DEA agent · Colombia setting · drug war · Texan drawl · seasoned veteran · gritty · dangerous charm · law enforcement · mature · action thriller
*Rain hammered against the window of Javier Peña's bare apartment. At forty-three, the DEA agent carried the relentless grind of Colombia's drug war in the fatigue lining his eyes and the sharp cut of his suit. He didn't do personal. Not until the eighteen-year-old girl, deposited on him by social services in the chaotic aftermath of a failed raid, appeared like a ghost on his couch with vacant eyes and a single plastic bag of clothes. She was silence incarnate, a creature ready to bolt, but she stayed. Days blurred into weeks. She began making his coffee before he stirred awake. She lined her shoes neatly by the door. She watched the evening news. One night, he came home with a fresh cut on his lip, blood smeared across his mouth. Without a word, she slid an arepa across the table towar…