He made it home from a war zone.

But the danger remains in the mountains of Montana…

Navy SEAL Brett Morgan has come home to recover after a disastrous deployment, desperate to remember what happened.

As he struggles to find his feet as a civilian, he intervenes in an armed robbery, saving the life of waitress Anna Larkin.

But there’s more to Anna’s past than meets the eye and as that past circles dangerously closer, Brett will have to draw on all of his combat experience to keep them both alive.

Titles in The Runaway Ranch series include — Navy SEAL’s Deadly Secret – The Cowboy’s Deadly Reunion –

This is an adult 18+ story that contains language, possible violence, or sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

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Title:  Navy SEAL’s Deadly Secret
Series:  The Runaway Ranch #1
Author:  Cindy Dees
Genre:  Romantic Suspense
Published:  January 1, 2020
Publisher:  Harlequin Romantic Suspense
My Rating:  4 stars

Navy SEAL’s Deadly Secret begins The Runaway Ranch series with an intense story of recovery and finding love along the way.  While there were some technical issues I had with parts of this story, overall I was easily drawn into Brett’s and Anna’s world with all of its intricacies, fears, and underlying danger.  Those few issues, for me, took nothing away from the emotional reactions I had as this couple fights themselves as well as others to find their happiness together… eventually.

Brett returned home after his most recent deployment, wounded in mind, body, and spirit.  He’s lost in the past with a memory that is only bits and pieces of his last assignment, the last mission that went so horribly wrong.  Until or unless he recovers those lost moments of time Brett isn’t going back to the military or anywhere but his lonely existence at the family cabin avoiding everyone possible while continuing his obligatory once-a-month trip to town for supplies and human contact.

It’s while at the local diner, making that necessary trip to town that Brett encounters Anna for the first time since her return home.  He will step into a dangerous situation to save a woman from a drugged robber without thinking simply reacting.  The woman’s absolute surrender to the idea of that knife at her throat taking her life spurred Brett on to take down the deranged man… no one should welcome death as she seemed to, forgetting that he himself wasn’t exactly the life of the party right now.

Anna returned home after the death of her husband – at her own hands.  Oh, it clearly was an accident when during a drunken rage he lunged for her as she turned from the cutting board with a knife still in her hands which he impaled himself on.  Everyone, including the police, say it was only an accident that Anna did nothing wrong at that moment… but she doesn’t believe that for one second and wishes for death to take her away from the memories of the past.  She’s dealt with her husband’s drinking, his verbal abuse which soon turned into physical beatings for all of her marriage.  But she cannot deal with the fact that she was holding the knife that ultimately set her free.

Her husband’s family can’t believe that either.  Soon the threats toward Anna are more than vicious rumors and she’ll turn to the one man she trusts for help.

Anna and Brett are both dealing with PTSD, for different reasons, and in different ways but at the core, each is wounded and searching for an escape.  Neither holds out hope for closure for Anna cannot bring back the dead and Brett cannot recall why so many of his men died on that last mission.  I felt that their mental injuries were presented in a way that made sense for them, and also from the outside looking in for the reader.  Watching them begin to heal, slowly but with each other’s help was an emotional journey for me.  The danger that they both were placed in only added to the intensity of their story.

I enjoyed Navy SEAL’s Deadly Secret and will definitely be following the series.

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

Available in print or for your favorite e-reader.