Lieutenant Marcus Steele built his life on control—fifteen years of commanding his SWAT unit with iron discipline, burying ghosts from an Afghan desert where he lost everything that mattered, and surviving a hollow marriage held together by duty alone. Then Officer Kai Rivers walks into his life, and every wall Marc constructed begins to crumble. What starts as stolen glances and dangerous proximity ignites into something neither of them can deny, even as regulations, guilt, and the shadows of Marc's past threaten to destroy them both. In a world where protocol is everything and love is forbidden, Marc must choose between the safety of his carefully controlled existence and the terrifying risk of feeling alive again. But when the past refuses to stay buried and the present demands a price, will Marc's fear of losing everything cost him the one thing worth saving? Some falls are inevitable—but surviving the landing is another story