Given that her adoptive parents plucked an abandoned three-week-old child out of a local Christmas diorama, it is no surprise that, after her mother died and her father was murdered, Alicia Cruz McCall did not grow to be a normal teenage girl.

When her uncle Harper, retired U.S. Special Forces, noticed her steely nerve and split-second reflexes, he encouraged his niece to join him and complete her training. While her former classmates were sipping caffe macchiatos and trading gossip at the mall, Cruz McCall was stalking—and matter-of-factly eliminating her enemies.

Determined to conceal her vocation from those around her, McCall developed an alternative identity as an oil painter.
When her landscapes and portraits turned out to be as sharp as her trigger finger, she became a highly successful artist who had to work harder to separate the two worlds.

Eventually, the stress of repeatedly trading a paintbrush for a handgun caused Cruz to make a rare misstep, becoming the hostage of a dangerous adversary. With the help of her street-smart partner, Juan Mendoza, she clawed her way to freedom. But her quest for retribution had just begun. She must exact vengeance on the responsible party . . . before he strikes again.