...free but still a target... A roaring hangover the morning after passing out at a kegger isn't unusual for Joe Stanek but being accused of murdering the Mayor's daughter is, and a mountain of circumstantial evidence convinces a jury, and eventually him, that he must have done it. Fifteen years into his life sentence DNA testing becomes available and he's exonerated and released from prison. He tries to rebuild his shattered life but is getting no cooperation. Susan Elliott threatens to kill him if he comes near either of her daughters, and the second time they meet she gives him a black eye. Local kingpin Karl Zarnhof wants him dead and Stanek has no idea why...or why four Aryan Brotherhood thugs are asking about him. Just when things are looking up with Susan, all three Elliotts go missing and Stanek's sure he knows who's behind it. He intends to get them back no matter what and the only he knows to do that is to once more become the lethal creature spawned in the squalid depths of solitary confinement.