The Apache Key: RED COAT: Book 3

RED COAT: BOOK 3: The Apache Key By Brett Vogeler In the heart of the unforgiving American Southwest, a dying man's last breath pushes a legendary map into the hands of Jedediah Stone, a solitary mountain man known only as Red Coat. What begins as a quest for a forgotten treasure quickly spirals into a desperate flight for survival. The prize is not gold, but the Ledger of Sins-a secret history of a dark faith and the blueprint for a shadow government that has ruled the territory for two centuries. Thrust into an unwilling alliance, Jedediah joins Tala, a fierce Ute warrior with a hidden Apache heritage, and Father Mateo, a brilliant, broken-down priest who is the only man alive capable of deciphering the Ledger's diabolical code. Together, three wounded fugitives must cross the brutal Jornada del Muerto, forging an unbreakable bond in a crucible of hardship while being hunted from all sides. They are not just running from the past; they are carrying a weapon that could determine the future of the entire continent. Their enemies are legion. From the south comes the Serpent, the ancient Order led by the sophisticated and utterly ruthless Don Alejandro Vargas, who unleashes his disciplined soldiers and a web of spies to reclaim his family's power. From the north comes a new and more dangerous threat: the patient and methodical Captain Josiah Harlow, an agent of the United States Army and a harbinger of Manifest Destiny who sees the Ledger as an asset of national security. Caught between the fangs of a dying Spanish empire and the talons of a rising American one, the trio finds a fragile sanctuary in the sacred, hidden valley of the Jicarilla Apache. But their sanctuary becomes a battlefield. To protect the valley, they must unite with their reluctant hosts to survive a bloody war, paying a terrible price in an alliance forged in blood and grief. As Father Mateo feverishly works to unlock the Ledger's final, terrifying secret, the trio realizes they are not merely running from a conspiracy-they are on a collision course with a conclave of powerful men plotting to use their immense wealth to finance a secessionist movement and carve their own independent republic from the heart of the West. With their enemies closing in and their allies decimated, their desperate flight transforms into a relentless hunt. No longer fugitives, they turn south, riding into the heart of their enemy's power. Can three broken souls, armed with a two-hundred-year-old confession, stop the birth of a secret empire and prevent a war that will drown the frontier in blood? Their journey is more than a quest for survival-it is a last, desperate stand for the soul of a nation yet to be born.