Unwelcome

After facing the wrong end of an IED, the Army decides they’re done with me when I fail a mental eval. Like that, twenty-five years of my life go down the drain.

While growing up in Syracuse, I promised myself that if I ever got out I’d never come back. New York has nothing for me but bitter memories and regret and, as it turns out, a career with the FBI and something else completely unexpected: the stunning, relentless Giulia.

When Giulia’s job and her idiot boss put her in danger, I make a stupid move: I blur the lines further to get personally involved. The last thing I’m ready for is the wild woman who swept into my life like a tsunami. But she’s more than meets the eye, devoted and courageous, and when I need someone to hold me up, she’s there without questions or recriminations. She accepts my ugly past even as she slowly discloses secrets of her own.

She’s a miracle, one I don’t deserve, and one I stand to lose.