A man is rousted out of his bed in the middle of the night by his government's secret police. He's beaten and thrown into the river to die. He regains consciousness and fights for his life, against the river's raging rapids. He finds himself entangled in the branches of a fallen tree. Somehow, he hoists his battered body up onto the tree trunk and lies there thinking of the woman with whom he's just shared the greatest night of passion of his life—the woman he now believes betrayed him.

That thrilling opening is only the beginning of Cindy Gerard's Under The Wire , a novel that begins in 1980s Nicarauga during the Contra revolution. Manny Ortega is an 18-year-old freedom fighter who falls in love at his first sight with American nurse, Lily Campora. Lily is in Nicarauga as part of a medical relief team, and she has no idea how her life is about to change when she falls under the spell of the sexy, young Ortega. But then Manny suddenly disappears, and she's told by the Sandinista government that he was killed trying to escape capture.

Seventeen years later, Lily learns that Manny is still alive. After having fled to America and training with the Army's Special Forces, Manny is now a detective with the Boston Police Department. When Lily tracks him there, she has no idea that Manny believes it was her who betrayed him all those years ago. She doesn't understand the hate in his eyes when he looks at her. Manny can only remember General Poveda's parting words that Lily had turned him over—betrayed him to the secret police.

Before the air can be cleared, Lily receives the shock of her life. Her teenaged son, Adam, who was in Sri Lanka working with a humanitarian aid group, has been abducted by terrorists. Now, the man who has hated her for seventeen years is her only hope for saving her son. Can they overcome the secrets and lies that stand between them in order to find not only Adam but the love they lost all those years ago?

Under The Wire is a masterfully-written page-turner of a book. From the high-paced opening scene right through to the finish, it never loses its energy. Gerard has another winner in her Bodyguards series.