Brynn Kelly - Forbidden River

A dangerous game at the end of the earth...

For French Foreign Legionnaire Cody Castillo, chasing deadly thrills is the only reprieve from a bloodstained past he can’t forget. But when the adrenaline junkie finds himself caught in a mass murderer’s crosshairs in the lonely wilds of New Zealand, he finds an unexpected—and intriguing—ally.

Former air force pilot Tia Kupa has always found safety in nature, until a killer turns the wilderness into a playground. In this life-or-death game, the guarded woman who lives by the rules must rely on a risk taker with a death wish. The sexy devil-may-care legionnaire may be the wrong guy for her, but desire is just as primal as terror. Even if they outrun a predator, they can’t escape the sizzling bond neither of them saw coming.

Praise for Brynn Kelly’s

Deception Island

A Booklist Top 10 Romance Debut of 2016!

“Intense and exciting...romantic suspense at its best!”

—Carla Neggers, New York Times bestselling author

“Captivating and cutting edge! Deception Island offers smoldering chemistry, cunning twists and a whole lot of heart. Brynn Kelly delivers everything I love in a romance.” —Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author

“Kidnappings and pirates and romance—oh my! Deception Island is a keeper.” —Cindy Gerard, New York Times bestselling author

“ Deception Island is the perfect book...one you’ll never forget.” —Sharon Sala, New York Times bestselling author

“Brynn Kelly pens a raw, dark, emotional novel of danger and intrigue that will keep readers turning the pages.”

—Kat Martin, New York Times bestselling author

“Sexual tension, mystery, and danger crackle off every page!”

—Laura Kaye, New York Times bestselling author

“ Deception Island is nothing short of brilliant. I love this book and am salivating for more!” —Award-winning author Lena Diaz

“A taut romantic thriller readers won’t want to put down.”

— Library Journal , starred review

Praise for Brynn Kelly’s

Edge of Truth

“[P]acked with intrigue and jeopardy, while also rich with human emotion. This book is a non-stop thrill ride.... Kelly is proving to be a gift to the romantic suspense genre!”

— RT Book Reviews , Top Pick

“ Edge of Truth has it all—danger, desire, and heart-pounding action. Brynn Kelly captures you on page one and doesn’t let go!” —Laura Griffin, New York Times bestselling author

“ Edge of Truth is a breathtaking romantic thriller. The characters are so real they leap off the page, the love story is hot and the action never lets up. I couldn’t put it down.” —Karen Robards, New York Times bestselling author

“Dark and deep—a twisting romantic suspense that will grab you and never let go.”

—Cynthia Eden, New York Times bestselling author

“Brynn Kelly will capture your heart and leave you breathless in this passionate, harrowing novel of romantic suspense. A must-read!”

—Brenda Novak, New York Times bestselling author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Contents Cover Back Cover Text Praise ABOUT THE AUTHOR Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Extract

After an award-winning twenty-year career as a journalist, BRYNN KELLY has abandoned fact in favor of her first love, fiction.

She’s delighted that she gets to spend her days in a bubble of delicious words and fiendish plots, turning all those stranger-than-fiction news reports into larger-than-life romantic thrillers.

Brynn has a journalism and communications degree and has won several prestigious writing awards, including the Valerie Parv Award and Pacific Hearts Award. Her acclaimed debut novel, Deception Island, was nominated for a Golden Heart® Award by Romance Writers of America. She’s also the bestselling author of four nonfiction books in her native New Zealand.

www.BrynnKelly.com

Forbidden River

Brynn Kelly

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text A dangerous game at the end of the earth... For French Foreign Legionnaire Cody Castillo, chasing deadly thrills is the only reprieve from a bloodstained past he can’t forget. But when the adrenaline junkie finds himself caught in a mass murderer’s crosshairs in the lonely wilds of New Zealand, he finds an unexpected—and intriguing—ally. Former air force pilot Tia Kupa has always found safety in nature, until a killer turns the wilderness into a playground. In this life-or-death game, the guarded woman who lives by the rules must rely on a risk taker with a death wish. The sexy devil-may-care legionnaire may be the wrong guy for her, but desire is just as primal as terror. Even if they outrun a predator, they can’t escape the sizzling bond neither of them saw coming.

Praise

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Extract

CHAPTER ONE

THE CHOPPER APPEARED on the horizon, hovering like a dragonfly over the slate-blue mountain range. Right on time. A second later the bass throb of its blades ricocheted around the valley, on air so crisp Cody Castillo felt he could reach out and snap it.

He hauled his kayak and paddle from a baggage cart parked outside the airport terminal, loaded with the few supplies he needed for a river paddle. Food, pup tent, sleeping bag, thermals, first aid kit, safety gear, wet weather gear. His gut fizzed. One night in an alpine hut—alone, hopefully—and then nobody and nothing for four beautiful days. Fuck right off, world.

CROOKED VALLEY AIRPORT, the sign read. Well, Crooked Alley. The V had fallen off the line of letters spaced along the roof of the squat hangar that passed for a terminal. The Y was on its side, the T just hanging in there. Way out here at the end of the world, if you needed a sign to tell you where you’d wound up, you were crazy lost.

He’d been to plenty middles of nowhere—Marfa in Texas, the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, Camopi in French Guiana... Like this, they weren’t the kinds of places you happened upon, pit stops on a road trip, derelict stations on a train line. Nope, it took full commitment to get nowhere. For him, in this case: a ride in a rattly legion Peugeot 4WD from his base at Calvi to Bastia, a ferry from Corsica to Nice, a flight to Paris and then Auckland, via Hong Kong. That sucked up the first forty-eight hours of his leave. Then to Christchurch and a two-day wait for a flight over the Southern Alps aboard a five-seater Cessna piloted by a farmer who might have learned to fly in World War II, going by his age and the way he dipped and dived like he was still dodging the Luftwaffe. Just one journey left—a chopper ride to the source of the legendary Awatapu River—and then he was on his own steam.

Cody laid the kayak on the deserted tarmac, grit scraping the hull. Yep, Crooked Valley/Alley was his kind of airport, where the arrival of a plane seemed to baffle the skeleton staff. No baggage carousels—just the cart pulled by a quad bike, driven by the ace pilot himself, once he’d shut down the plane. “Security” was a ninety-year-old unarmed guard in a uniform she might have worn for half a century, shrinking into it every year until it hung off her like a kid’s costume. No gates, no announcements—more a bus stop than an airport.