PROTECTED BY THE HACKER

A murdered source. A stolen flash drive. A hacker who may be the only man dangerous enough to keep her alive.

Investigative journalist Ava Bennett knows better than to meet a source in a parking garage at midnight.

But when Daniel Price begs her to listen, she goes anyway.

What he gives her is more than a lead. It is proof of a hidden cyber conspiracy tied to hospital systems, ransomware attacks, offshore money, and a company powerful people are willing to kill to protect. Before Daniel can tell her everything, the lights go out, a black SUV vanishes into the rain, and Ava barely escapes with her life.

Then her apartment turns against her.

Her phone unlocks by itself. Her laptop begins deleting files. A hidden camera watches from her bookshelf. A message prints in bold black letters:

STOP DIGGING.

When Ava's editor calls Ironcrest Security, Ethan Vale is the man sent to contain the threat.

Brilliant, controlled, and dangerously unreadable, Ethan is used to solving problems no one else can touch. He expects Ava to be reckless, stubborn, and impossible to protect.

He is right.

Ava expects Ethan to be arrogant, cold, and more interested in controlling her than helping her expose the truth.

She is not entirely wrong.

Forced into hiding at an Ironcrest safehouse, Ava and Ethan uncover a trail leading from a dead whistleblower to a ransomware group called Saint Orchid, a fake healthcare vendor, and a larger operation built to turn private medical data into blackmail. The deeper they dig, the clearer it becomes that Daniel Price was not the first victim-and Ava may not be the last.

Ethan's job is to protect her.

Ava's mission is to publish the truth.

But the closer the danger gets, the harder it becomes to separate the investigation from the heat building between them. Ethan knows better than to want the woman he is protecting. Ava knows better than to trust a man with secrets of his own.

Neither of them knows what to do when the safest place left is in each other's arms.

As the enemy closes in and a hospital system becomes the next target, Ava and Ethan must decide how far they are willing to go to stop a conspiracy designed to destroy lives from the inside out.

Because someone is watching.

Someone is listening.

And someone has already decided Ava Bennett knows too much.

Protected by the Hacker is a high-stakes romantic suspense novel featuring a fearless investigative journalist, a protective hacker hero, forced proximity, cyber intrigue, deadly secrets, and a dangerous love story inside the world of Ironcrest Security.