Hank goes in search of Plato, a wayward bird dog, and finds himself face to face with an angry feral hog and her litter.

Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole track down Virgil's sweetheart Allie and the three head north to start over in the town of Brimstone. Given their reputations as guns for hire, Everett and Virgil are able to secure positions as the town's deputies. But a sanctimonious leader of a local church stirs up trouble at the local saloons, and as the violence escalates into murder, the two struggle to keep the peace.

On a blustery day in late fall, Hank sneaks into the back of Slim's pickup and finds himself at a neighboring rancher's fall branding ... the very neighbor, in fact, who owns the gorgeous Miss Scamper the Beagle! Unfortunately, Miss Scamper has always been a little hard to figure out, and he can't decide if she's crazy about him ... or just plain crazy. And, as the day unfolds, it even begins to look like she's angling to land him in a heap of trouble...

Not every hero of the West was a lawman or hired gun. 25 year old Dewey was on the run after being falsely accused of murder. He hires on to a trail drive from Texas to Dodge City as a chuckwagon cook, a job for which he has no experience whatsoever. A fast learner, Dewey not only masters cooking for the cowboys, he's also pretty handy with a gun...

The Barfield family, Arkansas sharecroppers, are heading west with their sons Jeffrey and Todd. In far West Texas their camp is attacked by Comanche raiders and the elder Barfields are killed and scalped. The younger boy, Todd, is taken captive by the Indians. The older son, Jeffrey, manages to hide and is rescued by the militia men. Jeffrey is taken in by a home-steading family, while Todd is sold, for a rifle and gunpowder, to a Comanchero trader...

Publisher Annotation: An electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape-trying not just to survive but to find a home.