Kinjo Heywood is one of the New England Patriots' marquee players-a hard-nosed linebacker who's earned his reputation as one of the toughest guys in the league. When off-field violence repeatedly lands Heywood in the news, his slick agent hires Spenser to find the men who he says have been harassing his client.

Heywood's troubles seem to be tied to a nightclub shooting from two years earlier so when his nine-year-old son, Akira, is kidnapped, it seems his past has come back to haunt him. When he makes a controversial call to get Akira back, all hell breaks loose in Boston's underworld. With the feds distracted by other cases, Spenser, Hawk and their protégé, Zebulon Sixkill, will have to call upon their outlaw contacts to track the child down, before it's too late.