Captive Star

In this fast-paced second book of Nora Roberts's Stars of Mithras series, bounty hunter Jack Dakota figures he's in for an easy assignment when he accepts a job tracking beautiful bail-jumper M.J. O'Leary. His plan is simple: find her, push his way into her apartment, explain the situation, and bring her in.

When M.J., a fifth-degree black belt, misinterprets his intentions and attacks him, Jack is forced to reevaluate his assumptions. Jack and M.J. discover they've both been set up. M.J. is no bail-jumper, and whoever put Jack on her trail knows it.

Before they can figure out what's happening, a goon with a gun--and every intention of shooting M.J.--interrupts their discussion. They join forces to fight him off and escape, but much to the tough-minded M.J.'s annoyance, Jack takes charge of the situation and she finds herself handcuffed to the door handle of his beat-up, souped-up Oldsmobile.

Jack has no intention of letting M.J. go until he gets to the bottom of things. The men on her trail are professionals, and if she's not directly involved in something illegal, she is involved in something that's likely to get her killed. The cynical bounty hunter is no knight in shining armor, but he finds himself in the uncomfortable position of protecting her; whatever is happening, M.J. isn't talking about it.

Searching her belongings, Jack discovers a magnificent blue diamond. M.J. is forced to explain that a friend in trouble sent her the stone for safekeeping. The diamond is one of a priceless trio known as the Stars of Mithras, which her friend was appraising for the Smithsonian. But someone else knows M.J. has it--someone who will stop at nothing to obtain it.

Soon Jack and M.J. are on the run, forced to work together to stay alive in an ever-tightening web of danger and conspiracy complicated by an attraction neither can deny.