Devil and the Deep by Julie Ann Walker Series: Deep Six #2
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: July 5th 2016
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 384
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
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Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.
Second in NYT & USAT bestselling author Julie Ann Walker’s new romantic suspense series featuring former navy SEALs
The former SEALs of The Deep Six return in a sizzling series from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julie Ann Walker.
Maddy Powers’s life revolves around cocktail parties, political fundraisers, and charity events-but she can’t forget the daring former SEAL who came crashing into her life a few months ago…or the scorching kiss they shared before he disappeared into the deep blue sea.
Bran Pallidino carries a dark secret-one that forced him to push Maddy away. But when she’s taken hostage during a trip to the Caribbean, the men of Deep Six Salvage embark on a dangerous mission to save Maddy. Passion boils in the sultry sea breeze…but what good is putting their hearts on the line if they don’t survive the dawn?
Review
DEVIL AND THE DEEP is action-filled adventure with a heavy helping of humor that left me laughing so hard I was in tears and was a very fun introduction to Ms. Walker’s writing for me. I have never read any of Ms. Walker’s books before Devil and the Deep but the idea of SEALs searching for treasure is a very unique and unusual one, enough to intrigue me. I went in with no preconceptions and I’m glad becasue I really enjoyed it.
Maddy Powers and Bran Palladino shared a scorching kiss in the previous installment of the series, one that has remained on their minds and they have formed a bond based on their shared experiences and the sizzling attraction between them, but Maddy wants more from Bran and if her planned excursion with the scholarship students from her family’s foundation places her within reach of Bran, well, that’s just a coincidence.
Bran knows that the apple does not fall far from the tree and has vowed not to get involved in any long term relationship, to avoid the cycle of abuse that his parents lived in, but Maddy Powers, her sassy, feisty personality and her hot body threaten his resolve and make him behave in ways that are not normal to him, but he and his buddy are her only hope when she and her charges find themselves in some trouble, especially when it looks like more than a run of the mill attack.
Okay, so I had one question: why would Maddy, knowing that her daddy was a rich as Croesus, step outside her home without a contingent of armed-to-the-teeth bodyguards? Especially when she wasn’t packing heat like a good Texas gal? That said, I enjoyed her character, her runaway mouth and her southernisms which while sometimes corny, never failed to give me a good laugh.
Bran on the other hand took some warming up to. I’m not really a fan of the tortured hero, especially when that torture is self-inflicted and even though he had good reason for his decision, I felt like his reservations were overblown to give him an out from commitment. In spite of that, I love a man who knows how to handle himself in battle and I enjoyed that he was all about keeping Maddy safe.
I like how the author combined history and adventure with suspense and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series, including the treasure hunting. I enjoyed the secondary characters a lot, especially the teenagers and Alex and with the glimpse of Alex and Mason that we got in this book, I can’t wait for more of their own story.
I think that anyone who loves adventure (think Indiana Jones), suspense or action would enjoy this book. Even though this book can be read as a stand alone, I think that it would be best to start from the beginning of the series.
Excerpt
Bran opened his mouth to tell them to stop poking at each other like children. But before he could say anything, a dull pop, pop echoed across the water, barely discernible above the snap of the mainsail as it tugged against the boom basket when a particularly strong gust of briny-smelling wind pulled the fabric tight.
The fine hairs on the back of Bran’s neck stood on end, his adrenaline spiked, and hundreds of missions to the ass ends of the earth flashed through his brain. If he lived ten thousand lifetimes, he’d recognize that sound for exactly what it was…
Automatic gunfire.
Pop! Pop, pop, pop! Another barrage carried over the waves and slammed into his eardrums like percussion grenades.
“Maddy!” He hadn’t realized he’d roared her name aloud until he saw Alex jump straight into Mason’s lap and turn to stare at him with wide, frightened eyes.
“Huh? What?” she asked, then squawked when Mason hopped from his seat and bobbled her like a hot potato. Once Mason set her on her feet, she smacked him on the arm and glared. “What the heck was that all about?” she demanded. “You could’ve launched me overboard and—”
But that’s all she managed before another unmistakable pop sounded over the water.
“What is that?” she asked, pushing her glasses up the medicated bridge of her nose.
“Gunfire,” Mason gritted.
“Gunfire?” Alex’s face went so white it was hard to see where the white zinc oxide stopped and her skin started. “Wh-why? There isn’t hunting on the Dry Tortugas, is there? I mean, what could anyone possibly hunt? There are only seabirds and turtles and…it’s dark.”
“That’s not the sound of a fuckin’ hunting rifle,” Mason gritted between clenched teeth, lifting his eyes to Bran. The look on Mason’s face was one Bran knew all too well. It said one thing and one thing only. Trouble. The kind of trouble that separated men into two distinct categories: the quick and the dead.
Without conscious thought, Bran turned the key and engaged the catamaran’s dual engines, adding their man-made horsepower to Mother Nature’s wind power. The butterflies in his stomach grew lead wings and fell like rocks.
“Get the M4s!” he yelled, disgusted to hear his voice was nothing more than a reedy bark of sound, barely discernible over the roar of the engines and the hiss of the waves against the twin hulls as the sailboat picked up speed.
It must have been loud enough. With a hitch of his chin, Mason disappeared inside the cabin.
“What are M4s?” Alex called, blinking against the salt spray splashing over the deck as the catamaran plowed up one wave and down another.
Bran didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His pounding heart was sitting in the back of his throat, strangling him. He once again lifted the field glasses, but he couldn’t see much of anything beyond the spray of white water kicked up by the outboard engine of a dinghy that had detached itself from the fishing boat and was now plowing toward the shore of Garden Key.
When Mason reappeared on the deck—two minutes later? Ten? Bran couldn’t say; time was moving at a snail’s pace—their trusty weapons were strapped to his back.
Now, it wasn’t unusual for a boat to come equipped with firearms. The open oceans were the last great frontier, and it behooved a smart captain and crew to always be able to defend themselves. What was unusual was for a boat to be carrying fully automatic, gas-powered, 5.56 mm NATO round-firing pieces of death-dealing machinery, the kind of weapons strictly off-limits to civilians unless you bought them out of the back of a van or, in Bran’s and Mason’s case, unless you appropriated them from good ol’ Uncle Sam—with the blessing of their CO, of course.
“Oh! My! God!” Alex screamed when she saw the rifles. “Where the heck did those come from?”
Bran barely spared her a glance. “Come on! Come on!” he yelled, punching the throttle as far as it would go and willing the sailboat to move faster.
It wasn’t long, three seconds maybe, before he felt Mason’s bulk on the steps leading to the captain’s perch. Mason placed a hand on Bran’s shoulder and leaned over him to kill the running lights.
Good idea. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Oh, right. Because all he’d been thinking was Get to Maddy! Get to Maddy!
“You need to ease off, bro,” Mason said.
“Screw you,” Bran grumbled, shrugging off Mason’s heavy palm. “Maddy’s on that island.”
“I’m not trying to be a cocksucker here,” Mason said, the next-to-last word sounding more like cocksuckuh. “But we go in there full tilt and guns hot, and we’re likely to end up deader than fuckin’ doornails.”
“But Maddy…”
“I know, man.” Mason nodded. “But we need to do this the right way. The SEAL way.” Mason gave Bran’s shoulder a squeeze that conveyed a million things at once: Get your shit together. Don’t worry, I got your back. Once more into the breach, dear friend…
Roger that. The SEAL way.
Bran managed a nod and throttled back the engines despite all his instincts screaming at him to do the opposite.
“Good.” Mason said when the catamaran was no longer plowing hell-bent for leather toward Garden Key. “Now how do you want to play this?”
“Don’t know,” Bran admitted, his scalp on fire like every single one of his hairs had ripped out of their follicles. His lungs attempted to crawl into his throat to join his heart—apparently it’s a party in there—and his mind was spinning out of control. “I don’t—”
“Okay, okay.” Mason hit the side of his heavy fist against Bran’s shoulder. “So the way I see it, we got two options. Option one is we use the marine radio to call back to Wayfarer Island and tell LT there’s a situation on Garden Key. We should still be within hailing range.” His face said he wasn’t sure about that last part. Truth to tell, Bran wasn’t either. Marine radios weren’t built to carry signals over great distances. They were meant to be used for close ship-to-ship communication. “Then LT can use the satphone on the island to call the Coast Guard on Key West.”
“And after that?” Bran demanded. Each second they sat flapping their lips felt like an eternity. “We wait out here and twiddle our dicks until the authorities show up while who knows what happens to Maddy? Hell no. Plus, there’s always a chance that they”—he punched a finger toward Garden Key and whoever the hell was firing off those weapons—“are monitoring the marine channels. If we use the marine radio to hail back to Wayfarer Island, they’ll know the Coasties are on their way, they could…” He couldn’t even countenance the end of that sentence, much less voice it. If only they had a satphone onboard, they could make the call to Key West themselves and no one would be the wiser. I wish. But there was that old saying about wishing in one hand and shitting in the other and seeing which one filled up faster. “No way, paisano.” He adamantly shook his head. “We hafta maintain radio silence until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“Hey!” Alex called from the deck. “What are you two talking about? Shouldn’t we be—”
“Alex!” Mason bellowed, which was so unlike him that Bran actually flinched. “It would be wicked awesome if, for once in your life, you shut your chowderhole!”
Alex wasn’t one to let something like that slide. But she was as taken aback by Mason’s outburst as Bran was. She snapped her mouth shut, blinking rapidly behind the lenses of her glasses.
“Okay, so that leaves us with option two,” Mason continued as if they hadn’t been interrupted.
“Which is?”
“We need to get eyes and ears on that island. And I think I have a plan for how to do that.”
“I’m listening,” was what Bran said. What he was thinking was I can’t believe this is happening again!
About Julie Ann Walker
Julie Ann Walker is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of award-winning romantic suspense. Her books have been described as "alpha, edgy, and downright hot." Most days you can find Julie on her bicycle along the lake shore in Chicago or blasting away at her keyboard, trying to wrangle her capricious imagination into submission.
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