Lethal Protector

LETHAL PROTECTOR is the third instalment in Kaylea Cross’ contemporary, adult RIFLE CREEK erotic, romantic suspense series set in Rifle Creek, Montana. This is thirty-five year old, Canadian Forces soldier/sniper Sgt. Braxton Hillard, and thirty four year old, single mother/ former solder, amputee and para-athlete Tala Baldwin’s story line. LETHAL PROTECTOR can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous instalments is revealed where necessary. Tala is Tate Baldwin’s sister LETHAL EDGE #1. Told from several third person perspectives LETHAL PROTECTOR follows the friends to lovers relationship between thirty-five year old, Canadian Forces soldier Sgt. Braxton Hillard, and thirty four year old, single mother/ former solder, amputee and para-athlete Tala Baldwin. Four years earlier, while on deployment in Afghanistan, Tala would lose her leg to an anti-personnel mine, and Sgt. Braxton Hillard, was the first on the scene to save his best friend’s younger sister. Fast forward to present day wherein, the Christmas holidays finds Braxton a part of the ever expanding Baldwin family, and the attraction between Braxton and Tala does not go unnoticed. In preparation for an upcoming biathlon, Tala asks Braxton to help with her target practice, help that brings Braxton up close and personal but a cross country ski trip finds our couple facing down a shooter, a gang-banger on the run, and our couple may be his next target-wrong place at the wrong time. What ensues is the building relationship between Tala and Braxton, and the potential fall-out as our couple cross paths with a killer on the run. Tala Baldwin is a single mother whose time in the military was cut short by an anti-personnel mine, and the loss of her leg but Tala never forgot about Braxton Hillard, her brother’s friend and business partner at Rifle Creek Tactical, and the man that stirs something deep within our story line heroine. Braxton Hillard struggles with family and friendships but most of all in his relationships with the opposite $ex. Believing himself unworthy, Braxton refuses to move forward with our story line heroine but the palpable sexual attraction and need outweigh Braxton’s negative thoughts about his own happily ever after. A day of skiing finds our couple on the run, one step ahead of a man desperate to take down anyone who crosses his path. The relationship between Braxton and Tala is one of immediate attraction but Braxton is Tate Baldwin’s business partner and friend, and in this Braxton battles between head and heart, fearing to cross the proverbial line of no return. Tala has lusted after Braxton for as long as she can remember, and in this she struggles with Braxton’s refusal to move beyond a possible one-night stand. The lone $ex scene is passionate and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text. The secondary and supporting characters include Tala’s daughter Rylee, as well as Tate and Nina (Lethal Edge #1), Mason and Avery (Lethal Temptation #2), nosy but well-meaning spinster sisters Bev and Pat, and Reggie, the fainting goat. LETHAL PROTECTOR is a story of family and friendships, relationships and love; a story of desperation and loss. The fast paced premise is intriguing and exciting; the characters are strong-willed and energetic; the romance is a slow build to a happily ever after.

4.25⭐ Lethal Protector is the third and final story in Kaylea Cross's wonderful Rifle Creek series and brings together Tala and Braxton, who are friends that have had feelings for each other for quite some time; and also share the history of combat and a traumatic event in the theatre of war. And with flashbacks to how Braxton and Tala first meet, their time in a war zone, and the event that resulted in Tala becoming an amputee. This really was a great read. Not to mention it was sweet, suspenseful and inspiring as Tala proves that losing a limb is not the end of the journey it's merely the beginning of a new one. And I was definitely engaged throughout. Would happily recommend.