Jess in on the hunt for Lane Jefferson, which takes him to the town of Calico, Texas, where things don’t seem right. The temporary governor of Texas has seen fit to appoint three hired guns as his county sheriff and deputies. Jess knows the three men and knows they shouldn’t be wearing badges.

He hangs around Calico long enough to sort things out, but then he gets an urgent message from United States Marshal Frank Reedy. It seems his good friend, the female bounty hunter only known as Wildcat, has murdered a man in New Mexico Territory and now has a price on her head.

Jess, knowing that she would never kill without good reason, enlists the help of both Reedy and Bodine to safely escort her to Stratton, but a lot of angry and hungry bounty hunters have other plans to kill Wildcat for the bounty, and put her out of the business; but the only way that will happen, is over Jess’s dead body. Lead flies and men die. Who will be left standing in the end?