When Agent Vaughnne MacMeans is assigned to a "baby sitting" job by her boss, it means that she has to return to the one city that she never wanted to see again; Orlando, Florida. Too many painful memories remain there for her to stand it. But she's not allowed to say no when her boss, Taylor Jones, tells her there's a psychic boy living there that she needs to keep an eye on. Moving in across the street from Gus and his nephew Alex is supposed to be the easiest way to keep tabs on the boy, but it's not going to be quite as easy as Vaughnne had expected.

For one thing, Gus, the uncle, is dangerously hot and sexy. He's also more protective of Alex than Vaughnne would have believed if she hadn't seen it firsthand. As it turns out, there's an excellent reason for his protectiveness. Alex is packing some pretty high powered psychic heat that he has no idea how to control and there are others that will kill to get their hands on this kid. One of these people is the biggest monster of them all; a man with lots of money, a criminal lifestyle and the cruelest personality the world ever saw.

Gus may be gorgeous and sexy but he's got a past that has taught him to never trust anyone except himself. He wants Vaughnne from the second he sees her but knows he will never trust her even if he possesses her body. Vaughnne has never known a man like Gus and she knows he's not good for her but she can't stop herself from giving into feelings she had thought were long vanished.

There's a very good chance they'll all end up dead but that's even more reason to take from each other while they can.

THE PROTECTED is a book that you can get lost in because there's so much going on in it. You really have to pay attention to keep up with all of the various characters and the action that's taking place with them. However, that's one of the reasons that this can be such a fast read. To say it is an action packed book would be an understatement. THE PROTECTED grabs you rather quickly and then doesn't let you go until the very end. Even the downtime sections are still filled with tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

Vaughnne MacMeans is a carefully constructed character who is, by turn, tough, funny, determined and caring. Gus is a totally new kind of rough who isn't going show his softer side easily; that is if he even has one. Many characters in THE PROTECTED aren't easy to like initially but most of them do have that more likeable side to them that peeks through periodically.

Shiloh Walker has hit another one out of the park and, I promise you, at the end of THE PROTECTED, you're going to want more!