Nick Pagano is a leader in the Pagano Brothers organization. As their head enforcer, it has been his responsibility to mete out justice, to seek retaliation, to uncover the secrets of Pagano enemies by any means necessary, and to sink deep the evidence of those means. It is work that requires keen vision and perfect control. It is work at which Nick excels. It is work that has made him dark. As the Paganos fight a war against an enemy determined to destroy them and change the landscape of the New English underworld, the boundaries between work and family that Nick's father and uncle long ago made sacrosanct are crossed, and Nick's work becomes personal. Beverly Maddox lives across the hall from Nick. She's living a life she's worked hard to build, with a job she likes and friends she loves, content in her surroundings and in her own skin. She thinks the best of people and offers them her trust and friendship without reservation. Though her life hasn't always been kind, she has not let the troubles of her past weigh her down. Her outlook is light, in both senses of the word. It's her light that catches Nick's eye, and his attention inadvertently causes Beverly to be swept up into his dark world. Thrust together by circumstance, Nick comes to see that Beverly's light eases his dark soul. But will his darkness douse her light instead? Note: explicit sex and violence.