Blake Durant helped push a herd of beef to Cannon Creek, where he got paid off and then decided to go his own way. Always a loner, he was happy to ride on and forget about the men he'd so recently ridden with.
But then three of them were shot dead, and their money stolen.
Blake couldn't allow that to go unavenged, so he set out to find and bring the killers back, dead or alive.
The trail led him to the town of Forge, and another old acquaintance, Ed Ball. On the surface. Ball was a nice guy, a man to whom a smile always came easy, and who never let anything trouble him overmuch.
But was Ball everything he seemed to be?
Blake had never really known what to make of him ... except that he wouldn't trust Ed Ball not to back-shoot him if there was any profit in it.
All at once the odds against him started stacking ever higher ...