Becca Merritt has come to Hard Ink Tattoo looking for help. Her brother Charlie has mysteriously gone missing, and she suspects he is in serious trouble. One of the owners of the tattoo parlor, Nick Rixey, is a former member of the Spec Forces team that Becca's late father had been the leader of. Not knowing who else to turn to, she shows up with a note and the little information she had to go on about what her computer hacker brother had been investigating concerning their father and his inexplicable activities.

Nick Rixey is a man with a ruined military career, which had been destroyed by his former leader Frank Merritt. Not only did his former commander cause the downfall of his career, Merritt's illegal activities had caused the death of six of his comrades. There's no way he is going to do anything to help the daughter of his former adversary, even if is she is the most attractive woman he's ever seen. He turns Becca away, only to have a change of heart and track her down to her home. When he finds her in grave danger and her home ransacked, his protective instincts come to the forefront and he decides to help her. They do a little investigating; and it's not long before they realize that Becca's missing brother Charlie has gotten into some really bad trouble, and is in serious danger.

Nick calls the rest of his former Special Forces team together to help with the effort to find Charlie, and to infiltrate the drug-running street gang behind his abduction. Unwilling at first to aid the daughter of the man who ruined their military lives, they begrudgingly agree to help their buddy. The group begins to pull together their efforts as a highly specialized team, and with their unique individual skills. It's not long before they realize that whatever Charlie had found out about Frank Merritt, it put him squarely in the spotlight of the powerful organized crime ring.

HARD AS IT GETS is the first book in what promises to be a thrilling new series by Laura Kaye. This story serves to bring the Spec Op team back together, and put the operation against the crime ring in motion. Although the main plotline is brought to a satisfying conclusion in this book, the process of taking down the drug runners has just begun. The story was a little slow to get going, as a lot of time was spent setting up the series arc and the ongoing storyline. The story didn't truly begin to take off until near the end; but it was nice to get to know all the team, and the sexy times were done very well. The reader will be looking forward to reading more about this team and their efforts to take down the bad guys and salvage their military records.

Book Summary

Tall, dark, and lethal...

Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey's tattoo parlor. Becca Merritt is warm, sexy, wholesome–pure temptation to a very jaded Nick. He's left his military life behind to become co–owner of Hard Ink Tattoo, but Becca is his ex–commander's daughter. Loyalty won't let him turn her away. Lust has plenty to do with it too.

With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs Nick. She just wasn't expecting to want him so much. As their investigation turns into all–out war with an organized crime ring, only Nick can protect her. And only Becca can heal the scars no one else sees.

Desire is the easy part. Love is as hard as it gets. Good thing Nick is always up for a challenge...