Tom W. Blackburn Knihy

In the high country of New Mexico, the land made the men, and Spencer Stanton wanted a hunk of it for his empire. But there were those who were bent on giving him a rough ride. Some were bunched up against him -- the Yanqui-hating Mexicans to the south and the blood-hungry Utes to the north. Some were strung out alone -- land-grabbing drifters with steel in their hearts and in their holsters, men like Hagen, a wagon boss-turned-killer who still carried around a Stanton bullet in his side.

He was part yanqui, part Mexican, part black, part Comanche. He was all man — and every inch a killer. He called himself Espada, the “Ace of Spades” in Spanish, and that was the calling card he left on the bullet-ridden corpses of his victims.

Spencer Stanton's word was law. He had killed many to win his vast cattle spread, and would do anything fair or foul to keep it. Every ranchhand, every neighboring landowner, every roaming Indian tribe new better than to cross this man's power, this man's pride.

Spencer Stanton built empires and his greatest pride was the sprawling, abundant Corona spread, and Tito, the strong and honest son who helped him work it. So when two trail-broke Johnny Rebs rode up to the Corona no one guessed this was the beginning of a family feud that could pull down an empire and drench a small and worthless piece of desert Malpais with blood. Because no one knew that Tito Stanton wasn't the only son . . . And only the action of Tito's whiplash guns could divide the good blood from the bad and reunite the Stanton family.

Tito Stanton knew he had left his boyhood behind forever when his father gave him the gleaming Navy Colt with its belt and holster, and told Tito he would need it now to protect what was theirs. He learned the talent he was gifted with when the legendary gunfighter named Kinchoe taught him how to use a gun as very few dreamed it could be used. Tito had his gun and he had his choice. He could use it to back up the law. Or he could use it to go the way of the lawless. But one thing was sure. He would have to use it to kill . . .