The Scarlet Dove

Summer, 1871: the worst storm in living memory is battering the remote border town of Tres Cruces, flooding rivers, snapping telegraph lines, wrecking the ferry. Stranded miners and ranchers huddle in the town's leaky inns, fretting while their meager supplies dwindle. Only Diana Clayborn remains unafraid. Forced into prostitution at an early age, Diana has been stranded her entire life, with an iron heart and acid sarcasm her only defenses against the brutality of her profession. For her, dying in a flood would be no worse than living the nightmare of her life. When a mysterious drifter named Moreno asks Diana to help rob the town's only bank, she feels she has nothing to lose; but Moreno's daring scheme of misdirection and guile has a potentially fatal flaw. If it succeeds, they'll have to sit on the stolen money till the flood waters recede. Diana must decide which is stronger, her common sense or her desperation, and she comes to understand that no matter what she chooses, the price of her freedom may ultimately be calculated in blood.