On a thunderous night, she vanishes. With her parents sleeping, someone simply walks into the bedroom and takes six-year-old Rose Violette away. A frantic search begins... With an outraged town crying out for blood, Special Investigator Danny Pierce is sent to Temperance River to search for Rose's abductors. But there's something strange about the Rose Violette case--too many loose ends that don't add up. Although his instincts tell him to leave it alone, Danny is determined to get at the truth. And if he plays it right, it could give him back his life; but if he's wrong, he could die. And a...

"My code? Here it is. I'm Elston Brand, professional at violence. Bring me your troubles, bring me your pimps and panderers and prostitutes and extortionists and grafters and marks and dead-beats and rear-end-kissing heirs and ambulance-chasing lawyers ready to split a fee. Bring me your irate husbands and nymphomaniac wives and thieving cops and savage killers. Bring me your...hell, you get the idea..."

Robert Haywood is on the run On the run from his murderous father; on the run from a gang of vicious Mexican thugs; on the run from a rogue cop and a driven F.B.I. agent... Now, to get back home to his wife and kids, Robert has 800 miles of lonely Texas highway in front of him. And only one chance left to make it home alive...