A journalist who adopted a troubled teen, Madison Wade has tackled many challenges--but never one like this. Leaving Philadelphia for a small Southern town to give her son a better life, she’s now in a tightly knit community that won’t accept her big-city ways and Ethan’s less-than-perfect past. When he’s finally invited on a camping trip, it turns into a nightmare--and Ethan is suspected of murder.

A journalist who adopted a troubled teen, Madison Wade has tackled many challenges--but never one like this. Leaving Philadelphia for a small Southern town to give her son a better life, she’s now in a tightly knit community that won’t accept her big-city ways and Ethan’s less-than-perfect past. When he’s finally invited on a camping trip, it turns into a nightmare--and Ethan is suspected of murder.

Sheriff Gabe Wyatt doesn’t want to believe this kid is guilty. He’s falling in love with Ethan’s beautiful, sophisticated, and generous mother, the first woman who has ever awakened the tender side of this tough lawman. But he can’t ignore evidence, even if it keeps him from getting close to the woman he longs to protect, even if it drives this fierce mother to track down the murderer herself--and on one terrible night, come rice-to-rice with her darkest fears.