When the Arcane Bureau's Enforcement Directorate tightens its net around Dusty Springs, the Millers leave home to keep their neighbors outside the line of fire. Their best chance lies in a battered blue pickup, an old contact in Las Vegas, and a temporary countermeasure that will cost more than money.
Chloe wants to protect Luke Dawson without deciding his life for him. Luke wants a safe conversation, not another carefully prepared explanation. Following the traces of the family he cares about brings him closer to a hidden world—and to dangers his field experience alone cannot solve.
Between roadside repairs, crowded family decisions, and a secret market where every easy answer has terms, the Millers discover that running together does not make honesty any simpler. When a raid turns into a rescue, Chloe must finally tell Luke who she is and let him choose what comes next.
The Runaway Pickup is Book Three of The Sandhaven Sorcerers, a contemporary fantasy adventure about family, hard-earned trust, and the difference between protecting someone and taking away their choice. Read after Mirages in the Red Canyon; the story concludes in Labyrinth of Sun & Stone.
John Taylor is the author of The Sandhaven Sorcerers, a series blending contemporary desert fantasy, family comedy, romance, and magical mystery. His stories follow the Miller family as hidden gifts collide with everyday work, small-town loyalties, and difficult choices about trust and freedom. In Dusty Springs, even an ordinary meal can become an adventure—but home is built through the choices people make for one another.