War doesn’t forge heroes. It reveals them.

Three harrowing weeks.

When you watch the door close behind your favorite person as they walk away from you, you will never be the same person again. Your life as you know it has changed forever. It’s one of the biggest challenges of your entire life. Colt McKinley knows that now. The pain of Siobhán Tierney leaving brought him to his knees. It was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. There was no bullet or blade that cut as deep. This pain showed him no mercy as a rip splintered down the center of his heart, shattering the hopes and dreams he’d allowed to take root. It burned the vines of what could have been their future and bulldozed the very foundation of who he was.

Two lost souls.

Siobhán Tierney needed freedom, and he gave it to her, no matter the cost to himself. She was protecting her heart. He understood it. He’d encouraged it. But when she’d taken him at his word and left…he realized he’d been wrong. So wrong. To survive, Colt hardened his heart once more. Slowly, brick by brick, log by log, the wall he’d demolished to allow Siobhán in was rebuilt. This time, he reinforced the walls with a determination to never allow anyone to get close enough to break him again.

A love to last a lifetime.

Fifteen years later, time and distance have dulled the pain, but a phone call from her father sends his world spinning off its axis. Siobhan is missing, and the only one with the skills and resources to find her is Colt.

He fears nothing…until he must smuggle her out of Pakistan.

NOTE: Grammar Wizards Beware!! Siobhan Tierney is Irish, and therefore, there are instances of Hiberno English in this story where grammar rules different from those in US and UK English apply. If it drives you nuts, I’m sorry. It’s how we speak, and the story called for it.