In this action-packed, Spur Award-winning western series opener, an army scout must find two lost newlyweds in a land where he's as good as dead. To start their new life together, Jamie Pratt and his young bride join a westward wagon train bound for the Rocky Mountains. They get as far as Helena when their unscrupulous wagon master deserts them, leaving them as good as dead in a godforsaken, blood-scorched land. The other settlers agree to set stakes where they are, but Jamie and his wife press on toward the Bitterroot Valley, deep into Sioux territory. They never come out the other side. Jamie's brother, Monroe, enlists the legendary scout John Hawk to find them. A hardened veteran of the range, Hawk is living off the land in a little cabin on the Boulder River when Monroe comes begging for his help. To rescue the Pratts, Hawk-and his guns-will soon be back in the saddle, riding fast and fierce into deadly odds. For any other man it's a suicide mission. But for Hawk, it's what he was made for . . . Winner of the 2018 Spur Award for Best Paperback Western