Jess leaves Twin Rivers and heads to Prudence, Texas. The man he’s hunting, Eric Sheehan, has been seen in the area. When Jess arrives, he discovers that Sheehan murdered a young girl the night before and immediately left town.
He finds the town marshal to be less than cooperative. The marshal wants to put a posse together and bring Sheehan back to Prudence to be hung in front of the parents of the young girl. He threatens to lock Jess up in his jail if he continues the hunt for Sheehan. After meeting the girl’s mother and seeing the girl’s body at the undertaker, Jess agrees to hunt Sheehan down and bring him back alive for a hanging.
After the hanging, Jess goes on the hunt for Arnie McGrath, but runs into a young man named John Smith, who is looking for McGrath and two other men who murdered his parents years earlier. Smith reminds Jess of himself when he was young. He decides to ride with Smith to go after the men responsible.
Jess finds the young John Smith to be remarkably talented at hunting and killing men. The two work together to find all three of the men who murdered Smith’s parents. Guns blaze, bullets fly and blood flows as the two hunt down killers together, forming a friendship that will last forever.
Jess is on the hunt for Cal Monett, a job that takes him to the town of Twin Rivers, Texas. He meets a young boy there who is homeless, broke and stealing to survive. Jess misses Monett, who had left town before he arrived, so he continues the hunt. This takes him to the nearby town of Moccasin, where he runs afoul of a rich rancher, Burt Orwell, who has just taken on Monett as one of his hired guns.
After Jess kills Monett in front of Orwell, the rancher offers Jess a job, which he refuses, alienating Orwell even more. Three of the hired guns swear an oath to kill Jess for killing Monett. However, in a twist of events, these men and one more hired gun rob the rancher of twenty-four thousand dollars at night, leaving him with an empty safe and only one hired gun left on his payroll.
Orwell offers Jess a substantial reward to hunt down the four men and get his money back. Jess takes the job and things turn deadly. Three of the men who swore an oath to hunt Jess down and kill him have now become the hunted instead.
Thankfully, Jess has some help from an old friend, the huge timber wolf, Shadow.
After leaving Templeton, Texas, and John Bodine, Jess begins his hunt for Ricky Jewel. The hunt takes him to the town of Belding, Texas. After dealing with Jewel, he takes his body to the town of Salisbury, Texas, to turn in for the bounty.
The town marshal of Salisbury, Vic Vinton, hands Jess two wanted posters on two of the men who have been dubbed, the Notorious Four, by the Northwest Mounted Police in Canada. After seeing the list of horrific crimes the four have committed, and knowing that they’ve fled across the border into the states, Jess is determined to hunt them all down and make them pay.
Two things stand in his way. The long enduring hunt for the Notorious Four, and the many enemies Jess has made over the years. Jess, however, is not one to let that get in his way as he mows down his enemies in his hunt for the Notorious Four.
Jess is tracking the murderous killer, Oden Colling. He proves to be as smart as he is dangerous. Smart enough that Jess decides to break off the hunt and go after the next man on his list, Linton Fish.
Meanwhile, Colling murders a woman in the town of Taylor, Texas. If that isn’t bad enough, Colling is telling everyone that he’s Jess Williams. The county sheriff puts out a warrant for Jess to be detained for questioning.
United States Marshal Frank Reedy sends John Bodine to Taylor to attempt to resolve the issue, but it only angers the county sheriff, who then offers a reward for Jess’s detention. Jess knows he’s innocent of the charge, but some of the other gunslingers are just looking for an excuse to go after him.
Jess and Wildcat go separate ways after hunting down the Whittaker gang. He begins his hunt for the slippery killer, Buck Benson. He locates him in the town of Starkey, Texas, but he’s going by the name of Harry Black. He’s now married and has a young son. The people of the town have even elected him as the mayor and, by all accounts, he is a very generous man. Jess finds himself in a quandary regarding this man who has no memory of his past life.
Jess decides to hunt his next man, Rick Gale, but he receives an urgent message from the schoolmarm, Martha Heller. He drops everything and heads straight to Harrison, Texas. The marshal of the town ends up wounded badly and Jess pins on his United States Marshals badge to enforce the law there. Jess is in love with Martha but knows that he can’t act on his feelings until he hangs up his guns and retires.