Writing under my pen name, Karen Anders, I have sold six more books to Harlequin. The first one Close and Present Danger will be out in July 2016. Here are the blurbs:
To Protect and Serve – Book #5
Close and Present Danger
While recuperating in a hospital at field hospital from a mission gone wrong, Navy SEAL, Lieutenant Dexter Kaczewski, meets Senator Piper Jones, the sister of his best friend and fellow SEAL, the only other survivor of their team. With the mission under investigation and his friend clinging to life, Dex wakes to what looks an insurgent attack at the hospital. He saves Piper from death and discovers that the “insurgent” was one of her Secret Service detail. Realizing that she’s not safe, he takes her on the run with him as her protector. Wounded and against the odds, he intends to keep her safe at the highest cost.
Piper is out of her element in the war-torn Middle East and with her brother’s best friend, sexy and impending Dex. He’s a warrior through and through, and she’s been exposed to mostly tame politicians in DC. Taking her deceased husband’s vacant seat at his untimely death was very difficult for her, but fulfilling his term is something she wants to do for him. Now, she can trust no one except her rescuer, who makes her remember what it was like to be attracted to a man. It’s up to them to figure out the threat and neutralize it before her assassins catch up to them and complete the job they were hired to do. Exactly how far does this conspiracy go in the White House and in the military? Who wants her dead and why? Their very survival rests on Dex’s training and skill to get them back to the U.S. and to the answers before it’s too late.
To Protect and Serve – Book #6
Counterstrike
Petty Officer Neve Michaels, USCG stationed in San Diego, California broke her collar bone during a search and rescue gone badly—the guy was dead before she got to him. Three weeks after the rescue, someone breaks into her apartment and tries to kill her. She lets the police, her brother and her friends think it was a home intruder when she knows it was an assassin sent specifically for revenge. The guy she couldn’t save is part of a family of arms dealers and his oldest brother is now gunning for her and her whole family. Her mission is clear—neutralize the threat and take him out. But, before she can go on the offensive, Russell “Rock” Kaczewski happens. He’s too smart to believe her story and once he sees all her gear, he makes her spill the beans. It makes it even tougher that she’s deeply attracted to him, but no way does she want a long distance relationship. She’d experienced what it was like to have a loved one constantly gone since her dad is a crab fisherman up at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Yeah, the best thing she can do is keep her hands to herself. But Rock is one huge, beautiful temptation.
Sporting goods store owner and former RECON marine, Rock has no intention of letting her go off to a foreign country to track down a gun runner alone. He just has to find a way to keep his hands off his best friend’s sister. Yeah, right, ignore all the signs that say Neve has a thing for him, too. Add into the mix the lady doesn’t want a long distance relationship and Rock is grounded in San Diego with his business. The hardest part of this trip isn’t the thick and dangerous jungle, the almost impossible op or the murderous weapon brokers—it’s the threat to their hearts.
To Protect and Serve – Book #7
Power Curves
Special Agent Austin Beck, out of the San Diego, California NCIS Office is sent to speak to an events coordinator who witnessed the murder of her sister who was a Blue Angels pilot. Her sister was just assigned to the all-male team and was scheduled to fly with them the next day. Austin is shocked to find out the witness is Jena Webb. The last time he saw her, he was a marine guard for the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait where there was a hostile takeover. Only she’d been married and he’d been engaged. They had spent three harrowing days together and he’d almost lost his life protecting her. Now she’s the target of a killer and Austin is assigned to protect her once again. He struggles to remain neutral, at least as long as the case is active—professionally, he’s duty bound to her safety and had to be his number one priority, but privately he wonders if what they felt was heightened by the very real threat of death, nothing but a consequence of their harrowing experience.
Jenna Webb never thought she’d see Austin again. During those three days they were together, there was a strong attraction that she fought. Once she got home with her diplomat husband who is ten years her senior, their relationship wasn’t the same. She felt guilty over the fact that she couldn’t forget Austin and ached for what could have been if only they’d been free. Now after meeting him again, Jenna fears exploring their attraction, unwilling to confess her feelings and risking that, not only didn’t he feel the same way, but that what she experienced was more about the traumatic events than it was about a genuine and promising connection.
To Protect and Serve – Book #8
A Deadly Catch
Seasoned helicopter search and rescue United States Coast Guard pilot Commander Nova Michaels has been sent for her second tour to Air Station Kodiak located near Dutch Harbor and her home town of Unalaska, Alaska. Flying helicopters is what she is born to do and no matter how much she detests the profession, pulling fishermen out of the Bering Sea is her mission, but what she doesn’t expect is sexy, charming Logan Buchanan. His boat sinks and it’s her quick thinking and skill that saves the day. But, with the loss of his livelihood, he signs on to work her father’s boat. She can’t seem to shake him or the danger that he unwittingly brings into her life. Problem is she is all about leaving and he is all about putting down roots. They don’t see eye to eye, but there’s enough heat generated to melt the ice in the frozen waters of the perilous Bering Sea.
To Protect and Serve – Book #9
Absence of Consent
NCIS agent Derrick Gunn is called to a crime scene where a U.S. Navy ensign is found dead. It was clear the woman was murdered by automatic weapons, but it appears nothing is missing until Emma St. John, the woman’s sister shows up and alerts Derrick to the fact that her niece is gone. Fearing the worst, Derrick searches for the child’s remains only to discover that the child was taken by unknown people. Alarmed for the child’s safety, he insists that Emma leave the case up to NCIS, but she stubbornly defies him. She’s a rule breaker, and she doesn’t want to listen to him. In the past that led to disaster and he won’t work with someone who doesn’t follow his lead, no matter how many sparks fly off from their friction.
Private Investigator Emma St. John refuses to take no for an answer and joins Derrick in the search for her niece—an investigation that leads them into Mexico to come up against a dangerous drug cartel boss who may have taken the baby for his own personal reasons. Derrick is exactly the kind of man that she’s had to fight against all her life. The know-it-all bossy alpha male. One who thinks he needs to take control of everything. She’s not going to kowtow to him or his official badge when her niece’s life hangs in the balance. She’d rather go it alone, but they join forces and race against the clock to save her niece from a terrible fate.
To Protect and Serve – Book #10
Unsafe and Unsound
Two years have passed since Dr. Kelly Hu left the Coast Guard for an exciting and busy life of a NCIS medical examiner, her heart in tatters. She’s now working out of the NCIS San Diego office. During an intense cross-service search for a serial killer who is murdering women military medical personnel, Kelly runs into Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Jason Hollow. It has been two years since they parted, two years since their illicit affair could have gotten both of them court-marshalled, two years since she gave birth to their daughter, a daughter he knows nothing about. Even now, it’s dangerous for them to get involved. What if the Coast Guard finds out she and Jason had broken the rules. He was still in the Coast Guard and could technically be court-marshaled. She doesn’t want to take the chance that could ruin his career, no matter how she still feels about him.