WL Cox's Books

Hunt closes the book on Howard Yancy when a sheriff and a grieving widow arrive in Denver to confirm his identity, while his men keep chasing thieves and killers across rough terrain. Hunt tests the livestock market with some young bulls and Razer goes off to Chicago for marshal training. During a manhunt across Colorado, Hunt's men discover a stagecoach massacre with one survivor: a badly injured eight year old girl. With no one else to care for her, they bring her to Denver, where Beth takes her in and grows attached. But when distant relatives show up claiming the girl, Hunt suspects their motives have nothing to do with her wellbeing, and he and Beth must take drastic steps to protect her.

Hunt and Beth adopt Tabitha and settle her trust at the Bank of Denver, while John Ewing heads to Indiana to learn pig farming. Back home, Hunt's deputies push him to help reverse the sentence of Lester Barlowe, a man they believe was wrongly imprisoned, leading Hunt to seek Judge C.W. Crawford's help and a new trial. Meanwhile, romance stirs when Razer takes a liking to widow Catherine Waters before leaving for Chicago, and Walker's dog Scar is quarantined after a coyote fight. On the crime front, Hunt sends men to Utah to help intercept a dangerous fugitive, and a brutal attack on the Purgatory River Ranch leaves the family dead, prompting a cavalry-assisted manhunt to save the remaining cattle. Amid it all, Deputy Marshal Bridge falls for the ranch's surviving daughter and proposes, though she has conditions of her own.

Hunt sets his sights on capturing the Golden Stallion, a wild horse that has evaded capture with its herd for five years. Meanwhile, Deputy Marshal Roy Thatcher escorts young Antonio Lopez back to Mexico, eventually promising to bring him and his mother back to Denver for a fresh start. Back home, Hunt faces a personal threat when a stranger challenges him to a gunfight, and soon after, he and his men brace for an attack from a gang of Georgia marauders bent on robbing and burning the town. Ex-Deputy Jerome Bridger arrives reporting stolen cattle, prompting Hunt to defy orders and lead a chase that erupts into gunfire. Hunt hires a new deputy to replace Bridge, a choice some doubt but Hunt trusts enough to send him to Chicago for training.