When al-Qaeda targets crowded European soccer stadiums, counter-terrorist experts are dispatched to prevent catastrophe. In Madrid, Nate Dunlevy infiltrates a terrorist cell with Devon McLean covering his back. Their covert operation is jeopardized by Fadia, a young woman demanding retribution against Islamic extremists. Her ill-timed appearance exposes Nate and triggers the death of Anwar, the son of an al-Qaeda leader. Although they avert disaster at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, the mission is  tainted. Back in Washington, Nate's superior questions his fitness and suggests he go into safer intelligence work, using Eve O'Connor as a decoy. Nate vehemently rejects any job that could put her at risk.

Soon, his problems become compounded when he complies with the admiral's wishes and attends a dinner at the Spanish Embassy in Washington. After being bureaucratically blind-sided and betrayed by a government conspirator, he and Eve O'Connor rush from the Embassy and find themselves in the hands of al-Qaeda members who demand revenge for Anwar's death.

Payback reunites Flashback fans with Nate Dunlevy, Devon McLean, Eve and Katie O'Connor. This compelling story honors unsung heroes who fight terrorism everyday and depicts the wrongful treatment of women in several Middle Eastern Countries.

In 2007, D. A. Welch published Flashback and earned a Reader's Choice award. Since the story encompasses South Carolina's coastal region, the book was featured on local news stations in Charleston, Savannah, and Hilton Head Island. In 2009, she published Payback, a sequel that begins in the Low Country, but this story takes readers to Madrid, Washington DC, and Beirut. Although the venues differ, both novels are fast-paced adventures featuring heroic men and women, and the life-altering challenges they must overcome.