Jess is on the hunt for Kirk Shepperd after crossing back into Texas from his hometown of Black Creek, Kansas. He runs into some trouble with a rancher in Redding, Texas. In the middle of all the action, Shadow is wounded by one of the rancher’s hired guns. A confrontation ensues between Jess and the rancher and tensions run high in the town.
Jess finds himself taking a side in the battle. It doesn’t take long before the rancher places a blood bounty on Jess’s head. Hired killers come from every direction, but Jess doesn’t plan on going down easily.
Jess finally gets to relax in Stratton, Texas, for a week of fishing, visiting and enjoying his house on the lake. His rest comes to an abrupt end when he finds out that a professional hired gun by the name of Len Bowden is in Stratton, asking about him.
Jess confronts the gun handler, but after killing him, he finds a map of his hometown of Black Creek, Kansas, in Bowden’s pocket. Jess’s name is printed on the map next to the town. That causes him to be suspicious and he starts heading to Black Creek to find out what it might mean.
Clay Morgan is living on the lake in Black Creek. When he finds out that a killer by the name of Glen Erlander in town asking questions about Jess, he confronts Erlander and kills him. Morgan finds a map identical to the one Jess found on Bowden. Jess hears this news and starts to put things together.
He heads straight to Black Creek and discovers that he has even more killers coming to find him, but he doesn’t know who they are or when they will arrive.
Jess has finally decided to take a long-needed break from the bounty hunting business. After leaving Kilgore, Kansas, and splitting off from the aging bounty hunter, John Booth, he goes to his house on the lake in Stratton, Texas. He plans to stay, relax, fish and visit with friends.
His break is quickly cut short when Frank Reedy gets shot and is in grave condition. After only one day of relaxation, he finds himself hunting for the six men responsible for Reedy being shot. He takes John Bodine and Ace Yardley on the hunt with him.
The six outlaws split up in pairs, each going in different directions, making Jess’s job of hunting them down difficult. But almost killing his good friend, Frank Reedy, was a mistake of proportions that the six killers would never realize…until Jess finds them and dispenses his own personal style of justice.
On the way back from Kansas City, Kansas, to Texas, Jess is on the hunt for Buck Lochmann. After catching him, he takes the body to Richman, Kansas, where he meets an old friend, John Booth. He’s also a bounty hunter, but he’s almost too old for the business. Jess gives Booth a hand, but then they separate again.
Jess hunts another man, and in the process, helps a woman and her young son, Doug. After transporting them to the town of Kensington, he ends up meeting Booth there again. Booth is planning on going after the vicious Anthony Clark gang, but Jess knows that Booth is not up to the task and might get himself killed while trying.
Jess and Booth go on the hunt together. The hunt turns deadly and difficult, but Jess is never one to let that get in his way.
Jess is heading to the town of Fleming on the hunt for Mark Fitzgerald. Before he makes it to Fleming, three men attempt to rob him.
Things don’t go well for the robbers. When Jess continues on toward Fleming, he finds a young man by the name of Hud, who had been ambushed by the same three robbers. Hud is wounded and unconscious. Jess senses something off about the man but isn’t sure what it is.
After delivering Hud to the doctor in Fleming, Jess discovers that someone is trying to have him killed and paying money to the men who try. He continues on his mission of killing the worst outlaws, but the fact that men are being paid to kill him makes his job more dangerous.
He leaves Fleming while Hud is still healing at the doctor’s office, but he has a strong feeling that it’s not the last time he’ll see the young man. He makes a decision to attempt to find the person who has been putting up the money to have him killed, but this proves to be an elusive and very dangerous journey.