A dangerous game at the end of the earth...
For French Foreign Legionnaire Cody Castillo, chasing deadly thrills is the only reprieve from a bloodstained past he canât forget. But when the adrenaline junkie finds himself caught in a mass murdererâs crosshairs in the lonely wilds of New Zealand, he finds an unexpectedâand intriguingâally.
Former air force pilot Tia Kupa has always found safety in nature, until a killer turns the wilderness into a playground. In this life-or-death game, the guarded woman who lives by the rules must rely on a risk taker with a death wish. The sexy devil-may-care legionnaire may be the wrong guy for her, but desire is just as primal as terror. Even if they outrun a predator, they canât escape the sizzling bond neither of them saw coming.
Praise for Brynn Kellyâs
Deception Island
A Booklist Top 10 Romance Debut of 2016!
âIntense and exciting...romantic suspense at its best!â
âCarla Neggers, New York Times bestselling author
âCaptivating and cutting edge! Deception Island offers smoldering chemistry, cunning twists and a whole lot of heart. Brynn Kelly delivers everything I love in a romance.â âHeather Graham, New York Times bestselling author
âKidnappings and pirates and romanceâoh my! Deception Island is a keeper.â âCindy Gerard, New York Times bestselling author
âDeception Island is the perfect book...one youâll never forget.â âSharon Sala, New York Times bestselling author
âBrynn Kelly pens a raw, dark, emotional novel of danger and intrigue that will keep readers turning the pages.â
âKat Martin, New York Times bestselling author
âSexual tension, mystery, and danger crackle off every page!â
âLaura Kaye, New York Times bestselling author
âDeception Island is nothing short of brilliant. I love this book and am salivating for more!â âAward-winning author Lena Diaz
âA taut romantic thriller readers wonât want to put down.â
âLibrary Journal, starred review
Praise for Brynn Kellyâs
Edge of Truth
â[P]acked with intrigue and jeopardy, while also rich with human emotion. This book is a non-stop thrill ride.... Kelly is proving to be a gift to the romantic suspense genre!â
âRT Book Reviews, Top Pick
âEdge of Truth has it allâdanger, desire, and heart-pounding action. Brynn Kelly captures you on page one and doesnât let go!â âLaura Griffin, New York Times bestselling author
âEdge of Truth is a breathtaking romantic thriller. The characters are so real they leap off the page, the love story is hot and the action never lets up. I couldnât put it down.â âKaren Robards, New York Times bestselling author
âDark and deepâa twisting romantic suspense that will grab you and never let go.â
âCynthia Eden, New York Times bestselling author
âBrynn Kelly will capture your heart and leave you breathless in this passionate, harrowing novel of romantic suspense. A must-read!â
âBrenda Novak, New York Times bestselling author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After an award-winning twenty-year career as a journalist, BRYNN KELLY has abandoned fact in favor of her first love, fiction.
Sheâs delighted that she gets to spend her days in a bubble of delicious words and fiendish plots, turning all those stranger-than-fiction news reports into larger-than-life romantic thrillers.
Brynn has a journalism and communications degree and has won several prestigious writing awards, including the Valerie Parv Award and Pacific Hearts Award. Her acclaimed debut novel, Deception Island, was nominated for a Golden Heart® Award by Romance Writers of America. Sheâs also the bestselling author of four nonfiction books in her native New Zealand.
www.BrynnKelly.com
CHAPTER ONE
THE CHOPPER APPEARED on the horizon, hovering like a dragonfly over the slate-blue mountain range. Right on time. A second later the bass throb of its blades ricocheted around the valley, on air so crisp Cody Castillo felt he could reach out and snap it.
He hauled his kayak and paddle from a baggage cart parked outside the airport terminal, loaded with the few supplies he needed for a river paddle. Food, pup tent, sleeping bag, thermals, first aid kit, safety gear, wet weather gear. His gut fizzed. One night in an alpine hutâalone, hopefullyâand then nobody and nothing for four beautiful days. Fuck right off, world.
CROOKED VALLEY AIRPORT, the sign read. Well, Crooked Alley. The V had fallen off the line of letters spaced along the roof of the squat hangar that passed for a terminal. The Y was on its side, the T just hanging in there. Way out here at the end of the world, if you needed a sign to tell you where youâd wound up, you were crazy lost.
Heâd been to plenty middles of nowhereâMarfa in Texas, the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, Camopi in French Guiana... Like this, they werenât the kinds of places you happened upon, pit stops on a road trip, derelict stations on a train line. Nope, it took full commitment to get nowhere. For him, in this case: a ride in a rattly legion Peugeot 4WD from his base at Calvi to Bastia, a ferry from Corsica to Nice, a flight to Paris and then Auckland, via Hong Kong. That sucked up the first forty-eight hours of his leave. Then to Christchurch and a two-day wait for a flight over the Southern Alps aboard a five-seater Cessna piloted by a farmer who might have learned to fly in World War II, going by his age and the way he dipped and dived like he was still dodging the Luftwaffe. Just one journey leftâa chopper ride to the source of the legendary Awatapu Riverâand then he was on his own steam.