The year is 1864. Sacramento hums with the restless energy of a frontier city on the rise, and Thomas Pruitt stands at the threshold of a new beginning. Handsome, hopeful, and newly married to a woman of Eastern grace, he prepares to leave the familiar streets of Sacramento for Auburn, a rugged town nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. What awaits him there is not just a new life, but the shadows of an old one.
Fourteen years earlier, Thomas lived in New York City under the watchful eye of his father, Sheriff Joseph Pruitt. Their lives were torn apart when Joseph, under threat, made the agonizing decision to leave his son behind and flee west. Now, Thomas returns to his father not as a boy abandoned, but as a man carrying the weight of unanswered questions and unresolved hurt.
Joseph welcomes Thomas and his bride with booming pride and a guarded heart. His wife, Elizabeth, has spent weeks preparing a grand celebration, hoping to bridge the years of distance between father and son. Yet beneath the warmth of reunion, tension simmers. Thomas's memories of betrayal clash with Joseph's hardened frontier life, and Elizabeth senses a quiet storm gathering within the household.
Everything changes on the day of Thomas's wedding in Auburn. Drawn by hushed voices, he overhears Joseph in a clandestine conversation about a lucrative and illegal scheme: robbing stagecoaches. The revelation shatters Thomas's fragile trust. The man he believed to be a symbol of law and order now stands exposed as an outlaw.
As Thomas grapples with loyalty, betrayal, and the fear of becoming complicit, Elizabeth begins to uncover secrets of her own. Her attempts to understand the growing tension only deepen the mystery, leaving her isolated and uncertain of whom to trust.
Beyond the walls of the Pruitt home, danger tightens its grip. Joseph's brother, Randall, and Thomas's childhood friend, Frank, both fueled by resentment and cold ambition, threaten to drag the entire family into a violent reckoning.
Loaded for Revenge is a gripping tale of family bonds tested by deception, the blurred line between justice and vengeance, and the enduring struggle to choose forgiveness over fury. Set against the vast, unforgiving landscape of the American frontier, it explores how far a family will go to protect one another-and how easily the past can ignite a fire that threatens to consume them all.
Roger Mendoza lives in San Antonio, Texas, the seventh-largest city in the United States. In 2014, he moved back to his birth town of San Antonio from Parker, Colorado, where he had lived for fifteen years. Living on the outskirts of San Antonio, he still enjoys the taste of the rural life that he loves so much and the big city's conveniences.He worked most of his life as a software engineer in the defense industry, where he cultivated his passion for computer programming, but he is now retired. Along with writing novels, Roger is also a professional photographer and can often be seen toting his camera, looking for photo opportunities in and around town. He loves to capture nature photography and beautiful scenery.Family has always been a cornerstone of Roger's life. Born eighth in a family of ten children, he has a deep-rooted fascination with his family history. Over the years, he has painstakingly gathered his parents' family photographs and documents, cataloging and digitizing them all. He takes pride in keeping the family tree database updated with new family members, cherishing the thousands of family photographs and documents that tell the stories of his relatives.Roger's inquisitive nature has always led him to ponder the philosophy of life, the intricacies of human behavior, and our place in the grand scheme of things. Despite life's occasional challenges, he remains a firm believer in 'happily ever after endings', a testament to his optimistic worldview that can resonate with many.He's always been fascinated with unusual phenomena, the most common of which is the drama of life itself. It still amazes him why so much drama fills the lives of his friends and family. Perhaps it is observing that drama that sparks his imagination and gives his characters life.
