Joe Pickett's foster daughter is discovered in a ditch, barely alive. Joe knows who's responsible but there's no proof and his investigation will bring him face-to-face with some truly terrifying opposition.

Joe Pickett has good reason to dislike Dallas Cates, rodeo champion. Now he has even more reason - Joe's eighteen-year-old foster daughter April has run off with him. And then comes even worse news: the body of a girl has been found in a ditch along the highway - alive, but just barely, the victim of blunt force trauma. It is April, and the doctors don't know if she'll recover. Cates denies having anything to do with it - says she ran off from him, too - but Joe knows in his gut who's responsible. The problem is that there's no proof, and when Joe sets out to find some he faces terrifying opposition: the entire Cates clan, including two notoriously violent brothers and a mother like no one Joe has ever met. But Joe's going to find out the truth, if it kills him. And this time, it just might.