Cole made a deal with Death, and it turns out he got the short end of the stick. And being stuck in the small dusty town mucking stalls as he waits for instructions has a way of testing the Reaper's three speeds: on, off, and don't push your luck.

Catherine Blake is a head-strong woman in charge of her family's failing farm and raising her two younger brothers. She's beautiful, cynical, and not about to let the blood-thirsty mayor and his posse of black-eyed demons trying to make room for the incoming railroad get her off her ancestral land.

Cole just can't keep his eyes off Catherine, and his heart?which he hasn't felt beat in years?aches whenever he's away from her warm skin. Cole knows it's wrong to feel anything for her, or for the two brothers she cares for, but he loves how she makes him feel... almost human again.

He knows he has a job to do, but those demons are inching in on their farm, and he thinks he might just have to break the rules and intervene?come hell or high water?to keep those kids safe. Besides, what's Death going to do? Send him to hell?

His soul's already there.