Sheriff Tom Bracken never wanted to see another epidemic. Chicago taught him exactly how fast disease can turn order into ash. So when shipments begin disappearing and a fever outbreak erupts downriver in Port Calusa, he knows two things immediately: it’s bad, and it’s about to get worse.

He tries to leave Ellie safely at home. Ellie — eight months pregnant and twice as stubborn — comes anyway.

Port Calusa is nothing like Cypress Run. It’s bigger, louder, and far more corrupt. The docks hide more than contraband. The workers whisper about disappearing men. And when the fever begins spreading faster than Diego Delgado can treat it, Tom realizes they’re trapped in a harbor city where someone has engineered the perfect cover for trafficking, sabotage, and murder.

Worse: the signature on the plot is one Tom recognizes. All too well.

As storms roll in and bodies stack up, Tom and Ellie fight to keep their family alive and the city from tearing itself apart. But the deeper Tom digs, the clearer it becomes that the danger isn’t just in the water or the fever‑ridden streets — it’s in the long shadow of a powerful enemy who wants him erased without ever firing a bullet.

To save the people he loves, Tom must outwit men who have already decided what his gravestone should say.

Cypress Tide is a frontier romantic drama of storms, sabotage, fever, and fierce devotion. Also smugglers. And gators. Always gators.