Hard Target

Review "She really knows her readers and how to grab their attention!" RT Magazine "An excellent read! Highly recommended." Mystery author, Linda Hall, author of Katheryn's Secret (Coast of Maine Series) Product Description Under siege, her life and her heart... Sgt. Dawna Atkinson has worked hard for her South American embassy posting. She'd also taken the blame for a shared indiscretion with her instructor, Tay Hastings. But when her embassy is bombed, she comes under the microscope all the more. Worse still, her unit sends Tay to search for any mistakes she's making. Tay had tried to take the blame for that one night of passion, but when that failed, he quit his instructor's post. But circumstances force him not to reveal any of this. As the investigation heats up, and danger lurks around every crowded corner, Dawna and Tay find their relationship is also heating up. And with a killer who can create bombs, use a sniper rifle, and poison the embassy staff, they must set aside their hurt, and distrust, or risk many lives. What they can't set aside is their growing attraction. And that may just get them killed. 73,500 words Excerpt Chapter One The bomb exploded at precisely six-oh-four in the morning. Its blast rocked through Sergeant Dawna Atkinson's beat-up Fiat just as she entered the city's largest square. Ahead, despite the early hour, the block hummed with people, people who were not all running away from the old school which housed the embassy. No, a few were running toward the large building. Her grip tight on the steering wheel, Dawna shook her head. Those civilians were either incredibly foolish or incredibly brave. Or members of a drug cartel determined to undermine the strengthening democracy here in Bolivia. They'd already ruined the capital of La Paz for many foreign nationals and displaced ambassadors to other cities like Cochabamba. She gritted her teeth. Tramping her foot down on the accelerator, she darted into the early morning traffic, now thick with post-explosion chaos. Smoke spewed into the smoggy morning sky in a single, ugly belch, its source a black, burning mound in front of the doors that led into the embassy's enclosed courtyard. Snapping her attention back to her driving, Dawna steered the car into a narrow alley across the square from the embassy and jumped out. No time for her locking bar, normally a must in most South American cities. With any luck, someone would steal the old rust bucket and inherit all of its mechanical woes. She threaded through the noisy crowd, her long, quick strides carrying her over the numerous cracks in the sidewalk that sliced through the park-like square. Loud Spanish voices bounced around her as she hurried past the white monument of some long-dead dignitary on horseback. Already, the acrid smell of burning metal and ancient building materials penetrated the growing warmth of the early July morning. She pushed past an old native man, who coughed out something in Spanish. Charging through the rest of the square, she reached the area in front of the embassy. There, she stopped Miguel Ramos, one of the vigilantes, a security guard, just as he raced away from the small door that led to the courtyard, the one used for foot traffic only. He'd worked the night shift and must have been leaving when the blast occurred. Surely he would know something.