Shadows Beneath the Surface

Shadows Beneath the Surface

Book One of The Merlin Files

Everyone knows Evan "Buck" Buckley as the fearless firefighter of Los Angeles' Firehouse 118.

The guy who never hesitates to run toward danger.

The guy who always finds a way to bring everyone home.

But before the turnout gear... before the 118... before Los Angeles...

Buck lived another life.

At eighteen, he enlisted in the United States Navy, becoming an elite Aviation Rescue Swimmer attached to Special Operations. Known by the call sign **Merlin**, he rescued Navy SEALs from impossible missions, survived operations erased from official records, and earned the respect of Bravo Team.

Then one classified mission changed everything.

Buck walked away from the military, buried his medals, locked away his past, and never looked back.

For six years, no one-not Bobby, Eddie, Hen, Chimney, Maddie, or Athena-has known the truth.

Until a weathered Navy challenge coin appears in Buck's locker with two words engraved on the back:

**WELCOME HOME.**

At the same time, across the country, paramedic **TK Strand** responds to what should have been a routine emergency. Instead, a dying stranger slips him a flash drive and whispers a single word...

**"Merlin."**

As a dangerous conspiracy resurfaces, Buck's carefully hidden past collides with his present, forcing Bravo Team, Firehouse 118, and Firehouse 126 into a fight that spans two states and years of buried secrets.

Old loyalties will be tested.

New friendships will be forged.

And Buck will have to decide whether he can truly leave one life behind while protecting the one he has now.

Because some battles never end...

They just wait beneath the surface.