Never a Hostage

Three people in a web of lies. Two private investigators seeking truth. One hostage plan gone wrong.

Private Investigator Pilar Santiago takes us to Miami, right into a hostage crisis. Cade Sumter is dispatched to rescue her.



Going undercover in a hotel...

When a former senator's estranged wife hires Pilar to spy on her husband at a hotel in Miami, Pilar just assumes it's another routine job. At most taking two days of work, all she has to do is record the meeting that the former senator will be in and then leave. Collecting five hundred thousand dollars has never been easier.

The meeting never takes place. However, criminals have entered the hotel and taken former senator Felix Braun-Dean and his mistress hostage. Or have they? Caught in the middle, Pilar is unable to leave the building. She decides that she might as well make the most of it and starts to observe and collect data.

Disguised as a line cook, Private Investigator Cade Sumter manages to get inside the hotel. He's there to swing down the vine, swoop up Pilar-with whom he's fallen in love a year ago when they were teammates in an overseas project-and take her home safely to her family...

Not!

A tropical storm hits Miami, and the captors leave but not before they take Pilar, Cade, and a handful of other hostages to a private swamp where nobody would find them.

How do Pilar and Cade get out alive?

Never a Hostage is Book 2 in USA Today bestselling author Jan Thompson's Defender Sweethearts Christian romantic suspense collection, a sister series to Protector Sweethearts. While the heroes in Protector Sweethearts search for lost treasures and lost people, the Defender Sweethearts novels focus on protecting the helpless and hopeless. The main characters in Defender Sweethearts come from the supporting cast in Protector Sweethearts.

Publisher's Note: Never a Hostage debuted in the 10-author Danger in the Shadows box set, published on May 13, 2025.