The Ruthless Rider

Mack Vescari smuggles guns under horse blankets for a family that raised him to be useful and disposable. One last run, then he's gone. Then his uncle hands him a passenger — a federal witness named Elena Ruiz who was supposed to disappear in Big Bend. Mack drives her west instead. Now the family's enforcers are behind them, a U.S. Marshal thinks Elena is a fugitive, and the only thing between them and a shallow grave is Mack's knowledge of the country and Elena's refusal to break. They cross the desert on stolen horses, sleep in dry canyons, and fall into something neither of them planned. She testifies. He testifies. Sal goes to prison. Two years later, on a small ranch outside Alpine, the family is just the two of them and a barn full of cutting horses.