Colorado, July 1878. The nationally famous solar eclipse is almost upon the country, and a peak overlooking the fledgling town of Elkhorn is one of the centers of attention. In the midst of boisterous and chaotic frontier pre-celebrations, Caleb Marlowe?reluctantly deputized for the coming event?learns that local power broker Judge Horace Patterson is being targeted for assassination by agents of a financial magnate. Caleb’s efforts to thwart the plan, however, are complicated when a ghost from his past shows up with the intention of blackmailing him. Elijah Starr, acting for a railroad robber baron, will use any ruthless method at his disposal to clear the way to control a planned rail line to be built through Elkhorn. Caleb is commissioned to bring Starr in to face justice after the assassination attempt, but he has his own burning agenda. Starr is his father, the man who abused and murdered his mother, and Caleb swears his mother’s death will be avenged and justice will prevail… or he’ll die trying.

Wade Abbott is one and done–one look, one conversation, one weekend–and he knows who he wants. The only problem is that Mia Simpson is not free to return his affection. In fact, he suspects she’s in an abusive marriage, but she never confirms that, and he has no choice but to mind his own business where she’s concerned. Then two years after they first met and a year after he last heard from her, she shows up half-frozen, bruised and beaten on his doorstep, needing something only he can provide. He’s determined to make it work, no matter the cost.

For years, Caleb Marlowe has been following a hard trail. But fate finally seems to be smiling on him. The ranch he and his partner have been building is ready for a herd of longhorns, and a ghost from his troubled past is about to dance at the end of a hangman’s rope. With winter descending on the Colorado boomtown of Elkhorn, Caleb’s future looks bright. But in the wild West, a man’s fortune can turn with the speed of a mountain storm. When his partner is jailed for murder, his herd taken by rustlers, and his ranch nearly destroyed, Marlowe knows someone is trying to run him off. His nemesis, Elijah Starr, has been pardoned and hired by Judge Patterson–the local power broker–to build a railroad, and they are two men who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Marlowe stands alone against a gang of hired killers. The stakes could not be higher, and the cards are stacked against him. A final shootout is coming, but in Elkhorn no one–especially Caleb Marlowe–goes down without a fight.