book story

Former United States Navy UDT "frogman" John Kelly, who recently lost his pregnant wife Patricia in a car accident, picks up a hitchhiker named Pam on his way to his home in Battery Island. They quickly become lovers, and over time Kelly finds out that Pamela Madden is a runaway who became a drug mule and prostitute; she had just escaped from her drug-dealer/pimp Henry Tucker. Kelly, along with the help of doctors Sam and Sarah Rosen, help her rehabilitate from barbiturates. Weeks after recovering, Kelly and Pam go to Baltimore for follow-up treatment, and pass through a neighborhood where her pimps work. One of them recognizes Pam and pursues them in a car chase. Kelly is gravely wounded by a shotgun blast, while Pam is recaptured and later tortured, gang-raped, and killed.
In Vietnam, a U.S. target drone recognizes Air Force colonel and F-105 pilot Robin Zacharias as a prisoner of war in a secret camp administered by the NVA. Since Zacharias possesses highly classified technical knowledge and has been declared killed in action, Admiral Dutch Maxwell arranges a secret rescue mission for him as well as other American POWs held in the camp. Unbeknownst to them, Soviet colonel Nikolay "Kolya" Grishanov has been interrogating the prisoners; he later lobbies his government to transport Zacharias and his fellow prisoners into the Soviet Union, citing their intelligence value. However, friction between the Soviets and the North Vietnamese is leading the latter to decide to kill the POWs.
Meanwhile, Kelly recovers from his wounds with the help of Dr. Sam Rosen and his head nurse, Sandy O'Toole. Vowing to exact revenge on the people responsible for Pam's death, he wages a private war on Tucker's drug ring, eliminating some of its players and saving some drug mules in the process. He recruits Rosen and O'Toole to help rehabilitate one of the rescued prostitutes named Doris. He later obtains more information on the drug ring from brutally torturing one of Pam's pimps, Billy, using a pressure chamber designed to simulate deep-water diving conditions; he is then left to die from severe decompression sickness.
Later, Kelly is approached by Maxwell to lead the rescue mission on Zacharias and other American POWs, since he knew the area from his days in the UDT and had previously gone behind enemy lines to rescue Maxwell's son. Kelly takes a break from his stateside mission of revenge and proceeds to Vietnam. Unfortunately, a KGB mole informs the Soviets of the rescue mission, which is disastrously compromised. However, Kelly captures Grishanov while escaping from the camp. The Soviet colonel is then used as leverage to negotiate the transfer of Zacharias and his fellow prisoners to Hanoi Hilton, where they will be confirmed as alive and eventually returned.
Upon returning from Vietnam, Kelly finds out that Doris and her father had been brutally murdered and continues his mission of revenge. He finds out that the Asian heroin processed by Tucker's drug ring was smuggled into the U.S. through inserting them into the corpses of dead American soldiers, and also deduces that a corrupt police officer is on Tucker's payroll. Meanwhile, the CIA try to recruit him following his actions in Vietnam, but due to Kelly's difficult position, they agree to help him escape his legal woes in return for the assassination of the mole who had burned the Vietnam operation. Kelly kills the supposed mole, who is an aide to the National Security Advisor, inadvertently leaving the real mole, a Senate aide and anti-war activist, in place. He then rushes to complete his vendetta, finally killing Tucker, his mafia associate and other cohorts. Corrupt police Lieutenant Mark Charon is incidentally murdered.
Emmet Ryan, the lead police investigator in the series of killings on drug dealers in Baltimore, has finally identified Kelly as the murderer. He confronts him on his boat, where Kelly confesses his crime. He bargains with the detective for one more hour of liberty before being arrested; Ryan agrees, but Kelly later fakes his death by blowing up his boat. He is then rescued by his CIA superiors, who then recruit him under his new identity as John Clark. He quietly resumes contact with O'Toole and marries her. Three years later, Zacharias and his fellow POWs are released after the end of the American involvement in the Vietnam War.

 Romance

With a famous NHL player for a stepbrother, Violet Hall is well acquainted with the playboy reputation of many a hockey star. So of course she isn't interested in legendary team captain Alex Waters or his pretty, beat-up face and rock-hard six-pack abs. But when Alex inadvertently obliterates Violet's misapprehension regarding the inferior intellect of hockey players, he becomes much more than just a hot body with the face to match. Suffering from a complete lapse in judgment, Violet discovers just how good Alex is with the hockey stick in his pants.

Violet believes her night of orgasmic magic with Alex is just that: one night. But Alex starts to call. And text. And email and send extravagant - and quirky - gifts. Suddenly he's too difficult to ignore and nearly impossible not to like. The problem is, the media portrays Alex as a total player, and Violet doesn't want to be part of the game.