Deceptions (17 page)
Authors: Cynthia Eden
An eerie quiet fell over the hillside as she stepped into the shadowed pines. She slowed, frowning as she finally got a good look at her horse. The mare didn't seem to be hurt and yet Harper had never seen her act like this before.
“I thought I told you to stay back,” Brody said as she came up behind him. “You've never been good at following orders, have you?”
So he did remember her sneaking downstairs at her sisters' parties. She felt a bump of excitement at that news, but it was quickly doused. Past him, she saw that her horse's eyes were wild. The mare snorted again, stomped the ground and shied away, to move a few yards back from them and the gully.
“What is wrong with her?” Harper demanded, afraid it was something she had done.
“She's reacting to what the hard rain dislodged and sent down the hillside in an avalanche of mud,” Brody snapped. What was he talking about? As she started to step past him to get a look, he put a hand out to stop her. “Harper, you don't want to see this.”
She
did
want to see whatever it was and resented him telling her she didn't. Protective was one thing, but the man was being ridiculous. She'd been raised on a ranch. She'd seen her share of dead animals, if that was what it was. She stepped around him, determined to see what the storm had exposed.
At first all she saw were old, grimy, weathered boards that looked like part of a large wooden box. Then she saw what must have been inside the container before it had washed down the slope and broken open.
Her pulse jumped at the sight, her mind telling her she wasn't seeing what her eyes told her she saw.
“What is that?”
she whispered into the already unnerving quiet as she took a step back.
“From the clothing and long hair, I'd say it was the mummified body of a woman who, until recently, had been buried up on that hillside.”
Find out what happens next in
HARD RAIN
by
New York Times
bestselling author B.J. Daniels.
Available now wherever
HQN Books and ebooks are sold.
Copyright © 2016 by Barbara Heinlein
ISBN-13: 9781488005473
Deceptions
Copyright © 2016 by Cindy Roussos
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