High Noon

Phoebe MacNamara learned what she wanted to do with her life as a child. A violently unstable man forced his way into her family's home and held them captive for hours, and the experience shaped everything that followed. Today she is a police lieutenant and the top hostage negotiator in Savannah, spending her days talking people out of their worst moments.

One of those moments plays out on a rooftop, where Phoebe coaxes a man away from the edge. Duncan Swift, whose employee it is, watches the whole thing and decides he wants this capable, commanding woman in his life. Phoebe is used to handling her work and her world alone, and she soon finds that Duncan will not be talked out of his interest, however skilled a negotiator she is.

Then the danger turns personal. Inside her own precinct house, a man pulls a hood over Phoebe's head and beats her. Threatening messages start turning up at her door. Someone is set on making her feel the same helpless terror she spends her career easing in others.

With Duncan beside her through every step, Phoebe does what she knows best and opens a line of communication with the unseen man tormenting her. High Noon pairs a tense cat-and-mouse story with a love story in which the heroine, who never hesitates to face down a threat, has to find the nerve to trust someone with her heart.