Author: Michele Mannon

Publisher: St Martin’s Press

Rating: 4.5 stars

Buy Links: Amazon

Type: Novel in Series

Provided by Publisher

Blurb: Sometimes in life, choices just aren’t part of the plan. When fate interferes and bulldozes right over you.

That’s how I felt the first time I saw him. Standing in my kitchen, soaking wet, hotter than a man has the right to be, and holding a knife.

Declan’s cold, stone-cold. I can’t help but want him. His presence stirs up some raw emotion within me. He seems so…alone. But is he here to kill me or save me?

He’s the one man I should never want…and the one I can never forget.

Review: After reading the first book, Rogue, I came to this book a little better prepared. However, there were still a lot of surprises and things I hadn’t caught in the first story. Mercenary runs concurrently with the first one, but the reader is seeing things from a very different point of view–Kylie’s sister Madelyn.

Madelyn had just turned twenty the day the stranger showed up outside the trailer she and her sister had moved into. She was getting ready to move to San Diego for college on a full scholarship, but really she just wanted to get the hell out of Shelby, Oklahoma. It had changed since the mob had moved in… especially after the death of her father in a gang-related drive-by shooting. Her mother had just died from cancer, and her sister Kylie had become distant and secretive. When everything gets cocked up and Kylie disappears, Madelyn’s left to the tender mercies of the stranger outside her trailer. He’s the only one there, the only one she trusts.

Declan knows he should leave Madelyn alone, but he can’t. He knows he’s no good for her, but something keeps him searching her out, continuing to protect her. Even though Kylie had betrayed the company and left his friend dead, he just can’t bring himself to blame Madelyn for her sister’s mistakes.

Or for being so attracted to her.

The writing is great and the intensity builds, especially between Madelyn and Declan. The mystery continues and ramps up because while Madelyn is smart, she’s in the dark about so much that’s going on. I couldn’t wait to read this after the first book, and I highly recommend  this series if you like romantic suspense and alpha men. Thanks!