LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
Author: M.L. Buchman
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Trisha O’Malley rebelled against her affluent family by joining the U.S. Army’s secret helicopter regiment, the 160th SOAR. Now a Chief Warrant Officer, she found her toughest fight yet in the pilot’s seat of an MH-6M attack helicopter.
William Wallace Bruce is an undercover CIA agent who doesn’t trust the military. But when the Horn of Africa is threatened by Somali pirates, Trisha flies out to recover ships and hostages…including one very ungrateful Will. Everything about Trisha triggers his mistrust: her elusive past, her wild energy, and her proclivity for flying past safety’s edge. Even as the heat between them turns into passion’s fire, Bill and Trisha must team up to confront their pasts and survive Somalia’s pirate lords.
Guest Post
LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
SEAL Undercover by M.L. Buchman
Six-foot-two, eyes of blue, and built like a linebacker. Sure, that’s the perfect choice of the man to go undercover in Somalia to rescue hostages taken by pirates. Isn’t it?
Navy SEAL Lieutenant William Bruce, the hero of Light Up the Night, thinks so. In fact, like the good soldier he is, he fought for the assignment. Of course, he and Somalia have a history, which might be a good thing, but he’s thinking not. His father died in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu and his young son swore vengeance on a nation. He isn’t stupid enough to take on the entire country, but he is certainly going to take the job. As a SEAL, he is also committed to whatever it takes to protect Americans and American interests. If that means walking into darkest Africa and consorting with pirates, then he’s the man to do it.
His cover is deceiving in its simplicity. A disaffected mercenary, a seasoned fighter, looking for a quick pirate dollar. But…
That was one of the problems of running undercover. You started to believe that you belonged. Even though that psych condition was trained for, it was difficult to avoid.
And Bill believes hard. Right until he runs into someone who believes just as deeply.
Lieutenant Trisha O’Malley of the U.S. Army’s 160th SOAR helicopter regiment is part of an extract team. She’s there to help recover a group of hostages that Billy the SEAL, as she calls him, has done the recon on and is ready to deliver.
Bill would blend back in and continue the mission. Trisha, from her vantage point on high sees that’s not such a good idea.
“Get out of here! You’re screwing me over!”
“There are two technicals coming in from the south and west,” the pilot shouted as she kept the blades at near takeoff, the chopper actually bouncing its skids on the soil.
Okay, he had to admit that didn’t sound good. He jumped onto one of the skids and found a place to hold on.
Trisha cursed the man for eight kinds of an idiot. Now she was out of balance with his additional weight on the right side and barely off the ground as three technicals armed to the teeth roared into the square.
She’d already fired a thousand-odd rounds and a pair of rockets that would make up for a third of his weight. And she’d burned about ten gallons of fuel since the start of the mission at six-plus pounds a piece, which bought her another third. Even with that, he made her overweight and it was a major struggle to compensate. Time to dump some more ammo, which was fine with her.
“Open fire, guns only!” she called to Roland and stamped on the left foot-pedal, which would press Mr. Jerk against the chopper rather than flinging him off. He’d still better hang on.
Two feet off the ground, the chopper spun beneath the rotor like a child’s wooden spinning top. Roland unleashed both M134 mini-guns as they rotated about their central axis. A line of fire three feet above the ground arced outward like a buzz saw. It sliced through everything in its sweeping path.
It chewed up the front walls of houses, hammering a line of holes through each burlap door. She really hoped that if there was anyone home, they were lying down on the ground, as any sensible person would be during a firefight. Anyone standing up was about to be shot.
It also dragged a line of fire across the front of each technical. It shredded radiators, engines, front windshields.
By the second rotation of the Little Bird, people were bailing off the truck beds.
On the third rotation, the two lead technicals exploded in balls of fire and she decided it was high time to be somewhere else, preferably before her engine scooped up chunks of truck shrapnel.
M. L. Buchman has over 25 novels in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and Booklist “Top 10 of the Year.” In addition to romance, he also writes contemporaries, thrillers, and fantasy and science fiction.
In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world.
He is now a full-time writer, living on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife. He is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing at www.mlbuchman.com.
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