Contract Signed (Triggerman, Inc. #1)

Four and a half stars

Contract Signed is the first in Marie Harte’s Triggerman, Inc. trilogy, about three off-the-grid contractors (really, assassins) who end up with their hands full of…baby.

Noel Cavanaugh (really, Smith) has a lovely Craftsman-style home in Bainbridge Island, Washington. His neighbor, Adeline Rose, has captured his attention for years. But his schedule being unpredictable and his work hardly a topic for conversation, he’s tamped down that attraction and stuck to the persona that gives him his work nickname, Ice. He returns from his latest assignment to find Addy on his doorstep with an adorable baby boy she hands to him, informing him that the baby’s mom had left his son for him not long before.

Noel’s pretty confident he isn’t the baby’s daddy, but he calls in two co-workers whom he’d completed a mission with around that time. In between missions, Deacon and Hammer arrive promptly, and just in time, when someone seems to be trying their best to off Noel, and then Addy.

Contract Signed is a highly entertaining read with a little bit of mystery and some heated romance. For all his cool professionalism, Noel falls for Addy like a ton of bricks, and she’s no mousy heroine. When they get around to admittedly their mutual attraction, they burn up the sheets.

And Ms Harte does a great job with the secondary characters. Deacon and Hammer and Addy’s BFF Solene come alive on the page, and the dialogue is sharp and funny.

Can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series!