Outback Escape by Elle James

He never wanted to be a hero.
She never meant to drag him into hell.
With a killer hunting them down, hell may be the only place they survive.

Declan Branson is the brother everyone underestimates. Quiet. Methodical. More comfortable with spreadsheets than shotguns. He’s spent years holding Koolaroo Ranch together while trying to forget the past failure that nearly destroyed him. He keeps his head down and his demons buried.
Bella Hartley arrives at Koolaroo Ranch looking for work and a place to disappear. Sweet, soft-spoken, and an incredible chef, she dreads the day her secrets catch up to her. But fear follows her like a shadow, and when two men arrive asking for her by name, everything explodes.

Knives fly. Blood spills.
And Declan acts on instinct he didn’t know he had.

Forced to run, Declan takes Bella to an abandoned diamond mine buried deep in the outback. Hunted through collapsing tunnels and suffocating darkness, they’re pushed to their limits. The deeper they go, the deadlier it gets and every choice could be their last. As their secrets unravel an attraction neither of them planned burns hotter with every heartbeat.

But Bella’s running from a past that refuses to stay buried.

And now Declan’s life is on the line too.

OUTBACK ESCAPE is a high-stakes romantic thriller featuring forced proximity, deadly secrets, a quiet hero pushed to his breaking point, and a slow-burn love forged in darkness where one wrong step means death.