Blake Durant didn't have anything against Tom Carne himself when he rode into Sage Creek. He took up for a woman who'd been wronged by a couple of Carne's men, and when justice was served, that should have been the end of it. But Carne thought otherwise.
Carne was a vicious, natural-born killer and most of his gang was cut from the same cloth. So when Carne made it his business to make an example of Blake, they were with him all the way.
Too bad.
Blake Durant killed two of them and wounded a third. Then he and the woman he had sworn to protect took off across the desert, figuring to call in the authorities before Carne made good on his plan to take over and run the entire territory.
Carne and his Raiders gave chase, and slowly but surely the gap between hunters and hunted narrowed until there was no option—Blake Durant had to fight for their lives, the only way he knew how.
For keeps.