Cold Bore

They put three rounds in him and left him in the desert. The desert gave him back.Eighteen months ago, Justin Haig's own team put two rounds in his chest and one above his eye and walked away. In a Mexican courtyard, the most dangerous man his country ever denied building was supposed to disappear for good.The desert wouldn't keep him.Now he's a nobody in a forgotten border town-throwing clay, feeding hens, tending the grave of the only life he ever wanted. He isn't looking for trouble. He's looking for quiet.A man like Haig doesn't get to disappear.When the watchers come, the order is the strange part: take the ghost alive. The cartel that owns half a border has learned that the man who twice unmade its king is still breathing-and the patrón wants him on his knees before the deadliest gathering of his reign.To reach that room, Haig will have to cross the river south, into the country that swallowed him once already. To survive it, he'll have to trust a dead woman's father, outrun the handler who opened his skull, and go through the five men who trained beside him-one at a time.It all comes down to a single cold shot. The first round is the only one that ever matters.Haig has never missed the one that counts.He's about to learn what it costs when he does.