Steel Coleman sinned in his heart the day he saw fifteen-year-old Riley Spencer. Driven by lust he couldn't acknowledge or control, he encourages his mother to marry Riley's father, joining the two families and creating a living hell for Steel in the process. In an attempt to spare his sanity, he goes for long rides from the family ranch, and he's not home to protect the family when bandits strike. Riley survives but their parents are murdered. Haunted by grief and guilt, Steel flees to catch the men responsible, promising his younger stepbrother he would return. He never does. When they meet again ten years later, Riley is a far cry from the boy Steel left behind. And he needs his former stepbrother to pay for the very real sin of abandoning him when he needed Steel the most. But their fateful meeting sends Riley running. Leaving Steel is the hardest thing he's ever done, but Riley understands what Steel knew all along -- it's too dangerous to stay. Will he be prepared to face the consequences when Steel inevitably catches up with him? Can forgiveness be possible?

Steel's Redemption

The beans tasted like dirt, but he scraped the plate clean and then asked for another helping. If this was to be his last night on earth, he wasn’t bunking down with an empty hole in his stomach. He’d at least eat until he was full. But the hole in him couldn’t be filled with food. He kept shoveling beans in his mouth and if anything the hole got worse, yawning wider and wider until he feared falling into himself.


Once Riley finished his second plate, Jesse put a few more pieces of wood on the fire and told them to get some shuteye. Easier said than done. When he closed his eyes he saw Steel. Standing over Riley’s prone and bleeding body, a smoking revolver clutched in each hand. It might have been a dream. It might have been the product of his stressed and exhausted brain. But it struck Riley as a premonition. When their paths crossed again, one of them wasn’t going to walk away.


Then he remembered that he’d most likely be hung before their paths crossed again.


Chapter 12