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Does his offer of friendship host a hidden motive?
Religion
is an important part of Nita Johnson’s life. Whenever confronted with a
difficult or unsure situation, she seeks God’s direction and guidance.
When Nita finds herself attracted to the agent training her, she
questions if he is the one for her...after all, not only is he known as
“The Resident Torturer” by his trainees, but his relationship with God
isn’t on friendly terms.
A
traumatic event forced Agent Craig Sawyer to give up on God. Having
experienced the deep sting of loss, he vows never to develop a close
bond with anybody ever again. He battles his desire to pursue a
relationship with Nita, but loses the fight. When her life is in danger,
will he turn back to God?
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EXCERPT
Copyright 2015 Alice Wootson
Monday
morning, Craig stood facing the line of trainees. “I know you’ve all
had some training in self-defense. If not before, at least when Officer
Young taught you earlier. Let’s see if we can add a little something to
what you already know.”
As Craig walked down the line, he pinned each with a stare before he moved to the next.
“Wonder
what nightmare he cooked up for us over the weekend,” Tammy, at the end
of the line, murmured to Nita. Nita opened her mouth to respond, but
never got a word out.
“Johnson,” Craig barked. “Front and center. You got time to talk. Let’s see what you got.”
Nita
stepped forward. She didn’t bother to hope that another Johnson had
entered the program over the weekend. Neither did she point out that she wasn’t
the one talking. Instead, she took a deep breath and then stepped
forward to meet her fate. The worse that could happen was that he’d kill
her and put her out of her misery. She wasn’t sure that would be so
bad. She tilted her head slightly to the side and met his glare with one
of her own.
Craig stood in place and held her stare for a second, then frowned. “Maybe I should use somebody else?”
How am I supposed to respond to that? Nita continued to look at Craig. Is
that a trick question? Is this a test of some kind? Is he playing mind
games with me? I wonder would happen if I say, ‘Yeah, pick some other
victim.’ Probably the other person would kill me if he or she were still
alive after he finished with them. Instead of answering, Nita stood and waited.
“I’ll
take your lack of response to mean that you’re all right with this.”
Craig frowned at her a few seconds longer then moved his gaze to cover
the rest of the class standing behind Nita. “Okay. Most of the
undocumented people you’ll encounter, if you complete your training and
get the chance to get into the field, will be untrained, only poor folks
trying to find a better life in the land of opportunity.” He paced
slowly in front of the group, but his stare kept swinging back to Nita
every few seconds. “It’s the others we have to watch out for, the
smaller percentage trying to gain entry for other purposes. That’s where
the danger is. It’s gotten worse lately. Those intruders have more
experience than the others.”
As
Craig moved, Nita listened to his words but concentrated on his
movements. Her gaze never left him. Whenever she saw him tense, her body
automatically did the same less than a second later, but she never
moved from her spot.
Craig
kept talking, and Nita kept her attention split between what he was
saying and what he was doing. She had honed that skill as she worked
with the Conroe police SWAT team.Come on, SWAT training, she pleaded. Don’t fail me now.
Each time Craig passed her, Nita shifted her weight to accommodate his new position, but her feet stayed in place.
As
he walked, Craig continued his lecture. “The drug smugglers are a mixed
group. Some are mules, people recruited to act as go-betweens, carrying
the product from suppliers south of the border to the pushers here in
the states. They have no long-term ties to the drug trade. If they
succeed, they get paid a lot of money. If they don’t…” Craig shrugged.
“If we capture them, and if they don’t die from a drug overdose because
balloons full of poison burst in their stomachs, the amount we catch
them with is small compared with what we think gets through, carried by
those we fail to apprehend. Few, if any, of those have any self-defense
training.” He stopped walking and his glare hardened.
I wouldn’t want to be one of the ones caught by Officer Sawyer while I was doing something illegal, Nita thought. That glare is almost enough to make the person on the receiving end of it drop dead from fright. She cleared her mind and listened as Craig continued.
“Most
mules are inexperienced. Many are users trying to pay off a debt or
trying to score a stash. We’ve apprehended college students on the way
home from vacation who figured to make some easy cash and add a little
excitement to their lives.”
Craig walked slowly to the far end of the room, paused, then turned and walked back toward the center.
Nita’s
stare followed him as he got closer. Her body tensed. She hoped she was
ready for what he had in mind whenever he decided to make his move.
Craig
continued. “Even within the drug-runners, we have two groups. The
second faction is made of those you might need this training for. They
come to establish a foothold in a drug territory. These runners don’t
carry much, but they’re deadly, because this trip is their chance to
move up in the organization. Think salesmen. They’re trying to carve out
a place for themselves, and will use any means necessary. They don’t
care if the territory is in control of another gang. Many of these
newcomers come from Central and South America. Mexico is the last leg of
their trip before we encounter them.” Craig’s tightened his jaw. “Their
street savvy and training can rival ours, only theirs has more of an
edge to it. They don’t mind risking their lives, and they have to be
good to survive to reach that point, to make it that high up in the
organization. To them this is war. Often they’ve killed in Mexico—police
and Mexican Border Patrol Officers have been some of their victims. Too
many times, innocent civilians have been caught in the crossfire. Our
neighboring city across the border from Laredo, Nuevo Laredo, is a
battleground in the streets almost every night between the authorities
and the illegal drug organization. Fortunately, the good guys usually
win the battle but not always. Unfortunately for us, we can’t tell them
apart from the…” He lunged at Nita.
She
controlled her gasp at his speed and sidestepped him at the last
second. Instead of being off-balance as Nita expected him to be, Craig
spun around and came back at her immediately.
She tried to block out the scattered gasps and murmurs from the other trainees. It was just her and Craig.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice
Greenhowe Wootson grew up in Rankin, a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. She
earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education and a
Masters’ Degree in Education from Cheyney University. She earned a
Reading Specialist Certification and Principal Certification as well.
Alice
Wootson is an award-winning author of eleven novels and an award-winning
poet who is a member of The Philadelphia Writers Conference, Romance
Writers of America, The Authors Guild and the Mad Poets Society.
She
spent several winters in Brownsville, Texas and was fascinated at how
close it is to the Mexican border and how easy it is to travel back and
forth. She decided to use the area as a setting for a novel. ‘Border
Love’ her eleventh novel, is the result. ‘Border Danger’ followed.
Alice
is very active. She walks for exercise every day and says it helps her
collect her thoughts. She presents writing workshops, meets with book
clubs and group of readers and is a member of several ministries at her
church: Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia. She loves to
travel and usually spends the winter in Florida where she is involved in
a local church ministry.
When Alice Wootson is not writing her next novel or spending time with family, she’s caught up in reading.
Sounds good. I'll put it on my TBR list.
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