Special Forces Lieutenant Brian “Dallas” Star sets out to protect the Colonel’s daughter from an Iranian drug lord:
Excerpt - “Look,” waiving her arm in the air, “I’m a big girl I can take care of myself. I don’t know what my father told you but I don’t need you stalking me.”
“I promised your dad I would keep you safe and I’m not going to break that promise.”
“I promised your dad I would keep you safe and I’m not going to break that promise.”
Dallas discovers that Abigail is every bit the beauty her father described and more:
Excerpt - “Good morning.” She shielded her eyes from the glare of the late morning sun. “I thought I’d come out here and thank you. I was really freaked out last night.”
He is torn between embracing his desire for the Coronel’s daughter and ignoring his own feelings to follow protocol:
Excerpt - “Your father told me you have access to the codes.” Dallas said.
“What codes?”
“What codes?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know about any codes.”
While in captivity, Col. Johnston tells the soldiers to protect his daughter Abigail because she is the key to retrieving top secret military codes that could launch an entire nuclear arsenal. Captain Javier Santos warns his partner:
Excerpt - “Are you insane? The fact that you like this girl is wrong on so many levels. Not to mention the fact that her father was your Commanding Officer who happens to be hostage to a terrorist right now. He entrusted his daughter to you. How do you think he’s going to take this? He sends you out to protect her life and you take advantage of it.”
Abby notices a change:
Excerpt - “Are you purposely ignoring me?” Abby tucked strands of hair behind her ear.
Dallas folded his arms in silence then drew a breath.
“Why won’t you look at me?” She squinted.
“Listen, I’ve been asked to lead an important mission. I promised you I would help get your father back and I intend to keep that promise. I’m focusing on that right now. What else do you want from me?”
“What’s the matter with you? It’s like you’re a different person.”
“Quit imagining things, alright? You heard the General…now go on back to the guest house.” He pointed.
“You’re being a jerk.”
“I’m risking my life for your father,” he flung both arms in the air bringing his hands to his chest, “And I’m being a jerk?”
“Yes!”
“Do you have any idea how I am supposed to face Colonel Johnston? Am I just gonna go in there, kill the insurgents…then grab your father…and tell him…hello Colonel, I’m here to rescue you and by the way I’m in love with your daughter!”
Dallas, a Special Forces Sniper and his partner Captain Javier “Javi” Santos are best friends:
Excerpt - “Sniper at your ten o’clock, Captain.” Dallas scraped his back against the mud wall.
“Dallas, go east around the building. I’ll draw him out. We’ll flank him.”
“Yes sir.” His finger steady on the trigger, Dallas trotted around the building scrutinizing every aperture with his marksman rifle.
Shooting several rounds with his barrel above the trunk of the parked car, Javi’s voice flickered over the radio. “Dallas, do you see him?”
“Yes, I spotted the nest. Draw him back out, draw him back out.” Dallas pressed one eye to his night vision scope. With expert marksmanship and controlled breathing, he calculated the trajectory of his bullet. After squeezing the trigger, he watched his target plummet. He exhaled, “Got him,” in a celebratory whisper. Immediately putting a hand to the radio headset he announced, “All clear Captain.”
Excerpt - Dallas picked up his cell phone. “Yo Javi…I’m at the Southside entrance.” He paused. “Yes, I’m driving my pickup truck. I’m used to handling pickup trucks, alright. This is a muscle truck. It can ride just as fast.”
Abby gave him a puzzled look while she listened.
“Quit arguing, then.” He shook his head. “Well, you can drive whatever you wanna drive when it’s your turn to choose. I know…I know…you would never choose a pickup truck.” He hung his head, “They aint just good to help people move…well I’ll tell you this, don’t ever ask me to help you move, ‘cuz when people gotta move, the owner of a pickup truck is all of a sudden their best friend.” Dallas hung up and looked at Abby.
She lifted an eyebrow, “Are you guys always like this?”
Excerpt - “I guess this is what the locals call dune bashing? You should-a let me drive.” Javi strapped on his seatbelt.
“Piece-of cake, I used to go off-road mudding back home all the time.”
Maurice sped down the sand dune and back up another. Dallas and Javi followed. Thunder-like rumbles from the exhaust of both jeeps pierced the desert air.
“I hate roller coasters.” Javi grabbed the dash.
“Yeah, well I hate snakes. That didn’t stop you from using them as your weapon of choice.”
Excerpt - Glassy eyed, Dallas stared at the explosion. In the midst of battle, for a calculated second, he mourned his friends. His deep blue eyes mirrored the ball of fire. He shook his head then flicked on his night vision, and followed the smoke trail. “The shooter’s inside that building.”
Excerpt of Dallas on the radio - “Captain, the Intel is wrong, I repeat, the Intel is wrong. There’s approximately thirty five, over.” Bits of transmissions echoed from Javi’s radio headset that lay on the sandy ground.
His devotion to her will take him around the world:
Excerpt - Dallas walked outside and looked up to once again view a cloudless sky. He pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead. He pictured Abby and gave an agonizing moan. I would gladly trade physical pain over this heartache, he thought.
He tried to redirect his focus to simpler things. He touched the sand in his pockets, felt the grit in his teeth, and rubbed the top of his head feeling the sand. He sensed the sand in his ears. While putting on his sunglasses he envisioned Abby and his nostrils flared as he slowly exhaled.
Excerpt - His soul wanted to posses her and in this way he could make love to her every night while he was miles away.
Excerpt – He looked at her standing, dripping wet and it was an image he wanted to take with him.
Excerpt - He stared taking mental pictures for those blistering desert days and cold wretched nights, while shooting at the enemy and while being shot at, these images of her would remain vividly in his mind.
Excerpt advice to Abby from a friend - “I spent many sleepless nights, many lonely nights, worrying and I’m sure your mother did the same. But the biggest mistake I ever made was to try to forget him. I tried but he never left my heart. And so I had to provide stability for my daughter and that’s the sacrifice, the burden military wives bear. They should receive medals and one medal I would design would be that of a pierced heart.”
Excerpt - Storm-filled skies cast a shadow over the small burial ceremony in Austin, Texas. She wiped her grieving face with a handkerchief. He stood in uniform at attention facing the pallbearers as they lifted the burial flag waist high. The bugler concluded Taps and they meticulously folded the flag into a triangle.
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