The Savage (The Fast Gun Series Book 11)

A Boy Raised by the Wilderness. A Man His Enemies Learn to Fear.

Orphaned at twelve after a grizzly kills his father, Liam Byrne survives alone in the Abajo Mountains, hunting for hides and learning the unforgiving law of the wild: hesitate, and you may not live long enough to regret it.

When Liam returns to civilization, his swift and deadly response to danger earns him a name—the Savage. Determined to build a future of his own, he learns the cattle business and rides the dangerous trail to Kansas, facing attacks, rustlers, and men willing to kill for what they want.

Years later, Liam returns home to build his own ranch. But two powerful cattlemen are determined to control the foothills and high mountain pastures, even if it means driving innocent settlers from their land. When they threaten Liam's neighbors and everything he has worked for, they discover why the legend of the Savage has endured.

The Savage is Book 11 in The Fast Gun Series, a classic Western tale of survival, cattle drives, frontier justice, and a dangerous man fighting to protect the place he calls home.

Ride into the Abajo Mountains and discover the legend of The Savage.

Excerpt from the book

Liam Byrne was searching for a suitable sapling to cut down. He was twelve years old and he wanted to make a bow and arrows for hunting. He had learned a lot from his father, who was a hunter and trapper, but making a bow and arrows he had learned from the Apache. He was from southwest Texas, where his father had a small ranch. He never knew his mother because she had died giving birth to him. His father had befriended a small Mescalero tribe in the Guadalupe Mountains, so an Apache woman nursed the baby. Liam’s father, Patrick Byrne, was known as naazha’ to the Mescalero – simply meaning, he hunts. One bad winter, Patrick had come upon a young warrior who had slipped and fallen on the ice that had formed after a sudden snowstorm.

Patrick had set the fractured bone and dragged him on a travois to the Mescalero camp. He found that the tribe consisted mainly of the aged, young women, and a handful of young bucks. The others had gone on a raid to New Mexico and had not returned. He saw that food was scarce, so he went back down, shot a couple of mule deer and dragged the kill to the camp. Until the warriors came back, Patrick dropped off enough meat to keep the tribe from starving. Patrick spent four months a year hunting and trapping in the new lands up north to make enough money to keep the ranch going. He never remarried and left young Liam with the Mescalero when he was away on a hunt.

From the time Liam was eight, Patrick took him along on his hunting and trapping trips. When the Civil War seemed imminent, Patrick told his son, “If they declare war, then I will be beholden to fight for Texas. But you haven’t yet crossed your twelfth birthday and I fear to leave you alone.” Liam said, “I’ll make do, Pa. You don’t have to worry about me.” But Patrick shook his head and said, “What if I don’t make it back? This small ranch can’t sustain you in the future. We’ll go to the La Sal and Abajo Mountains now.” Liam protested, “But Pa, it’s coming on to winter there, so we won’t be able to do much hunting or trapping.” Patrick smiled and told him, “We will do some hunting, but this time I’ll be hunting gold. I remember seeing some likely places a long time back, and I panned some gold from a mountain stream one time.” He patted his son’s shoulder and said, “If we find enough gold, that will hold you for the future even if I don’t come back from this war.”