About The Sleeper SEALs Series

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This is a fun and unique series featuring stories from some of your favorite romantic suspense/military romance authors, including Susan Stoker, Becky McGraw, Lori Ryan, Dale Mayer, Geri Foster, J.M. Madden, Donna Michaels, Sharon Hamilton, Maryann Jordan, Becca Jameson, Elle James, and me.
 
The heroes in this series are former and retired U.S. Navy SEALs recruited by a new CIA counter-terror division to handle solo dark ops missions combating terrorism on U.S. soil. Each of us wrote a full-length novel (50K+ words) in the same world. The stories are standalones and don’t have to be read in any specific order. 


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About The Sleeper SEALs

The Origins:

It was a dark and stormy night. No, just kidding. Read how the Sleeper SEALs got started.

Retired Navy Commander Greg Lambert leaned forward to rake in the pile of chips his full house had netted him. Tonight he would leave the weekly gathering not only with his pockets full, but his pride intact.

The scowls he earned from his poker buddies at his unusual good luck was an added bonus.

They’d become too accustomed to him coming up on the losing side of five card stud. It was about time he taught them to never underestimate him.

Vice President Warren Angelo downed the rest of his bourbon and stubbed out his Cuban cigar. “Looks like Lady Luck is on your side tonight, Commander.”

After he neatly stacked his chips in a row at the rail in front of him, Greg glanced around at his friends. It occurred to him right then, this weekly meeting wasn’t so different from the joint sessions they used to have at the Pentagon during his last five years of service.

The location was the Secretary of State’s basement now, but the gathering still included top ranking military brass, politicians, and the director of the CIA, who had been staring at him strangely all night long.

“It’s about time the bitch smiled my way, don’t you think? She usually just cleans out my pockets and gives you my money,” Greg replied with a sharp laugh as his eyes roved over the spacious man-cave with envy, before they snagged on the wall clock.

It was well past midnight, their normal break-up time. He needed to get home, but what did he have to go home to? Four walls, and Karen’s mean-as-hell Chihuahua who hated him. Greg stood, scooted back his chair, and stretched his shoulders. The rest of his poker buddies quickly left, except for Vice President Angelo, Benedict Hughes with the CIA, and their host tonight, Percy Long, the Secretary of State.

He took the last swig of his bourbon, then set the glass on the table. When he took a step to leave, they moved to block his way to the door. “Something on your minds, gentleman?” he asked, their cold, sober stares making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

It wasn’t a comfortable feeling, but one he was familiar with from his days as a Navy SEAL. That feeling usually didn’t portend anything good was about to go down. But neither did the looks on these men’s faces.

Warren cleared his throat and leaned against the mahogany bar with its leather trimmings. “There’s been a significant amount of chatter lately.” He glanced at Ben. “We’re concerned.”

Greg backed up a few steps, putting some distance between himself and the men. “Why are you telling me this? I’ve been out of the loop for a while now.” Greg was retired, and bored stiff, but not stiff enough to tackle all that was wrong in the United States at the moment or fight the politics involved in fixing things.

Ben let out a harsh breath then gulped down his glass of water. He set the empty glass down on the bar with a sigh and met Greg’s eyes. “We need your help, and we’re not going to beat around the bush,” he said, making Greg’s short hairs stand taller.

Greg put his hands in his pocket, rattling the change in his right pocket and his car keys in the left while he waited for the hammer. Nothing in Washington, D.C., was plain and simple anymore. Not that it ever had been.

“Spit it out, Ben,” he said, eyeballing the younger man. “I’m all ears.”

“Things have changed in the US. Terrorists are everywhere now,” he started, and Greg bit back a laugh at the understatement of the century.

He’d gotten out before the recent INCONUS attacks started, but he was still in service on 9/11 for the ultimate attack. The day that replaced Pearl Harbor as the day that would go down in infamy.

“That’s not news, Ben,” Greg said, his frustration mounting in his tone. “What does that have to do with me, other than being a concerned citizen?”

“More cells are being identified every day,” Ben replied, his five o’clock shadow standing in stark contrast to his now paler face. “The chatter about imminent threats, big jihad events that are in the works, is getting louder every day.”

“You do understand that I’m no longer active service, right?” Greg shrugged. “I don’t see how I can be of much help there.”

“We want you to head a new division at the CIA,” Warren interjected. “Black Ops, a sleeper cell of SEALs to help us combat the terrorist sleeper cells in the US…and whatever the hell else might pop up later.”

Greg laughed. “And where do you think I’ll find these SEALs to sign up? Most are deployed over—”

“We want retired SEALs like yourself. We’ve spent millions training these men, and letting them sit idle stateside while we fight this losing battle alone is just a waste.” Ben huffed a breath. “I know they’d respect you when you ask them to join the contract team you’d be heading up. You’d have a much better chance of convincing them to help.”

“Most of those guys are like me, worn out to the bone or injured when they finally give up the teams. Otherwise, they’d still be active. SEALs don’t just quit.” Unless their wives were taken by cancer and their kids were off at college, leaving them alone in a rambling house when they were supposed to be traveling together and enjoying life.

“What kind of threats are you talking about?” Greg asked, wondering why he was even entertaining such a stupid idea.

“There are many. More every day. Too many for us to fight alone,” Ben started, but Warren held up his palm.

“The president is taking a lot of heat. He has three and a half years left in his term, and taking out these threats was a campaign promise. He wants the cells identified and the terror threats eradicated quickly.”

These three, and the president, sat behind desks all day. They’d never been in a field op before, so they had no idea the planning and training that took place before a team ever made it to the field. Training a team of broken down SEALs to work together would take double that time because each knew better than the rest how things should be done, so there was no “quick” about it.

“That’s a tall order. I can’t possibly get a team of twelve men on the same page in under a year. Even if I can find them.” Why in the hell was he getting excited, then? “Most are probably out enjoying life on a beach somewhere.” Exactly where he would be with Karen if she hadn’t fucking died on him as soon as he retired four years ago.

“We don’t want a team, Greg,” Percy Long corrected, unfolding his arms as he stepped toward him. “This has to be done stealthily because we don’t want to panic the public. If word got out about the severity of the threats, people wouldn’t leave their homes. The press would pump it up until they created a frenzy. You know how that works.”

“So let me get this straight. You want individual SEALs, sleeper guys who agree to be called up for special ops, to perform solo missions?” Greg asked, his eyebrows lifting. “That’s not usually how they work.”

“Unusual times call for unusual methods, Greg. They have the skills to get it done quickly and quietly,” Warren replied, and Greg couldn’t argue. That’s exactly the way SEALs operated—they did whatever it took to get the job done.

Ben approached him, placed his hand on his shoulder as if this was a tag-team effort, and Greg had no doubt that it was just that. “Every terrorist or wanna-be terror organization has roots here now. Al Qaeda, The Muslim Brotherhood, Isis, or the Taliban—you name it. They’re not here looking for asylum. They’re actively recruiting followers and planning events to create a caliphate on our home turf. We can’t let that happen, Greg, or the United States will never be the same.”

“You’ll be a CIA contractor, and can name your price,” Warren inserted, and Greg’s eyes swung to him. “You’ll be on your own in the decision making. We need to have plausible deniability if anything goes wrong.”

“Of course,” Greg replied, shaking his head. If anything went south, they needed a fall guy, and that would be him in this scenario. Not much different from the dark ops his teams performed under his command when he was active duty.

God, why did this stupid idea suddenly sound so intriguing? Why did he think he might be able to make it work? And why in the hell did he suddenly think it was just what he needed to break out of the funk he’d been living in for four years?

“I can get you a list of potential hires, newly retired SEALs, and the president says anything else you need,” Warren continued quickly. “All we need is your commitment.”

The room went silent, and Greg looked deeply into each man’s eyes as he pondered a decision. What the hell did he have to lose? If he didn’t agree, he’d just die a slow, agonizing death in his recliner at home. At only forty-seven and still fit, that could be a lot of years spent in that chair.

“Get me the intel, the list, and the contract,” he said, and a surge of adrenaline made his knees weak.

He was back in the game.


Sleeper SEALs: Protecting Dakota by Susan Stoker

Visit Susan Stoker's website for more info!

Dakota James’s life has become the stuff of nightmares. The leader of the Ansar al-Shari’a terrorist group has become obsessed with her, determined to take her as his wife. On the run, she’ll have to pin her hopes on the retired SEAL charged with finding and stopping Aziz Fourati before he can carry out plans to bomb more US airports.

Recently recruited to join a sleeper SEAL team tasked with fighting terrorism on US soil, Slade “Cutter” Cutsinger, with the help of some Special Forces friends, has located the one woman who can identify the deadly Ansar al-Shari’a leader. That was the easy part. Keeping her safe proves more difficult than anyone ever imagined.

When she and her new friend, Caroline, are kidnapped by the terrorist group, Dakota can only pray Cutter and the SEALs will reach them before they’re taken out of the country—and away from Cutter forever.

       ~~~~

Susan has posted the first two chapters of her story on her website! Here's the link => http://www.stokeraces.com/protecting-dakota.html. Jump over there, take a peek, and be ready to forget the world for a few wonderful hours! 

Note: The books in the Sleeper SEALs series are all standalones and may be read in any order!


Sleeper SEALs: Slow Ride by Becky McGraw

Visit Becky McGraw's website for more info!

Only a month into his retirement from the SEAL teams, Lt. Commander Keegan McDonald was bored out of his mind working at his uncle’s motorcycle repair shop. When he gets a call from the commander of a new CIA counter-terrorism unit asking for a commitment to be available for missions as needed, he grabs the lifeline with both hands, hoping to have the best of both worlds.
Keegan is thrilled when his first mission comes fast, but thinks it won’t be much more exciting than working at the garage. He has to infiltrate a strip club on the outskirts of the SEAL base in Little Creek, Virginia to find a possible traitor who is leaking intel to a terror group. 

To get inside, he signs on at the club as a bouncer, but swiftly realizes the mission won’t be as easy as he thought, because Jules Lawson, a sexy waitress there seems determined to get in the way of his investigation. That puts her at the top of his list of suspects, but after watching her more closely, he recognizes the moves of a trained operator gathering information. But who does she work for? Friend or foe? 

His answer comes when things go south at the club and Jules saves his life, but then they are on the run together. When they stop to compare notes, they discover a much darker plot is underway at that club, one that might take out the entire east coast if the jihadis aren’t stopped. But considering the self-serving reason Jules discloses for joining the FBI and taking on this assignment, can Keegan trust her to have his six and finish the mission? Or when she finds the answers she seeks, will she go rogue to exact her own revenge?

 

Note: The books in the Sleeper SEALs series are all standalones and may be read in any order!


Sleeper SEALs: Michael’s Mercy by Dale Mayer

Visit Dale Mayer's website for more info

When things go bad, in Michael’s world things go horribly, terrifyingly bad.

It’s been a year since hardened Navy SEAL Michael Stanton walked away from his career. He never thought to go back, but then his former commander calls with the news that an old friend was murdered while undercover – and he needs Michael’s help.

Knowing the next dead body might be his, Michael takes his friend’s place at the home of a terrorist. His official mission is to find all he can to bring the man’s operation down. His personal mission is to find out who murdered his friend.

Mercy got the job as a maid that her sister had last held – just before she disappeared. With the police lacking leads and interest, Mercy decides it’s up to her to find out what happened. Inside the huge home, she meets Michael and becomes immediately suspicious…and immediately attracted.

When they collide in the worst way possible, she realizes he’s not who he seems either.

Can they each find the truth about their objectives and about themselves? Or will the terrorist get wind of the traitors in his midst and take care of them before they can take care of him?


Sleeper SEALs: Saving Zola by Becca Jameson

Zola Carver has worked her entire life to get where she is—an assistant to the district attorney. She doesn’t have time for threats from a presumed terrorist group. 

Mike Dorsen has made a life for himself, moving from foster care, to a masters in biology, to the SEALs, and finally the FBI. When he gets an assignment from a clandestine faction of the CIA while on vacation, the last person he expects to have in his care is his high school girlfriend, Zola.

Unanswered questions haunt the childhood sweethearts as they reacquaint. There love has never faded, but will secrets held for over a decade tear them apart a second time?

While Zola and Mike run from a terrorist group intent on taking out the woman who helped prosecute them, they must find their way back into each other’s bed and hearts.

 


Sleeper SEALs: Bachelor SEAL by Sharon Hamilton

Medically discharged from the Teams, notorious bachelor SEAL, Morgan Hansen, is approached to lead the biggest undercover operation of his career. For credibility, he is tasked with training and partnering with his ex, from a breakup that made news headlines and nearly ended his career. 

Women’s empowerment guru, Halley Hansen, has built an empire around her live televised events and seminars. But her world-wide message for women has put her in the cross-hairs of some radical terrorist cells operating within the United States. The last person she wants to turn to or trusts is Morgan, her ex.

They bury their pain to work together for a cause bigger than the both of them. And if they don’t implode in the passion of their re-connection, they just might have a chance to save the women of the world. 

 

Bachelor SEAL is available at your favorite vendor:


Sleeper SEALs: Montana Rescue by Elle James

Plagued by survivor’s guilt and a bad knee, SEAL Maddog Maddox left the Navy and buried himself in a mountain cabin in Colorado where the only creatures he hunts now are those he puts on his table. Slowly going out of his mind with boredom, he’s on the verge of throwing himself off a cliff when an old friend, his former commander gives him a reason to live. His mission: Team with special CIA operative and assassin to reveal a terrorist on home soil.

Raised by her father in the Crazy Mountains of Montana, Jolie Richards learned to fire guns before she learned to do her hair. When her father was killed by a careless hunter, Jolie joined the CIA to get as far away from Montana and the emptiness of a home without her father. Her skills as an expert marksman land her as an assassin. When she kills one of a pair of brothers radicalized into ISIS, she becomes the target. In order to flush out the ISIS threat, she sets herself up as bait, but takes her predator to familiar ground in the Crazy Mountains. Used to working alone, she finds she’s been assigned a partner. She just hopes he stays out of the way of her accomplishing her mission.

Together Maddog and Jolie team with the Brotherhood Protectors, a protection agency comprised of former military members, to expose their enemy before he can kill more innocents. 

** Montana Rescue ** is part of the Brotherhood Protectors Series. It is also in the “Sleeper SEAL” connected series. Each book can be read as a stand-alone. They do not have cliffhanger endings. 

Montana Rescue is available at your favorite vendor:


Sleeper SEALs: Thin Ice by Maryann Jordan

Logan (Preacher) Bishop, retired Navy SEAL, flew tourists on helicopter rides over the mountains of Montana and occasionally rescued skiers from snowy slopes. With the threat of biological terrorism at the next Olympics, he jumped at the chance to run a mission in Alaska, monitoring the activities of a newly established ISIS cell. Moving into the property next to the terrorists, his intent was to monitor their activities.

Vivian Sanders, a security specialist with the International Olympic Committee was tasked with finding out all she could about the activities of terrorists working on biological warfare. Assigned to monitor a cell in Alaska, she was stunned to find she was being paired with another security specialist and their cover—being a married couple living next to the terrorist location. 

Precise in his planning and executions of missions, the impulsive Vi drove Preacher to distraction and of all his missions, he was certain this one would fail. 

When the chemicals created by the terrorists next door threatened to be tested on the small town in Alaska, Preacher and Vi worked together to neutralize the threat and discovered opposites do attract!

Thin Ice is available at your favorite vendor:


Sleeper SEALs: Grinch Reaper by Donna Michaels

The only thing Dominic “Reaper” Santarelli hates more than Christmas is having to leave the teams to take over his family’s chain of pizza joints after his father suffers a stroke. So when the Sleeper SEALs team he joined upon discharge tasks him with a local mission, he’s happy to toss the dough aside to track down and interrogate the leader of the cell to gather intel on threats to Atlantic City over the holiday season. But the simple snatch ‘n grab assignment turns complicated when his path crosses with his kid sister’s beautiful best friend—a former Marine hell bent on wiping out his mark.

Blackjack dealer by day, Isabella “Banshee” Monroe hunts terrorists for a living as part of a secret government task force. For over a decade and a half, she’s waited for the terrorist responsible for her father’s death to come into her crosshairs and isn’t about to let anyone come between her and her sanctioned mission—not even her best friend’s gorgeous older brother—the guy she’s crushed on since childhood.

Finding the leader is easy. Keeping the target safe from Bella is nearly impossible. Almost as impossible as fighting the attraction sizzling between them. But when the threat is bigger than expected, can they stop fighting each other long enough to work together to neutralize the whole cell before the countdown ushers in more than the impending New Year?

Grinch Reaper is available at your favorite vendor:


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Sleeper SEALs: All In by Lori Ryan

When hardened Navy SEAL Luke Reynolds sacrificed his career eight years ago to raise his sister’s child, he never looked back. Raising Naomi was the best thing he ever did with his life. But, she’s off to college and he’s left wondering what comes next.

Returning to the teams isn’t an option, but when his former commander taps him, it isn’t hard to say yes to a covert mission tracking the masterminds behind a frightening new online threat to the safety of the United States and its allies.

At least, not until single mom Lyra Grant ends up on his prime suspect list. When the people he loves the most end up at the mercy of forces with no conscience and nothing to lose, Luke is faced with a choice he never thought he’d have to make.

All In is available at your favorite vendor:


Sleeper SEALs: Broken SEAL by Geri Foster

Garrett Mann is burned out. Eight years as a Navy SEAL can do that to a man – especially when he’s been on one too many missions where he has lost too many of his buddies. At thirty-five, he has been fortunate not to be the next Navy SEAL with his name on the wall. Still, he can’t refuse a former commander who enlists him for one last assignment on a secret project.

Doctor Haley Kingston skills will keep her alive, but only one man can save her after she is kidnapped from the hospital where she is working. Haley’s code of ethics as a doctor leaves her little choice but to help the injured leader of a terrorist group. Unfortunately, those ethics won’t be able to save her, or thousands of others, should the terrorist leader live.

Haley will have to trust the last man on earth that she wants to see – the one that broke her heart. Garrett has his own problems. He will have to face his worse nightmares – see the one he loves in danger and realize that his dog tags may be the next ones given to her. Garrett will be pitted against foes determined to stop him at any cost. Can he save the woman he has always been afraid to love before she is executed? Or will his nightmares come true, and this mission will turn out to be his last?

 

Broken SEAL is available everywhere at your favorite vendor:


Sleeper SEALs: Freedom Code by Elaine Levine

Smooth writing, defined characters and a good action story with a satisfying ending.
— Reader Review
Elaine Levine tells a story like no other author. She drags you into the story in so many ways you wish you could be almost every character. I love everything I read by her and I think you will also.... Enjoy the ride.
— Reader Review

The Sleeper SEALs are former U.S. Navy SEALs recruited by a new CIA counter-terror division to handle solo dark ops missions to combat terrorism on U.S. soil.

When CIA Special Agent Mike Folsom is found beheaded in a Boulder alley hours after speaking to an informant about a potential terrorist cell being formed in a nearby Muslim community, retired SEAL Levi Jones is activated to find his killer. The informant herself is a suspected co-conspirator...but she’s the only one who can bring him inside the close-knit community.


Zaida Hassan knows her parents are disappointed with her—and not because she writes sexy contemporary romances. No, they’re upset with her for something much more salacious—she’s failed to settle down in a marriage and provide them with grandchildren. 
Zaida’s grateful her parents don’t know the worst of her secrets. But Jamal Abd al-Mukhtar does, and he’s leveraging that knowledge against her. He’s the reason she sought out Special Agent Mike Folsom, a friend from way back.

The help Mike sends her is a man straight from the pages of her stories, with eyes like a blue mountain lake and a heart of obsidian. 
When she learns Mike has been murdered, she knows Levi Jones has come not to save her but to destroy her.


Each book in this multi-author branded series is a stand-alone novel, and the series does not have to be read in order.

Freedom Code is available at your favorite vendor or buy direct from Elaine Levine:

Buy Direct | Apple Books (#ad-apple) | Google Play | Kindle (#ad-amazon) | KOBO | NOOK | Print

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Sleeper SEALs: Flat Line by J.M. Madden

Former Navy SEAL Parker Quinn is restless and depressed since he was forced to leave the Teams after his devastating injury. He understands he’s now a liability to the group, but the need to serve still pounds through his blood.

When his former commander calls with a supposedly simple covert surveillance case, he’s all over it. Until he discovers the surveil-ee is none other than lawyer Andromeda Pierce, a woman who destroyed his heart more than any sniper bullet ever could. 

Andromeda is defending a very dangerous man, with even more dangerous terrorist connections. When those connections decide to take her out because she knows too much, Parker rides to the rescue, taking a bullet in the process.

Now they’re on the run, trying to find a missing witness and fighting their attraction the entire way.
Will she give him a second chance to be the man she wanted, or will she leave his heart flat-line?

Flat Line is available at your favorite vendor: