Deputy sheriff Tom Lord knows by now that far-west Texas is the place he´ll always call home. He´s spent too much time in the region´s small towns to adapt to another place. And that´s all right with him. What´s not all right is being a deputy sheriff, where if it weren´t for family misfortune, he might have been a doctor instead. Lord´s got one ace-in-the-hole--the land deed that makes him the biggest landowner in the county, just as the oil companies have started to move in. When Tom´s approached by Aaron McBride of Highlands Oil and Gas with a contract to set up pipelines on his property, he´s more than happy to sign on the dotted line with barely more than a cursory glance at the paperwork--it just might be Lord´s way out of a life he never wanted in the first place. But when Lord finds out just what that contract entailed, things start to go sour for Aaron McBride--and fast. Because in this Texas town, Lord´s the law--and there´s nothing more dangerous than a cop with nothing left to lose
