SANCTUARY (A Tale of Escape Book #1)

Portia Gaughran is an Army brat.

Balancing good grades and her role as head cheerleader is hard enough without the crippling anxiety over her father's safety in the Middle East. Boarding at a school near the military base in Esperanza should feel like a vacation. But when the U.S. territory comes under threat from rebels, paradise fades, revealing a country fraught with tension and hidden threats.

Determined to ease the unrest, Portia and her friends form S.T.O.P-a secret alliance with local Esperanzans-but Javier Íñiguez-Carhuancho, a mysterious local artist whose dark paintings seem to warn of a past that's dangerously close to repeating itself, advises against it. As Portia unravels Javier's secrets, she begins to suspect that he might hold the key to ending the uprising-if it hasn't already claimed him.