Jess is on the hunt for Lyle Dailey, which takes him to the town of Raleigh. When he gets there, Dailey is already gone.
He heads out after him and comes across a widowed woman by the name of Violet living alone in a small cabin and barn. She informs him that Dailey had tried to approach her, but that she ran him off with her rifle.
When Jess heads back out on the trail, Dailey sees him coming and ambushes him. Violet finds him on the trail not far from her cabin. He’s been shot in the shoulder, but still alive.
She tends to his wound at her cabin, joined by the town nurse. Once he’s well enough to travel, they take him to the hotel in Raleigh.
Meanwhile, a cattle baron by the name of Felton Vanover has been attempting to buy her land to get access to the river running through it. Frustrated, he goes out to make another offer, but when he finds her missing, he orders two of his hired guns to burn her place to the ground.
When Jess finds out that the woman who saved his life has lost everything, he vows to make things right one way or another, as soon as he’s well enough.
United States Marshal Frank Reedy travels to Raleigh to watch over Jess and sends John Bodine to the town of Newell, where they think Lyle Dailey is heading. Bodine kills Dailey and then travels to Raleigh to be with Jess.
Problems mount when other gunslingers find out Jess is staying in Raleigh and they start coming for him. If that wasn’t enough, he ends up in a war with Vanover and his hired killers.
Jess is after the cold-blooded killer, Tom Walker, who seems to prefer a bowie knife as his weapon of choice. He comes close to catching him several times, but Walker proves to be a much more elusive prey than most.
To make matters worse, Walker leaves a trail of innocent victims in his wake, and Jess is faced with other setbacks along the way that makes it harder to finally catch the killer.
Jess is on the trail of Ivan Bush, which takes him to the town of Bravo, Texas. On his way, he meets a widow by the name of Penny, who lives outside of town. He befriends her and stays in her place for the night.
After he leaves Bravo, he discovers that two outlaws robbed Penny and beat her to within an inch of her life. He returns to Bravo and arranges for her to be taken care of before heading out on the hunt for the two men who committed the crime.
Then, a United States senator is murdered and the president of the United States offers a five-thousand-dollar reward. Jess goes after the man who killed him.
Along the way, he meets another bounty hunter who wants in on the hunt…but he’s not the only one.
Jess has left Stratton, Texas, on the hunt for Ron Wexler, a man who hasn’t been seen in years. On the way, he catches another killer and takes his body to Danbury, Texas, where he runs into the formidable Wildcat, the female bounty hunter who works in New Mexico Territory. She’s on the hunt for the Jacob gang, a murderous bunch of thugs on a killing spree.
The two bounty hunters team up together. Wildcat helps Jess track down Ron Wexler, and Jess helps her find and take down the Jacob gang.
Each, alone, is a force to be reckoned with.
Jess is headed to Alger, Texas, hunting for the killer, Jim Fisk. He catches him there, but not before Fisk murders an innocent couple just outside of town.
Meanwhile, the men in the village of Fulton capture the notorious, Ned Malone, who raped and strangled the wife of a Texas supreme court justice, in Calico. They call on John Bodine to come and get him.
Ned Malone is one of Deputy United States Marshal Frank Reedy’s worst nemeses. Reedy is the one who put him in prison and Malone has escaped…yet again. Two deputy marshals from Calico travel to Stratton to pick up Malone for his hanging, but Malone’s men murder them.
Reedy is hell-bent on seeing Malone hang and decides that he and two other federal marshals will escort him to Calico.
As soon as Jess finds out about it, he rides to Stratton, hoping to catch Reedy before he leaves. But Reedy has already left.
When Jess catches up to Reedy, he finds him wounded and the two federal marshals dead. After getting Reedy’s wound taken care of, Jess and Reedy go on the hunt for Malone and his men.
It turns out to be a long and bloody hunt.