Her Secret Protector (SOS Agency)
Romantic Suspense
4th in Series
Setting – Florida
Harlequin Romantic Suspense (October 24, 2023)
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages

Synopsis

To find her attacker

…he must stay in the shadows.

Assigned to protect sea turtle biologist Peyton Bradley from a dangerous stalker, former SEAL Gray Wallace is determined to save his headstrong charg­e—even if she doesn’t want to be saved. Their attraction is powerful. But damning rumors around the handsome bodyguard’s past get him fired. Only when Peyton is kidnapped and loses her memory does Gray reveal his startling—possibly deadly—secret.

From Harlequin Romantic Suspense: Danger. Passion. Drama.

Feel the excitement in these uplifting romances, part of the SOS Agency series:

Book 1: Navy SEAL Seduction
Book 2: Shielded by the Cowboy SEAL
Book 3: Navy SEAL Protector
Book 4: Her Secret Protector

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Guest Post

Why I have no time for the stalker threatening me

By Peyton Bradley, sea turtle biologist and heroine of HER SECRET PROTECTOR

Have you ever sat on a beach, hugging your knees and stared into the waves, marveling at the wonders of the ocean?

Have you ever thought about what would happen if the entire ocean’s ecosystem would suddenly collapse? I have.

I live in Florida in an exclusive beachfront community, but what matters most to me is saving our planet. The one small way I can contribute is by saving sea turtles. Loggerheads nest on my family’s private beach in South Florida. I grew up watching them, and my grandmother taught me to protect turtles, to guard the nests, and prevent people from stealing the eggs.

Sea turtles have fascinated me my entire life. It’s why I became a sea turtle biologist. I’m good at my job, and I wanted my career to make a difference for my generation and preserve these beautiful creatures for the next generation.

But right now, there’s a guy out there who keeps threatening me. He leaves me menacing love notes on my car windshield and elsewhere. My parents, who perfected the art of helicopter parenting, wanted to whisk me away to their summer home up north. I told them no, because summer in Florida, with all of its sticky heat and threat of storms, is prime nesting season for sea turtles.

I have to be here to ensure that the turtle who gets tangled in a fishing net will receive the help she needs to heal and live. Or to count the nests or any of the other many duties I have and love in my profession.

I don’t have time for a nutjob, even though this guy is escalating and scares me. He’s threatened to kill me. But how can I leave my job when I know there’s a problem with this nesting season and the count is low? At the start of the season, there were too many false crawls on the beach, where many female loggerheads came in the past to lay eggs. A false crawl is where a sea turtle will come ashore and then turn around.

Loggerheads will lay about one hundred eggs per nest. They incubate about seventy days, and after that, we’ll dig up the nest until finding the egg chamber so we can count empty eggshells and unhatched eggs. I’m determined to find out why a prime section of my family’s beach that had dozens of nests in the past is suddenly turning up with unhatched eggs or false crawls.

Yet I am scared of this guy. I can’t go anywhere without looking over my shoulder, wondering if he is watching. When I get scared, I try to center myself by reciting the scientific names of sea turtles.

Dermochelys coriacea, the mighty and endangered leatherback. Lepidochelys kempii, the most endangered of all sea turtles, known as the Kemp’s ridley, whose breeding grounds are mainly one strip of beach in Mexico. Caretta caretta, the loggerhead turtle, more commonly seen in the United States. Most of the nests on the stretch of sand in Florida and my home of Sea Grape Beach are loggerheads.

To keep me safe, Dad hired Gray Wallace, an executive protection agent who’s supposed to be the best in his field. He’s a former Navy SEAL and doesn’t mess around.

Gray seems to understand me at times better than my parents. He’s as passionate about the ocean and preserving the turtles as much as I am.

My parents may treat me as a child, but Gray does not. Better yet, he has told me that what is happening is NOT my fault. He insists on this. He told me too many women blame themselves for being stalked and worse, don’t tell anyone until it’s too late.

Gray has experience in dealing with stalkers, and at times, he seems to hide a dark secret. But he is firm in his duty of being my bodyguard. Sometimes, I drive him crazy because I want to try to ditch him in order to do my job. I guess it’s my way of trying to exert control over a situation that makes me feel helpless.

Gray told me that he will do anything and everything to keep me safe. So help me, I think I am falling in love with him. He’s the type of man who takes his job as seriously as I take mine.

I’m entrusting my life to him and hopeful he can catch this maniac who wants me dead. In the meantime, I’ll keep doing what I must to save sea turtles and, hopefully, our planet’s oceans.

I hope you will join me on this quest to save our planet. The next time you find yourself at a beach, before you leave, please make sure to pick up the trash and deposit it into a garbage can. The sea turtles need your help to keep surviving and thriving.

Thanks.

About the Author

Bonnie Vanak is a multi-published author of paranormal and historical romance novels. After a career in journalism, she became a writer for an international charity, traveling to poor countries like Haiti to write about issues affecting the poor. When the strain of her job demanded a diversion, she turned to her childhood dream of writing books. Bonnie lives in Florida with her husband and rescue dogs.

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