He was supposed to hide her.
He married her instead.

Maren Cole rides into Pinehollow with a split lip, a dead brother’s last order, and a drive that can burn powerful men to the ground. Find Ward, Eli said. He was my commander. He will not let them take you.

Silas Ward is forty-one. President of the Hollow Saints. Ex-Raider. Fifteen years too old and already treating grief like a duty roster. He puts her in his house the same night. Chair by the door. Pistol on his thigh. Three days later he puts a ring on her finger so the law has to say her name with his.

The men hunting her don’t care about vows. They care about the file. They send paper. Then bricks. Then a smile that looks like a funeral.

She was never a stray.
She is the witness.
And the man who killed her brother just walked into a mill town that does not share what is his.

Open the book. Some husbands keep you safe. This one ends the hunt.