When Jack Brannigan whacked a stump with his knee, lost his breakfast down the horse's front leg and bruised his manhood on the saddle horn, all on the first morning of the ride, he knew the venture would play hell with his sense of humor. Without thinking twice, maybe not even once, he had ignored the elements of endurance warning in the brochure and flew to New Mexico for a week-long, 135-mile horseback ride. On twenty-two horses and a mule named Molly, the riders would chase the ghost of Billy the Kid over the mountains and across the desert from Lincoln to Fort Sumner. Choking dust, scorching sun, freezing rain, and a blistered butt prove the brochure to be true. But elements become the least of Jack's concerns when tragedy strikes. The riders discover Bonita, a courageous and beautiful young woman, kidnapped and held as a slave on Paradise Mountain, and Jack Brannigan faces the biggest challenge of his life.