Eighty vertical feet above roaring whitewater. One encrypted drive taped to her ribs. And one relentless Montana cowboy standing between her and the dark.
When investigative journalist Nina Alvarez uncovers explosive proof that a powerful timber and mining syndicate is dumping toxic heavy-metal waste into the headwaters above Pinehollow, Montana, she expects legal threats-not two black dual-wheel pickups putting rifle rounds through her windshield and ramming her SUV off eight-thousand-foot Devil's Thumb Pass in a blinding sleet storm.
Ex-smokejumper and Search-and-Rescue deputy Calder "Cal" Dalton rappels down sheer Absaroka granite expecting a fatal crash recovery. Instead, he finds a bleeding, razor-tongued survivor aiming an eighteen-inch tire iron straight at his throat. The instant Cal spots bullet lead on her mirror and realizes someone with county scanner access tipped off her hunters, protocol goes straight over the cliff:
- Report her washed downstream so the gunmen watching the canyon call off the hospital hit.
- Lock her behind 14,000 gated acres inside his fortified mountain cabin high above Alderhorn Ranch.
- Sleep across her threshold until every corrupt badge and corporate fixer on his mountain is in steel cuffs.
Nina doesn't do cages, handlers, or small-town saviors-especially six-foot-two, storm-eyed cowboys who cook cast-iron venison, respect every inch of her investigation, and look at her like she's oxygen. With only one loft bed, a vanished whistleblower hiding in the high country, and armed men closing in on the valley's water, surviving the mountain is nothing compared to surviving each other.
Rough & Relentless is a full-length, high-heat, dual-POV Western romantic suspense novel featuring a stoic ex-smokejumper Search-and-Rescue cowboy, a fearless investigative reporter, protective cabin lockdown, meddling rancher brothers, and a guaranteed Happily Ever After. Book Three in the interconnected Alderhorn Ranch series-can be read as a complete standalone!
