Cover Reveal: Capturing Gabriel

Finally! After months of unavoidable delay, Capturing Gabriel (Romancing the Guardians, Book Three) will be released on December 29, 2015. As with the first two books in this series, the cover was designed by Kim Killion of the Killion Group, Inc. And here it is!

Blurb:

Chopper pilot Josie Tseda has vowed to find Gabriel Valdez, a Guardian of Danu, and bring him to meet with the other Guardians. Locating him in the mountains of Colombia and convincing him to fly back to the U.S. with her proves a challenge. As their mutual attraction heats up, will her mission stand between them?

Waging a battle against drug traffickers in his country, Gabriel also seeks revenge upon a man he hates. He’s not looking for romance and doesn’t trust the feisty American female who invades his life. The urgent message she brings, supposedly from the High Guardian, may be a lie intended to ensnare him. Yet, he can’t help wanting her. Will he allow her to capture his heart or will the secret power he wields ultimately drive her away?

Excerpt:

Hours or maybe only minutes later, a hand roughly shook her shoulder, waking her. Then the hand groped her breast. She gasped and her eyes flew open. Above her in the darkness loomed a man’s crouched figure. Without having to think, she drove the heel of her left hand into his solar plexus and chopped him in the throat with the edge of her right hand, moves she’d learned in the Army. She rolled out of the way as he gagged and toppled sideways.

Not giving the intruder time to recover, Josie pulled her combat knife from her boot and scrambled from the open tent. She shot to her feet, glanced around and froze. A semicircle of men surrounded the campfire, facing her. Berto stood with his back turned, talking to a tall man with lean features, dressed in camouflage pants and shirt – like several of the others – and a floppy-brimmed camo hat.

Berto pivoted toward her. Surprise widened his eyes when he spotted the deadly knife in her hand. “Señorita!”

“Who are these men, Berto?” she demanded. Her gaze traveled over the motley bunch, returning to the tall man. He stood out from the rest, not only in height but with an indefinable air of authority. He was also handsome as sin.

“Señorita, I –” her guide began.

A growl of rage behind Josie alerted her. She whirled just as the man she’d temporarily put out of action burst from the tent and launched himself at her. She had no time to react. He knocked her flat, jolting her when she hit the hard ground. Landing on top of her, he knocked the wind out of her.

Somehow, she hung onto her knife. Although barely able to breathe, she jabbed the blade at the flabby underbelly of his bearded chin. The point pricked his skin, producing a thin trickle of blood that ran down his throat. He went still and watched her with fury in his black gaze.

“Get off me,” she panted, struggling for air.

He snarled between clenched teeth but didn’t move. His fetid breath made her want to gag. Then a low voice barked the same order in Spanish. The oaf on top of her shot a rebellious glance at whoever had spoken. With a hate-filled glare, he growled a refusal, twisted his head away and made a grab for her knife arm. She jerked it aside just in time.

Suddenly, another man crouched beside her. Thinking he meant to help subdue her, she whipped her blade across his chest and heard him gasp as it tore through his shirt, into his flesh. With lightning reflexes, he gripped her wrist and squeezed painfully, wrenching a sharp cry from her lips as the knife dropped from her paralyzed hand.

Staring at the man’s lean features and light, angrily slitted eyes, she recognized him as the one Berto had been speaking to when she burst from her tent. She expected him to strike back at her for wounding him but instead, he shoved the other man off her, issuing a harsh reprimand in the same low, resonant voice her attacker had refused to obey moments before. She realized he must lead this band of thieves or rebels, or whatever they were.