When Buchanan grubstaked Mousetrap Mulligan he never thought he'd see his money again. He never thought the old man would hit paydirt. But he did—and that was bad news for Buchanan. Because a lonely old desert rat with a hidden cache of nuggets and a drunkard's bragging habits was likely to end up very dead ... very suddenly.

Bella was quite a town, a free-wheeling, lusty young hell, the kind of town Tom Buchanan pleasured in. But then it turned ugly and made the mistake of angering Buchanan—and when the smoke cleared away there was nothing much left but wholesale mourning.