Plunging under the cold ocean surface, her long blonde hair drags in the current, and she frantically kicks toward the light. With her arms and legs tied, she is helpless. As water fills her lungs, she has just one regret. She never told anyone about her date. 

On a lonely stretch of coast at daybreak in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Detective Casey White is shocked to find the drowned body of a much-loved local woman, Ann Choplin, her beautiful face covered with specks of sand. The green and white rope binding her wrists reveals the terrifying truth that this innocent mother’s death was no accident. 

With the incoming tide flooding the scene and swallowing all evidence, Casey’s team has nowhere to turn...but it’s Casey who realizes this beach will be devastatingly familiar to her partner, ex-sheriff Jericho Flynn. His wife was found murdered here years ago, thrown into the ocean alive just like Ann. But the twisted and jealous woman guilty of that crime has been in prison for years. 

Days later, another woman is found drowned on the same beach, her wrists tied. Casey fears a copycat killer is on the loose, playing a deadly game with Jericho by digging up the horrors of his past. 

Certain that finding a link between these women will crack the case, Casey works through the night digging into their lives and finds an old photo of the two victims at school together, smiling in their cheerleader uniforms. But cold betrayal floods Casey as she sees Jericho in the background. She’d thought it was safe to let him into her life, but he never once mentioned he knew the victims. What other secrets is he hiding? 

When a coil of green and white rope is found in his garage, Casey’s whole team is convinced that the mounting evidence is stacked against Jericho. But with Casey’s instincts screaming that Jericho could never hurt anyone, it will mean risking her own career - and her life - to clear his name. If she’s wrong, she is placing her trust in a killer...but if she’s right, more innocent women are in terrible danger. 

Fans of Robert Dugoni, Kendra Elliot, and Rachel Caine will be addicted.