He forced himself to focus on the pit. He’d told her they couldn’t kiss again. She’d promised she wouldn’t kiss him until he asked her to. Which he wasn’t planning to do. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Even though he’d told her he’d think about their relationship and a future together, he had no intention of dragging her into his world—a world filled with brutality, lawlessness, and death.

Into his mind flashed the image of his mom’s dead body. As the coroner pulled down the sheet covering her, his stomach had roiled at the sight of the bruises marring her pretty face and the realization of the pain she had suffered, how scared she must have been, how she’d probably begged her captors for mercy, only to have them hurt her even more.

He’d learned that day exactly how cruel and soulless some criminals were. All because they believed they were above the law and could live the way they wanted, destroying people—entire families—for their own personal gain and pleasure. Those men needed a reckoning. And he planned to make sure they got it. He might not be able to bring back his mom, but he could make the world a safer place for others. It was what God had called him to do, and he couldn’t toss that aside, not for anyone. Not even for Ivy.

Rodney James was one of those cruel and soulless men. He’d been caught near the end of the war and charged with murder, but he’d escaped from jail and disappeared. Until last year, when the Department of Justice had relayed to Pinkerton that the war criminal was living in South Park. Apparently, he’d bragged to a Denver prostitute about his crimes as well as his plans to settle in South Park, most likely in Fairplay. She’d told a fellow prostitute about the strange man. Clearly she hadn’t anticipated that he’d murder her before he left town. But he did, and he cut out her tongue.

Unfortunately, Denver investigators hadn’t been able to get a detailed description of Rodney to help update his profile. So they were still working with one of the pictures taken during the war.

The fact was, even though Jericho was narrowing down his list of suspects, he still needed more time. Which meant he had to warn Ivy not to speak a word about his mission to anyone—for his sake and hers.

She was already reaching her hand down into the hole.

“Hold on. What if there’s a nest of rattlers at the bottom?” It was unlikely, but she was too impulsive at times.