Book excerpt: The scion of one of the West's great outlaws comes home from the war in Iraq--Gilman James, the last of three childhood friends to return.His brothers-in-arms are mere shadows of their former selves--Gil, unmarked--determines to take care of them. But how far should a man go for the people he loves?Stepping across the line between right and wrong, Gil finds himself stranded in the Texan desert-as a bank heist he's planned goes horribly wrong. Pursued into the badlands by US Marshal John Whicher, Gil crosses paths with Tennille Labrea; an outlander, with her own demons to fight. Shielding a secret too precious to share with anyone, she's ready to cross her own line in the sand.What makes an outlaw? Marshal John Whicher, veteran of the First Gulf War thinks he knows. But can natural justice ever outrank the law? For three very different people a moment of reckoning is set in train: violent, defining; inescapable.