Changing Lives

Mattie Keller grew up in a broken home in a small town in Missouri. She was smart but wild and untamable.

After getting pregnant, she moves to Tucson to her sister’s, where she has the baby. The sister and husband agree to raise the child, telling him Mattie is his aunt. With no education or skills, Mattie moves to Las Vegas and becomes a prostitute, calling herself Tito Hall. Older now, she finds herself working as an independent prostitute at truck stops on the I-80.

The story opens with Tito selling her services to a trucker in Reno who, after having sex, dies of a heart attack. As she climbs down from the cab, she discovers two lockboxes under the passenger seat and takes them. Breaking into them, she finds a kilo of heroin and $600,000 in cash. Realizing the trucker was a drug runner and knowing the drug owners will seek revenge, she heads for Tucson. Along the way, she changes her appearance and identity.

As the mafia hunts her down, Mattie is determined to protect her sister’s family, especially the boy who thinks she is his aunt. The story builds to a suspenseful climax as a mafia enforcer closes in, leading to a final confrontation determining her fate.