Eight years after chasing a killer through a storm-choked desert, Elias confronts a wounded stranger bleeding on his church floor—Judd Tanner, who claims to be the man who murdered Elias’s friend Ben. Judd spins a tale of betrayal and a mysterious promise tied to the desolate Jornada del Muerto, demanding Elias settle an old debt. As tensions simmer, a dust-worn posse storms the church, hungry for answers and vengeance. Caught between a dying man’s secrets and a town on the edge, Elias must decide who to trust—and how far he’ll go to protect a truth he’s not sure he wants to uncover.