Two months after his fiancée Elizabeth leaves with no explanation, Trent Lemend moves from Austin, Texas, to rural Williamson County just outside Georgetown. He buries his inner demons in the cellar of his subconscious and makes the best of his new life. Working on a local cattle ranch helps pass the days, and he tries to leave painful memories behind in sprawling pastures of mesquite trees, prickly pear, and brittlegrass.
On a gray winter walk like any other, a call from his boss, Tim Corbin, leads Trent to discover a shocking crime in an abandoned house on County Road 118. As he stands beside the barbed wire fence, images of what he’s just witnessed assaulting him, something happens that can only be described as a miracle. One of the victims, a young woman, is still alive, and he stares in disbelieving silence as her emaciated, blood-covered body is carried out on a stretcher. Though this is beyond his expectations after seeing the horrors in that filthy back room, Aria Owen’s survival marks Trent for murder.
Deputy Sheriff Reyes urges him to relocate if possible and lay low until the killer is caught, but Trent soon finds himself dragged into a deceptive game. As Trent loses his job, his security, and his sanity, he is clutched by the grim realization that he enjoys the rush these new dangers provide – he has a dark side of his own. But when threats against Elizabeth force Trent to protect her, a secret from his past comes back to reclaim what was lost in a way he never thought possible.
by J. Conrad (Author)
