The Damsel and the Knight

Palermo, Sicily, 1993. Returning home from church after her mother has failed to collect her, twelve-year-old Francesca Ambrosino discovers her parents brutally murdered. Vincent and Angelica Ambrosino were slaughtered by Vincent's employer, Cosa Nostra Godfather Salvatore "Toto" Riina, as part of a cleansing within his organization to stave off prosecution from the Italian government. Francesca flees to the home of her aunt, who places her in a Catholic girls school within a convent to protect her from her father's enemies. But in the convent, Francesca is anything but safe. After escaping to pursue her studies at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, she exacts revenge on her tormentor. Ultimately, she migrates to America and obtains a doctorate in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania. Living alone within modest means as a curator for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Francesca is determined to create a life free of financial concern. When a famous Rembrandt painting is loaned to her museum, she hatches a foolproof plan.

Logar Province, Afghanistan, July 2009. Connor Knight, a Special Forces Army Ranger, fights through an untenable combat position as he and his twelve Operational Detachment team members are under siege, outnumbered ten to one, in a tiny Afghan village. Only two of the team survive. Six years later, those survivors-Knight himself and Denton Martinez-operate a private security firm in Philadelphia. The mundane tasks of babysitting the rich are a long way from their combat tours in Afghanistan, and they, like Francesca, wrestle with their future and their past as they seek to make a more fulfilling life for themselves.

When Francesca approaches Connor with her plan, danger and love intersect, and everything changes for both of them in unexpected ways as they navigate the worlds of art, forgery, and organized crime.