In the Southwest, temperatures run as hot as the tempers and men are silent while guns talk too fast. Keno is that rare breed--a cowboy between jobs, out to make an honest dollar and keep his pride and his hide, his only two possessions, intact. Which is why he is riding alone across the godforsaken stretch of mesquite in the Territory when he comes across a stranger. Hog-tied and belly-down, branded and left to die. Keno knows he has to save him--and that's his first mistake.