Heated
Pursuit
(Alpha
Security #1)
by April Hunt
Paperback, 304 pages
Publication date: October 25th 2016 by Forever
The
first in an all-new romantic suspense series from debut author April Hunt,
perfect for fans of Julie Ann Walker, Lora Leigh, and Rebecca Zanetti!
Penny
Kline didn't come to Honduras on a pleasure trip. She's here to rescue her
kidnapped niece, the only family she's got left. What she didn't plan on was
walking into a covert ops mission---or being wrapped up in the hard-muscled
arms of Rafe Ortega. The cool-as-ice operative's touch may get her all hot and
bothered, but no man can have a hold on her heart until her niece is home where
she belongs.
Even
in the tropics, Alpha Security operative Rafe can take down the bad guys
without breaking a sweat. Hostage extractions. Clandestine missions. Those are
the things he's been trained to handle. Relationships? Not so much. But one
look at this strong, sexy redhead and he's seized by a fierce urge to protect
her at all costs. Now Penny and Rafe will have to up their game because they're
about to go into a master criminal's lair without backup, and the danger---and
passion---is about to explode . . .
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“Allow him?” Penny’s gentle tone froze all five men to their spots.
Instead of shrinking as she kicked off her heels, her stature grew. She glanced
pointedly at each of them before landing on Trey, and never once raised her
voice. “If Rafe had insisted on bringing any kind of security, it would’ve made
it look like he had something to hide.”
“Yeah, but he didn’t
need to agree to letting you tag along,” Trey argued.
She shrugged.
“Fuentes likes women. Isn’t that why we thought sending me into the club with
Rafe was a good idea to begin with? We got his attention. We got in. I’m not
going to question why, and having been after this guy for months, neither
should you.”
“We shouldn’t, but we
are,” Stone interjected. “Too many innocents have been affected by Fuentes.
We’re not eager to add to the tally.”
“My name was added to
that list the moment the bastard took the only family I have left!”
As the rest of the
team focused on Penny, Rafe’s gaze cut to his best friend. If he didn’t know
Trey so well, he would’ve missed the minute twitch of his left eye. Faint,
quick, and only happening once before Trey pulled himself back together, the
brief flicker was his friend’s only physical show of weakness.
Rafe treaded
carefully, clearing his throat. “I think what Stone means, Red, is that playing
arm candy for a few hours is a hell of a lot different than having you under
Fuentes’s roof—literally.”
“Then I won’t do it.”
“Thank fucking God,”
Trey mumbled.
When Penny folded her
arms across her chest, fluffing up the already impressive view, Rafe knew there
was more. “If you can tell me right now there isn’t the slightest chance Diego
will rescind his invite if I back out, then I’ll stay behind.” No one could
make that claim, and the grim smile on her face indicated she knew it. “No? Then
I’m going.”
Stone perched on the
edge of the couch. His gaze was stern, but his voice surprisingly gentle. “You
have to understand something, sweetheart. We have no idea where the Fuentes
compound is. The entire international alphabet-fucking-soup has been trying to
track the bastard down for years. We’re their last line of defense before they
have to tuck tails and admit they’ve fucked up.”
She tossed her hands
up in the air with a growl. “Which is why it doesn’t make sense that you’d be
willing to risk the chance of Fuentes telling us to bug off! You’ve never
gotten this close before.”
Trey intervened.
“You’d be going into this op dark, Penn—no backup if things go to shit. No
support. We can’t send you in with wires or run-of-the-mill tracking chips,
because the paranoid bastard has the capability of finding them. It’ll just be
you and Rafe. And if things go to hell, it’ll be the two of you and the
Honduran rain forest.”
“Good thing I was a
Girl Scout, then, huh? I wasn’t blowing smoke up your skirts when I said I’d do
anything to get Rachel back. The question is are you going to let me?”
Fuck no. The red-blooded man in Rafe wanted her sweet
ass on a plane. Out of sight. Out of mind. And out of danger. But the trained
operative grudgingly admitted that she had a point. Her leaving at this
juncture in the game would make their job more difficult than if she stayed.
Still, it wasn’t
Rafe’s call to make—thank fucking God.
Stone, looking a hell
of a lot like a gargoyle, went quiet. That alone wasn’t what alarmed Rafe,
because the Alpha head often kept his thoughts under a tightly sealed wrap. What
had Rafe holding his breath was the way Stone tapped his fingers against his
thigh…as if he was in deep thought.
And then his boss’s
gaze shifted to him. Fuckin’ A.
“The decision’s
yours, Ortega.” Lips pressed into a thin line, Stone’s expression looked
anything but thrilled. “You’re the one going on the inside with her. I know I
don’t have to remind you that you’re going into this deaf and blind. Bail
enforcement or not, Penny’s not Alpha trained. That means on top of everything
else you’re responsible for, you need to add her to the list—and right at the
damn top.”
“He doesn’t need to—”
“Yeah, he does.
Though you can hit a target and inflict a fair amount of damage, you’re green.
You’ve never been on this kind of an op. Hell, even Ortega hasn’t.”
But no fucking pressure. Dealing with Taliban
leaders in the middle of the desert had nothing on the expectant stare Penny
slid his way. On the exterior, she looked the poster girl for calm and cool.
Direct gaze. Back straight. But the subtle bite to her lower lip identified it
as a carefully controlled ruse.
He wanted to say what
his team expected him to—no fucking way. But the words wouldn’t come.
Though
he didn’t have family in the true sense of the word, everyone associated with
Alpha was his family—even their
ball-buster analyst, Charlie. If he were in Penny’s shoes, he’d turn over every
rock in the Afghan desert, search every damn block of ice in the Arctic, and
make a deal with the devil if it meant the safe return of his family. That same
brand of loyalty was etched on every feminine curve of Penny’s face.
Lives counted on
their success, and not just their own, but Rachel’s and the countless others
being subjected to Freedom and God only knew what other nasty drugs Fuentes
pedaled around the globe.
Meeting
Penny’s gaze, Rafe mentally relived the last week—Penny sparring in the
training room, the too-close-for-comfort scuffle in the alley, and the
professional ease with which she handled the meeting with Fuentes. Hell, she’d
been the one who remained casually aloof while he nearly reached across the
table and throttled the sick fuck with his bare hands.
He couldn’t believe he was going to fucking say it. “Don’t make me regret
agreeing to this, Red.”
Hang on to your seats dear reader because in Heated Pursuit,
we are introduced to some really hot, sexy alpha males and a spunky heroine who
can kick some major butt any day. Mix in a hunt for a missing friend that leads right
smack in the middle of a drug ring, and you know that you are in for an intense
and sexy ride.
The plot for Heated Pursuit was engaging and the characters complex and
well-developed. Although this
masterfully crafted story had most of the elements I crave in a romantic suspense,
I would have like to have seen a lot more suspense and a lot less sex. Not that the sex is bad, heavens no....it was intense and hot! Sadly, I found myself skipping the hot and
steamy parts just because there were too many and I found myself wanting to get
to the heart of the story. Rafe and Penny are all over each other A LOT and I just
became exhausted reading about it. Put
all the sex aside though and Heated
Pursuit was a wild and intense reading experience that left me wanting
more.
Heated
Pursuit was an amazing introduction to the Alpha Security series,
and a spectacular debut by the talented April Hunt.
It was exciting and engaging, and it had me hooked from beginning to end.
I can’t wait to see where this series goes!
3 1/2 stars
3 1/2 stars
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April
blames her chocolate addiction on being born near the country chocolate capital
in Hershey, Pennsylvania. When April's not busy raising her husband and two
young children (yes, that's worded correctly), she can be found writing about
her next brooding alpha hero and the woman he never knew he needed, but now
can't live without.
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