Story Status: Complete

All That Mattered

All That Mattered

Released: March 29, 2026

This wasn’t how it was supposed to end…

When a case pushes the Agency into unfamiliar territory, Lee and Amanda Stetson do what they’ve always done: they adapt. They fight. They endure. But this time, that may not be enough: the cost is more than either of them ever expected to pay.

After a devastating injury, Lee is forced to confront a reality he can’t outmaneuver. The instincts and certainty that once defined him no longer come easily — if at all. Trying to regain them might not work.

Amanda is determined to keep them on course. But even as she tries to hold everything together, she begins to realize the threats they face aren’t ending. They’re only changing.

Now Lee and Amanda are facing an enemy they never saw coming. It pushes the art of camouflage to the next level. It moves through systems instead of streets. It doesn’t need to pull a trigger to do irreparable damage.

And they’re facing it without a critical member of their team. Francine Desmond is navigating a devastating new situation of her own, one that may cost her everything.

As the Agency struggles to understand and contain a new kind of enemy, the fallout from the last few operations continues to ripple outward. Loyalties are tested and assumptions break down. Every decision carries consequences that can’t be undone…

Acknowledgments · Afterword

The eBook and paperback editions available through Contentnea Creek Books are being sold as a fundraiser for a designated 501(c)(3) charity. No profit is being made by either author or publisher.

Chapter List

  1. Chapter 1
  2. Chapter 2
  3. Chapter 3
  4. Chapter 4
  5. Chapter 5
  6. Chapter 6
  7. Chapter 7
  8. Chapter 8
  9. Chapter 9
  10. Chapter 10
  11. Chapter 11
  12. Chapter 12
  13. Chapter 13
  14. Chapter 14
  15. Chapter 15
  16. Chapter 16
  17. Chapter 17
  18. Chapter 18
  19. Chapter 19
  20. Chapter 20
  21. Chapter 21
  22. Chapter 22
  23. Chapter 23

Acknowledgments

Once again, I find myself unable to write in a vacuum. (Can anyone?) Special thanks go to:

  • Everyone who supported me, including many SMK fans, when I went through a major life event just as I was starting to draft;
  • Heather, Teenah, and Rowan Grapenut, beta readers extraordinaire, who challenged and pushed me at all the right times and in all the right places;
  • Dot and Kathy, for giving me an emotional boost just when I needed it the most; and, of course,
  • The cast and crew of Scarecrow and Mrs. King, without whom none of this could have ever been possible.

Top

All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
as from the Lord who is the spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 [NABRE]