Diane Benefiel

Guarded Secrets

Payback Mountain Book 4

He’s a grumpy bar owning, ex-Marine, ex-cop
She’s pure mountain sunshine
She’s been attacked - twice - and linked to a murder
He doesn’t believe in coincidences and brings her under his protection

High Sierras

Flash Point

High Sierras Book 1

For Emmaline Kincaid, Police Chief Bradley Gallagher makes hating cops…problematic.

Reconsidering Her Options

Stalwart, honest, a stand-up guy – high praise, right? Wears his jeans just right, single, a catch – pretty much everyone in Hangman’s Loss, a quirky little town in the Eastern Sierras, adores the hell out of Police Chief Bradley Gallagher. Yet, new resident Emma Kincaid is determined to keep him at arm's length, and with good reason. But vandalism, arson, and a violent attack have her rethinking her stance. Has someone from her past caught up with her, or is the escalating threat coming from within her newfound community? Sparks fly as Brad races against time to keep her safe, and passions combust when they join forces to combat the danger.

Dead Giveaway

High Sierras Book 2

You’ve witnessed your best friend’s murder, taken her son on the run, and the police want to "talk" to you - where do you go? - to the man who’s always hated you, of course.

THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN

If asked, Gwendolyn Ballard would admit she co-parented her best friend Chloe's son, Cameron. Now Gwen is all he's got as they flee from the man who murdered his mother. There's only one place Cameron will be safe, and that's with his uncle, Elijah MacElvoy. Arriving on his doorstep at the Broken Arrow Ranch is a desperate decision, and Gwen knows he'd slam the door in her face if she didn't have his nephew with her. But she'll do anything for Cam, even if it means putting up with Elijah's distrust and judgment.

Chloe's dead. Cam's orphaned, and Elijah is confronted with the prospect of living with the one woman who's driven him crazy for the past ten years. He'll fight to keep her safe. That's encoded in his DNA. But can he trust her with a little boy who just lost his mother? As Eli watches how Gwen loves and cares for his nephew, he reevaluates his thinking and gives in to the smoldering attraction he felt the first time he saw her. With so much on the line, Eli comes clean about his past, making way for a future that's all about silver linings.

Already Gone

High Sierras Book 3

INCLUDES BURNOVER - BOOK #4 IN THE HIGH SIERRA SERIES

THE MEASURE OF A MAN

Madison Gallagher’s life is in Hangman’s Loss. Her family is here. Her friends are here. She owns and runs a successful bakery café. What she doesn’t have is a love life. And she doesn’t want one.

The man who stole her heart when they were both young and wildly in love was careless and callous—he left her and never looked back. Now he’s returned, and with his typical reckless abandon, he inserts himself back into her world.

But, no. He’s not welcome anymore. She's suffered enough and has finally gotten to a place where her life makes sense. She refuses his advances. Until she can’t.

When Logan Ross left Hangman’s Loss he had needed to find himself and become a man he could be proud of—a man nothing like his father. And while Logan had succeeded, he had never been whole, not when he’d lived ten long years without his Maddy.

Back and undercover on a dangerous operation, one look at his girl and he knows this is where he’s meant to be. And nothing in his whole life has been harder than winning back the woman he’d broken. But Logan is determined to do anything it takes to mend her precious heart, and he means to prove it to her every day for the rest of her life.

Deadly Purpose

High Sierras Book 5

THE SILVER LINING

Meghan Bennett is a desperate woman running for her life, and the one place she's sure she'll be safe is the old cabin in the Eastern Sierras she inherited from her father. Exhausted, and fighting a nasty flu, Meg can't believe someone is squatting in her cabin. The tall, handsome, bearded stranger who answers the door is her worst nightmare. Grumpy, growly and intractable, she can't convince him to leave. When she nearly collapses, she finds herself on the couch in front of a welcome fire. Over the next few days she thinks she can trust this man with more than her safety. Too late, she learns he has betrayed her, and he shatters her trust right along with her heart.

Declan Murphy has been trying to rebuild his life, and he revels in the solitude his old friend and mentor's cabin provides. When a gorgeous, pissed-off woman shows up in the middle of a cold, snowy night insisting the cabin is hers and he needs to get out, Dex is ready to shut the door in her face - until he realizes she's sick, and even he's not that big a Neanderthal. When he finds out she's the daughter of the man who'd owned the cabin, and that she's the biggest asset in the investigation he's working on with the FBI, he can't believe how screwed he is. He's fallen hard for the stubborn, independent beauty, yet he can't tell her the truth about what he's doing. He knows when she finds out, he's going to lose the woman he hadn't been looking for but needs more than his next breath.

Clear Intent

High Sierras Book 6

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

Dory Morales knows the kind of heartache no woman should endure. Her ex-husband is in prison for abusing her and her precious son. It will take a long time to get over the shame of having allowed that to happen to them, and she’s worked hard to get their lives back on track. Of one thing she is certain, her life and destiny belong to her, and no man will ever have control over her again.

Hangman’s Loss PD Captain Jack Morgan is done with the sniping and snide comments that fly every time he and Dory run into each other. It’s time she lowered her defenses and let him in. He better than anyone knows what’s she’s been through, and he intends to prove to her that he would never hurt her. Far from it. He plans on loving her for the rest of her life, if only she would let him.

Break Away

High Sierras Book 7

TRUE BLUE

When Zoey Hardesty's high school crush moves next door, it seems the intervening years are unimportant to her heart. One look at all grown up Levi Gallagher, and she knows she's in trouble. Fighting the attraction is self-protection, learning he was a big city cop who returned home to join the Hangman's Loss PD, puts the brakes on for good. When Levi is assigned to investigate a hit and run that could've killed her, they wind up spending time together in ways that are far more than neighborly. He becomes embroiled in the case as weirder and scarier things start happening to Zoey. Levi's hard to resist, and even though being with him breaks all of her rules, she's almost ready to admit he's worth it when she learns his secret. But he's a better man than she's given him credit for, and with one last chance to make things right, Zoey reaches out for a love that will last a lifetime.