Daphne Donovan is living her life on autopilot, unable to move past the tragic events of 9/11 that she feels she could have stopped. As an FBI agent at the time, she had the opportunity to take down one of the terrorists who later was part of the 9/11 destruction, but orders from on high stopped her.

Five years later, after leaving the FBI, she can't let go of the fact that her gut told her to apprehend the guy and to hell with what her bosses said. The guilt is eating her alive, as she goes about her daily job as a P.I. Even though she can't shake the burden, Daphne keeps plodding along, heading to Florida to spy on some rich guy's girlfriend. A boring assignment, probably in and out in a couple of days. Except, of course, nothing goes that smoothly.

In the course of following the girlfriend, Daff wanders into Rules of Engagement and finds herself enrolled in a course that teaches women how to get a man to commit. It's not all hokey stuff, either. The course's teacher, Lillian, knows that women need to feel good about themselves and works on self-esteem and being content without a man. Daff knows she's just fine without a guy, but must admit Lillian's son, Sam, is hot stuff. Used to going after what she wants and knowing that most guys are happy with her love 'em and leave 'em ways, Daff jumps right into the desire that ignites between them.

While she's burning up with Sam, her case is going a little hot, too. She ends up with a dead client and a lot of convoluted evidence that leads in a million directions. Can Daff unwind the case before more people die? Even more importantly, can she find her way out of the darkness left in her soul from 9/11 to find a future with Sam?

Gotta love these Jacey Ford books! This tale of the last of the three PI partners, Daphne, is really good. (I wish we could have seen some more of the other two partners, whose stories were played out in previous books.) The only thing that rang thin for me was her guilt over 9/11. I doubt stopping one terrorist would have stopped the whole event, so it seems as if that plot may have just been a little too neat. But that aside, Daphne's emotions feel real -- her despair and guilt shadow her personality and her relationships. It's wonderful to see her begin to come out of it, and her moment of epiphany is believable. A highly recommended read!