Böcker av Don Cadden

Clay Long is a seasoned police detective who left his department to become a Special Ranger for the Governor of Texas. A tour in Iraq as First Sergeant with his airborne National Guard unit honed his instincts as a hunter of men.Ross Larimer served his tour in Vietnam back in the day, came home to Alpine, Texas, and joined the sheriff's department. He married a Tejana woman, raised a family, kept a few cows, and stayed horseback helping neighbors work their cattle.When the Hombres de Sangre (Men of Blood), a group of soulless killers working for the cartels, start crossing the border into Texas to ply their trade, Clay and Ross team up to stop them. Chasing them across the Big Bend country of Far West Texas, down the Rio Grande, and into Mexico, the two encounter more than they bargained for. Much more.Their adventures will keep the pages turning, but it's the bond that develops between Clay and Ross that captivates the reader. The two veterans, hardened by combat and life, banter and argue like brothers…but always have each other's back.Come along through this still-wild country, raft the river, and saddle up for a ride into Mexico to shoot it out with the worst of men. It's a trip you won't soon forget.

"In our leggings' pockets we'd each stashed guns. I'd packed a .357 magnum pistol, and José had a .22 pistol. When we got close to the wax camp, José said he thought they would have a trap set for us, and we'd be outnumbered. We both agreed that the best thing we could do was to keep our mouths shut under the circumstances. We rode into the camp, and Casus, the man I figured stole the cow, had a little fire going and had coffee ready and some tacos made. He invited us off our horses, and I noticed a .30-.30 rifle sitting pretty close to his hand." Apache Adams is somewhat of a living legend out in the Big Bend country of Texas. Born in 1937 and raised on the Rio Grande, he has lived the cowboy life most people believe ended in the 1800's. He has been inducted into the Big Bend Cowboy Hall of Fame, given the Working Cowboy Award by the National Cowboy Symposium, the Heritage Award by the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and won more buckles and saddles then he can count. But this book isn't about awards or buckles; it's about the life and adventures of a working cowboy. Ride along with Apache through the desolate canyons of the Big Bend and swim the Rio Grande horseback tracking cow thieves. Ride the river catching illegal Mexican cattle. Take a deep seat in your saddle when you rope a 2,000 pound maverick bull, get him to the ground, and tie his feet without any help. Tied Hard and Fast isn't a bunch of tall tales. It is the compilation of a lifetime of stories and adventures told in the voice of the man who lived them. "We followed the dogs up into a big rock slide, and they had about a 70- to 80-pound female mountain lion treed on a big rock. The dogs had her surrounded, but none of us had any kind of a gun. So I jerked my rope down and just kinda pitched it at the lion on that rock. She swatted at the rope, and I pulled it up tight around her front paw. The mule I was riding was pretty green and, when the cat started throwing a fit with the rope on her paw, decided to take off. I jerked the lion off the rock, and then the dogs all jumped on the lion. So I was dragging a lion around in circles with a bunch of dogs chewing on her, and she was putting up a pretty good fight with three legs." Along with living these stories, Apache has shared them with audiences at the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Arizona Cowboy Poet's Gathering, the Ruidosa New Mexico Gathering, and other events across the west. Once you pick this book up, you'll say, "I'll just read one more story and then put it down for the night"...but you can't!