What happens when a clandestine, violent crime, born of a perversity no law can reach, is ordered at the highest levels of the United States government - and, by an unforeseen twist of luck, the crime is never carried out?At the center of the action stands Gianni Garetsky, a man whose family roots have been torn from the crosscurrents of American crime at their bloodiest, and who seeks his redemption in the gift he possesses for brilliant artistic achievement.Thrust unexpectedly into a deadly, labyrinthine contest of pursued and pursuer, illusion and truth across two continents, Gianni will find himself reunited with a boyhood friend - like himself, a talented painter, but unlike himself, a man who chose to become one of the world's most accomplished and sought-after contract assassins. He will track the abduction of an innocent child, trapped inside a jungle of predators. He will be joined in his odyssey for survival by two women: one, thought dead, who now emerges with a secret that can destroy for good, not only herself, but untold others; the other, who has perfected a spellbinding erotic power into a weapon more formidable than any wielded by the agents of death that shadow them all. Read Less