Leo Billups, formerly known as Lonny McRoy, had the bad fortune of witnessing a drug-related murder that involved the Cruz family, one of the most powerful drug families in the country. It’s a common enough story in WITSEC but what sets this one apart is that the person he saw murdered was his own mother… and Leo is eight years old.

When Leo enters WITSEC, no one’s really sure what to do with him. His father can’t go into the program, since he’s one of the people Leo is testifying against. So of course, Stan McQueen, Mary and Marshall’s boss, looks at Mary for the answer. Mary Shannon is not exactly the maternal type, although her caretaking instinct is a lot stronger than she would admit, probably because she doesn’t even realize how good she is at taking care of everyone. Mary’s bright idea is to ask (or rather strongly persuade) another WITSEC family if they’ll adopt him. When they agree, it seems like everything’s going to work out perfectly.

But Leo’s father, Vernon McRoy, sues for custody, claiming the Federal government had no right to take Leo in the first place. Everyone knows he just wants Leo so he can keep him from testifying, but the law is on his side. Now, Mary must find a way to keep Leo away from his father and safe from the Cruz family, which seems like it’s going to entail Mary playing yet another role: Sarah White, Department of Justice, Family Relations. Can Mary really pull off a “Sarah”? She’ll have to if she wants to score a happy ending for this little boy.
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Popularity: 19%

U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon has a relatively simple day ahead of her: Pick up federally-protected witness, Tasha Turischeva, and get her situated in her new living situation with the help of her partner, Marshall Mann (yes, his name is really “Marshall”); make sure her sorta-kinda boyfriend, Raphael, picks up her ne’er-do-well younger sister, Brandi, from the train station, and survive the “surprise” birthday party her man-crazy mother, Jinx, has planned.

However, when Mary learns that the teenage son of another one of the witnesses under her care, a former hit-man Frankie Santoro, a.k.a. Frankie “Nuts,’” was murdered, all of her best-laid plans are shoved onto the back burner. And for that she’s almost grateful, especially if it means that she might have to miss her own party…

Mary now finds herself faced with two questions: Was Frankie Junior killed by someone from Frankie Senior’s past, which would mean that Frankie’s old colleagues have figured out where he is? And how do you tell a mafia hit man that his only son was murdered? In order to keep Frankie from flying off in a blind vengeful rage (and blowing his cover), Mary has twenty-four hours to find and apprehend Junior’s killer and still get to her birthday party on time.

Meanwhile, she’s still left with her other tasks for the day, personal as well as professional-all of which would be a heck of a lot easier if Mary could explain to her loved ones what she actually does for a living. But for the safety of her witnesses, her family and herself, no one can know that she’s a Federal Marshal attached to WITSEC. They think she’s a glorified courier…which is why Raphael gets bent out of shape when Mary’s sister Brandi steals his car and Mary won’t come handle the situation, and her mother Jinx becomes distraught because her daughters aren’t getting along. Mary can’t tell them that she has to spend the day investigating a homicide-while cleverly avoiding confirming the local law enforcement’s suspicion that the victim was in WITSEC-and solve the crime before all hell breaks loose.

After running herself ragged all day chasing leads and coming up empty-handed, it’s ultimately Brandi’s innocent birthday gift-and peace offering-that helps Mary crack the case. But before Mary can collapse in heap, she remembers that she has one final task before she can turn in for the night. At three in the morning she returns to the apartment of her new witness, Tasha, with the bag of groceries that were promised hours earlier and as her own peace offering, some magazines to help Tasha pick out the new pair of breasts she was promised as part of her deal with the federal prosecutor.

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Popularity: 23%