Photojournalist Brigid Wheeler just happened to be on assignment in Iraq with Air Force pilot Captain Joe “Face” Greco when Green Beret Cooper Scott and his squad are ambushed and slaughtered by the enemy. As Brigid heard the battle and saw the squad overrun from the plane, she lost her boyfriend and Joe lost his best friend. Joe tried but couldn’t reach the squad in time to save them.
Two years later, photographer Brigid lives and works near best friend Joe’s base assignment. The pair start to navigate awkward and choppy waters taking them past Cooper as their core and advance to their own budding emotional and sexual attraction. Brigid’s invited to photograph a goodwill mission with Joe’s team assigned to covert recon sortie to plug the leak that killed Cooper and his team.
Lena Banuelos, mistress to Alessandro, Cartina’s powerful but unstable drug kingpin wants out of the world she’s fumbled into but can’t trust anyone to help her until she catches the eye of Alessandro’s newly promoted and irreverent employee. Alessandro plans to use the fanfare of the goodwill mission to rain misery and death on the US but is unsure if Lena has betrayed him with his new sales director.
In-country Brigid and Joe haltingly find new ground while Lena and Alessandro’s sales director, Mr. Cooper are pushed together. The mysterious Mr. Cooper is a CIA agent on assignment to infiltrate Alessandro’s inner circle. Diplomacy and covert are out as perilous danger takes center stage for both newly formed couples with traitors and betrayals nestled within layers of despicable characters.
The action, suspense and romance elements aged better than the time marking cutting edge technology and topical quips in this responsibility to romance read. For this reader’s taste the storyline had obvious moments making it good not great. Leads, Joe and Brigid were serviceable but needed more chemistry. Overall a fairly good read with an innocence today’s sophisticated reader might not buy.
Rating:3.75stars
