The Living and the Dead

A teenage son makes a strange discovery one morning at the back of his parents closet. Wrapped in red silk and hidden beneath a pile of old photos is a beautiful samurai sword in its scabbard. When the boy confronts his father with his discovery, he soon learns the tragic story behind its acquisition and its villainous former owner. His fathers tale of one mans ultimate devotion to the woman he loves and the sacrifices he was willing to make in her name begins to unfold, changing the boy forever.

Nate Walker had lived a lonely existence, tormented for much of his young life by the nightmares of an abusive childhood and his bouts with his personal demons. But when Sarah Ross entered his life by chance and fell in love with him, his life suddenly took on a whole new meaning. A lifetime of happiness no longer seemed an unattainable dream. Little did Nate know, however, that a lone bullet fired on a warm summer night in Las Vegas would drastically alter his life and threaten to destroy his future with the woman he loves more than life itself. The shadows from her past would catch up to them in the worst way possible.

After burying his older brother, Mark ODane, Sarahs ex-fianc and the youngest son of a casino magnate, launches a desperate ploy to win her back. Despite his associates dire warnings, ODane turns to his fathers sinister chief enforcer, Dante Medina, to deliver Sarah an invitation to his party in Las Vegas, an invitation he knows she would not dare refuse. When the sadistic killer arrives in town, she has no choice but to accept his summons in fear of a violent reprisal against Nate and his loved ones. After setting in motion a disastrous last-minute attempt to see Sarah before her departure, Nate and his friends, Mitch Green and Roy Tucker, launch a frantic plan of their own to find her and, at the same time, protect their loved ones at home from retaliation.

Broken and afraid, Nate and Sarah find their way back to each other, but are burdened with the haunting knowledge that the true horror Dante threatened to unleash is only just beginning. Volume I comes to a tumultuous end, but the tale of the samurai sword is only halfway complete. The epic love story concludes in volume II.