"...A policeman stuck his head in the door.

"Would you mind telling the captain I'm almost ready? I asked. "Give me three or four more minutes."

He nodded and disappeared down the front stairs. I tiptoed down the hall to the back stairs and out the back door. The flashing lights and neighbors in various states of hastily dressed attire were all in front, staring at my shattered porch and broken windows."

A suspenseful romance thriller.

He thought it was just a call from an old friend. It turned out to be a nine-digit secret worth someone killing for?

Dr. Greg McGregor, a geotechnical engineer from St. Paul, has built a quiet, conservative life around bedrock and blueprints—not bullets and bombings, but when Charley Farnsworth, his friend, mentor, and major shareholder in TINMAN, a powerful international heavy equipment corporation, asks him to meet him in L.A. about a nine-digit secret he can’t discuss over the phone, Greg agrees.

The next morning, Greg’s house is blown up. Hours later, he watches helplessly as Charley is murdered in cold blood. Now the killers are looking for Greg.

On the run, Greg flees to Charley’s Aspen condo, where he encounters Corky Gonzales, an intelligent, quick-witted, feisty former professional skier, who is used to surviving on her own terms and doesn’t scare easily.

As Greg and Corky chase answers, they’re forced to confront more than just a killer. Their own past wounds and clashing beliefs collide. Corky is an unwavering environmentalist. Greg is a committed advocate for industrial expansion. Opposites in every way, yet they are drawn to each other with a chemistry neither can ignore. Can their fragile, unexpected romance survive not only bullets, betrayal, and several near-death experiences but also their opposing worldviews?

Who killed Charley? Someone inside TINMAN? A South American drug cartel?
The volatile environmentalists fighting the proposed billion-dollar Susitna hydroelectric dam in Alaska? Or someone else related to whatever multi-million-dollar secret Charley
had discovered?