How far can a man go seeking vengeance before it destroys his own soul? Software engineer, Nathaniel Myer, is a restless suburbanite whose world is shattered when chance places him in the path of a sociopath with the face of a saint. Nathaniel brushes off the fleeting encounter but in the hours that follow, he falls asleep in his wifes arms and awakes to unimaginable horror. Nate battles back through frailty, grief, guilt, and ultimately rage when time after time, the four tattooed suspects who destroyed his life skip ahead of the police then completely through their fingers. Finding the men known as Number One, Two, Three, and Four becomes Nates sole reason for being until his obsession destroys what little he has left. On the street, owning nothing but the clothes on his back and a crumpled wad of papers he got off a crooked PI, more than ever Nate cares about little beyond his single-minded crusade. Fate has other plans, however, because when a cantankerous old army veteran with strange blackouts, an emotionally disturbed kid with too many piercings, and a feisty mother and child hiding from their case worker all need a hero, Nate is somehow in the right place at the right time, and the man he used to be cant do other than help them. As long as none of his wards depend on him long term, because Nate doesnt plan on sticking around anywhere once his crusade ends. But staying sharp and playing reluctant guardian lands him squarely in reach of the very animals hes hunting and, most of all, their clever and elusive leader. Then abruptly, Nates life takes another series of blinding turns and the justice hes sought so long is on the line. But how can he risk letting a habitual killer smile and slip away again? Or must he, Nate, become the ultimate bait and sacrifice?

Typed transcript of the diary of Nathaniel Myer, who traveled overland to Oregon from Van Buren, Iowa, in 1853, arriving in the Rogue River Valley on September 25, 1853.

Dred Scott and his landmark Supreme Court case are ingrained in the national memory, but he was just one of multitudes who appealed for their freedom in courtrooms across the country. Appealing for Liberty is the most comprehensive study to give voice to these African Americans, drawing from more than 2,000 suits and from the testimony of more than 4,000 plaintiffs from the Revolutionary era to the Civil War. Through the petitions, evidence, and testimony introduced in these court proceedings, the lives of the enslaved come sharply and poignantly into focus, as do many other aspects of southern society such as the efforts to preserve and re-unite black families. This book depicts in graphic terms, the pain, suffering, fears, and trepidations of the plaintiffs while discussing the legal systemlawyers, judges, juries, and testimonythat made judgments on their "causes," as the suits were often called. Arguments for freedom were diverse: slaves brought suits claiming they had been freed in wills and deeds, were born of free mothers, were descendants of free white women or Indian women; they charged that they were illegally imported to some states or were residents of the free states and territories. Those who testified on their behalf, usually against leaders of their communities, were generally white. So too were the lawyers who took these cases, many of them men of prominence, such as Francis Scott Key. More often than not, these men were slave owners themselves-- complicating our understanding of race relations in the antebellum period. A majority of the cases examined here were not appealed, nor did they create important judicial precedent. Indeed, most of the cases ended at the county, circuit, or district court level of various southern states. Yet the narratives of both those who gained their freedom and those who failed to do so, and the issues their suits raised, shed a bold and timely light on the history of race and liberty in the "land of the free."