Release Day for HARD TARGET

February 1st:

It’s the official release day for HARD TARGET. Here’s an excerpt:

Emily Baker pulled her legs into her chest and hugged her knees. Waves of fear and anger rolled through her.

A hammer pounded the inside of her head, a residual effect from the beatings. Her busted bottom lip was dry and cracked from dehydration.

“Move,” one of the men commanded, forcing her to her feet.

A crack across her back nearly caused her to fall again.

The whole experience in the past few days had been surreal. One minute she’d been kayaking in a tropical paradise, enjoying all the rich sounds of the dense forest. The next she was being dragged through the jungle by guerrillas. She’d been blindfolded for what had to be hours, although she’d completely lost track of time, and had been led through pure hell.

Vegetation thickened the longer she walked. Thorns pierced her feet. The sun blistered her skin. Ant bites covered her ankles.

A man they called Dueño had ordered the men to change her appearance. They’d chopped her hair and poured something on it that smelled like bleach. She assumed they did it to ensure she no longer matched the description of the woman the resort would report as missing. Oh, God, the word missing roiled her stomach.