Secrets
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 s 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.
Also 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
Cowboy Justice Bundle/Blind Sided, Bundle 2, novella
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
Dog Tags for Christmas Bundle/Snowflake’s Gift, Bundle 3, novella
Secrets, 2B2 novella, sequel to Unbound Pursuit, 2B1
2017
Snowflake’s Gift, Book 6
Never Enough, 3B, novella, epilogue to Forged in Fire
Dream of Me novella, epilogue to Broken Dreams
Trapped Book 7
Taking a Chance, Book 8, sequel to Trapped
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
2017
Wind River Rancher
Wind River Cowboy
Wind River Wrangler’s Challenge
Secrets
Copyright © 2016 by Nauman Living Trust
Sample MOBI/KF8 Edition
ISBN: 978-1-929977-44-4
Kindle Edition
Excerpt from Never Enough
Copyright © 2016 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
Dear Reader,
SECRETS? We all have them, don’t we? Yep. And maybe there are some we know about (those nasty skeletons in the closet that involve another family member, near or distant to you), and some we don’t know about. Either way, secrets can either build us up once we know about them, or destroy us.
This is a novella sequel to Unbound Pursuit, 2B1. If you read Tangled Pursuit, Book 2, you were introduced to USMC Captain Tal Culver and US Navy SEAL Chief, Wyatt Lockwood. Their sequel was Unbound Pursuit.
A funny thing happened while I was writing about “what else” was happening in Tal and Wyatt’s life. A secondary set of characters became very important to me and needed to have their story told, too. This involves Wyatt’s younger sister, Mattie Lockwood, and the man in her life, Mark Reuss, who was a US Marine Corps recon for ten years, and a man who held terrible secrets, most of them bad. They were a fascinating couple. Mattie was the idealist; the person who always held hope in her heart for the most hopeless of people or situations. Mark, on the other hand, was the diametric opposite. He knew what reality looked like and that bred pessimism in him. He’d lost hope as a child.
Not only did Mark have secrets? The townspeople believed him to be a dark cloud that if he
came into their lives, always muddied it up and made it worse, not better. Mark grew up believing that about himself because it had started with his alcoholic father, a Texas rancher.
Only Mattie saw his goodness and never gave up hope—or her love—for him.
This is their story. Please let me know how you enjoyed it. Catch me at www.lindsaymckenna.com.
Thank you for purchasing this book. I truly hope you enjoy it. If it leaves you with warm fuzzies, 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!
Dedication
I dedicate this book to all of my wonderful, die-hard readers! What would I do without you in my life? Thank you for loving the stories I write.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Praise for Lindsay McKenna
Also available from Lindsay McKenna
Copyright Page
Dear Reader
Dedication
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
Excerpt from Never Enough
The Books of Delos
Everything Delos!
CHAPTER 1
December 23
Mark Reuss was in such deep shit he couldn’t see daylight anymore. His lower, left arm ached so badly he wanted to yell like a banshee, but the blackness of the Texas night, the biting December cold seeping into his body, made him call on all his Recon Marine skills to escape up the hill.
He kept his night-vision goggles over his eyes as he climbed. Below him ATF, DEA, Border Patrol, and FBI agents swarmed around several eighteen-wheeler trucks. Thanks to Mark, they’d made a surprise raid on Mexican drug lord Diego Cardona’s vehicles, and now American agents were rounding up what was left of the members of his drug and sex-slave cartel.
Sixty kidnapped children from South and Central America, had been on their way across the border in the massive trucks, all part of Cardona’s sex-trafficking operation that regularly took kidnapped children across Texas soil and on to the East Coast. Recently, the cartel had expanded from sex trading to running a monthly gun-and-run operation, as well. Because of Mark, who had been sent into the cartel as an undercover agent, US authorities had caught the transport, and this fortunate group of children had been saved.
Mark winced as he held his broken arm tightly against his Kevlar vest. Damn, it hurt! But it was worth it, he told himself, and he’d do it again to save those kids and dismantle the operation.
Below him, he’d just left his best friend, Wyatt Lockwood, who had been shot by one of Cardona’s drug soldiers. The bullet had struck Lockwood’s Kevlar vest and had lifted the ex-SEAL off his feet, slamming him backward into the slope. Mark had seen it happen from his Jeep, which had overturned during the melee, breaking his arm in the process. But all he had focused on was Wyatt, who lay dazed, out of breath, and fighting for his life. Skidding in front of Wyatt, Mark had turned, and shot and killed the drug soldier who’d been climbing up out of the ravine to finish Wyatt off.
Then, turning back to Wyatt, Mark had seen that his childhood friend lay gasping, his gloved hand pressed against his heart beneath his dented Kevlar vest. The bullet had struck hard against it, causing his heart to lose its life-giving rhythm. He didn’t know why Wyatt was out here, except that this had happened on his family’s ranch. The last he’d heard, he had left the Navy, and was probably visiting his family over the Christmas holiday. Quickly, Mark told Wyatt to move his hand, closed his fist, and thumped the hell out of him. That thump had reset Wyatt’s heart rhythm back to normal. Thank God he’d been able to save Wyatt’s life tonight. Another win for the good guys! And a rare win for those poor, frightened children who’d been saved from a life worse than hell itself.
Mark moved silently up and over a hill covered with dried, dead grass. Prickly pear bushes and cholla cacti were strewn everywhere in the Guadalupe Mountains, especially on the lower slopes where the US agencies had lain in wait to attack Cardona’s unsuspecting drivers.
Previously, Mark had gotten word to his DEA handler that the drug lord was going to use Rocking L Ranch as a back door to sneak into the US. And it just so happened that Wyatt’s family lived on the ranch. Cardona had chosen it as a crossing point to avoid the Border Patrol from finding them at other known drug-running entry points.
Mark knew his intel had made this attack possible, and a thread of pleasure thrummed through him as he melted into the darkness on the other side of the hill. All the noise from the attack dissolved behind him as he began to trot down the slope, avoiding the cacti and thick brush.
He needed medical help. Mark knew at least one of the two bones in his lower arm was either cracked or broken. Pain drifted up his arm, into his shoulder, and he clenched his teeth now and then as the pain turned up in volume. He didn’t dare walk into the Van Horn, Texas hospital because everyone would recognize him there; and there was no doc-in-a-box in that tiny Texas town, either.
His thoughts turned to his sister, Sage, who now ran the Diamond R Ranch near Van Horn. He could try to get to Sage, but then he’d have to explain that he was an undercover DEA agent, not a truck driver who drove goods between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and back, as everyone, including her, thought. He couldn’t blow his cover.
If he went back to the family ranch for medical help, Sage would hammer him with questions as she helped set his arm. Sage was smart and sassy, and she would eventually force the intel out of him. No, he definitely could not go home to her! He couldn’t tell her anything or his cover would be revealed, and his baby sister would not understand any of his reasons for doing such dark, dangerous work. He’d gone undercover, wore a beard, and changed his name, and Cardona did not know this was his home turf, or that the people belonging to these two ranches were his family and friends. If Cardona ever found out, he’d murder all of them, and there was no way Mark would put any of them in harm’s way.
Besides, the other reason he couldn’t go back to his family’s ranch was because his abusive father, Jeb, still lived there in a smaller house on ranch property. Jeb was now wheelchair bound after a stroke five years ago, but Mark still hated him for his cruelty when they’d been children. He’d sworn years ago never to return to the family ranch as long as that bastard was still alive and living on the property.
Mark didn’t know how Sage could tolerate the alcoholic. He had made their lives a living hell for eighteen years. But his little sister was tougher than he was emotionally. He knew Sage literally ignored Jeb and had hired a full-time male caregiver for him. He respected her set of balls. He couldn’t have accomplished what she had: turn the failing ranch around after Jeb’s stroke, and create a thriving, economically sound cattle company once again.
Mark adored Sage. He’d protected her from Jeb when they were growing up, and had taken the beatings meant for her from his father’s fists and that thick leather belt he wore around his waist. The beltings he’d endured had caused deep bruising that had lasted for weeks afterward. Mark never regretted taking Sage’s beatings. It was damn wrong for a father to beat his daughter—or his son, for that matter.
He continued to jog down the slight slope, dodging the thick groups of cacti and heading toward the road the government officials and law enforcement had driven in on an hour earlier. He wished he had a sling to hold his arm quiet against his body, but he didn’t. The pain kept him alert as he moved swiftly through the night. Droplets of frozen moisture shot out of his mouth. He could barely see the headlight glow of all those vehicles on the other side of the G
uadalupe Mountains now. Tonight, Cardona had lost all the children he was going to sell to sexual predators along the East Coast and his whole operation had gone bust. Triumph soared through him.
Mark made his way to the uneven dirt road that led back to a highway that would take him into Van Horn. He decided to go see Mattie Lockwood, Wyatt’s younger sister, who lived on the edge of town. It was one a.m. and he knew she’d be fast asleep in her bed. Mark knew it would tear Mattie up to suddenly see him once again because they’d been best friends as children. Later, puppy love had blossomed between them when they were freshmen in high school. They’d had such dreams when they graduated—dreams that had later been destroyed.
But perhaps there was still something between them. He knew how loyal Mattie was, and he truly hoped she’d help him. She had a soft heart for everything and everyone. She wouldn’t needle him relentlessly like Sage would. The last time he’d seen Mattie was four months ago when he’d lied and told her he was taking a job as a truck driver in El Paso that would have him living across the border, in Ciudad Juarez most of the time. Everyone in Van Horn knew he’d left town once again.
When he’d told her, her expression had gone blank, her freckled skin tightening across her cheeks as those incredibly large, beautiful green eyes went dark with hurt. They always carried a light that danced within them, but not after he told her that. Mark knew he’d hurt Mattie, and he hated it. He had loved her forever.
But dammit, life always interrupted them, and he could never tell her he loved her as much as he knew she loved him. He’d been born into bad luck and it had never gone away. Nothing he’d really wanted had ever manifested and all he’d brought to the people he loved was pain and heartache.
It was the most agonizing of all the decisions he’d ever made, leaving Van Horn again after being home from the Marine Corps only nine months ago. He’d thought he was home for good, but then he was summoned to go undercover by the DEA. He accepted the job, but every day, he regretted breaking the trust of loved ones. And yet, it had to be done.
Secret Page 1
