Sabrina Duncan's life was dedicated to the children of the night—the runaways who lived, and all too often died, on the streets of Portland, Oregon. And with a brutal killer stalking the city, her work had never been more important. She found the help she so desperately needed in Lieutenant Thomas Lain. And he brought her something more than his strength. He showed her, for the first time, that the touch of a man's hand could bring a woman more than pain, more than fear. But bitter experience had robbed Sabrina of all illusions. She could never hope for a life with any man who knew the secrets of her shadowed past. When this nightmare was over, she would have to forget him—somehow.

Fittingly, his name was shadow. He'd crept swiftly and silently through the dense Burmese jungle to rescue Riley McDouglas from the wrecked plane, his silence and opaque gray eyes revealing only that he had secrets -deadly ones. Riley knew he was a cold-blooded mercenary. But he was also her only hope... As Shadow stood guard over the beautiful red-haired journalist, he told himself that she deserved what she was going to get. Never mind that her mere presence stirred something deep within his hardened heart. Never mind that he alone had the poser to save her from the most dangerous man in the world. In thirty-six hours, he would deliver her to her fate...