Shattered by an assassin's attack, Bart Durant's got no stomach to face a mail order mistake. New Mexico federal judge Bart Durant can solve everyone's problems but his own. Left to die and forced to depend on others for the smallest things, he prepares to step down and step away from a woman who crossed the country just to meet him. He never considers that she'll wait as long as it takes to prove him wrong about that unfortunate first impression. That is, unless there's more than one assassin, and more at stake than anyone suspects.

Leah Masters waits patiently for Judge Durant's return after he suddenly disappears the night they meet in Santa Fe. Learning her brother is the prime suspect in a brutal attack, and that a woman she trusted might have her own reasons for keeping secrets, Leah has to decide if she has really fallen in love with a man nobody seems to want her to get close to, and somebody's trying to kill.