Deputy U.S. Marshal Jeremiah Halstead keeps the peace in the mining town of Silver Cloud, Montana. But an old enemy has declared war against him.
Ruthless and clever, Ed Zimmerman would have become the leader of one of the west's deadliest and hell-bent outlaw gangs. Zimmerman has offered a generous bounty to every desperado willing to put a bullet through the U.S. Deputy Marshal's heart.
A death sentence won't stop Halstead from enforcing the law. The sheriff of Battle Brook needs a hand dealing with some hell-raising badmen in the surrounding hills, threatening to take over the frontier town. Joined by Deputy Sandborne, Halstead rides hard for Battle Brook only to discover manhunters aware of the price on his head are in town, guns cocked and ready to collect the reward.
And Zimmerman has joined the outlaws in the hills, waiting to catch Halstead in his sights . . .
Silver Cloud, Montana. A mining town welcome to all seeking to make their fortune. And a place where a lawman has to watch his back before some hardcase empties his pistol into it.
Deputy US Marshal Jeremiah Halstead is escorting notorious outlaw John Hudson across the territory for trial when he's ambushed by a pack of Hudson's men anxious to rescue their partner from his custody. Halstead puts the blast on them, but outnumbered and outgunned, he has little choice but to hole up in an old mining town known as Silver Cloud, Montana. It's a place where he can keep a lock on his prisoner while figuring out how to get past Hudson's gang alive.
But the folks in Silver Cloud are none too happy playing host to the lawman or his kill-crazy prisoner. Unable to trust the sheriff to back his play, Halstead finds himself standing alone against Hudson's gang as they slip into town, recruiting gunmen to help free their leader.
Except for Ed Zimmerman. He's spent his whole criminal life in John Hudson's shadow. He wants Hudson dead and buried so he can become the leader of the gang. And if he must, he'll put everyone in Silver Cloud six feet under-including Deputy US Marshal Halstead . . .
THE BURDEN OF THE BADGE
At long last, US Marshal Aaron Mackey and Deputy Billy Sunday will see crime baron James Grant and his kill-crazy cronies stand trial for the mayhem and suffering they unleashed on the people of Dover Station. But as Montana Territory's statehood is approaching, murdering devils like Grant can no longer be tolerated in positions of political power.
Or can they? Montana's capital of Helena follows its own set of laws-laws that not only set Grant free, but give peacekeeping authority to a sadistic murdering gunslinger like Colonel Warren Bell, Mackey's commanding officer during the war. The city's leaders prefer keeping killers like Grant and Bell under their thumbs.
Mackey knows there's no controlling these bloodthirsty madmen. And if they think they're above the law, then Mackey and Billy will just have to appoint themselves judge, jury, and executioners . . .
Dover Station, Montana, is no place for a lawman. A sheriff's badge ain't worth a nickel here-unless you've got the bullets to back it up . . .
When he signed up to be sheriff of this dirty little boomtown, Aaron Mackey knew he was asking for trouble. Once, when Mackey was the US marshal for the whole Montana Territory, he swore no job could get any harder. But that was before he took down a few of the bank-robbing Hancock gang in Dover Station-and incurred the wrath of the gang's maniacal matriarch, Mad Nellie Hancock.
And that was before every avenging outlaw and hired henchmen came crawling out of the woodwork to kill him-in the meanest, bloodiest showdown the town had ever seen . . .
Aaron Mackey knows you can't fight city hall. But you can flush out every kill-crazy outlaw, greedy grifter, and boomtown rat-then exterminate with extreme prejudice . . .
In the boomtown of Dover Station, Montana, tracks have been laid and everyone's looking to make a fortune, lawfully or not. And the law has something to say about it-one bullet at a time . . .
DOVER STATION-WHERE DEATH RIDES FASTER THAN THE WIND
A rash of deadly train robberies has the chief investor of Dover Station feeling itchier than a quick draw without a target. And he wants Sheriff Aaron Mackey to scratch that itch with every bullet his battered badge authorizes him to shoot. When Mackey and his backup gun down four kill-crazy bandits, they uncover a plot cooked up by respected citizens of Dover Station-someone who can pull enough strings to replace Mackey with a disgraced marshal from Texas. Now Mackey's badge may not say much, but his gun defies all fear. Anyone who stands between Mackey and the future of Dover Station is about to become buried in the pages of history . . .
If anyone can smell an investment opportunity, it's railroad men and big city bankers. They're not the kind of folks that Sheriff Mackey is used to dealing with. But greed is greed, and if anyone knows how money can drive men to murder, it's the sheriff of a boomtown like Dover Station. But when Mackey is forced to gun down a pair of saloon rats, it brings a powderkeg of trouble-with a quick-burning fuse of vengeance named Alexander Duramont. This bloodthirsty psychopath wants to kill the sheriff for killing his buddies. And he plans to get his revenge using a highly combustible mix of fire, fear, and dynamite . . .
Mackey's not sure how he's going to stop this blood-crazed lunatic. But it's going to be one heck of an explosive and very violent showdown . . .
