Where the Wicked Tread — John A. Connell

It is 1947. Mason is on the hunt for the man behind his worst nightmares, the Gestapo commander who, during the war, executed a little girl Mason had sworn to protect. The image of her lifeless body in the blood-stained snow haunts him nightly.Now he has a chance to erase those haunting images. He's tracked the man to the notorious Italian route for escaping Nazi war criminals. The problem is the man is fleeing justice with several other Nazi fugitives, who are bent on abducting a mysterious woman and her young son.Mason's troubles escalate when he agrees to escort the woman and her son to safety, while helping to smuggle a convoy of Jewish refugees down through Italy to a ship awaiting in Naples. Like a pack of wolves, the Nazis nip at the heels of the convoy in order to capture the woman and child. It finally becomes clear that the only way to stop them and get his man is through one final showdown.Mason is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for retribution, for forgiveness, to exorcise his demons. Maybe then he can look at the girl in his mind's eye and find forgiveness. Maybe he can join the love of his life in Naples and truly open his heart to her.Maybe... but first he has to survive.