Viral engineer Christabel Orlova wakes in a Turkish bazaar with two passports, two governments on her tail, and no memory of her dangerous past. Armed only with keen wits, survival instincts and mad skills in the research lab, Christa has three goals. Stay alive. Stay one step ahead of her hunters. And find a cure for the Ebola bio weapon whose secret is locked in her brainbox—before it wipes out the human race. Gypsy, loner and wild child, her first rule of survival is never to trust.

Ex-Russian fighter pilot Major Max Vasylko is a gun-for-hire smuggler who’ll fly contraband cargo anywhere in the world, no questions asked. But he can’t fly far enough to forget the wife and daughter who died in an Ebola outbreak. When a bio weapon from a rogue U.S. program is to blame, Max wants revenge—but he’ll have to stand in line. The Russians are racing to capture Christa. Sy McTye, charismatic head honcho of the super-secret National Security Intelligence Agency, hires the Maestro to take Christa out. And the Maestro—elegant ex-KGB assassin Nikolai Markov—never misses his mark. Then there’s Dr. Bryce Burgess, the ambitious Army scientist who murdered Christa’s brother. He’ll kill for the secrets locked in her head.

When a hunted Christa makes contact with Embassy Moscow, it’s out of the samovar and into the fire. When hot-as-hell Max stomps out the flames, she’s oh-so-tempted to trust him. Which makes Max’s granddad and employer, Russian FSB Colonel Ivan Vasylko, a very happy man. 

In modern-day Moscow, the Las Vegas Strip meets the Wild West. Every girl’s a supermodel or a spy, every guy’s a mobster or a mole, and the energy’s as bracing as a bucket of ice water flung in your face. The U.S. Embassy’s a citadel in the storm. Where sober-suited diplomats with attaché cases and classified orders advance American interests with discretion and decorum.

Nikki Navarre is the sinister twin of unsuspecting historical romance author Laura Navarre. In her other life, Nikki is a diplomat who’s lived in Russia and works on weapons of mass destruction issues. In the line of duty, she’s been trapped in an elevator in a nuclear power plant and has stalked the corridors of facilities churning out nerve agent and other apocalyptic weapons. In this capacity, she meets many of the world’s most dangerous men. Nikki’s literary credentials are suspiciously similar to those of her innocent sister. A member of Romance Writers of America’s Published Author Network (PAN) and a 2009 Golden Heart finalist, she has won the Emily Award for Excellence, the First Coast Romance Writers Beacon Award, the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award, the Golden Pen, the Duel on the Delta, Hearts through History’s Romance through the Ages, and other awards. Nikki holds an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine, an M.A. in National Security Policy from The George Washington University, and other alarming credentials. Based in Seattle with her screenwriter accomplice and two Siberian cats, she divides her time between her writing career and other adventures for U.S. government clients. Her notorious adventures in the world of diplomacy will get her in trouble one of these days.