Hitting Xtremes (Xtreme Ops Book 1)

by Em Petrova

“Don’t move fast. You could be injured.”

  He turned his head to see more than the green eyes. A crunchy-granola type of woman sat there wearing all green. Her curly hair had one small braid tied with a gold thread at the bottom that brushed across the top of her breast.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “I’m one of the park rangers here in Denali. It’s my job to help lost hikers…or lift the top of a pine off a big, muscled man.” She pointed to a pile of branches to the side of where he sat.

  He shook his head, trying to make sense of what happened. “What the hell?”

  “I didn’t see it, but I heard it. Looks like that treetop snapped, probably weakened from high winds and snow, and it fell on you.”

  He raised a hand and scrubbed it over his face. That explained the branches rushing toward him. Had he blacked out? What a damn sissy, he could hear his fellow Xtreme Ops team member, Hepburn, ribbing him now.

  “I’m trained to check for concussion. Can you tell me your name?” the woman asked.

  “No. I can’t.” He shoved to his feet, but the instant his boot tread touched down, his ankle folded.

  He collapsed, hitting the ground hard again. A stick cut into his palm, and he issued a low growl of fury.

  “Oh my God! Your ankle is clearly broke.”

  “No way.”

  “It went out from under you. I’m pretty sure it’s broke,” she insisted.

  He shoved to a standing position again, leaning all his weight onto the opposite foot. There—he was up. Nothing broken. No—

  As soon as he set his foot down, his ankle buckled again. This time, pain shot through him, and he grabbed his calf.

  The woman made a quiet noise and moved closer to examine him. Up close, he made out fat freckles across the bridge of her nose and a slim gold hoops hooked in her earlobes.

  “I’m going to radio for help. You can’t make it down the mountain alone in this shape.”

  “Goddammit, I’m fine.”

  She paused in reaching for her radio, arching a brow at him. “You sure about that?” She depressed the button on the side of the radio. “Moon Shadow to base.”

  Lipton stared at her for a long minute. Had he hit his head? Did he just hear the green fairy nymph call herself Moon Shadow?

  The voice came back to her instantly. “Go ahead, Moon Shadow.”

  Lipton blinked.

  “I found a hiker down with what I suspect to be a broken ankle.”

  He issued a growl. He did not break his ankle like some fragile flower. He was a goddamn special operative. He hiked through treacherous conditions every day of his life, and a calm hike on vacation was not going to put him out of commission.

  Seconds later, Moon Shadow—or whoever she was—stowed her radio on her hip again. She started stripping pine off one of the fallen branches.

  “What are you doing?” Lipton couldn’t restrain his annoyance, and it seeped into his tone.

  She shot him a sympathetic look, ticking him off more. “I’m going to make you a crutch. We need to get you to the closest path for the ATV to pick you up and take you to the hospital.”

  “My ankle is not broken!”

  She went back to stripping the pine branch. “Uh-huh.”

  “I’ll show you.” With a determined grunt, he launched to his feet once more. This time he placed his foot flat on the ground and it held his weight. At least until he took a step.

  He landed on his ass, seated beside Moon Shadow. She trapped her lower lip in her teeth to hide her smile.

  Lipton stared up at the snapped top of the trees, his mind locking in on the situation with the speed of a sniper bullet.

  Dammit, he broke his ankle like some frail weakling trekking up a hill he wouldn’t even call steep. And he was at the mercy of a woman calling herself Moon Shadow who was deftly crafting him a crutch from a pine branch…and who wore a slim gold hoops in her cute earlobes that he couldn’t quit staring at.

  And now he had to figure out how and why the fuck someone had loaded this group of trees, on a hill in a national park, with C4.

  Em Petrova

  Em Petrova was raised by hippies in the wilds of Pennsylvania but told her parents at the age of four she wanted to be a gypsy when she grew up. She has a soft spot for babies, puppies and 90s Grunge music and believes in Bigfoot and aliens. She started writing at the age of twelve and prides herself on making her characters larger than life and her sex scenes hotter than hot.

  She burst into the world of publishing in 2010 after having five beautiful bambinos and figuring they were old enough to get their own snacks while she pounds away at the keys. In her not-so-spare time, she is fur-mommy to a Labradoodle named Daisy Hasselhoff.

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  Xtreme Ops

  HITTING XTREMES

  TO THE XTREME

  XTREME BEHAVIOR

  XTREME AFFAIRS

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  The Guard

  HIS TO SHELTER

  HIS TO DEFEND

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  BAD IN BOOTS

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  SHOW-OFF IN SPURS

  Dark Falcons MC

  DIXON

  TANK

  PATRIOT

  DIESEL

  BLADE

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  Moon Ranch

  TOUGH AND TAMED

  SCREWED AND SATISFIED

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  Ranger Ops

  AT CLOSE RANGE

  WITHIN RANGE

  POINT BLANK RANGE

  RANGE OF MOTION

  TARGET IN RANGE

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  Knight Ops Series

  ALL KNIGHTER

  HEAT OF THE KNIGHT

  HOT LOUISIANA KNIGHT

  AFTER MIDKNIGHT

  KNIGHT SHIFT

  O’ CHRISTMAS KNIGHT

  ANGEL OF THE KNIGHT

  6-Pack Cowboys Series

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  Wild West Series

  SOMETHING ABOUT A LAWMAN

  SOMETHING ABOUT A SHERIFF

  SOMETHING ABOUT A BOUNTY HUNTER

  SOMETHING ABOUT A MOUNTAIN MAN

  Operation Cowboy Series

  KICKIN’ UP DUST

  SPURS & SURRENDER

  The Boot Knockers Ranch Series

  PUSHIN’ BUTTONS

  BODY LANGUAGE

  REINING MEN

  ROPIN’ HEARTS

  ROPE BURN

  COWBOY NOT INCLUDED

  CUPID COWBOYS

  COWBOY BY CANDLELIGHT

  THE BOOT KNOCKER’S BABY

  ROPIN’ A ROMEO

  Ménage à Trouble Series

  WRANGLED UP

  UP FOR GRABS

  HOOKING UP

  ALL WOUND UP

  DOUBLED UP novella duet

  STIRRED UP

  GETTING WARMED UP

  Another Shot at Love Series

  GRIFFIN

  BRANT

  AXEL

  Rope ‘n Ride Series

  BUCK

  RYDER

  RIDGE

  WEST

  LANE

  WYNONNA

  The Dalton Boys

  COWBOY CRAZY Hank’s story

  COWBOY BARGAIN Cash’s story

  COWBOY CRUSHIN’ Witt’s story

  COWBOY SECRET Beck’s story

  COWBOY RUSH Kade’s Story

  COWBOY MISTLETOE a Christmas novella

  COWBOY FLIRTATION Ford’s Story

  COWBOY TEMPTATION Easton’s Story

  COWBOY SURPRISE Justus’s Story<
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  COWGIRL MIRACLE Jessamine’s Story

  COWGIRL HEART Kezziah’s Story

  Single Titles and Boxes

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  BOOT KNOCKERS RANCH SERIES BOOKS 1-6 PLUS BONUS

  SINFUL HEARTS

  JINGLE BOOTS

  A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS

  FULL RIDE

  Firehouse 5 Series

  ONE FIERY NIGHT

  CONTROLLED BURN

  SMOLDERING HEARTS

  Club Ties Series

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  MARKED AS HIS

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  ACE’S WILD

  Hardworking Heroes Novellas

  STRANDED AND STRADDLED

  DALLAS NIGHTS

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