DEFENDING MORGAN – Susan Stoker
Mountain Mercenaries, Book 3
Montlake Romance
ISBN-13:  978-1-542-04225-3
March 2019
Romantic Suspense

Dominican Republic; Colorado Springs, Colorado – Present Day

The Mountain Mercenaries are a group of ex-military men headed by the unseen “Rex” who recover kidnapped women and children anywhere in the world.  They just came to the Dominican Republic to rescue a five year old girl named Nina, who was kidnapped by her father during a visitation.  Her mother got in touch with Rex, and Arrow, Ball and Black were sent there to rescue her.  But when they found Nina, they found someone else: Morgan Byrd, who went missing over a year earlier from Atlanta, Georgia.  When Morgan pulled out a crude knife and tried to attack Arrow as they burst into the room where they were being held, she impressed the hell out of him.  As they try to get to the safe house and out of the country, they see men looking for them, and Ball and Black take Nina, the girl, and they divide up.  Five men surround Arrow and Morgan, and they just barely escape and hide out until they can get away.  From what Arrow hears, they were passing Morgan around and apparently someone was paying them to do whatever they wanted with her.

Morgan was surprised to be rescued and that they took her along with Nina, even though they weren't there for her.  Despite Morgan's father keeping her case in the public eye during the past year, Morgan doesn't feel completely safe in Atlanta.  That's fine with Arrow, as he quickly can't imagine letting her go anywhere without him.  Morgan's parents were divorced when she was young, and their contentious relationship always made her feel uneasy.  Arrow and his team help her return to the country, and her father arrives in Colorado Springs to help deal with the publicity.  Morgan doesn't dare tell anyone what happened to her, and it will take her a lot of therapy to be anything like normal again.  Soon Morgan reluctantly agrees to go to Albuquerque with her mother to try to adjust to life again.  Unfortunately, Nina isn't doing well and worries that Morgan is OK, so Morgan decides to ask Arrow if she can move back with him again.  That is Arrow's best dream . . . until all his tires are slashed and a friend is beaten up. Are Arrow and his team being targeted because of her, and who hates her enough to have had her kidnapped in the first place?  Arrow and his group are doing their best to check out every person Morgan has ever known who might hate her so much.

The secondary characters are all the members of the Mountain Mercenaries and two of their girlfriends.  Can Meat, their computer specialist, find out who has targeted her?

DEFENDING MORGAN is another one of Susan Stoker's action packed novels full of emotion, trauma, and a love that captures Morgan and Arrow and won't let them go.  These sorts of stories are Ms. Stoker's specialty, and she doesn't let us down in DEFENDING MORGAN.  If you haven't tried Susan Stoker, this is a great start to finding a wonderful new author.  Grab this up, but beware her stories are addicting, but thankfully she is very prolific.

Carolyn Crisher