Danger lurks in the sleepy little town of Marathon, in the middle of the Florida Keys, as well as in the swamps of the Everglades. But danger doesn't expect to run into a man like Jesse. A man who will not only respond swiftly in facing it, but with a vengeance unexpected.

Six months out of high school and just days after finishing Marine boot camp, Jesse McDermitt is finally ready to unwind and have a little fun when he goes home on leave. But everything Jesse remembers—his friends, his family, the sparkling beaches and familiar waters of the Caloosahatchee River and Pine Island Sound, even his faithful Lab, Molly, have all changed.

Since the recent death of a wealthy, yet perverted, businessman, Charity Styles has been hiding in plain sight, as if challenging anyone to come after her. She’s on her own once more, living day to day on her beloved Wind Dancer, anchored near a quaint little Gulf Coast town in the Florida Panhandle. But when the son of a fishing client ends up dead, the father’s employer hires Charity to find the person responsible.

Charity Styles is a former Olympian and US Army helicopter pilot. Captured and tortured by terrorists in Afghanistan after the opening blows of the War on Terror, she has a score to settle. Now working for the Department of Homeland Security, she is offered the opportunity to make a real difference.

Charity Styles had been the catalyst for the demise of many. But in the past that usually meant the end of a human life. As an assassin for the CIA, it came with the territory. But this time she feels responsible for the end of her friend’s relationship. She sets out on a voyage to find one of the partners in the hopes of rectifying the rift she helped create. Along the way, she encounters a deadly foe, bent on becoming rich regardless of how many must suffer or die.