Pax West has no past, no future, and nothing to lose.

A former CIA ghost, he's barely off the train in Portland before a detective slaps him with a murder charge — the victim was the cop's niece, and he's not interested in due process. Pax doesn't fight it. It's a mistake. It'll sort itself out by morning. Prison's as good a place as any to sleep tonight.

Then he watches four men nearly beat an inmate to death — and something in him won't let it happen. He saves Elliot Brooks. Elliot curses him for it. Death would've been a mercy.

Two years ago, Elliot woke up covered in his daughter's blood with no memory of the night and a life sentence for her murder. Then his sister handed him a photograph: a little girl at Sea World, two years older, unmistakably his daughter. Alive.

Now Elliot has one reason to live — and one way out. He needs an escape. He needs Pax.

The question is whether Pax is willing to burn down his own freedom to buy someone else's.