The three horsemen were less than half a mile away when Mae begged Caleb Rusk to hide her.

“They’re looking for me,” she whispered. “My husband promised he’d bring me back, no matter what.”

Caleb glanced toward the approaching riders.

“Can you stand?”

Mae tried, but her injured ankle buckled.

Without another word, Caleb helped her onto Juniper and guided the mare through a narrow passage between the rocks.

They disappeared behind a ridge just as the riders reached the trail.

From their hiding place, Caleb recognized the man leading them.

Warren Drayton.

The wealthiest rancher’s eldest son.

The man Mercy Bend claimed had recently returned from business in Denver.

And apparently Mae’s husband.

“How long have you been married?” Caleb asked quietly.

“Three years.”

“Then why does everybody think you’re single?”

Mae stared at her trembling hands.

“Because Warren married me for something he never intended to let me keep.”

Caleb waited.

“My grandfather left me the eastern valley. Nearly eight thousand acres. The land and its water rights belong to me.”

Caleb knew that valley.

Its river supplied half the surrounding ranches.

“Your family said the Draytons owned it.”

“They made everyone believe that.”

Mae’s voice cracked.

“Warren married me secretly. His father told me nobody would accept our marriage because of my size. Then they made me sign papers I couldn’t properly read.”

“What papers?”

“I thought they were marriage documents.”

She looked away.

“They were transferring my inheritance.”

Caleb felt anger rising in his chest.

“Why didn’t you tell the sheriff?”

“I tried.”

Mae pulled a folded paper from beneath her dress.

“Three weeks ago, I found the original deed. My grandfather never authorized those transfers. And the signatures they used weren’t mine.”

Caleb studied the document.

At its bottom was a familiar name.

Sheriff Thomas Bell.

The man responsible for protecting Mercy Bend had witnessed the disputed transfer.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

The town’s silence.

The Draytons’ wealth.

The riders hunting a frightened woman through the hills.

Then Mae revealed one final secret.

“I wasn’t the first woman they did this to.”

Caleb turned toward her.

“What do you mean?”

Mae’s eyes filled with terror.

“Warren had another wife. Her name was Eleanor.”

“Had?”

“She disappeared four years ago. Everyone said she ran away.”

Mae’s fingers tightened around his sleeve.

“But yesterday, I found her letters hidden beneath the floorboards.”

Caleb held his breath.

“She wrote that the Draytons were stealing land from women who had no one powerful enough to defend them.”

A horse snorted nearby.

Both fell silent.

Then Warren Drayton’s voice rang across the rocks.

“Mae! I know you’re here!”

Caleb quietly drew Juniper farther into the shadows.

But Mae was staring at the last letter in her hand.

Written across its bottom was a warning.

If anything happens to me, find Caleb Rusk. His father knows the truth.

Caleb stared at his own name.

His father had been dead for twelve years.

And suddenly, he understood that finding Mae hadn’t been an accident.

End of Part 2.