Title: Into the Crossfire
Author: Cindy McDonald
Series: First Force #1
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Military Romance, Black Ops
Release Date: August 4, 2015
Cover Design: Dawne Dominique
Summary:It had been four years since ex-Navy SEAL, Jack Haliday, had an explosive run-in with a biker gang wounding their leader, Gunner. During those years Jack had acquired everything he ever wanted: a beautiful wife, an adorable daughter, and a lovely home in the suburbs—everything was as perfect as it could get, until Gunner returned to twist Jack’s world inside-out with a vengeance that he could never have prepared for. Critically injured, he found himself surrounded in the security of First Force International and in the care of their head medic, Dr. Rayne Lee, a beautiful and compassionate woman who knows firsthand the sharp slice of loss and grief.
Now Jack has a score to settle and he’s got some new friends to help him, but in the end, can Rayne help to ease his grief and encourage him to start a new life with team First Force?
Closing her eyes, Rayne took in a braced breath. “My name is Rayne. And I know all about the nightmares where the ones that you love are murdered in front of your eyes and you are powerless to stop it.” Her voice fell away.
Jack’s head snapped toward her.
She busied herself cleaning up the implements that she had used to suture him while she spoke. “My husband and I were on a medical mission in Peru three years ago. The Peruvian government had taken down a guerrilla group known as the Glory Road near the Amazonian Valley. They had killed or arrested approximately one-hundred members of the group. Matt and I were part of a small medical unit that went in to care for the women that had been held as sex slaves. They were in terrible condition, dehydrated, starved, and beaten. Anyway, Matt, me, and my four-year-old daughter, Sierra, were housed in one of the tiny shacks in a camp. One night, the camp was attacked by the guerrillas they hadn’t captured. It was a slaughter.” Rayne’s voice hiccupped. She needed to catch her breath. She sank onto the edge of the bed.
Jack watched her intently while she fought to muster composure.
Finally, she continued, “They killed my husband and my daughter, but for some reason they spared me and several of the women who had been rescued. I wished that they hadn’t. I was their prisoner for seven horrible months. I prayed for death every night. Uncle Walt and his team rescued me. It’s been a long road back to becoming a functioning human being.” Hesitating, she wrung her hands together. She found the courage to look him in the eye. “So you see, Jack, I have a complete understanding of what you’re going through.”
Dr. Rayne Lee: Four years ago, Dr. Rayne Lee lost her husband and daughter, Sierra, to a group of hostile guerrillas in Peru. It has taken great constitution to rebuild her life and to join her uncle’s international security firm, First Force, as the head medic. Now, just as she thought that her life was getting back to some semblance of “normal” a handsome man and his adorable daughter are brought into her care. Her motherly instincts kick in immediately as she take little Lil Haliday under her caring wing, but what is it about Jack Haliday that’s getting under her skin, and can she help him to get passed the grief and start a new life with First Force?
Lil Haliday: Lil is a curly-top cutie with a personality that draws everyone to love her instantly. Just a little tyke and at the age of four, her bravery in the face of a horrible tragedy is an inspiration to the men who make up the covert team of First Force. Like her father, Jack, and Dr. Rayne Lee, Lil is a regular character in the First Force Series—she’ll be there to entertain you and the other characters throughout the series.
When you were growing up did you have parents that encouraged you to “reach for the stars?” Perhaps your mom told you: “You can be anything that you want to be.” This was not necessarily the case for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong I had great parents—they were just extremely realistic. Their advice consisted of: “Do well in school, get a job, get married, have children, and the rest will work itself out.” And if you break-down that advice, it was really quite solid—except it was never enough for yours truly.
When I was a young girl, I dreamed of becoming a famous movie star. Okay, now there’s a dream that definitely falls in the unrealistic category, but a girl can dream, right? I am a firm believer that the Lord provides us exactly what we need. The good Lord provided me with a generous portion of talent in dance and I studied hard at many schools including, The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and with The Pittsburgh Dance Alloy at Carnegie Mellon to name a few. I wasn’t able to go to New York or Hollywood to chase my dreams—my parents wouldn’t hear of it, so I got a job and got married. I also kept dancing, and in 1985 my husband encouraged me to open a dance school. Well it wasn’t the original dream, but hey as I said the good Lord gives us what we need and here was an opportunity to have a career in dance, hopefully a successful career.
My dance school was most successful. I began choreographing musicals on a local level and I choreographed an opera for the Pittsburgh Savoyards as well. I made my own schedule: four months off for summer, five days for Thanksgiving, and three weeks at Christmas. Not bad. My school was well known in the tri-state area and we faired quite well in competitions.
When 2005 rolled around I turned my focus to writing. Don’t ask me why, but I started writing TV scripts. The Unbridled Series started out as a television drama and the Hollywood readers loved the show. I’d love to tell you that I was a huge success, but it just didn’t happen—we couldn’t sell the show to the producers. That’s right, the original dream for The Unbridled Series was for the television screen, and I’ve had reviewers mention that it would make a great TV show—yep, that’s what I thought, too. Anyway, when yet another producer turned the show down, one of the script readers suggested that I turn my scripts into a book series, and so I did. I had to adjust the dream.
Am I disappointed? Discouraged? No way! Sometimes the dream that we are blessed with is not exactly the dream that we had in mind, but we have to be flexible enough to make the dream work—reach for a different star.
So here I am: a movie star that became a dancer, er… a dance teacher, and a television writer that became an author—an author of two book series: The Unbridled Series and The First Force Series, again, not bad. Yep, the dreams have changed over time and that’s okay—I’m making it work, or maybe I’m working with it, but ya know what? I’m having a great time!
For twenty-six years Cindy’s life whirled around a song and a dance. She was a professional dancer/choreographer for most of her adult life and never gave much thought to a writing career until 2005. She often notes: Don’t ask me what happened, but suddenly I felt drawn to my computer to write about things that I have experienced with my husband’s Thoroughbreds and happenings at the racetrack—she muses: they are greatly exaggerated upon of course—I’ve never been murdered. Viola! Cindy’s first book series, Unbridled, was born. Currently there are five books in the series.
Cindy is a huge fan of romantic suspense series’, especially with a military ops theme. Although she isn’t one to make New Year’s resolutions, on New Year’s Day 2013 she made a commitment to write one. Most recently, Secret Cravings Publishing has picked up her First Force Series. Currently available: Into the Crossfire, coming very soon: Book #2, To the Breaking Pointe, Book #3 Into the Dark, and 2016 will bring Book #4 To the Brink.
People are always asking Cindy: Do you miss dance? With a bitter sweet smile on her lips she tells them: Sometimes I do. I miss my students. I miss choreographing musicals, but I love writing my books, and I love sharing them with my readers.
Cindy resides on her forty-five acre horse farm with her husband, Bill, and her Cocker Spaniel, Allister, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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