Inside the unraveling of a detectives life lies as silence that hides more than secrets–it guards the past he's never faced.

Roman Viento is a homicide detective abruptly reassigned to New York after a life-threatening confrontation that nearly pushed him into a spiral rooted in his childhood. The move feels like protection, until he's sent back to Chicago, straight into everything he tried to outrun. What he's asked to do when he returns changes everything. A deeper betrayal pulls him into a web of corruption where justice and survival blur beyond recognition.

He slips back into the role he's mastered–surreptitious, strategic, and emotionally sealed. But the past isn't finished with him. Aniella Fasquelle is ambitious, kind, and unprepared for the shadows she's about to enter. She notices the fractures he swore didn't exist. And Eli, a boy from the shelter with questions Roman's been avoiding, drags the past he fought to keep buried into the light.

Both could shatter the control that's kept him alive. One true love, the other through truth.

Tense, addictive and quietly explosive, Desire & Protection is a gripping debut about trauma, betrayal, and the cost of letting someone in.