Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.wownovels.com Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:50:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 http://www.wownovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.wownovels.com 32 32 The Stowaway (Hillcroft Group #5) Read Online Cara Dee http://www.wownovels.com/the-stowaway-hillcroft-group-5-read-online-cara-dee Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:50:33 +0000 https://www.wownovels.com/the-stowaway-hillcroft-group-5-read-online-cara-dee Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Insta-Love, Suspense Authors: Cara Dee Series: Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee
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Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 39250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)

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The Hillcroft Group #5 • Standalone • M/F • Forced Proximity • Age gap • Low angst • Grumpy/Sunshine

High up in the Hindu Kush mountains, in the middle of a mission, the last thing Operator Hyatt expected to find when he climbed out of his helicopter was a damn stowaway. But there she was, panicked, crying out, “Please don’t shoot! I’m an American!”

That was only the beginning. Boy, did Kiera have a story to tell.

Hyatt couldn’t very well abort his mission for this woman, but he obviously needed to bring her home. So, he had no choice. Kiera would have to stay with him for a week until they could return to safety.

Focus, Hyatt reminded himself. He had a job to do. He wasn’t going to let Kiera distract him, no matter how incredibly beautiful she was.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

All books in the Hillcroft Group series are standalone and can be read out of order, as each story follows a new dynamic with various subgenres within romance. What the characters have in common is the place they work and, of course, the HEA they will fight for. Characters do cross over in multiple titles, but they will be reintroduced, where necessary, to new readers. All books in this series are labeled romantic suspense and military romance. Please look on the copyright page for potential content warnings

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PROLOGUE

Kabul, Afghanistan, May 15th, 2025

Kiera Lane

“Do not go inside the building, Kiera. It looks abandoned, but there is surveillance everywhere. Go around. The American helicopter is in the back, and my husband will cut the feed for one minute so you can hide on board.”

“What about you? You have to come with me—and the girls.”

“It’s too risky. I am not leaving. My work is here. My family. But you need to go home. They know you’re alive, and they won’t stop looking. Here, put this on. My brother will escort you as far as he can, and then you are on foot. You will also have this. Report to me when you are at the address so we can turn off the surveillance around the helicopter.”

“Oh God, I’m gonna throw up.”

“Better now than later. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. You must find something to hold on to in the helicopter, and stay hidden until you land again.”

CHAPTER 1

Kiera Lane

Isaw the helicopter hidden under a canopy behind the building. It was a beacon of freedom that gleamed in the low moonlight.

I swallowed dryly, my heart pounding furiously. I reported back to Noura that I was ready to run. She’d assured me the door would be open.

Don’t fall apart.

I sniffled and did my best to pull it together. I could cry later. Man, was I gonna bawl my eyes out. Holy crap. Okay. Here we go. The green light. Noura told me to run, so I pushed away from the wall and ran for my life.

Dogs barked in the distance.

Panic tinted the edges of my senses, and I barely registered getting inside the helicopter. I panted and blinked, taking in my surroundings. Three rows of simple leather seats. I dove for the back and got down on the floor. I wedged myself between the rows. It was a tight fit, not to mention an uncomfortable one, but if this got me home—or at least out of the country—I wasn’t gonna complain.

I brought the radio to my lips.

“I’m in hiding,” I whispered. “Over.”

Some static came through. “I am glad, sweet girl. You won’t have to wait long.”

My eyes welled up. It was too soon to break down. I wasn’t out of here yet. A simple search by the pilot would reveal my whereabouts, and I trusted no one, except Noura and her husband and brother. They’d been there for me ever since my convoy had been overrun. They’d taken me in. They’d kept me hidden for months.

I could still hear the shots popping off, hitting concrete and people.

“Thank you for everything, Noura,” I croaked. “As soon as I get home, I’ll contact you. I can still help.”

“Focus on getting home,” she urged. “The pilot will be there soon.”

I sniffled again and nodded to myself. “I’ll reach out when I can,” I whispered. “Out.”

I switched off the radio and let out a shaky breath.

It was quiet out here. Many buildings had been abandoned in the great escape—when we’d left Afghanistan. Officially, at least. Plenty of Americans were still in the country. Noura’s husband was an informant to an American private military agency in DC that had helped translators and their families flee. It was how he’d learned about this property and the helicopter. I didn’t know the details, and neither did he. We just knew that an American pilot was coming here tonight to fly this helicopter out of the country, presumably into Pakistan or Uzbekistan.

I closed my eyes and did my best to steady my breathing.

I missed my dad so much. He must be worried sick. He’d never wanted me to take a job in this field in the first place. He’d kept warning me that things always went wrong, how unsafe it was for women, and…and that was the whole point for me. I’d read about how girls were treated here. It broke my heart.

It’d also once detached me from my sleepy reality back home, where I’d been the nurse who strolled into work each morning to change catheters and administer blood thinners to an aging population in a suburb outside Annapolis. Where the biggest danger around for miles was a coworker who stole my yogurt from the fridge. Damn Charlotte.

If anything, this was all Dad’s fault. I’d heard his stories too. Countless experiences. Training missions with NATO allies. Adversary missions. And then, because of his ground job, the time he’d spent in the outskirts of combat areas. The cultures he’d experienced. He could get wrapped up in a story about the scents of teas and the wild atmosphere at a market. Kids and chickens running around, calls to prayer mingling with haggling and hollerin’.

He’d been all over the world, and I’d wanted that for myself.

I took a breath and let it out slowly⁠—

My eyes flashed open as I heard a creaky metal sound not far away from here. It sounded like a big door was being pushed open.

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Collision of Winters (Hillcroft Group #4) Read Online Cara Dee http://www.wownovels.com/collision-of-winters-hillcroft-group-4-read-online-cara-dee Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:52:10 +0000 http://www.wownovels.com/collision-of-winters-hillcroft-group-4-read-online-cara-dee Genre: Alpha Male, Dark, Taboo Authors: Cara Dee Series: Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee
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Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56278 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)

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The Hillcroft Group #4 • Standalone • Age Gap • DD/lb • Forced Proximity • Foster Family
Some wars are matters of the heart and don’t require conventional weapons. And now, it’s time to let the two sides collide.

He’d kidnapped me. That was all I had to say. The man who’d been sort of my foster brother since I was a kid had actually kidnapped me. End of story. Okay, maybe not the end, but I’d always felt too exposed around Wade, and no wonder. He was perfect. Older, composed, funny, super kind to me, former Army, a successful doctor, a Dom… I’d rather not put my foot in my mouth by rambling. I was just a failure anyway. So, yeah. I’d be his captive in a remote cabin in freaking Alaska until he gave up and realized I couldn’t be saved.

All I had to do was keep my mouth shut and not fall in love with him again

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PROLOGUE

The Winters Curse

Wade Winters

Had I seen that picture on Chris’s desk before? I picked up the frame while I waited for him to arrive and studied the timid smile on Kayden’s face. Yaya was hugging his midsection, beaming like the proud grandmother she was to essentially everyone in the family. Well, those who were still with us.

The only thing I wanted to change was the timid part. I much preferred Kayden’s beaming smiles and mischievous grins, even more so because they were rare these days.

The thought of something happening to him put a rock in the pit of my stomach, and it was impossible not to think about the Winters Curse.

Unlike Chris, I had some memories left of our biological parents—and our baby sister. I remembered Juliana had cried a lot. It’d annoyed my five-year-old self to pieces. A newborn sister—what was I supposed to do with her? She hadn’t been able to catch a football, nor had she listened to me.

Chris hadn’t been much better as a toddler.

How untroubled we’d been back then. Life had been all about sneaking cookies, waiting for Dad to come home from another deployment, playing catch, and begging Mom for the next time I’d be able to see my much cooler cousin Quinlan.

Then one night, when Chris and I were at a sleepover at Quin’s house, Uncle Arthur and Aunt Clara told us something bad had happened.

Chris and I never saw our parents or Juliana again, and sleepovers with Quinlan suddenly became permanent when Arthur took us in.

This was bad enough, wasn’t it? The tragedy was supposed to stop there. We’d suffered enough loss.

But fast-forward to the year I turned eleven. Arthur and Clara were shot dead in broad daylight in New York. Quinlan joined the orphans club at the age of twenty, and the last sibling of our parents’ generation stepped forward to become our home. Yaya and Quin had been in the middle of their own grief, but they’d set everything aside to make sure Chris and I didn’t lose ourselves in our rage.

Although Yaya was technically our aunt, she’d earned the nickname of a grandmother long before I’d been born. Her brothers had called her that because she’d acted like a grandma to everyone. She did that now too, and though she’d never admit to having a favorite, we knew Kayden was special to her.

Now, with someone coming for Chris—and possibly Kayden…?

If anything happened to either of them, the damn curse was real, and I was going to⁠—

The door opened behind me, and I was brought back to the present by Chris entering his office.

“Sorry I’m late. My briefing took longer than I thought it would,” he said. “Why do you look pissy?”

Deep breaths.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just put the photo back on the desk and cleared my throat.

“Ah.” He figured it out when he saw the picture. “Nothin’s gonna happen to him.”

“Or you,” I added.

He smirked. “Or me. This ain’t my first rodeo.”

That was hardly reassuring.

“Just fill me in,” I said. “When do you ship out?”

He winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “You know I can’t tell you.”

I clenched my jaw but said nothing, and I leaned back against the desk. Being on a need-to-know basis didn’t usually bother me. I had my job, and Chris had his. But this was different.

“This is killin’ you, innit?” He cocked his head.

I frowned. “What, being left behind for something like this? What the fuck do you think?”

That seemed to confuse him. “You haven’t seen combat in years.”

It didn’t matter.

Besides, this was personal. “It’s you they’re coming for, Chris. It’s not a random op.”

He inclined his head, conceding.

“Don’t fucking get killed,” I told him.

He deflected with humor, as always. “You’re more likely to get killed once Kayden figures out why we’re keeping him in Alaska.”

Well. He’d learn one of the reasons. It was a two-birds-one-stone situation.

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Remade (Hillcroft Group #3) Read Online Cara Dee http://www.wownovels.com/remade-hillcroft-group-3-read-online-cara-dee Thu, 12 Jun 2025 17:27:40 +0000 http://www.wownovels.com/remade-hillcroft-group-3-read-online-cara-dee Genre: Contemporary, M-M Romance, Suspense Authors: Cara Dee Series: Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee
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Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)

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The Hillcroft Group #3 • MM • Age Gap • Military Romance • Hurt Comfort • Healing/Loss
This book picks up where Unmade left off and continues the story of Leighton Watts and Bo Beckett.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER 1

October 2nd, 2024

Leighton Watts

Panic rose further when I heard heavy footfalls rustling through the foliage. In the corner of my eye, I spotted two operators entering our makeshift camp—if you could call it that—and I heard him. Beckett greeted Coach in a less-than-enthusiastic tone.

“The amount of stupid in this situation is off the fucking charts, man.”

“You wanna hash this out now?” Coach demanded. “Just say the word, but you better get your defense in order after what I’ve learned today.”

“What the fuck are you… Quinn’s here.” Beckett’s tone changed. “And…aw, shit.” He didn’t say anything else to Coach; he headed my way instead, and I wasn’t sure that was a good thing when I was seconds away from falling apart. He removed his helmet and came right up to me, then cupped my elbow and ushered me deeper into the forest. “Let’s go.”

“It’s him,” I croaked.

“I know.” He put the helmet on my head instead. “I thought I had time. I thought he was still on watch.”

I sniffled and did my best to stifle a sob behind my hand.

The ground slanted up a little, and we walked over the hill and even farther.

“Christ. You’re not supposed to be here, Leighton.” He draped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me to him. “When Coach told me how you got dragged into the mess, I wanted to junk-punch him.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” I said, wiping at my cheeks.

“No, I’m sure you volunteered quicker than a bomb can explode outside Hillcroft,” he replied. “Doesn’t fucking matter.” He pulled me to a stop and cupped my face in his hands, and I felt so damn pathetic. I was full-on crying and saw no end to it.

My dad’s brother was here. I’d shaken his hand. He’d asked if we’d met before.

All my memories, fictional or not, hung in the balance, because reality had caught up to me. All the stories Mom had told me, where I was Dad’s wingman, where we went out on adventures together and saved the world…

I screwed my eyes shut, terrified they’d hate me.

Beckett sighed and hugged me to him.

“Can anyone see us now?” I asked hoarsely.

I dropped my water bottle on the ground.

“No.”

Thank fuck. Somehow, I had to compose myself. “When did you find out he was gonna be here?”

“Yesterday.” He removed the helmet, probably deeming things safe, and he pressed his lips to the side of my head. “Shira called him and Crew in after I requested more people with experience in close combat. Most of our operators are out on assignments. And I figured, fuck it, it wasn’t like you’d be around.”

I whimpered, a part of me still in disbelief. Dad’s brother.

In a way, it made my dad more real than he’d ever been.

“Shh…I got you.” He shushed me quietly and held me tighter. “Baby, I think we need to do this now. We have three hours of daylight left before we can… What?”

I was shaking my head and fucking breaking inside, because he couldn’t call me that. It hurt way too much, and it started a new round of pathetic crying.

“You can’t call me that,” I cried. “I was a fucking idiot—Coach knows about us, and we gotta stop. I slipped. And he s-said a senior operator and a recruit… They gotta draw the line somewhere, and he can’t allow it. And I get it. I get it.” I eased away so I could wipe at my face. Fucking hell, couldn’t I just stop crying? I was such a loser! “I know how you feel about relationships, so yeah, I⁠—”

“Okay, that’s enough.” He cupped my face again, and he made me look him in the eye. “I don’t care what was said or what Coach thinks. We’ll deal with that later, but I’ll make one thing clear, all right?”

I sniffled and peered up at him.

He smiled carefully and kissed my nose. “What you and I do is up to us and nobody else, you hear me?”

I nodded jerkily, drawing a ragged breath. I must look like a lunatic, but fuck me, I needed to hear that. I wasn’t ready to let him go. I wasn’t sure I ever would be.

“Do you wanna stop?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. That’s the last thing I want.”

He smiled a little again. “Good. Same here.” He hauled me in for another hug, and I squeezed him back, letting the relief pour over me for a moment. The day he decided he’d had enough would come soon enough as it was. “When we get back to Hillcroft, I’mma tear you a new one for worrying me half to death today.”

“I’m sorry,” I croaked.

“Uh-uh. Not enough.” He pressed kisses to my hair and squeezed me even tighter, to the point where it started to hurt to have the Kevlar between us. “We were in the middle of raiding their safehouse when we discovered a second crew involved. And I swear, not ten minutes later, we got the call that a bomb detonated outside Hillcroft.”

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Unmade (Hillcroft Group #2) Read Online Cara Dee http://www.wownovels.com/unmade-hillcroft-group-2-read-online-cara-dee Wed, 04 Jun 2025 21:20:25 +0000 http://www.wownovels.com/unmade-hillcroft-group-2-read-online-cara-dee Genre: Contemporary, M-M Romance Authors: Cara Dee Series: Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee
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Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)

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The Hillcroft Group #2 • MM • Age Gap • Action • Military Romance • Hurt/Comfort • Healing/Loss

Part of becoming a private military contractor was learning how to profile people.

Leighton Watts. Lonely as hell. A coward. An orphan. Twenty-four years old. Desperate to belong somewhere. Felt dead most of the time. Too much of a chicken to reach out to the family I never knew. Never asked for anything, because I was afraid to get rejected. In general, just a sorry sack of sadness.

Bo Beckett. Senior operator at the Hillcroft Group. Mentor of sixteen Hillcroft recruits, me included. Rough around the edges but patient and kind. Had sworn off relationships. Straight? Most likely. Early forties. Smoking hot. Angry. On a mission to hunt down his brother’s killer. Definitely pushy. He wanted me to get in touch with my dad’s family, and even more so when we discovered I had uncles who’d worked at Hillcroft. this freaked me out.

Another part of becoming a private military contractor was to focus on the training and not get caught up in an active operation—but in my defense, it wasn’t my fault someone tried to freaking kill me.

---------

This is book 2 of the Hillcroft Group series, and it ties together with book 3. You do not, however, need to read the first book, The Story of Danny Rose, to get the full enjoyment of Unmade. Book 2 and 3, Unmade and Remade, follow the same couple, Leighton and Bo

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PROLOGUE

MARCH 30TH, 2018

March 30th, 2018

Leighton Watts

I remembered when I was…maybe five or six years old. I asked my mom why I didn’t have a dad—and that was the first time she shared the shortest bedtime story ever, but somehow it brought me enough comfort to put me to sleep.

It was the evening I became my unknown father’s wingman.

“You do have a dad, my love. He’s… I’m trying to find him. And the day you meet him, he will love you instantly. You know why? Because he once told me he couldn’t wait to have a little wingman by his side.”

Over the years, as I got older, the story changed.

I was twelve when I learned my dad was dead.

“But you know what, sweetheart? That means he can see you from heaven. He can look over you and be proud of his wingman day and night.”

Now I was old enough to understand that Mom had had a fling with a man she’d barely known, and she’d realized she was pregnant after he’d gone home again, leaving behind too little information for her to find him. At least for a few years.

It made me wonder how many men were out there who had no idea their one-night stand or fling the other year had resulted in a kid.

I scratched the side of my head and let out a breath.

The minister droned on and on about how God had a plan, and I was like, you don’t fucking say? Evidently, his plan had been to give my mom cancer and kill her off a week after I turned eighteen.

Say hi to my dad from me, I guess.

Who was gonna be my wingman?

I glanced around the pews, meeting the sad looks on the faces of Mom’s friends, her cousins, my aunt who’d offered her guest room to me, my half-drunken uncle, some coworkers, and our downstairs neighbor who had filled our fridge with casseroles the past two weeks.

None of them was wingman material.

I didn’t wanna fucking live with my aunt. She smelled weird and had four ferrets. She also loved to cook but had no idea she was horrible at it, and I didn’t wanna hurt her feelings by telling her I’d rather eat roadkill.

April 2nd, 2018

“How much for this?”

If someone asked me that again today, I’d shoot myself.

He was holding a box of Christmas ornaments.

“Just take them and get the fuck out,” I said. He was the last one lingering in the apartment.

I was done. I’d made three hundred bucks on trinkets, kitchenware, and our ratty living room furniture. The rest, I was moving to my new apartment next week. It was the last thing my mom had been able to help me with before she’d died. I had a semi-affordable studio in Arlington Mill waiting for me.

First and last time I ever let strangers come into my home and have them treat the living room like a thrift store. No number of casseroles could forgive my neighbor for her shitty idea. One creep had wanted to buy a picture of my mom. I’d forgotten to hide it in the closet in the hallway, which was my next destination.

I had to go through our personal crap before I could leave this apartment behind.

I swallowed hard as I locked the front door.

My chest felt tight, and I hated this so much. I didn’t wanna feel anything.

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The Story of Danny Rose (Hillcroft Group #1) Read Online Cara Dee http://www.wownovels.com/the-story-of-danny-rose-hillcroft-group-1-read-online-cara-dee Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:02:33 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-story-of-danny-rose-hillcroft-group-1-read-online-cara-dee Genre: BDSM, Dragons, Erotic, M-M Romance Authors: Cara Dee Series: Hillcroft Group Series by Cara Dee
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Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)

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The Hillcroft Group, #1 | Standalone | Age gap | Military | DD/lb
“Try to read his file from the Army from another perspective. Less stone-faced, devoid of emotion, SAS operator and more as…oh, I don’t know, the loving, caring, nurturing Dom that you are.”

There was nothing like kicking off your vacation by realizing someone had broken in to your cabin. More than that, he was waiting when you arrived.

This young guy had plagued my dreams when I’d spent two months with his detachment a couple years ago. He was cocky, volatile, and resourceful. Resourceful enough to track me down, piss me off, and get himself invited for steaks and beer.

I was quickly going to learn there was a lot more to him than being a soldier with boundary issues, though. Starting the moment I accidentally spotted a small stuffed animal in his backpack.

He changed everything. The story of Danny Rose went from anecdotes I occasionally shared with recruits, to…becoming my whole bloody life.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

1998

CHAPTER 1

Emerson Payne

Scenario:

You meet a couple Army-dropout twin brothers from Tennessee in a bar. You get to talking over a few pints, and they express their frustrated desire for adventure and danger. You see something in them. Strength, potential, brains. Especially the quiet twin. He’s a bloody genius. Calculating as fuck for his young age. The talker is sharp, creative, and just reckless enough. They wanna get out. They wanna see the world. And you’re drunk. You take them under your wing, and you start putting them through the same selection process that once made you a Special Forces operator.

Months later, you figure it’s time to give the boys a reward before they reach the next step in their training, so you head toward your cabin in the Appalachians for a relaxing weekend with no one around for miles. No TV, no news, a break from the headlines about whether the president has or has not had sexual relations with that woman. It’s a perfect day. Sky’s blue, summer’s almost here, roadside flowers are in bloom, the mountains surround you like majestic guardians, and you roll down your window to hear the forest sounds, to hear the gravel crunch under the tires of your truck. But then you see something just off the side of the road.

Smoke?

Islowed to a stop and furrowed my brow. “Wait here, boys.” I got out of the truck and glanced around me. If someone had thrown a cigarette out here… But as I got closer, it looked like a small flare or something that just puffed out white smoke.

I squatted down in front of it. No smell. There was a note, and I picked it up.

Where there’s smoke, Emerson George Payne…

I shot straight up and felt the tiny hairs rise on my arms and neck. Birds were chirping, insects were buzzing, I didn’t hear any branches breaking or the underbrush rustling. Was someone watching? If they were, they’d been perched someplace for a while. Possibly. Fuck.

Determining that the smoke wasn’t gonna cause a fire, I made my way back to the truck and tore up the dirt road. Get out of whoever’s line of sight. It had to be a prank, right? I knew too many guys who could be behind something like this, and at least half a dozen of them had been to my cabin.

“Somethin’ wrong?” Reese asked from the back seat.

“I’m ninety percent sure it’s not.” I drove around the next bend, where the climb began.

“And the other ten?” he pressed.

I raked my teeth along my bottom lip. “Do you need your brother to extrapolate for you, Reese?”

He sucked his teeth and shut his mouth.

Kids.

Sometimes they acted much older than their twenty years.

Not always.

A flash of neon orange caught my eye, and I slowed down once more. Okay, something was up. Who knew I was coming here this weekend? My sister, my brother. And Robin, but she didn’t know the location.

“Is that a note on the tree?” Reese wondered.

“I’m about to find out. Stay here.” I jumped out of the truck, keeping an eye on my surroundings, and made quick work of crossing the road and trailing down into the ditch where I could reach the piece of paper. Where was the nearest Xerox place? This was printed.

Emerson George Payne. Father, American diplomat. Mother, schoolteacher from London. Two brothers, one sister, two older than you. Eldest brother passed away in 1985. Younger brother enlisted four years after you.

I clenched my jaw and crumpled the note in my hand. Make that seventy-five percent sure nothing was wrong.

Not many had that much information on me—for a fucking reason. Before I’d joined the Army, I’d taken my mum’s surname to distance myself from my old man’s history, part of which was public record. At that point, I’d already had my sights set on the SAS. I’d wanted a new identity.

Returning to the truck once more, I told the boys we were on foot from here on out. Just to err on the safe side. If someone was feeding me information about myself, they wanted my attention. It was highly unlikely I’d be taken out from the road, in other words, but if we had someone waiting for us at the cabin, I didn’t want them to see us coming.

“Leave your bags for now, and listen to me carefully.”

While the boys disappeared into the forested mountainside, I stayed on the left side of the dirt road, some ten feet into the woods, where I could still see in case there were additional messages.

I found the third one a couple minutes later.

Emerson George Payne. 6’5”, 220 lbs, 40 years old, brown hair, blue eyes. Noticeable markings: 4-inch scar on your neck after an encounter with a broken glass bottle, poorly healed gunshot wound on left-side rib cage. Quick question. How do you identify an SAS operator? By the tattoos he doesn’t have and the intel he doesn’t share.

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