Carol Ericson - Delta Force Defender

A beautiful target.

Her reluctant bodyguard.

Fiery, independent Cam Sutton will go to any length to prove his Delta Force mentor isn’t a terrorist—even bully the CIA into giving him the damning emails. But by-the-book CIA translator Martha Drake already knows the evidence is fishy, and it’s somehow connected to the recent attempts on her life. Soon the strong, capable soldier is her protector...and inciting a passion neither can deny. But will Cam still want to be her teammate once the real traitors are brought to justice?

Red, White and Built: Pumped Up

CAROL ERICSONis a bestselling, award-winning author of more than forty books. She has an eerie fascination for true-crime stories, a love of film noir and a weakness for reality TV, all of which fuel her imagination to create her own tales of murder, mayhem and mystery. To find out more about Carol and her current projects, please visit her website at www.carolericson.com, “where romance flirts with danger.”

Also by Carol Ericson

Locked, Loaded and SEALed

Alpha Bravo SEAL

Bullseye: SEAL

Point Blank SEAL

Secured by the SEAL

Bulletproof SEAL

Single Father Sheriff

Sudden Second Chance

Army Ranger Redemption

In the Arms of the Enemy

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Delta Force Defender

Carol Ericson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07947-1

DELTA FORCE DEFENDER

© 2018 Carol Ericson

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

A bug scuttled across his face, but Major Rex Denver didn’t move one coiled, aching muscle. Twenty feet below him at the bottom of the hill, an army ranger team thrashed through the bushes, their voices loud and penetrating in the dead of the Afghan night.

Rex clenched his jaw as if willing the rangers to do the same. Didn’t they realize this mountainous area was crawling with the enemy?

His eye twitched. To those rangers, Major Rex Denver was the enemy.

He didn’t blame those boys for being out here searching for him. Hell, he’d be out here hunting down a traitor to his country, too.

He resettled his rifle and rested his finger on the trigger, not that he’d ever use it against any branch of the US Military. If the rangers found him, he’d go peacefully—but they’d never find him.

He’d started as a ranger himself, and after twenty years in Delta Force, leading his own team, he’d honed his skills at subterfuge and escape to perfection. They wouldn’t catch him, but he’d die before he allowed the enemy that roamed these hills to catch those rangers.

One of the rangers yelled out. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Rex rolled his eyes. If that soldier was on his team, the wrath of hell would come down on him for that behavior. Rex had to bring the hammer down on Cam Sutton, one of the younger Delta team members, more than a few times for reckless behavior.

Someone issued a whispered reprimand from out of the darkness.

The young soldier answered back. “I don’t care, sir, this is wrong. Major Denver’s no traitor.”

Rex believed he had the loyalty of most of the soldiers who knew his reputation, but the evidence against him was overwhelming. Why him? He and his Delta Force team must’ve stumbled on something big for someone to take them out of the picture. And he hoped to have a long time to figure it out.

A twig cracked to his right, and Rex’s gaze darted toward the sound. Something glinted in the thick foliage. He flipped his night-vision goggles over his eyes and picked out the man crouched in the shadows, his focus on the team of rangers below.

Adrenaline flooded his body, and his heart hammered in his chest. Were there more? He scanned the area beyond the stealthy intruder. If this interloper wasn’t solo, his companions weren’t within striking distance of the rangers...at least not yet and not before the rangers could respond with their own firepower.

If Rex took out the enemy, he couldn’t do it quietly. And once he made his position known, the rangers would swarm the mountainside and capture him.

He cranked his head around slowly, eyeing the steep drop-off behind him. He’d seen worse.

Rex popped up from his hiding place, and in the same motion he took the shot. It took just one. The enemy combatant pitched forward, his gun shooting impotently into the sky above him.

The rangers came to life as they fanned out and charged the hill.

Rex clutched his weapon to his chest, and rolled off the edge of the cliff into the dark unknown.

Chapter One

Martha’s head pounded, and her hand trembled as she clicked open her email. Holding her breath, she scrolled past all the new emails that had come in since she’d taken lunch.