Striking Range

Her past is a secret—even to her. Discovering it will be the most dangerous move of her life. TV reporter Laura Nilsson, known as the “Baghdad Babe,” spent eighteen months in an Al-Qaeda compound after being kidnapped live on the air. Two years later, she’s still wondering why. No mission in Javier Corbray’s fourteen years as a Navy SEAL affected him the way Laura’s rescue did. No woman had stirred his protective instincts the way she did. And he wants her more than he’s ever wanted anyone. As Laura and Javier’s passion ignites, so does Laura’s need to discover the mystery of her past. Especially when she learns that her abduction was not random—and that she’s still a target for a killer with an impenetrable motive. Now Javier will have to rely on his skills to keep the woman he loves from being struck down before she dares uncover the truth.

Kira Brightwell stands at a crossroads. Her college days lie behind her, but her future remains a mystery, waiting to be solved. A job already awaits her at her father’s office—the easy, parent-approved option. But Kira wants something different. Something more. She needs to get away to figure out what. Except Kira’s future hangs in the balance in more ways than one... In the crime-filled adventures of the Kira Brightwell Quick Cases mystery series by Jacquelyn Smith, “Striking Distance” focuses on the event that changes Kira’s life forever, and sets her on the path to becoming an infamous problem solver for hire. (This story takes place before the Kira Brightwell novel Split Decision. Originally published under the pen name Kat Irwin.)

Forbidden captor: "Bounty hunter Bryce Martin had fallen into enemy hands and was now imprisoned. His only hope of escape was his beautiful and mysterious keeper, Anastasiya. But could Bryce outsmart his foes without sacrificing his most precious ally?"--Page 4 of cover.

In the spring of 1959, eighteen-year-old Bruce Lee returned to San Francisco, the city of his birth. Although the martial arts were widely unknown in America, Bruce encountered a robust fight culture in the Bay Area, populated with talented and trailblazing practitioners such as Lau Bun, Chinatown’s aging kung fu patriarch; Wally Jay, the innovative Hawaiian jujitsu master; and James Lee, the Oakland street fighter. Regarded by some as a brash loudmouth and by others as a dynamic visionary, Bruce spent his first few years back in America advocating for a modern approach to the martial arts, and showing little regard for the damaged egos left in his wake. The year of 1964 would be an eventful one for Bruce, in which he would broadcast his dissenting worldview before the first great international martial arts gathering, and then defend it by facing down Wong Jack Man—Chinatown’s young kung fu ace—in a legendary behind-closed-doors showdown. These events were a catalyst to the dawn of martial arts in America and a prelude to an icon. Based on over one hundred original interviews, Striking Distance chronicles Bruce Lee’s formative days amid the heated martial arts proving ground that thrived on San Francisco Bay in the early 1960s.

Threats to international peace and security include the proliferation of weapons of mass destructions, rogue nations, and international terrorism. The United States must respond to these challenges to its national security and to world stability by embracing new military technologies such as drones, autonomous robots, and cyber weapons. These weapons can provide more precise, less destructive means to coerce opponents to stop WMD proliferation, clamp down on terrorism, or end humanitarian disasters. Efforts to constrain new military technologies are not only doomed, but dangerous. Most weapons in themselves are not good or evil; their morality turns on the motives and purposes for the war itself. These new weapons can send a strong message without cause death or severe personal injury, and as a result can make war less, rather than more, destructive.