Never Take the Short Cut. With her job, apartment, and boyfriend in New York suddenly gone, Rika Martin decides she'll visit friends down at South Padre Island, Texas before returning to L.A. to face her family. But after she takes a short cut onto a desolate Texas highway at night and gets run off the road by a pickup truck, Rika can't wait another minute to heed nature's call... and trips over a zombie Wait. Not a zombie. Just a dead guy, and when she reports the body, shady Sheriff Strickland arrests her for the murder. Nick Owen realizes it was a bad idea to return to his hometown of Bolo, Texas to lick his wounds. Now, all he wants is to move away again. The only good things that have come from his time here are his two resolutions: 1. No more rescuing damsels in distress. 2. No more murder trials. Not after what happened last time. But when he stops by the courthouse to pick up Gabe--a.k.a. Judge Martinez--for a round of golf, he's forced to act as attorney for a very attractive female murder suspect. Even worse, this "Paprika Anise Martin"--if you can believe that--seems more determined to solve the murder case than to defend herself against it in court. With devil worshipers reported in the area and at least one shooter determined to take Rika out, can Nick and Rika resolve this case before the murderer gets rid of her for good?