HIDDEN
IMPACT
by Piper J. Drake
An aloof bodyguard and mercenary puts his heart on
the line in HIDDEN IMPACT, the first book in the Safeguard series by Piper J.
Drake. Fans of Marie Force’s Fatal
series or Laura Kaye’s Hard As It Gets, will love this brand new romantic
suspense series.
Synopsis:
He’s not the hero she’s
looking for...
As part of the elite
Centurion Corporation team, military-veteran-turned-mercenary Gabriel Diaz is a
natural defender. He’ll do anything to ensure a mission is successful. Anything
but get emotionally invested—he learned the hard way that can be deadly. Easy
bodyguard jobs in between the more challenging missions are all he’s interested
in now.
Maylin Cheng is desperate and
running out of time. Her younger sister has gone missing but no one seems to
take her concern seriously. Her last hope lies in asking an aloof bodyguard for
help. He dismisses her outright, but all that changes when she is almost killed
in a not-so-accidental hit-and-run right before his eyes.
As Maylin leans on Gabriel,
she begins to rely on him for more than just her safety. But as their
attraction grows, so does the danger surrounding them. When the elaborate web they're
trapped in unravels, Gabriel will do anything to protect them. Even if that
means putting his heart in the crosshairs.
Book one of the Safeguard
series
Piper J. Drake (or “PJ”)
began her writing career as “PJ Schnyder” writing sci-fi
& paranormal romance and steampunk.
She has recently received the FF&P PRISM award for her work as well as the
NJRW Golden Leaf award and Parsec award.
Now, PJ is exploring the
complexity of romantic suspense, incorporating her interests in mixed martial
arts and the military into her writing.
Excerpt
It was the former, not the latter, that made him take a real
look at her.
Her eyes caught him first. Deep emerald green. Shocking,
actually, set in a delicate Asian face framed by a cascade of hair so black the
lighting caught blue highlights. Her features were naturally beautiful,
accented with a minimal amount of makeup. Very different from the majority of
the people in attendance, regardless of gender.
Color leached from her face as she must have realized she
had his full attention. But she didn’t back away or break eye contact. Good for
her. Lesser men had balked when Gabe had stared them down.
“My little sister is missing.” The edge was gone from her
words but the desperation was still there.
Anger washed away. Damn. “I’m sorry, miss. But the police
are the people to contact.”
Political targets, reporters and prisoners of war were the
kidnap victims private military might be contracted to locate and retrieve. The
kind of people held for ransom in places so far off the radar, even sunlight
might not find them. And those weren’t his team’s specialty.
The woman in front of him was a normal civilian. Willowy,
slender. The thought of a little sister conjured up images of some tiny
waiflike kid. He and his partners were heavy hitters, not the kind of people
you sent in to do anything but cause strategic destruction. They went into hot
spots overseas and did the things politicians didn’t admit to knowing about at
these glitzy events, things a US uniform wouldn’t be doing. Delicate,
gentle—the sort of handling a traumatized girl retrieved from a kidnapping
situation would need—was not their forte.
The older sister shook her head. “I’ve spoken to the police
and the US Embassy. No one will do anything, not yet. And by the time they
believe something’s actually wrong, I might never find her.”
Missing persons cases were tough. She was right about the
time crunch. There was only a short window before the abducted was more than
likely dead. Considering what could have already happened, death might not be
the worst thing either.
Definitely not going to add to what this woman was already
imagining. Hopefully she didn’t know what could
happen.
“You’d do better hiring a private investigator.” He drew his
eyebrows together, tried not to let the urge to squirm under her very direct
stare show. Damn. Give him vapid groupies and a clueless entourage and he had
no problem staring them down. This woman, it was like she could see straight
through him and know how much he didn’t want to cause a scene at this very
moment. There was nothing good he could do for her.
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