Detective Sergeant Jose Stepanovich and his elite tactical team were the toughest cops in the Los Angeles police force, handed the toughest jobs, like going up against the city's most vicious criminal element--the street gangs of East L.A. But somewhere along the line the cops broke a few rules, turning a job into a personal vendetta, and suddenly it wasn't only the gangs they were fighting, it was the community, the media and their own brass who decided they were expendable. Hard-boiled Detective Stepanovich--returning to the barrio where he grew up to battle the criminals he hates.loving the woman who presents him with the cruelest of choices.facing unimaginable betrayal--is an unforgettable and all-too-real hero in the riveting, trigger-taut novel of moral corruption that is at once powerful and terrifying.