gusts.

  Everything slowed down to movie frames for Dan as he eased his reluctant helo forward. Closer and closer, he inched the thumping, vibrating beast toward the LZ. Just let me get to it. Let me land without incident. His ears were keyed to the sound of the engines. The adrenaline raced through his bloodstream, heightening his clarity, making him aware of all sounds, smells, and sensations until his whole world became his senses. It gave him an edge. It allowed his hands to make the subtle moves on the instruments to get the bird on hard ground.

  “Over LZ,” Andy reported calmly. “Ten feet…nine feet…eight feet…”

  He couldn’t just swiftly plop the helicopter down. No, it had to go carefully, or he’d get into hover-out-of-ground effect, which meant the invisible cushion of air that the helo rode on, was suddenly gone. If that happened, the MH-47 would drop like a rock out of the sky.

  “…seven feet…”

  God, let me get this bird down. Let me get it down safely.

  His hands ached, feeling like a raptor’s claws frozen around the instruments as he prayed to keep that cushion of air between them and the uneven, rugged groun
d. Sweat stung his eyes, and he blinked furiously, trying to clear his vision.

  “…six feet…”

  “…five feet…”

  “…three feet…”

  Dan felt the tires touch the slope.

  At the same moment the bird touched down, a seventy-mile-an-hour gust slammed into the helicopter. Instantly, Dan felt the cant to his right, getting knocked over. His feet and hands acted in a blurred dance as he lifted the bird into the air, leaping skyward, trying to stop the blades from churning into the slope, shattering them into hundreds of razor-like pieces. He had no choice but to turn the helo, so the cockpit faced that wadi as he tried to grab ascending air coming up the slope to give him a lift instead of crashing.

  Suddenly, the Plexiglas across the cockpit exploded inward. Thousands of small fragments rained down around Dan. He heard Andy give a squawk of surprise.

  They were being attacked!

  More bullets poured into the cockpit, singing past his helmet. He heard Andy scream. Heard sudden orders being roared to him by the A team on the ground.

  And then, the fifty-caliber machine gun blasted through the darkened interior of the bird, hammering like pulses against Dan.

  He took a huge risk, dropping the bird six feet. The helo slammed into the ground.

  Dan groaned, the harness biting deeply into his shoulders as it hit the rocks. He saw the A team hidden nearby, firing their rifles in the direction of the wadi where the Taliban were attacking. He wanted to curse. There was no time!

  The bird bounced up into the air. Dan used every skill he had to control the helicopter’s wobbling hop off the slope. Somehow—God only knew how—he got it back down on the earth, but it wasn’t where he was supposed to land.

  More bullets snapped furiously through the cockpit.

  Dan felt his right arm, the one holding the cyclic between his legs, go numb. When he tried to move it, there was no response. He felt warm blood pouring down his arm. Tried to force his limb to work. The helo was being brutally hammered with AK-47 fire.