Sneek Peek:
The
best thing to do in the rain is to learn to dance wet.
Raven
Ryder chuckled as he remembered how his mom would tell him this in her
sing-song voice. Years had passed and he still didn’t enjoy getting wet.
He
shifted atop his mare and the saddle creaked under his weight. Yellow Bee pawed
at the mud following the distant rumble of thunder. “Yeah, I don’t like it
either, girl.” He patted her neck which seemed to calm her some, but it
wouldn’t last. The search and rescue horses were trained to handle the worst
conditions, but the brewing storm unsettled even the best of them. Hell, the
weather disconcerted Raven too. Stuck between a rock wall and a deep ravine
into the rushing waters of Wildflower River, one wrong move could be fatal.
Dragging
off his Stetson, he shook water off the rim then used his gloved fingers to
wipe away the dampness from his forehead, little good it did though. At least
the wool-lined jacket kept his torso dry but his jeans were heavy and soaked.
Reaching
for his thermos, he unscrewed the lid and drained the last remaining dregs of
coffee.
Great. Now
he’d be wet and coffee deprived.
Placing
the empty thermos back into the saddlebag, he scanned ahead at the uneven
terrain on the most dangerous trail on Snowbleed Mountain. Devil’s Fork.
They had about a ten-foot range of visibility with the fog settling in like a blanket.
Dean’s horse, Juniper, gave a low whinny because she too sensed the danger.
Raven and Dean were sitting ducks against both nature and the suspect who’d
fled onto the mountain that morning. Usually, the Ryders could navigate the
mountain without pause and find their target within hours, but any tracks or
clues had been washed away by the flowing water and debris that had created a
stream on the bumpy path.
The only
lead came from a witness who had been hiking early that morning and spotted a
suspicious man wearing all black heading up on the mountain. Later, Raven found
a partial track near Devil’s Fork, the single one that had survived the
torrential downpour.
Every
search and rescue mission was considered important, but this particular one hit
close to home. They wanted to catch the bastard who attacked Farrah outside of
her apartment late last night. They also believed he’d attacked Shelby outside
of Crew and Brew last month. Luckily, both women had successfully fought the assailant
off, but they needed to bring the perpetrator in to give Second Chance some
peace of mind.
Bend had
several suspects who checked out and had solid alibis so that put him back to
square one in the investigation.
Today was
the closest they’d been to catching the suspect so abandoning the search didn’t
seem plausible.
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