Plan ahead, work hard, play by the rules, and you'll be justly rewarded. The maxims that had been drummed into Darcy Morgan were the backbone of her orderly life.

But as she stumbled down the streets of Brooklyn-bruised, battered, and beaten-she began to think she'd been led astray. It didn't do a damn bit of good to play by the rules if the other guys had the game rigged.

Darcy wouldn't survive the night if she didn't find shelter. A chance meeting with a kind-hearted woman could pluck her from the fire just in time. But pulling an innocent into her suddenly tumultuous world was wrong. Thoroughly, unquestionably wrong. But right and wrong didn't seem as clear as they'd always been. The keystones of her life had been shattered, forcing her to care only about survival-her own.