The Trans-Pecos War (The Fast Gun Series Book 8)

The Trans-Pecos War

Three years after the Civil War, peace is still hard to find in Southwest Texas.

Cormac Walsh has drifted across Texas looking for steady work and a place to stand. At the Rocking R Ranch in the rugged Trans-Pecos country, he finds both. A former soldier, cowboy, and dangerous man to cross, Cormac is not looking for trouble. But when Jed Blackwood of the JB Connected Ranch turns a feud over land and water rights into open violence, trouble comes fast.

After Cormac steps in to protect the Starr women from renegades in town, the Rocking R is pulled into the fight alongside the 4S Ranch. Blackwood has gunmen, outlaws, and former renegades at his back, and he means to burn out anyone who stands against him.

Outnumbered but not broken, Cormac and the loyal men of the 4S and Rocking R ride for the brand, holding to the cowboy creed even as the range war grows bloodier by the day. In the hard country of the Trans-Pecos, courage, loyalty, and a fast hand may be the only things keeping good men alive.

Read The Trans-Pecos War, Book 8 in The Fast Gun Series, a Western novel of range war, loyalty, and hard justice on the Texas frontier.

Excerpt from the book

Cormac Walsh, known as Mack to his friends, was a tall, broad-shouldered, well-built man with the narrow waist and lean hips of a typical cowboy. He had punched cows across the plains of Texas and Kansas from the age of thirteen. He had been up to Montana in the west and Iowa in the east. He had joined the Confederate army during the War Between the States simply because he was born in Texas. He had always been a free-spirited individual, and he hated the idea of slavery. He also hated bullies and the powerful who preyed on the weak. He was a man who kept to himself but made lasting friendships. He was a product of his time, shaped and honed by the harsh life of the frontier, and imbued with the Code of the West—honor, loyalty, and self-reliance. He could be a vicious rough-and-tumble fighter, and he was very fast with the Colt revolver in the low-slung, tied-down holster on his right thigh—but he would have laughed if anyone had called him a fast gun. He did what he had to do, and he always rode for the brand.

There was trouble brewing in the Pecos Valley and the Trans-Pecos region, but Cormac Walsh rode for the Rocking R brand, and they were not involved in any way. It was just past noon on a bright, sunny day, and Cormac had come to the town of Red Bluff to buy some supplies. The town serviced most of the ranches and farms in the area and did a thriving business. He bought his supplies and decided to have an early lunch at the Longhorn Saloon. He liked the owner, Ron Harrington, who was his age and was from the East. He would tell Cormac tales of New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia. In return, he expected Cormac to tell him tales about the West.

Ron Harrington came from a wealthy family back East, but he had always been a maverick who didn’t fit in with the high social life of the East. He had heard tales of the western lands, and he decided to move and see the land for himself. His family was not unhappy to see him go, but they provided him with an annual income, and his father told him, “You are not fit for this society, Ron. You have always been different, and I suspect that you’re a throwback to the first Harringtons who came to this land. I have heard that the western lands are harsh, and the very act of survival is difficult. I will provide you with an annual amount of money so you can start some business over there if you’re inclined to.” Ron traveled across Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, but he felt at home when he hit Texas. He decided not to take part in the Civil War and moved to Mexico for a time. Toward the end of the war, he came back to Texas by traveling across the Chihuahuan Desert and settled down near the Pecos Valley in southwestern Texas. He opened the Longhorn Saloon and worked as a cowboy for the Spur Ranch when he was bored. He had been here for three years now, and it was Alejandro Garcia, the owner of the Spur, who taught him how to be a cowboy.