Everybody in Bayou Mambaloa knows Danny French — the little redhead slinging beer at the Crawdad Hole who once threw a three-hundred-pound man off her for pinching her. Feisty, they say. Must’ve taken a self-defense class. Nobody knows about the Ranger tab under a coffee can in her kitchen. Or that she never saw the face of the man who drugged her the night before her Ranger school slot came through. She only knows his voice. After her training and Army commitment, she escaped to the bayou, still listening for the chance to nail the monster who hurt her and threatened her family.

Jacques Jardine is the last man on earth Danny will let protect her. He’s also the only one who won’t leave. And somewhere close, the man who haunts her knows where she works and desperately needs to tie up loose ends.