Sworn to protect and serve, these first responders risk their lives every day to keep a city safe... Aria Carlisle is shocked when the police show up at her door one night and inform her that her sister-a sister she hasn't seen or spoken to in nearly thirteen years-has been murdered in her own home, along with her husband. Her two young children are clinging to life at a local hospital. Their parents are dead, their house burned to the ground. And Aria has been listed in her sister's will as their guardian. The children are literally strangers to Aria, but she finds she can't turn her back on them. With the police breathing down her neck, desperate for answers to two unsolved murders, Aria finds herself in the middle of a nightmare. Casey Gage was there that night. One of the firefighters who helped rescue Aria's niece and nephew, he feels a bond with the children-and soon enough, with Aria herself. But a killer is still on the loose. And that killer has failed to tie up a very important loose end. A very important loose end that may cost Aria and the children their lives.