Collateral Legacy Trilogy, 1
Scout Reed has spent his life keeping people safe.
Honor Jennings has spent hers making sure companies don’t cut corners that get people killed, 1.
When a violent storm traps them on an offshore oil rig, their worlds collide in the worst possible way—a murdered crewman, a killer hiding in plain sight, and Honor caught in the crossfire.
Scout is the rig’s toolpusher, a man bound by responsibility and loyalty, trained to lead under pressure. Protecting Honor becomes more than duty the moment he finds her bleeding, terrified, and very much alive when the killer thinks she’s dead. Hiding her is the only way to keep her breathing—and the most dangerous decision he’s ever made.
As fear, desire, and adrenaline blur the lines between survival and surrender, Scout and Honor discover a connection neither of them can walk away from. But love forged in crisis comes with a price, and when the truth surfaces, it won’t just expose a murderer—it will put powerful interests on notice.
Because what happened on that rig was never meant to come to light.
Scout’s Honor is a high-stakes romantic suspense about courage, loyalty, and finding love on the edge of disaster—where doing the right thing can change everything.
Excerpt:
Honor groaned, pressing her face into the pillow in an attempt to quiet the sounds of the storm raging outside. How in the hell did the men who worked on these things actually get any rest? She figured it had a lot to do with the twelve-hour shifts they worked. She was pretty sure that the type of work they did also played a role. It certainly helped them to develop bodies a woman would be more than willing to give up chocolate for. Who wouldn’t want a guy with arms strong enough to hold the world at bay, broad shoulders a girl could hold on tight to while Reed rocked her world, slamming into her over and over, making her—
“Shit,” she hissed, lifting her head and glaring at the alarm clock glowing 3:30 AM. Letting her thoughts wander in that direction would only end one way—and she was already far too awake. Talking with Reed late into the night hadn’t helped. If anything, it had made her like him more. Lust after him more.
Rolling over, and staring up into the darkness of the room, Honor attempted to count sheep, trying to force her mind to close off enough to sleep, and ignore the sounds of—
Honor sat up. Had that been someone calling for help? Surely not. Perhaps it was simply a case of an overactive imagination and the howl of the wind outside her room. Just as she was about to lie back down, convinced that it could not have been what it was, she heard a man scream.
Heart pounding, the silent room now filled with the harsh sounds of her own breathing, she reached for the light at the side of the bed and switched it on. The room was cast in a soft light but revealed nothing more than the built-in wardrobe and desk. Panicked, she reached for the phone on the desk, the silence when she put it to her ear told her it wasn’t working. Hanging up, she moved toward the solitary window in her room, the one that looked out over the port side of the rig, she could see the lights that lit up the central drilling platform in the distance as well as the walkway that led to this processing unit, a separate structure to the drilling rig itself. Reed had given her these rooms because they belonged to the team who had left the ship after the incident yesterday, so she had these quarters to herself. As far as she knew she was the only one over here.
“Well, Honor,” she muttered to herself as she grabbed her coveralls and began to draw them on. “Best get your ass out there and see what the hell is happening. You might have imagined it, but how would you feel if there really was someone out there who needed help?”
She slammed her feet into her steel caps and opened the door to her unit, before she ran down the short corridor to the external door and opened it, having to push hard to get it to open against the strength of the wind. She stepped out into the force of the storm, thinking she would be prepared for the wind, but it still whipped the air from her lungs quickly, shocking her with how cold it was.
“No, you can’t do this! I-I didn’t know. Oh, God, please, you can’t do this.”
There was no mistaking that. Someone was in trouble.
Heart racing, she moved over to the rail, holding her hand up above her eyes to protect her from the rain, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. At the front end of the processing area, there was a tall crane, one that lifted the containers of processed product off the rig and onto a waiting ship to be taken back to the mainland. Where she stood was at least four stories up from the platform floor, and she was looking up at the crane. She estimated it would be around six stories from the floor. From what she could see, there were two people standing at the end of it, both of them in dark coveralls, the yellow lights of the rig made it difficult to determine the color. She couldn’t really make out who they were or what was going on, but it looked like the one at the back was holding something pointed at the other man who stood precariously close to the end of the platform.
The crane was equipped with a safety gate, but Honor couldn’t see if it was closed or open from this angle. The man at the back lifted whatever it was he was pointing and she saw a flash of fire against the dark black sky.
“Holy shit,” she whispered. “That’s a gun.”
She was still wondering what to do next when the man without the weapon suddenly launched himself at the other guy. The two of them fought and Honor held her breath. It seemed to go on forever, but must have only been for a minute, then the fight moved to the end of the platform.
“Hey!” she called out, to what end she had no clue. “Stop that! You’re too close to the edge.”
Yeah, that’s it, Honor, yell at the men fighting on the crane, that’ll make it all better.
Neither man looked at her, still engaged in the fight of their lives. Although it was more of a wrestle. She—
“Oh, my god!” she screamed as the unarmed man fell from the crane. She heard him scream as he fell. It ended abruptly, and she slammed her eyes closed in horror at the thought of that ending. She gasped, her eyes flying open when something sparked against the metal handrail beside her.
Her mind processed the fact that the killer had just taken a shot at her, when something sliced past her bicep, making it burn and she fell to the walkway floor. Sobbing, her arm on fire, she crawled around the corner of the fabricated unit and made it back into the sleeping quarters. She moved as quickly as she could, not back into the room she had exited, but into one of the control rooms at the far end of the floor. Panting, desperate to control her rising panic, she moved into the small space between a filing cabinet and the wall, making herself as small as possible. She could only pray that whoever had just committed murder in front of her didn’t come looking for her too closely.
She stayed in the dark for a few moments, unsure of what to do. There was a phone on the desk in front of her. Deciding it was worth the risk, she crawled over and picked it up, dragging it with her back into her hiding place. She sobbed in relief when it rang immediately and she prayed that someone would answer.
“Reed.”
Honor exhaled sharply in relief. “Oh, thank God, Reed, someone fell from the crane on the processing unit. Well, not fell, pushed is a better word.” She was speaking really fast but couldn’t help it.
“What the hell do you mean they were pushed?” Reed asked incredulously.
“I heard someone call out for help, and then a man screamed,” Honor answered, her teeth chattering.
“Honor, calm down, you’re the only one over there,” Reed said, but she could hear that he was moving about.
“Well, tell that to the two men who were fighting at the top of the processing unit crane!” Honor snapped back. “I am telling you what I saw, Reed. Someone pushed a man from that crane and then shot at me.”
“What the fuck!” Reed roared and then an alarm sounded throughout the rig. “Where are you?” Honor described where she was. “You stay where you are. I’ll come to you. Don’t leave that room, do you hear me, Honor? If whoever it is knows you saw him then he’ll be looking for you. Stay where you are.”
“Okay, I will. Hurry, Reed, okay?” Honor whispered. “I’m really scared.”
“I’m on my way, baby.”
The click of the phone sounded loud in her ear and Honor replaced the handset with a shaking hand. Then she did something she hadn’t done in many years. She bowed her head and prayed.
- Series:
- /series-collateral-legacy-trilogy/
