The author, D. B. Knight, plays the part of Samantha Whitfield, and the novel contains her point of view throughout the entire story as she portrays an FBI agent who has the difficult task of capturing weapons smugglers and a murderer who turns out to be a high-ranking official in the local police department. The story takes place along the coastline of North Carolina near several military bases but begins in the small, quiet town of Swansboro, which was an unlikely spot for the state police to run across this undercover agent, especially when she surprisingly turns out to be a redheaded female cop who'd been shot, handcuffed, and left for dead at an old, run-down, vacant warehouse that rats wouldn't inhabit, but it was stocked with stolen military weapons. Samantha, Sam, is found in the nick of time by Captain Ronald Lawson of the state police and his partner due to the frantic cry for help from Marsha Harman, who was Sam's closest friend and later turned out to be the only material witness to a double murder the police would ever have. After some time in the hospital, facing a near-death experience, Sam is forced to take her long-accumulated vacation leave. She takes stock of her personal life and soon meets a man named David, and they quickly fall in love. The rocky road to a once-in-a-lifetime romance between Same and David has an unusual and surprising ending, if not a shocking one. Their future relationship as a "team" isn't revealed until chapter one of Ms. Knight's next novel Deadly Intentions. The mystery continues there and picks up speed as Sam tracks down the brains of the weapons-smuggling ring, which isn't this criminal's only crime. He must be caught, one way or another. The hunter becomes the hunted as the game turns toward vengeance, which leaves only one question unanswered. Can Sam commit cold-blooded murder?