Dead or Alive?

1871. Courageous Amanda Bodreaux has no idea if her secretive husband is dead or alive. He's run off leaving her to fight in an aggressive man's world with a pistol in her dainty hand. When a strikingly handsome and mysterious man shows up needing a wife, Amanda figures his problems, whatever they might be, aren't hers. How wrong can a woman be?

Emery Cobbs knows even before his arrival in Water Springs, Missouri, that Amanda is his problem. And more. She is prettier and pricklier than a man has a right to lay eyes on, and she must also know the location of the diamonds her irresponsible husband squirreled away. With a gun pointed at his head, Emery doesn't have many options left.

Will he marry Amanda for the diamonds or will he die in the process? At her hands?

Calla Kendrick is the dead senator's wife. Her husband and their five-year-old son died in an unexplained catastrophe a year ago, with no clues left behind except one elaborate chess piece set with precious gems found at the scene. Were the senator and his son murdered? According to Rock Moynahan, a Las Vegas police detective, the wife is usually the first suspect, but he hadn't found a shred of evidence against Calla. He believes she is guilty, though, and there isn't much that will dissuade him from his conviction.

Calla is puzzled after visiting her lost family's graves and finding another expensive chess piece. Could it be a reference to her husband and son? A visit to an antique shop to gain information about the chess pieces, and a cryptic conversation with the shop's owner, leaves Calla no closer to the truth. With the looming detective at her side, Calla begins to discover secrets that should never have been exposed, and the evil that surrounds them.

Rock's LVPD badge is useless against the intensifying ill will he can't see or touch. His quickening realization that Calla is innocent leaves more unanswered questions in his questing mind, but one thing he knows for certain: he's falling in love with the dead senator's wife.