Death Song — Marc Olden

After a narrow escape, Bolt goes after the mobster who tried to blow him up

As far as the record industry is concerned, Matteo DiPalma is a manager, a producer, and the hit-maker behind some of the decade's biggest chart successes. To the federal government, he is a crucial link between drug-hungry musicians and the Rosetti crime family that keeps them supplied with heroin and cocaine. When federal agents nail DiPalma on a trafficking charge, John Bolt and six other cops go to California to escort him back east. The shotguns they carry aren't to keep DiPalma from running, but to protect him from a Rosetti hit. The agents don't count on death from above.

The mafia helicopter appears too quickly for the cops to react. Bolt is just outside the blast radius when the grenade hits the roof, vaporizing DiPalma and his guards. When the smoke clears, Bolt is bloodied but not broken -- and ready to even the score.