He May Have Been A Schmuck But He Didn't Deserve To Die: "Friendly Fire" by Megan Hart

After Agent Kendall Frasier's partner is shot in "friendly fire" during a drug bust, she agrees to take a week's vacation on a tropical island as part of her psychiatric evaluation. Sand, sun, sea--what could be better to help her work through her guilt? Even if the preseence of the man responsible for the shooting, Agent Zane Vincent, seems counterproductive to her mental health.

As kendall gets to know Zane, and realizes he feels worse about what happened than she does, it becomes impossible to hate him. And their mutual attraction becomes impossible to deny.

Kendal and Zane soon agree to put the event that brought them together in the past--and spend the present exploring their most erotic desires. Do they have a future in the real world when their week in paradise is over?

This is a short story that was originally released in 2003 and has now been newly revised by the author and re-released by Carina Press in 2011. It is quintessential Megan Hart writing, with an efficiency in the telling and an economy of words that characterizes her writing style. It is a compelling glimpse at the pressure under which DEA agents must work, and the collateral damage that occurs when one of their own is taken down, most especially in an accidental way by one's one co-workers.

Kendall is a woman who has worked hard to get where she is in law enforcement. Like so many women who seek to excell in a male-dominated porfession, it has not been easy and she has the bruises to prove it. Not the least of these is the misery of working with a partner who disrespects her, who harrasses her continually, who belittles her as a female unworthy or without the necessary brains or brawn to do a difficult job. Now that partner is dead, and while she is well-aware that Dan's disregard of her abilities and his arrogance in blowing off her warning that caused his death, she still feels that inevitable guilt that as his partner, she could possibly have prevented the accident.

Zane Vincent is a highly successful DEA agent who has infiltrated several very dangerous organizations in order to capsize their drug business. Now he, too, is riddled with guilt, knowing that the shooting death of one of his colleagues was an accident, knowing that he has been cleared after an exhaustive investigation, yet also replaying the event numerous times in the hope that somehow it can all be undone.

Initially Kendall holds Zane up for disdain and is angry that he was responsible for Dan's death, even though down deep she is relieved that she doesn't have to work with him anymore. Perhaps that is more the source of her guilt than anything else. Yet in spite of her anger at Zane, she begins to get to know him just a little and realizes that he is a man of great depth and genuine values, that he is incredibly sexy, and that she is attracted to him--like iron to a magnet. Neither wants a "one night stand" and so they begin what well may be an affair of only a few days.\, in an island paradise previously owned by a drug lord.

While this story is way too short for my taste, there is still lots going on here. As Kendall and Zane have to work through their guilt over Dan's death and their part in it, they discover not only a great deal about themselves but about each other. They also recognize that there may be some not-so-healthy reasons why they are "acting out" in an erotic way, but there is also a quality that they find in each other that smacks of normalcy in a professional world that is anything but normal. These are also two individuals who are willing to take risks, not only in their professional assignments but also in their personal relationships. They know there may be negative repercussions to their affair down the road, yet they are willing to risk those in the hope that something beautiful and permanent will grow from this vacation encounter.

I like Megan Hart's writing a lot, and I have read a number of her stories. I don't like short stories as I think, especially in this case where the characters are so intense and multi-dimensional, that such a brief literary form is inadequate to do more than just catch a glimpse of their lives in a single setting, when there is so much more to them as people. I am sure that is Hart's goal in this--just a single encounter with these people who live dangerous and complicated lives. But as a reader it is frustrating to no end. Having said that, I must acknowledge that Hart is one of those writers that can pack an unbelievable amount of information, emotion, and action in so few pages. And because of her expertise in crafting this story, it was a brief but very satisfying read. Hart fans will like this one, I think. I give it rating of 3.75 out of 5, not because of any factor other than its brevity.

This short story was released in February 2011.

Review: Precious and Fragile Things by Megan Hart

Megan Hart is one of those authors who gravitates toward the hard-core edge of human experience and she is not afraid to make those issues and situations the context of her novels. There are quite a few kidnapping novels and stories about the Stockholm Syndrome, but Ms Hart has not necessarily written a story that replicates those. As a testimony of her creativity she has crafted a story that is significantly different.

What actually happens when a young mother, frazzled and tired, truly weary of being the work-horse of her family, overwhelmed with laundry and crying kids and vet visits and husbands who can pick up and take a business trip without creating any ripple in the family life while any time away for her is a major undertaking. Gillian Solomon, or Gilly as she is called in this story, is a woman who has always wanted a family of her own, loves her husband dearly and deeply, yet has this insane desire to run away--to be free of all the hands that pull at her, free to finish tasks that forever go undone, free to just be. On a fateful day in January she stops at her bank's ATM, and in just a few moments her life changes forever. As she is returning to her car she finds that a carjacker has slipped into the passenger side, is holding a lethal knife to her throat and ordering her to just drive. Nothing she offers makes any impression. He won't even stop to let her children out of the back seat. Somehow she manages a quick stop and drops them off at an Amish home, knowing that they will be cared for. Even when they stop for gas she doesn't run. There is a part of her that doesn't want to go back.

For the next three months Gilly and Todd are holed up in his uncle's mountain cabin in Pennsylvania, totally and completely snowed in with drifts up to the roof. He has taken some of his inheritance money and fully stocked the cabin with food. There is sufficient wood and propane. Even when Gilly wrecks the car trying to escape they know that they will not freeze or starve. In a moment of weakness Gilly tries to kill herself and contracts pneumonia for her trouble--a terrible illness that Todd nurses her through. Yet there is always this tension. At first she begs to be let go. He can't do that--he knows she will tell them who he is and where he is--he just can't go back to prison. He is not unkind; he never attempts to assault her; he forces her out of her depression; he is not an uncomfortable companion. He just won't let her go.

This story is one of those that the reader knows must end but how? It is like a huge boulder rolling down the mountainside, but the bottom of the canyon is hidden by thick mists. Where will it land and what will happen when it does? Gilly must deal with her own feelings about her husband and children, about the relationship her feelings now have to do with her growing-up experiences, dealing with dreams and nightmares and trying to find a way to get through one boring day after another. Todd is terribly troubled--he isn't really bad or stupid or uneducated. He has been traumatized in his early childhood by the loss of his parents and siblings; he has survived the foster care system but not without wounds and scars and with responses to life's situations that may be predictable but are still sad and uncomfortable. He had intended to kill himself at the cabin. He never intended to have Gilly there. He makes some surprising discoveries about himself and his family that are very hurtful. But what is one more blow for this man? Yet as the weeks go by he is not sure he wants to end his life now. It becomes apparent that Todd is beginning to care deeply for Gilly, and even when she rejects his tepid romantic advances, he works through his anger and hurt without hurting her. He is not a really bad man. But where does this all leave them?

This is a wonderful novel and once again displays Ms Hart's skill as an author and her expertise in crafting a story many writers would never attempt. This is not beauty and life, it is not love, hearts and flowers. It is sad and hurtful and raw and gutsy. But there are moments of gentleness and caring, demonstrations that Gilly's orientation in her traditions and her depth as a mother and caring person bring some peace and understanding to this troubled man. It is not an easy book to read, but I have to admit I couldn't put it down--read it all, word for word, in one sitting. I felt like I was falling down an emotional well and when I reached the end, I was surprised while not being surprised. It's almost like waiting for the other shoe to drop and when it does, it is still a surprise. There is a sense of the inevitable but the reader has no clue how it will all end.

So if you are a Megan Hart fan, you will like this book. It is not one of her erotic novels--no sex except for Gilly's memories of her times with her husband--but this is an incredibly in-depth novel and a very good read. I give this book a rating of 4.75 out of 5.