This is book three of the Mind Stalkers series and the main character is Kendra Lea Bower (21), who we discover has been living on the streets for the last three years after her brother Billy’s death and grief stricken words to her parents. Conner Crofton feels the blame for Billy’s death, as he was part of his unit in the military and after finishing a job, he went out alone, Conner thought to buy something for Kendra, but was killed by someone and died in Conner’s arms. He left him the message to look after his sister, but after the funeral, he thought she was living with her parents and he felt too conflicted over Billy’s death to visit them. It is only when a solicitor gets in touch with him and passes him an envelope that was to be given to Kendra on her 21st birthday, that he goes searching for her and finds she has been out on the streets. He hires the band she is with, of fellow homeless people, to play at his and his brother’s club, Ambrosia, as a pretence to meet her face to face. He and his brothers also run a Private Investigator business, which is their main line of work. They all grew up knowing Kendra and treating her as their little sister, with Billy following Conner into the military, and her parents helping to look out for them after they lost their parents. She can’t face the Crofton brothers and runs out of the club, only to be attacked by two masked men who want what her brother left for her! A package she knows nothing about, but Conner certainly does. He has even more guilt after promising the dying Billy that he would look after Kendra, only to have left her to the whims and dangers of the streets for the past three years.
He insists she comes home with him, so he can look after her, especially after the attack, but he knows her well and she is going to run! If she does, she will be in more danger from these attackers and whoever is behind the need for whatever her brother sent her all that time ago. Why is only comes to her now is another question altogether. Believing Kendra to be in shock and injured, Conner rips her clothing off, only to find it was the blood of the man she defended herself from and killed in the struggle. Another point against him, as Kendra still holds him responsible for Billy’s death and is determined to hate him. What she can’t hate is his dog Krystal, who takes to her immediately, as have the dogs of his brothers, to the new women in their lives, Callie and Dani. It turns out that the package contains information clearly linked to the issues both Dani and Callie experienced and possibly to new foreign development of similar forced Think Tanks, where gifted people are kept as prisoners and tortured into doing whatever someone else wants of them. Someone tried to help Kendra as she was being attacked, but the attackers also knew far too much about her and all of her safe places around the city. Wes, the band’s manager seems to have no history prior to a few years ago, whilst two of the others Palmer and Cliff have been in the band about the same time, and Daeron is the one who looked after her from the start and taught her how to protect herself on the streets and to be as safe as she could. Palmer and Wes seem to want her as more than a band mate, while Daeron treats her as his little sister and is very protective of her, keeping the other men in line and her untouchable.
She doesn’t want to place anyone else in danger and figures she can use her pick locking skills to break into Conner’s safe and grab the envelope for herself and pass it off to these dangerous people. But she has forgotten how protective Conner can be, especially for those he cares about such as his younger brothers, Billy and her. He may have failed Billy, but he won’t fail her and the promise he made to Billy. When he saw her in the club, she was no longer the little ‘mongrel’ who hung around with her older brother and would dare to do anything they did. She is all grown up and however much he tries to fight it, he falls in love with her hard, leading to lots of stick from his brothers who are amused to see him finally fall! Kendra had a thing for him over ten years ago and he hasn’t changed much, leaving her messing with his body and mind. In the aftermath of her attack, he calls in reinforcements in the guise of his brothers and their dogs, especially Marc’s shepherd who is great at tracking. Callie and Dani soon involve themselves in the mix, after one of the attackers recognised one of them at the club and a threat was made against them as well. Callie was sought after by a foreign group in the previous book and it seems the man in charge may still be the same and will stop at nothing to get the women back. They finally have to call in Colonel Kenson, Conner and Marc’s former boss, who helped with the other two women’s cases, who obviously wants whatever is on the thumb drive Conner was sent and was supposed of hand over to Kendra. A very jealous ex of Conner’s, the betrayal by someone who wants Kendra all for himself, along with large sums of money offered by the foreigners, soon places Kendra, Daeron and Conner in a life or death situation. Both feel they need forgiveness for their past actions and there is clear passion between the two as they have to fight for the destiny her brother placed upon her and the man he knew would keep her safe. Another great read in this series with another of the Crofton brothers finding the woman for him, whilst Callie and Dani help to save her using their abilities. A close call for some of them at the end, but love and those you can trust win through in the end. I received an ARC copy of this book from the author and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.