From the first moment he sees Alexandra Stratford, Logan Drake is intrigued. She is breathtakingly beautiful, but something doesn't ring true about her. She is unchaperoned, conservatively dressed, and rejects out of hand any admirer who dares to approach her. Such is a lady on a mission; such is a lady to be avoided. When it is brought to him that she is seeking to hire a mercenary, he is not interested in the job until he learns who it is she is pursuing. Too late, Alexandra realizes that the bold, brash, and darkly handsome mercenary is not who he says he is, that he has an agenda of his own to satisfy and may be using her to achieve it. He suspects that she is not telling him everything. Neither trusts the other, but as their harrowing quest takes them from a Missouri plantation to a spy ring in the Nation's Capital, secrets are unlocked and a love develops, but will it withstand the trial of trust and the test of war?