The Thirteen Bastards: Volumes I-IV: Origins of The Darkness (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798180571939)

The hanging of Jed Cooper wasn't just a localized act of violence; it was a stone dropped into a dark well, and the ripples reached further than any man in that nine man posse could have fathomed. Fleeing the reach of a law they had twisted into a noose, the killers crossed the Rio Grande, seeking sanctuary in the jagged, sun-scorched cathedrals of the Chihuahua Desert. They didn't find redemption in the dust, they only found a place to hide their shame. Deep within the limestone crevices and the shifting silt, these men took root like invasive weeds. They took lovers from the local villages, women who saw the iron in their belts but missed the rot in their souls. From those unions came thirteen sons, born into the shimmering heat and raised on the bitter milk of rejection. To the villagers, they were los fantasmas, (the ghosts). To the Americans across the border, they were nothing at all. They grew up in the scrub, their lullabies the sound of a hammer clicking back and their inheritance the rusted steel of fathers who were too cowardly to stay and too broken to lead. But the boys didn't stay small. They grew into men with eyes like flint and hearts hardened by the desert's kiln. They took a name that the world had spat at them and wore it like armor. They aren't riding for gold, and they aren't riding for God. They are riding for the lives that were stolen before they were even born. Their compass is set North, toward the sprawling stone walls of Fort Grant and the headquarters of the U.S. Marshals. They have sworn a blood-oath to burn the seat of American law to the white-ash ground and to hunt down every soul carrying the Cooper name until the line is finally severed. The desert didn't bury the secret of the nine men. It just waited for the right time to harvest.

Author: Michael J. Jr. Arnett
ISBN-13: 9798180571939
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 06/07/2026
Pages: 168
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.34lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.42d