And...I'm soooo excited, because Critical Condition, the third book in my Undercover Cops series, releases today!
I have been waiting forever to tell Zach's story. He was the sidekick of the hero in my first book, and quickly took over my heart.
What I figured out by the end of that first book, but only hinted at to my readers was that Zach was a widower.
Here's the exchange in the final chapter of Deep Cover where Zach tries to talk some sense into his thick-headed partner:
“Listen to me, because I’m only going to say this once. A love like Ginny’s comes around once in a lifetime, and you’d better cling to it with everything you’ve got, because one day you’re going to wake up and realize God wanted to give you so much more than you were willing to let Him. And you threw it away.”
“It’s easy to dispense advice when it’s somebody else’s life on the line,” Rick snapped. “Have you ever even had a serious relationship?”
Zach sucked in a breath, as if he’d been punched in the gut. As if maybe he knew what he was talking about … from experience.
I love wounded heroes, the kind who resist love, not because they've been burned by it, but because they've experienced love in all its sweetness, endured its loss, and can't imagine being twice blessed.
I love them because they recognize that love is a gift to be cherished. And because they've proven that they're in for the long haul no matter what.
In the opening of Critical Condition, Zach finds himself working undercover as an IT consultant in the last place he wants to be. Here:
He followed Barb into the happy hum of staff sharing cake and juice with patients—smiling patients, clothed in bathrobes and brightly colored caps. The kind of caps that masked chemo-razed hair.
His stomach knotted into a hard, tight ball.
He’d held his palm to spurting bullet wounds, wrestled drug-crazed addicts, immobilized the fractured bones of abused wives. But not one of those encounters had hit him like this, with this unnerving sense that if he looked one of these patients in the eyes, his grip on his emotions would completely unravel.
Thanks to the suspicions of a nurse on the cancer ward, Josh has been tasked with figuring out if a sudden rash of inexplicable deaths are the work of a killer. To protect Tara, Zach lets her in on his secret, and unwittingly into his heart. She and her three-year-old daughter are like the family he lost years before. And Zach will risk everything to keep them safe.
Ahh, I love him. He has flaws as every good hero must, but he cherishes the women he loves. And he doesn't back down from calling other men to task when they don't, as he did with one no-good ex-husband:
"You vowed to honor and protect her. Cherish her. Do you even know the meaning of the word?"
And in case you were wondering, besides the romance, the story has an "edge of your seat" mystery, too... at least that's how one book club member described it on my FB page. ~grin~
I hope you'll agree!!
Your Turn: What's your favorite kind of hero?
P.S. If you'd like to follow a side discussion about alternative treatments, inspired by the suspense plot in Critical Condition, please "like" my Facebook Page or visit my Conversations About Characters blog, where I'm inviting readers to share favorite remedies all month.
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