Defending Mateo (Prey Security: Undercover Team #2; Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

He walked away to protect her not knowing she was already in danger because of him.

Ally Thatcher should have known better than to believe a man who was confident, self assured, and sexy as sin would ever fall for a woman like her. She's shy, quiet, withdrawn, struggles to connect to people, qualities that make it hard enough to function in her regular life, but qualities that will destroy her when she finds herself the victim of a human trafficking ring. There is only one thing worse than waking up in a cell, waiting to be sold, and that's finding out that the man you were falling in love with is one of them.

Betrayed by everyone he loved and trusted when he was a teenager, Mateo Adler learned to shut his emotions down tight. After spending a few years as a cop he joined Prey Security's Undercover Team and has spent the last six months working for the sex trafficking ring Azure. In two decades only one person has ever caused a crack in his armor, and now that woman has fallen victim to the very thing he tried to protect her from. Ally doesn't trust him, thinks he ghosted her for no reason, and he has no idea how he's going to get her out of this hellhole, because it turns out that he really is the monster he always feared he'd become.

** Please note that some readers might find some situations depicted in this book triggering as there are issues regarding consent. **