The condition is useful at work: quiet international negotiations with the worst people you've never heard of. His employers think he's quite valuable. His victims think he's a sociopath. He does his best to hide the truth from everyone: the condition is slowly driving him insane. Searching for a cure, he disappears to Boston, the last place he remembers as home. A book from his past leads him to a young college professor with an unexpected gift: around Doctor Kelly Austin, the chaos of a thousand possibilities dies away, leaving behind clarity and peace. Desperate for normalcy, Simon manipulates everyone to enter Kelly's life, find the secret-and leave. That's when his past returns, stopping at nothing to keep his the origin and extent of his condition buried. When someone discovers Kelly might be the key to controlling the most dangerous person on earth, Simon must choose: return to a short life of violence, or sacrifice everything for the terror of redemption.