Private Investigator Jason Dalton died for love.
Three years ago, when he was commanding a secret army squad, there was a data breach. The cartels got his identity. The only way he could protect his wife was to fake his own death.

Now he's a Private Investigator who stays away from the big cases. At least he did until his plan, his life, got twisted. The trouble started when word hit the streets and spread like a fire up Topanga Canyon that an ancient treasure map had surfaced in LA. And of course the fire didn't pass him by. It came in hot on the pointed, Italian leather heels of Sophie Devonshire. One day the young widow turned every head in Dalton's building when she strutted into his office in a tight skirt and dropped an envelope stuffed full of crisp hundreds on his desk.

Ms. Devonshire said that she had found a photo of some old artifact among her late husband's papers. When she had made enquiries, the FBI showed up and demanded that she turn over the thing in the photo. Soon afterward, she was attacked by a group of men who were speaking a strange language. If that wasn't bad enough, her house was broken into and ransacked.

"I didn't know what to do," said Ms. Devonshire, touching a bruise on her cheek. "But then I spoke to Chuck, a friend of the family, and he gave me your card."

Dalton took the card and read the name of the general who had pulled strings to fake Dalton's death. Suddenly it hit him. General Chuck King didn't just pass out business cards. This was a message. The general was calling in a favor. That meant this case was way bigger than a widow in trouble.

Dalton climbed to his feet. "You're staying in a hotel until I find out exactly what's going on."

"So, you're taking my case?" she asked, touching the top button of her red silk blouse.

"That's right." Dalton shoved the envelope into a drawer and walked to the window. "Hey," he said, waving her over. "Do you know those two men?"

Ms. Devonshire looked through the window, down at the city street, then pulled back. "Help me. That one with the black jacket tried to break into my house."