"When people lie to Baer Creighton their eyes glow red and he experiences a small burst of electricity. It hurts to suffer liars-- and Baer learned long ago that everyone lies. So he sleeps in the woods outside his house, converses with his sole companion, a pit bull named Fred, and distills special blends of fruited moonshine. When Fred is stolen, fought in an illegal fight circle and left for dead, Baer vows to set things right. He has all the skill...

Picking up the story with Baer on the road to North Carolina and Tat and Corazon in the motel with the hot tub, disaster is moments away.

Six days before Baer Creighton cut down a cabal of dogfighters, a sixteen-year-old girl disappeared while walking home from school in Asheville, North Carolina. Witnesses later claimed they saw her in the back of a police car. Twenty-five years before that, an illegal fireworks plant blew up in Benton, Tennessee, killing eleven, and raining M100 firecrackers over half a county. A few days later, a thirteen-year-old boy learned his highest calling...

Luke Graves turned the family butcher business into an empire by cutting fat off the ledger as well as he cut meat off the bone. He also learned many men sold beef, but few sold girls and boys. Demand was high especially for the ones with brwon skin and supply small. Ten years later the family business included three sons and a distribution chain that delivered kids for any purpose throughout the western United States. One evening, returning to Williams,...