Every day, bodyguard Owen Jackson puts his life on the line--and keeps his feelings for Penny Sandoval locked away. Assigned to protect Penny's father, a presidential candidate, Owen can't get emotionally involved. That is, until Penny and her young son, Cruz, are abducted and taken deep into the California badlands. Owen knows the bleak territory from his childhood. Worse, he knows the gang leader making ransom demands--his own brother, Shane. When a terrified Penny escapes into the desert with Cruz, Owen has to save her: from the elements and from the gang in close pursuit. Owen has hidden the darkness in his past from Penny. Now his only chance of keeping her alive is to let her see the man he really is--even if it means losing the only woman he'll ever want.