Val Darrant was just four years old the snowy night his mother abandoned him. But instead of meeting a lonely death, he met Will Reilly—a gentleman, a gambler, and a worldly, self-taught scholar. For ten years they each were all the family the other had, traveling from dusty American boomtowns to the glittering cities of Belle Époque Europe—until the day Reilly’s luck ran out in a roar of gunfire. 

But it wasn’t a gambling brawl or a pack of thieves that sealed Will’s fate. It was a far more complex story that Val would soon uncover—one that would bring him face-to-face with the one person he least wants to see: his mother. With the help of a beautiful, street-smart rancher and the woman who was Will Reilly’s lost love, Val must close this last cruel chapter of his past before he can turn the page on an uncertain future.