Her Name Is Not Mara: 1

Four seconds. That is exactly how long it takes for Sera Koss's life to end.As a federal court interpreter, Sera knows how to convert words without absorbing their meaning. But when she accidentally translates a coded assassination order during a routine commercial deposition, she goes from invisible conduit to active target.Snatched from her life and thrust into witness protection, Sera is handed a fabricated identity-one she quickly discovers belongs to a murdered woman. Enter Dane Rusk. A rogue former U.S. Marshal carrying the crushing guilt of a sister he couldn't save, Dane doesn't trust the system. Instead of delivering Sera to an official safe house, he hijacks her transfer and drives her deep into the snowbound Colorado mountains.Off the grid. Untraceable. Completely alone.Trapped in a locked-down cabin with a handler whose lethal competence is matched only by his devastating secrets, Sera uncovers a five-language cipher hidden in her government-issued belongings. The dead woman whose name she wears left a weaponized message, and Sera is the only one equipped to read it.As a brutal winter storm seals them in and the architects of the conspiracy close the net, Sera and Dane must dismantle a corrupt system from the inside out. But the intense isolation breeds a dangerous intimacy, erasing the strict lines between protector and protectee. Trusting Dane is her only chance at survival, but surrendering to the explosive tension between them might destroy them both.