by Rachel Grant
“But I was,” she said.
“I couldn’t leave you. In going back for whatever it was you wanted to save, you risked my life too.” His voice hardened. “I’m not okay with that, Dr. Adler.”
Her jaw snapped shut. All at once she deflated. Her knees buckled and she dropped to the ground again. She stared at her smoldering, annihilated vehicle. Color leached from her face—something he’d have thought impossible in the intense desert heat—and she covered her mouth as though she was trying not to hurl.
“What was it? What was so important you risked your life for it?” This from Cal, who sounded genuinely curious and not nearly as pissed as Pax.
She met Cal’s gaze, giving Pax a chance to take in her profile. She had pretty—almost angelic—features, and the pat down had revealed impressive curves hidden under the loose field shirt. But it was her mouth that really caught his attention. She had the sweetest lips that said the foulest things. The woman was Barbie’s raunchy alter ego.
“What just blew up?” she repeated Cal’s question as she swiped away tears with a trembling palm. Her hand dropped, revealing a smear of red desert dirt across her cheek. “Only a piece of the biggest paleoanthropological find in East Africa this millennium. A bigger find than Lucy.”
“A piece?” Pax asked, curious now. He knew about Lucy.
She nodded. “We lost Linus’s dinner.”
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Be sure to check out Rachel Grant’s
Flashpoint Series
Sizzling Military Thrillers
Tinderbox (Flashpoint #1)
Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2017
2018 HOLT Medallion Winner
“The story kicks off with a bang, literally and figuratively, and Grant keeps the momentum going through a series of plot twists and well-staged action sequences that plunge the heroes into the path of a vicious warlord who’ll stop at nothing to consolidate his power in the region.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
In the volatile tinderbox of the Horn of Africa, Morgan Adler has made the paleoanthropological find of a lifetime. The discovery brings her to the attention of a warlord eager to claim both Morgan and the fossils, forcing her to make a desperate dash to the nearby US military base to beg for protection.
Master Sergeant Pax Blanchard has orders to intercept Dr. Adler before she reaches the base, and in so doing saves her life. After a harrowing afternoon he safely delivers her to his commanders, only to find his responsibilities toward protecting the obstinate archaeologist have only just begun.
Morgan and Pax are forced to work together in the Djiboutian desert heat, but it is the fire that ignites between them that threatens to combust them both. For the Green Beret, involvement with the woman he must protect is a threat to his career, while for the archaeologist, the soldier is everything she never wanted but somehow can’t resist. When Morgan uncovers a mystery surrounding Djibouti’s most scarce and vital resource, the danger to her reaches the flashpoint. For Pax, protecting her is no longer a matter of following orders, and he’ll risk everything to bring her back alive.
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Catalyst (Flashpoint #2)
Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2018
“The second novel in Grant’s Flashpoint series offers intelligent romantic suspense that moves with the urgency of a thriller. The well-researched and timely plot finds the heroes confronting the realities of famine in South Sudan while unraveling a complex scheme to secure oil rights in the region.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
When a food storage depot in famine-struck South Sudan is torched, American aid worker Brie Stewart flees, only to land in a market where she’s the next item up for auction. Is the attack on the aid facility another assault upon the war-torn fledgling democracy, or has her family set her up as a pawn in their quest for oil rights?
Chief Warrant Officer Sebastian Ford crossed paths with Brie years ago when she was a shill for her family’s company, pushing a pipeline that threatened his tribe’s land. Determined to lead the rescue operation to save her, he won’t let her abduction—or the attraction that flares between them—get in the way of settling their unfinished business.
The Green Beret’s skills are put to the test in the flooded grasslands of South Sudan, where they must battle nature and dangerous factions who are after more than oil. Bastian and Brie put their hearts on the line as they find themselves embroiled in a conflict that extends beyond country and continent. Together they must douse the spark before it reaches the flashpoint and engulfs everything they hold dear.
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Firestorm (Flashpoint #3)
Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2018
“Grant expertly braids together action and romance in a propulsive, page-turning suspense thriller … Another impeccably crafted installment that will satisfy fans.”
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
CIA covert operator Savannah James is after intel on a potential coup in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but she needs a partner fluent in Lingala to infiltrate the organization. Sergeant First Class Cassius Callahan is the perfect choice, except he doesn’t like her very much. He doesn’t trust her, either, despite the sparks that flare between them, fierce and hot. Still, he accepts the assignment even though their cover requires Savvy to pose as his mistress.
They enter battle-worn Congo to expose the financing for the coup. A trail of cobalt, gold, and diamonds leads them into the heart of darkness, a jungle in which everyone is desperate to find the mother lode of ore and gems. Betrayal stalks them as they follow the money, but Savvy will stop at nothing to bring down the would-be dictator before he can ignite a firestorm that will engulf all of Africa.
Deep in the sultry rainforest, spy and Green Beret forge a relationship more precious than diamonds, but Cal knows Savvy is willing to sacrifice anything—or anyone—to complete her mission. As they near the flashpoint, Cal will have to save her from the greatest threat of all: herself.
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Inferno (Flashpoint #4)
“Grant blows it out of the park with INFERNO, an action adventure extravaganza masquerading as a novella. Carlos and Kaylea are both believable and empathetic characters, and their steamy encounters burn up the pages. Highly recommended.” – New York Times bestselling author Toni Anderson
US Embassy Officer Kaylea Halpert needs a date for a black tie event at a dangerous foreign national’s lavish home. Preferably someone with brains and brawn who can watch her back. Special Forces Sergeant Carlos Espinosa is more than happy to escort the beautiful, brilliant diplomat—who just might be a CIA case officer—to the party. Their night together only gets hotter when he discovers Kaylea burns for him too.
Date night in Djibouti turns deadly when foreign agents target the couple. But who is the intended victim, the covert operator or the Green Beret? As Carlos and Kaylea use their combined skills to escape their captors, they uncover treachery that could ignite relations between the US and Djibouti—already at a flashpoint—and trigger an inferno.
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Acknowledgments
Huge thanks to Paula Johnson, Registered Professional Archaeologist, for answering all my NAGPRA questions before I started writing, inspiring plot twists and making it possible to write this book at all. Paula also read an early draft and patiently set me straight. Any errors, misunderstandings, or misrepresentation of how historic preservation and repatriation laws work together and are enforced are mine.
Thank you to Serena Bell for plotting help and providing much needed critical feedback. Thank you to Darcy Burke for answering all my Portland questions and for plotting help. As always, thank you to Gwen Hernandez for reading the earliest, ugliest draft and helping me make the story beautiful.
As always, thank you to my husband and children. The extra time we’ve had together these last months has brought
joy to social distancing.
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Rachel Grant worked for over a decade as a professional archaeologist and mines her experiences for storylines and settings, which are as diverse as excavating a cemetery underneath an historic art museum in San Francisco, survey and excavation of many prehistoric Native American sites in the Pacific Northwest, researching an historic concrete house in Virginia, and mapping a seventeenth century Spanish and Dutch fort on the island of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children.
For more information:
www.Rachel-Grant.net
[email protected]
