Betrayal and danger are not new to Wako pirate captain Lady Aika. Her Chinese prostitute mother betrayed her. Her savior pirate sea captain and lover betrayed her. The Wako’s powerful long-time Japanese partners (the Shimazu clan) want to kill her. But these pale in comparison to the sadistic Chinese prince sending the lethal and hereditary assassin Night Stalkers her way.

Lady Aika is used to dealing with men as an equal. She is the best sailor, the best shot, the best navigator, the best sea captain in the Wako fleet, and known as the Wako’s brain. Now Yoshinobu Hideki, a representative of Shogun Iemitsu, is proposing the Wako become the Shogun’s navy. It would be laughable if she were not desperate for a way to save her way of life. The shogun has traditionally abhorred the Wako with a well-established kill on sight order. So, she is not about to trust anyone…yet.

But Hideki’s plans and conviction make enough sense to give her hope. Then she meets the stepmother of the shogun, O’Fuku. and recognizes a thoroughly evil woman with the shogun’s ear. Through this miasma of threats and shady people Lady Aika meets an old lover now working for Hideki, captures a distasteful and spoiled Chinese princess, takes a liking to a frightened young maid with skills that make her valuable to the Wako, and meets a samurai warrior who catches her eye.

Lady Aika knows tomorrow is not promised to any pirate but hopes she can find a way to aid Hideki in his quest to counter a Shimazu rebellion and wrest control of their 70-year-old financial empire that spans the seas, counter the shogun’s eradication order of the estimated 70,000 peaceful Kirishitans (Christians) on Kyushu island, escape the clutches of the Night Stalkers, and find enough trust in her heart to give love one more try.

Not yet 18 Travis is rapidly outgrowing the Big K ranch of his youth in Vermillion, Dakota Territory in the year of our Lord 1878. His widowed and now debauched father marries a prostitute known to all the ranch hands and expects Travis to call her mother. She is evil and Travis suspects her of being in league with rustlers striking unattended herds with regularity. When called on this his father explodes at Travis. Travis’s size and prowess with his Colts make beating his father or patricide a possibility. Travis decides not to risk either and strikes out on his own.

Travis heads south down the Missouri River Valley to the heavily populated and raucous city of Council Bluffs, Iowa. On the way he is attacked by the rustlers, saves a store owner and his family from knife and rifle-wielding mountain men, wipes out a nest of sniping road agents, helps thwart a bank robbery and is put in jail for his trouble. 

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Marty Short sees courage in Travis and offers him a job as deputy. For the next three years Travis learns the lawman’s trade but realizes the law may be inadequate. He tries to cobble together a code he can live by while staying one step ahead of scheming women, crooked politicians, stone-cold killers out for his blood, and an evil cabal deeply entrenched in two states.

The Kush

35 AD and centurion Marcus Magnus has brought a semblance of peace to the always volatile Roman province of Judea. Elevated to Deputy Prefect, Marcus marries his longtime warrior colleague Adongo, a Nubian princess and sister to the queen of the Kush. Attempts on Adongo’s life by Nubian assassins in daylight in Jerusalem and Joppa quickens the realization that the government in the Kush may be unstable. Marcus decides to help his sister-in-law, protect the interests of the Roman Empire, and make good on his marriage promise to let Adongo visit the land of her birth. It is a journey of some 2000 miles through some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. Crocodiles, hippos, heat, poisonous snakes, huge spiders, and the ubiquitous scorpions along the Nile make the journey extremely challenging. Add roving bandit gangs, rebel assassins, and slavers to the mix and the trip to the Kush capital of Meroe is downright hazardous. Once there, Marcus is ill prepared for the deep-rooted rebellion he finds in Meroe. The queen has four ministers, a high priest, and two generals of two separate armies, but no one to trust. Worse yet no one has a clue who is really running the rebellion. Marcus has just three more years until retirement from the legions of Rome. Now he wonders if he and his new wife will live to enjoy it.

The Fixer

34 AD Judea; Jesus has been crucified but the Jewish Sanhedrin want the followers of the holy man eradicated. The Roman Prefect after Pontius Pilate is weak. Marcus Magnus, a twenty-year veteran of the legions and Praetorian Guard Fixer is dispatched. The Sanhedrin Guards out number the Roman Legionnaires in the country 10:1 and they have Bedu assassins to call upon. The strategic city of Petra is controlled by bandits and slavers abound. What Marcus thought would be an easy last assignment before retirement has him now fighting for his life.