Betrayal in the Badlands. Dana Mentink

a sweet breeze of comfort against the storm of grief and regret that billowed through her. Why hadn’t she made those plans? If she’d come earlier, maybe Cassie would never have gone off on that ride.

      If she could have followed her mother’s advice and forgiven her father…

      Her tears dropped onto the paper clutched in her hands.

      It seemed as though the flimsy scrap held the weight of her sister’s dreams and her own sorrow and shame. The burden was too much. She shot to her feet.

      She had to get away, settle things in South Dakota and leave, before she lost herself to the same grief she’d felt at her mother’s death. That grief had started it all, the plunge into anger and recklessness that had dropped her at Rawley’s feet, kept her in self-imposed exile for all those years. She shivered, tucking the paper securely in her backpack, mind whirling.

      John would take the horses, she was sure. From all accounts he loved them. Perhaps the Triggs would even be interested in buying the property. At the very least, she knew Sheila would help her find a real estate agent and do what she could. Logan, too.

      The thought of him stopped her.

      Proud and trying to learn a new life.

      What had happened to his old one?

      And when had she met him before?

      Logan stood in the shade of a twisted spruce where Tank sprawled on his side. The dog was tired from chasing every unfortunate bird that chose to land among the shrubs. Bentley continued his methodical search of the soil at the edge of the ravine, but Logan knew that was a waste of time. There weren’t any prints. He knew it, Bentley knew it. The search was more to assuage Isabel and Sheila. The rain might have blurred the footprints into nothingness, but something in his gut told him it wasn’t so.