This book is a reprint of the 2012 edition and contains no new material.

James Ayala thought life would be smooth sailing once he escaped from Red Idaho and returned to Blue Oregon. He was supposed to get answers about the biocybernetic chip that made him empathic, face the man who implanted it, and then ride off into the sunset with his boyfriend, Matt Tennimore.

Life, however, has other plans: the bad guy dies before he explains squat, they left their horse in Idaho, and Gramma Anais finds a parasite on James's implant-one that forces him into isolation.

Matt just got James back to Oregon where he wanted him, and extraneous brain hardware or not, he has no intention of letting him go. But James hesitates to move in with him. Despite his hurt, Matt has to man up and do his job, leaving James behind, while the rest of the team struggles to find the real mastermind behind the implant and the parasitic "Trick," before it takes over James's brain. But will it be too late to save him?