Jack Mason Barnes lost his parents to a horrible car crash when he was twelve. Then he lost his Uncle and Cousins during 9/11 when he was just starting college. He enlisted in the Army instead and rose to become a Delta Force Operator, the very top of the military food chain. Jennifer Louise Keller and her son, Ben, lost their husband and father, Mike, in Iraq, yet they both carried on. Though his dad wasn't in his life often due to his constant deployments, through his influence when he was, Ben was growing up strong, good and right. Jenny was also strong and good, and together, they were making it, without Mike. It wasn't easy but they persevered. Mike's brother, Darrell, and father, Ron, were not good men. Some thought that Mike must have been mixed up at the hospital at birth, he was so different. They were criminals, into drug dealing, prostitution, stolen cars and fencing hot merchandise. Mainly due to Ron's influence, Darrell's sons, Junior and Ronnie were on their way to following in their father's footsteps. Cousin Ben was their target of choice, especially for Junior, a bully now, a certain criminal in the future. Jack made Mike a promise before he died. Jack made good on that promise. What should have taken a month or two to fulfill it, was going on two plus years. For most of that time, Jack was in the background of Jenny and Ben's lives. Then everything changed. Jenny began to notice him. Jack began to notice Darrell and Ron's activities and decided to do something about it before Jenny and Ben were wrongly affected by them. Then the reason for Jack's departure from the Army and Mike's death followed Jack to where he lived just when Jenny and Ben were becoming his. From the deserts of Iraq to Washington DC and North Carolina to rural Arizona, the desert wind blows dust into a never ending cloud of danger, suspicion, and conflict, where survival is only a concept and death is lurking around every corner.