Buzzard Bait

A man with a deadly reputation walks the dusty streets of Phoenix, desperate to bury his past. Known as a killer who is too quick with his six-guns, he has sworn off the black attire that made him infamous, hoping to disappear into the life of an ordinary cowpuncher. But when a dust-covered automobile pulls up and a striking young woman with tired, commanding eyes offers him work on the remote Gila Mesa, he cannot resist the chance to start anew. He takes the name "Mr. Black," a ghost of his former self, and climbs into her car.

The journey north is uneasy. He is joined by two other hired hands: a leering drunkard and a shifty, sinewy man with a dangerous glint in his eyes. The woman is tight-lipped about the true nature of the work, and the air is thick with unspoken secrets. As the desert landscape stretches before them, the cowboy senses that this isolated ranch holds more than honest labor. Between his own dark past and the palpable tension among the passengers, he knows that peace may be the one thing the Gila Mesa cannot offer.

Under the blazing Arizona sun, old habits die hard. With a reputation that clings like a shadow and companions who seem to be hiding their own truths, the man called Black must decide how far he will go to protect a new identity—and whether a man can ever truly outrun the legend he has left behind.

© 2026 Wildside Press (Ebook): 9781667667188

Release date

Ebook: 26 April 2026