Brawler by Zoe Dawson
A mission to recover lost weapons. A redhead running through the jungle. And one SEAL about to face something he can’t explain.
Petty Officer Christian “Brawler” Beckett and his team are covertly deployed to the Ecuadorian jungle to locate the crash site of an unmanned aerial vehicle and the Marine chopper that went down searching for it. It’s up to them to recover the weapons and the men. But deep in the rainforest, where the air hums with something ancient and unseen, nothing goes to plan.
Before they reach the wreckage, they stumble across something unexpected: a furious young redhead running from armed men. Soon-to-be-Dr. Emily Shade is a Zoology graduate student studying jaguars. She’s brilliant, stubborn, and utterly determined to finish her dissertation—even if drug runners and military “Neanderthals” keep getting in the way.
Brawler doesn’t have time for distractions. Especially not the five-foot-two firecracker with a temper, a pixie grin, and a habit of arguing with him in the middle of a tactical op. She’s not his type. She’s trouble. So why is his K9 partner, Beast, suddenly obsessed with her and, as the mission deepens, so is he?
Unable to extract her safely, the team is forced to bring her along. But as danger closes in and the jungle itself seems to come alive, survival becomes more than a mission. Because some battles aren’t fought on any map. Some are written in the space between heartbeats and some are destined long before the first shot is fired.
