Explosive Combination — Kalyn Cooper

Separately, Harper Tambini and Rafe Silva are lethal…Together, they're explosive. ATF Special Agent Harper Tambini is kidnapped by a Colombian drug lord and forced to use her explosives knowledge to kill his competition before she can escape with the help of undercover CIA agent Rafe Silva. As they make their way through the rivers, mountains, and jungles, their desire for each other detonates. But Harper reminds Rafe of his murdered fiancée and the shadow world he wants to leave. Harper learned the hard way that men never stay, so now she doesn't keep them around long enough to see if the sparks can light a fire that will last forever. In their short time together, can they crystallize a relationship, or will it all blow up? Born in the U.S.A. to naturalized parents who escaped Colombia during the tumultuous years, Rafe Silva was raised with duty to country and family. He attended V.M.I. on a Navy ROTC scholarship where he met Beth who became his fiancée. Rafe and roommate Carlos Narváez, son of the Colombian Ambassador, endlessly discussed ways to free the South American country from its second-world status and feed the remote masses while legitimizing its agricultural exports. Rafe became a SEAL and Beth went into Naval Intelligence. When she's brutally killed as a spy, Rafe swears he'll never give his heart to a woman who works in the shadow world again. Still reeling from his loss, the CIA asks him to rejoin his college roommate in Colombia. Called Segundo as second-in-command to Carlos Narváez, Rafe has grown resentful that his once-idealistic friend has become a powerful drug cartel leader. When Carlos orders him to ambush a U.S. government team, Rafe realizes the man is willing to do anything to move up that ladder, including kidnapping and murder. Harper thought she'd be using her graduate education in chemical physics when she became an explosives expert for the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agency. Instead, it's the survival and weapons skills she honed as one of the Army's first female Special Forces officers she needs most. Minutes before Harper is to leave Colombia -- satisfied that no cartel has the capability to co-crystalize HMX and CL-20 into the most lethal, non-nuclear explosive on the planet -- her ATF team is ambushed and she is kidnapped by Carlos Narváez. To subdue her, Harper is injected with a cocaine-based drug. She's allergic and becomes extremely ill. Segundo takes care of her during the long trip and while she's ensconced in her velvet-prison bedroom. Segundo reveals himself to Harper as an undercover agent. He's been ordered to protect her until his old SEAL buddy arrives with an extraction team. Given the opportunity to escape, Rafe decides to leave the espionage game and Colombia. They agree to be pretend lovers to protect her from the other men. Sparks fly with their first kiss. Harper immediately puts Rafe on notice that she never takes a lover during a mission. It's too dangerous, especially since she's attracted to him. Narváez demands she co-crystallize the explosives and make a small bomb in demonstration. He orders her to assassinate Solis, a competitor. If she refuses, he'll kill her ATF teammate held captive in the U.S.A. and give her to the ruthless Cali Cartel. Narváez takes them to Cali to kill Solis. Just before leaving the hotel, Rafe and Harper share their first a real kiss and lighting fires deep within both. Her micro-explosive is successful, killing only Solis. Within hours, his men are after Harper. They escape Cali and head to Popayán via helicopter, stolen jet boat, then trekking through jungle before hitch hiking into the ancient city. Through heart-pounding shoot outs and steamy jungles, their relationship grows stronger each minute they're together. Is there enough time before the rescue for Rafe to prove that he'll be there for Harper and is she worth it for him to set aside his fears of falling in love with a woman who works in the shadow world?