Ryan O'Neil's life was not a happy one. He had lost his father at ten, and now lived with his mother's new husband and his four sons. Wesley Colson and his boys were cruel and hateful people, and he and his mother bore the brunt of their cruelty. At eighteen he could have left, but he stayed to try and protect his mother...only it didn't work, he found her murdered. He killed Wesley Colson in self defence, but he knew that the Colson boys would not believe it...and they didn't. Now he was on the run and the Colson clan were on his trail.There was a passel of Colsons in Sheridan County and they appointed themselves as his judge, jury and executioner...all they had to do was find him. He ran because he did not want to kill anyone else, but he was driven to it. Each time they found him they lost men, but how long could his luck last. Hiding in the Black Hills made him rich, but would he live to spend his gold? They found him again and more of them fell to his deadly fire. He was thinning the Colsons out, but they kept coming...all the way to Denver where he had met the girl of his dreams and things were looking good...until they attacked the woman he loved.For the first time he felt hatred and he took the war to them, until he was sick of killing. So he went to the mountains where there was nobody around him that could be hurt or killed by a stray bullet meant for him. He had only an old mountain man, a young Indian girl and two full grow cougars as companions, and life was good again...until they found him.
