Elizabeth Stride settled on South Carolina's Hilton Head Island in order to rebuild her life. In this sanctuary, she hopes to escape her past - the violence and the death that for years were her constant companions. Most of all, she wants to forget Martin Kessler, the dangerous hero of a now-lost cause - who will always own a piece of Elizabeth's soul. For Martin's love is a continuing reminder of what Elizabeth once was: the woman they called "Black Angel," a ruthless and efficient assassin.Her fury was born in a merciless Middle Eastern prison, where as an American she was detained for crimes she did not commit. She escaped with her life, and by the age of twenty-six, she was already worth $1 million dead. But Martin Kessler, himself hunted, touched her heart with unfamiliar tenderness. Now he has returned to bring Elizabeth's protective wall of anonymity crashing down.A teenage girl is about to be kidnapped from an exclusive island tennis club - a girl who unwittingly holds the key to a planned act of terrorism so horrific that an all-out war could be the only result. For Martin, a man who never learned how to lay low, curiosity will get the better of him. And for Elizabeth, whose sense of justice is equaled only by her hatred of those who would pervert it, a child's safety is inviolable - and worthy of the sacrifice of the new life she has so scrupulously constructed.By joining forces in the daring rescue of the girl, Elizabeth and Martin will be forced to put their fate in each other's hands one last time - and decide once and for all whether they must live together or apart. In doing so they will also be drawn again into a violent struggle - a secret war of fanaticism, greed and doomsday technology. Read Less