Smithson Group

He holds the safety of a whole lot of women in his hands. Eli McKenzie's tough exterior has been cracked. His latest mission had him in Mexico, deep inside a Spectra IT sex slavery ring gathering intel. Holding back when he wanted to blow the joint sky-high was bad enough but turns out someone in the camp was poisoning him, too. The torture of being unable to act, along with the physical toll of his illness, sent him to Hank Smithson's headquarters to put himself back together. Eli's sudden departure caused trouble for a Texas PI, Stella Banks, whose movements put her on Spectra's radar. Now Eli's back in camp, just as Spectra's henchmen are debating how best to do away with her. The only way to save her life is to get her to trust that he's there to help. That means revealing his true identity. And Stella needs to trust him because, without him, she has no way of freeing the girls Spectra is holding hostage. Watching Stella sacrifice to take care of the girls gets to Eli in a big way, and soon they find that spending time in each other's arms is the only way to survive the brutal assignment. But survive they must if they expect to save the innocent young lives in their care. Besides, Eli is not about to let Spectra get away with what they've done to him, to the girls, or to the woman who's salvaged his very broken heart.

He had no idea what it meant to be a hero. Stopping at a roadside diner usually means bad chili, not a hostage situation. But Smithson Group operative Harry van Zandt finds himself in the middle of just that when armed men burst through the door. They're after the woman in the nearby booth, and their message is clear: She's got seventy-two hours to come up with a valuable document or her brother dies. Harry, too, if he doesn't see that she delivers. Harry's on his own mission involving the same document, so he doesn't mind helping treasure hunter Georgia McLain. She's smart, tough, sexy... and she's desperate. Georgia's not turning over the document to anyone. It's her only hope for clearing her father's name. With Harry's help, however, she can double-cross the thugs. On the road with a price on their heads, the two find themselves caught in a web of secrets, lies, and desire, with no time to catch their breath.