Sean Havens is an agent with the CIA.
He has been a covert operative for the American government for around two decades, serving in, it seemed, every nation on the planet which harbored someone angry with the U.S. and that pretty much mean everyone.
Havens was not an intelligence gatherer. He was an eliminator. A killer. Not that he was officially designated that since assassination was no longer permitted in the Agency. "Havens' direct orders were not actually to kill. They were never quite that explicit. His commands were to follow his instinct and direct his own missions as appropriate."
Moreover, it would never be considered bad per se to fight to defend oneself so if he were just 'happen' to get caught in the middle of trouble and had to use extreme force to get out, that was reasonable. "Sean Havens was good at strategically starting fights." Instinctively he did so in a way that had his opponents in a bad position from the beginning, making it more probable it would be Havens who walked away from the skirmish.
The adventures we have of Havens are not all taking place in far-away land. Some very unpleasant people have taken great exception to the toll his efforts have exacted from their operations and they have struck at his home.
That home, when the recorded adventures begin, consists of his beautiful wife of a decade and a half, Christina, and their teenage daughter, Maggie. Both will suffer greatly for Havens' work. He will make the bad guys pay greatly as well but it will never be enough.