Book excerpt: Nick Barone, cashiered ex-Special Forces, has spent the last few years glued to a bar stool in a seedy establishment. When Marta, daughter of his old mentor Master Sergeant Manny Fernandez, walks into the bar one evening and reveals that her only child has been brutally murdered and her terminally ill father wants to see Barone right away, he cannot refuse the widows request. After Martas father extracts a promise from Barone to find his grandsons killers and exact revenge, Barone begins a quest that leads him to a gang of small-time drug dealers, corrupt cops, and a radical Muslim Imam. He stumbles upon a connectiona funding of the Imams terrorist training program by an organized, nationwide distribution of drugs. Dozens of hoods are involved, but those odds have never bothered Barone who is a man consumed by a hatred of rats who kill for pleasure. Besides, he is a man of his word and Manny is counting on him. From the crowded streets of Hollywood to the vast farmlands of central Florida, Nick searches for answers and, in the process, finds a measure of personal redemption.