Julian Montgomery is a shiftless gambler crisscrossing the country in pursuit of poker games and cocktail waitresses. Or so the rest of the world believes. In truth, he's a special agent for the FBI, moving from one assignment to the next. When a murderer surfaces in his small southern hometown, Julian's assignment is to protect the one woman who is far from happy to find him back in Crystal Lake, TN. Rowan Covington has never aspired to any life that would lead her away from the place her family has called home for generations. And if Julian thinks she's going out of her way to welcome him back, he has another thing coming! When it becomes apparent she's the target of a killer driven by revenge, Rowan learns the truth about the one man who holds her heart—and how far he's willing to go to save her.