After hours of grueling surgery, Dr. Ellie Sullivan was ready to work off some of the tension, stress, and stiffness that comes with long shifts in the trauma ward by running in the local park. The majority of those treated were gang members and gunshot wounds were pretty common. Ellie was preoccupied as she ran, dreading a trip home for the wedding of her sister to none other than Ellie's ex-fiancé. But the thought of returning home brought chills at the possibility of running across Evan Patterson who had been stalking her for years. Evan wasn't content to just create angst, he terrorized and brutalized Ellie when she was twelve causing her father to send her away from never ending threat. Ellie was pulled out of her stupor by the sound of bullets, people running, and the presence of FBI agents.

Max Daniels was one of the agents involved in the free for all in the park and stood helpless as one of the agents was shot as the targets were escaping. Tall, dark, and scary, Max was certainly a frightening hulk of a man but all Ellie saw was a very sexy man, not at all her type, who mistook her for a teenager and was reticent to let her touch the fallen agent. Great first impression thought Ellie who was surprised at how attracted she was to this man who obviously wasn't very taken with her. Ellie and Max were going to be seeing a lot of each other since the FBI considered her a potential witness and their pool of witnesses was shrinking. As Max looked into the past of this latest witness what turned up was so disturbing that it ratcheted up his urge to protect Ellie. Putting her possibly in harm's way was untenable to Max and he tried to keep Ellie from making herself valuable to the investigation but he let her know that if she were a witness she could go into the witness protection program. Max wasn't prepared for how adamant Ellie was that would never happen. In her mind she had been in hiding since her father sent her away. She had begun to think of herself as tough and wasn't going to hide any more. Max warned Ellie his assignment would send him back to Hawaii but he would use all his resources to ferret out Evan's location. But as events played out it appeared that Ellie's role as potential witness had put her in someone's sights. It was up to Max to protect Ellie while at the same time making no promises. Pretty tough assignment for this rugged agent.

Warning -- Garwood has you hooked in about ten pages. Nothing is as it appears and yet all the facts are right out in the open. Hard to know who to be wary of, the escaped couple or the crazy as a loon stalker. Either way you won't want to put down this book until all the mysteries are solved.

Book Summary

Dr. Ellie Sullivan has just completed her residency at a large urban hospital. While jogging in a park nearby, she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of wanted criminals, a couple identified as the Landrys. The only person to see the shooter’s face, Ellie is suddenly at the center of a criminal investigation.

Agent Max Daniels takes over the Landry case. A no- nonsense lawman, he’s definitely not the ideal man that Ellie has always imagined, yet she’s attracted to him in a way she can’t explain.

Ellie heads home to Winston Falls, South Carolina, to attend her sister’s wedding. Shortly after she arrives, though, she receives a surprise visitor: Max Daniels. The Landrys have been captured, and she’ll be called to testify. But they’ve been captured before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence—or disappear before they can take the stand. Max vows to be Ellie’s shadow until the trial, and it isn’t long before sparks fly.