Young, uber-achieving professional Halley McCarthy slinks back to her small-town Michigan roots in shame when her carefully constructed life blows up. Her employer, a San Francisco tech startup for which she left New York, is under federal investigation for fraud; its executives are accused of embezzlement and two of the partners disappear; her ex-fiancé turns out to be a creep; and soon a colleague is killed, bringing back painful memories of her mother’s long-ago, unsolved murder. Her closest comfort comes in talking to her dead grandparents and her mother at their graves.

As anonymous threats begin to find her halfway across the country, it becomes clear that Halley herself is in grave danger. She realizes, reluctantly, that her secrets must be shared with her family—both blood and chosen—and its motorcycle club dynasty. She fights to maintain control over her unspooling circumstances as the club rallies around her, calling upon its in-house security business and resident cyber-sleuth to find answers as the feds and her stalker close in. A violent showdown not only reveals the betrayal of someone close but ties her mother’s murder to the startups’ woes and Halley’s sudden change in fortune. 

In her new vulnerability, will Halley learn that there are many ways for success to be measured; that big minds can also be found in small towns; that life-changing opportunities exist everywhere, if you know where to look; and that big jobs don’t always equal happiness? In the protective arms of her family’s motorcycle club, she carves out a new, more satisfying life, including the possibility of new love. The road is rough but character is strength, and discovering what makes one happy, well, that may be the biggest success of all.