Page 8 of Fatal Deception
She made a scrunched-up face but didn’t say anything, just got on her own horse. No doubt her moves were a little more fluid. A kind of gracefulness that spoke to a life around horses and riding them. An innate ease with every move.
Maybe it was kind of hot. Maybe she was hot, and it was hard not to notice. Maybe he had a lot of issues. Well, no maybes there.
She urged the horse into a trot, and he did the same, following her lead as best he could. He couldn’t see himself, obviously, but he was sure the difference in ease and comfort would be clear to even the casual observer.
Her braid streamed behind her, the hat low on her head. The sun was almost completely hidden by the mountains in the distance now. Gold and pastel pinks and oranges streamed up from behind the craggy peaks.
Pretty. Breathtaking, really. He couldn’t deny there was something about all this space that heliked, but mostly his gaze kept going back to Audra.
There was something about her. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was. She just…didn’t fit into any easy categorizations. He couldn’t get a handle on just who she was. The quiet, demure woman who stood in the background while her sister raged around. The tough rancher lady handling allthison her own, basically. The frustrated woman who’d given him the coldshoulder when she thought he’d been responsible for her sister’s injury.
None of it melded together to make sense to him.That’swhy he found her fascinating. Once he could peg her, this uncomfortable reaction to just how pretty she was would fade away.
After a cold if short ride, she came to a stop and swung off her horse, easy as you please. Copeland followed suit and dismounted without making a fool of himself. Audra pointed to the fence. He could see exactly where it had been fixed, so he handed her the reins of his horse and got to work.
Happy to have a purpose that wasn’ther, he got out his flashlight and looked at the now fixed fence. He wished he could have examined it before they’d mended it, but between the cattle prints, boot prints and horse prints all in the melting, blowing, falling snow…he probably wouldn’t have found much.
Still, he took a few of his own pictures just in case.
“Let me see the picture of what it looked like broken.”
Audra held out her phone, and brought up a picture on the screen. “It’s a little blurry. Norman isn’t the best with technology, but you can make it out.”
He could. One post had been completely pulled out of the ground and tossed down. “Someone did that.”
“Norman thinks it was a cow.”
He could hear it in her voice, the obvious thread of doubt. He glanced up at her, met her gaze. “You don’t.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. Her blue eyes looked desolate, even in the encroaching dark. “I don’t.”
He had the annoying reaction to want to soothe her. But she was tough and what did soothing do for anybody? Sure didn’t solve the problem.
“I’m going to need a list of anyone who might have it out for you, Audra.”
She laughed, though there was clearly no humor in it. “Out for me? No one has it out for me.”
“Everything that’s happening says different.”
“It’s all just a weird mix-up.”
“Then why did you come to me? A police detective. Some extensive ruse to get my attention?”
When she laughed this time, it was with humor, though maybe a littlemorethan he’d been going for. Even if it was good to see her laugh. And she looked a damn sight prettier when she did that instead of looking scared and beaten down.
Still. “It’s notthatfunny,” he muttered.
“Right. Right.” She cleared her throat and fixed a very serious expression on her face. “Seriously though. I don’t know anyone who’d… Why would anyone want to mess with me this way? I can’t think of a soul.”
“Think of it less as whocouldorwoulddo this and just focus on anyone you might have made mad. Even something that seems superficial to you. Any person who might be a little ticked off at you.”
She sighed, and in the sound he heard an exhaustion born of something deeper than whatever this was. “I’ll see what I can come up with. Come on, let’s head back before it’s full-on dark.”
It scraped at him as they rode back. The way she seemed so defeated. It just…wasn’t right. Out of character. Not that he knew her character. Having a few run-ins with somebody didn’t mean he knew them, even if he was usually pretty good at pegging people quickly and accurately.
They got back to the stables. This time he dismounted first. When she did the same, the dismount was as smooth as her mount, but then she…stumbled when her feet hit the ground. Notoversomething, just like her legs kind of gave out.
He was quick enough to grab her before she tumbled forward. For a minute, she seemed to struggle to get her feet under her, and her whole body trembled a little bit.