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  “Good,” he said, “because you never really know with some people.”

  “Too true. In this case, I’m happy to see the two of them together.” He sat back and said, “I’ll be getting out of here soon enough.”

  “Time to mend your ways?”

  “It’ll be a mess, once news of DeeDee being brought down and Reginald gone gets out,” he said. “I’ll have to step in and clean things up.”

  “And can you?”

  “Yeah, I can,” Michael said, “but I’ll do it just to maintain the company. It’s a good company at heart,” he said. “There have been a couple bad apples recently, and unfortunately, as DeeDee got older, she got a lot harder. Only her kids were twisting her up.”

  “Nothing clean or easy about that woman.”

  “No,” Michael said, “and I’m one of those guys who has room to love only one woman in a lifetime. Now that she’s gone,”—he shook his head—“I’ll admit that I’ll be lost for a while.”

  “You’ll also be better off in other ways because she won’t be yanking your chain,” Fallon said.

  At that, Michael chuckled. “So true. And what’s your next move?”

  “I have to figure out who hired Reginald,” he said. “Your new driver hire for DeeDee was involved too. We need to find out who this guy is who hired Reginald and who betrayed Bullard.”

  “Good luck with that,” he said. “I’ll keep my ears open. If I can do anything to help, let me know,” he said, “but I really don’t have a clue.”

  “Good enough.”

  “Wait. You won’t go after him alone, will you?”

  “No,” he said, “Quinn is coming to help. He was pretty damn close to Bullard too, so maybe he has some idea of who is close enough to Bullard to pull this off.”

  “Did you ever consider that Quinn might be the betrayer?”

  “I’d stake my life against it,” he said.

  But Michael looked at him and said, “That’s exactly what you’re doing, you know?”

  “I know, but I’ve worked with Quinn a lot. I just can’t see it.”

  “Keep an open mind,” he said, “because you know that the biggest betrayals are those that come from within.”

  As Fallon walked out of the hospital, he realized just how much personal experience Michael had had with that. Still, Fallon would bet his life that Quinn wasn’t involved. Fallon just hoped he wasn’t making the biggest mistake in his life by trusting the wrong person. He headed back to the hotel, contacted the rest of the team, and made arrangements to fly to Africa.

  Fallon didn’t know if he needed to go to ground zero or not, but something told him that he’d find more answers there than he would here. And, if there’s one thing they needed now, it was answers.

  This concludes Book 5 of Bullard’s Battle: Kano’s Keep.

  Read about Fallon’s Flaw: Bullard’s Battle, Book 6

  Fallon’s Flaw: Bullard’s Battle (Book #6)

  Welcome to a new stand-alone but interconnected series from Dale Mayer. This is Bullard’s story—and that of his team’s. All raw, rough, incredibly capable men who have one goal: to find out who was behind the attack on their leader, before the attacker, or attackers, return to finish the job.

  Stay tuned for more nonstop action as the men narrow down their suspects … and find a way to let love back into their own empty lives.

  Fallon returns to Africa and Bullard’s home base to follow the only active lead they have in their hunt for their plane saboteur. Once home, Fallon finds Dave, Bullard’s right-hand man, heading out to check on a lead for Bullard, and Dave’s niece, Linny, is home for a visit. Fallon and Linny have shared both good and bad moments, as the two of them dance around a long-term attraction—which Fallon refuses to pursue, not wanting his relationship with Bullard and the crew at the compound to change.

  Linny plans to confront Fallon but instead finds an old beau dropped dead on the front steps of the compound, considered her second home. Uncle Dave is everything to her, and Bullard sent her to medical school, yet it’s Fallon she keeps coming back to see.

  As her world implodes, the same issues facing Fallon take a turn for the worse, … putting them all in danger.

  Find Book 6 here!

  To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.

  Damon’s Deal: Terkel’s Team (Book #1)

  Welcome to a brand-new connected series of intrigue, betrayal, and … murder, from the USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. A series with all the elements you’ve come to love, plus so much more… including psychics!

  A betrayal from within has Terkel frantic to protect those he can, as his team falls one by one, from a murderous killer he helped create.

  Ice poured herself a coffee and sat down at the compound’s massive dining room table with the others. When her phone rang, she smiled at the number displayed. “Hey, Terk. How’re you doing?” She put the call on Speakerphone.

  “I’m okay,” Terkel said, his voice distracted and tight.

  “Terk?” Merk called from across the table. He got up and walked closer and sat across from Levi. “You don’t sound too good, brother. What’s up?”

  “I’m fine,” Terk said. “Or I will be. Right now, things are blown to shit.”

  “As in literally?” Merk asked.

  “The entire group,” Terk said, “they’re all gone. I had a solid team of eight, and they’re all gone.”

  “Dead?”

  Several others stood to join them, gathered around Ice’s phone. Levi stepped forward, his hand on Ice’s shoulder. “Terk? Are they all dead?”

  “No.” Terk took a deep breath. “I’m not making sense. I’m sorry.”

  “Take it easy,” Ice said, her voice calm and reassuring. “What do you mean, they’re all gone?”

  “All their abilities are gone,” he said. “Something’s happened to them. Somebody has deliberately removed whatever super senses they could utilize—or what we have been utilizing for the last ten years for the government.” His tone was bitter. “When the US gov recently closed us down, they promised that our black ops department would never rise again, but I didn’t expect them to attack us personally.”

  “What are you talking about?” Merk said in alarm, standing up now to stare at Ice’s phone. “Are you in danger?”

  “Maybe? I don’t know,” Terk said. “I need to find out exactly what the hell’s going on.”

  “What can we do to help?” Ice asked.

  Terk gave a broken laugh. “That’s not why I’m calling. Well, it is, but it isn’t.”

  Ice looked at Merk, who frowned, as he shook his head. Ice knew he and the others had heard Terk’s stressed out tone and the completely confusing bits and pieces coming from his mouth. Ice said, “Terk, you’re not making sense again. Take a breath and explain. Please. You’re scaring me.”

  Terk took a long slow deep breath. “Tell Stone to open the gate,” he said. “She’s out there.”

  “Who’s out there?” Levi asked, hopped up, looked outside, and shrugged.

  “She’s coming up the road now. You have to let her in.”

  “Who? Why?”

  “Because,” he said, “she’s also harnessed with C-4.”

  “Jesus,” Levi said, bolting to display the camera feeds to the big screen in the room. “Is it live?”

  “It is, and she’s been sent to you.”

  “Well, that’s an interesting move,” Ice said, her voice sharp, activating her comm to connect to Stone in the control room. “Who’s after us?”

  “I think it’s rebels within the Iranian government. But it could be our own government. I don’t know anymore,” Terk snapped. “I also don’t know how they got her so close to you. Or how they pinned your connection to me,” he said. “I’ve been very careful.”

  “We can look after ourselves,” Ice said immediately. “But who is this woman to you?”

  “She’s pregnant,” he said, “so that adds to the intensity here.”


  “Understood. So who is the father? Is he connected somehow?”

  There was silence on the other end.

  Merk said, “Terk, talk to us.”

  “She’s carrying my baby,” Terk replied, his voice heavy.

  Merk, his expression grim, looked at Ice, her face mirroring his shock. He asked, “How do you know her, Terk?”

  “Brother, you don’t understand,” Terk said. “I’ve never met this woman before in my life.” And, with that, the phone went dead.

  Find Book 1 here!

  To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading Kano’s Keep: Bullard’s Battle, Book 5! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.

  Dear reader,

  I love to hear from readers, and you can contact me at my website: www.dalemayer.com or at my Facebook author page. To be informed of new releases and special offers, sign up for my newsletter or follow me on BookBub. And if you are interested in joining Dale Mayer’s Reader Group, here is the Facebook sign up page.

  Cheers,

  Dale Mayer

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  About the Author

  Dale Mayer is a USA Today best-selling author, best known for her SEALs military romances, her Psychic Visions series, and her Lovely Lethal Garden cozy series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Broken But … Mending series). Her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life, a stand-alone novella; and the Broken Protocols series, starring Charming Marvin, the cat).

  Dale honors the stories that come to her—and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!

  To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields, with books available on résumé writing, companion gardening, and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.

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  KANO’S KEEP (BULLARD’S BATTLE, BOOK 5)

  Dale Mayer

  Valley Publishing

  Copyright © 2021

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-773363-30-1

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