Annie Calhoun Redhawk needs a man.
Not just any man, but Joe Redhawk, the younger half-brother of her abusive ex-husband and one of the best cattleman in western Montana. Joe has been the foreman at her ranch, the Double C, since her divorce eighteen months ago -- and she's loved him most of her life before that. But when he tells her he's leaving her Ennis, Montana home and taking a job in Wyoming, Annie doesn't know what she'll ever do without him.
She has two months to convince him to stay -- but the one thing she knows she can't do is reveal the secrets she has kept for almost 13 years, secrets that forced her into a nightmare of a marriage with Charlie Redhawk, Joe's older brother.
Although walking away from Annie and her kids -- Leah, 12, and C.J., 7 -- is the hardest thing he's ever done, Joe knows he can't stay. It's too hard always being on the periphery of Annie's life, and he hungers for a fresh start, away from the whispers and stares of the people of Madison Valley, who will always see him as the half-breed Shoshone who spent three years in prison for killing his old man.
Joe would have left years ago -- hell, he never would have come back at all after his release from prison -- if it hadn't been for Annie. He feels responsible for her marriage, has always wondered if he pushed her into his brother's arms by running away like a coward after he took her innocence on a sun-warmed meadow thirteen years ago.
Joe begins to question his decision to leave, though, when strange, sinister things begin happening around Annie's ranch . . . [from author's web site]