Where had he seen those soft features before, that expression of someone who carried secrets? Back in his wooden cabin, Sik couldn’t get the image of the girl from the mountain out of his mind.
Black coffee was served and he sat down at the rustic table, rummaging through old papers without paying attention. It was then that his eyes fell upon a crumpled poster that had arrived the previous week.
“Wanted dead or alive,” it said in large letters. The drawing showed the face of a young Mexican woman and below it the name that made her blood run cold. Esperanza Valdés.
The reward was tempting. 1,000 gold coins. Sig swallowed, feeling the weight of the discovery fall on his shoulders. It was her, the young woman of the waters, the most wanted fugitive in Arizona. He ran his hand through his graying hair, his heart racing between duty and something he couldn’t name. Esperanza Valdés, accused of stealing a fortune from her own family, was there, on her land.
Vulnerable as a wounded little bird, thousands of gold could solve his financial problems forever, but there was something in those almond-shaped eyes that screamed ignorance, something that touched a part of his soul that he thought was dead.
Sik closed his fists, feeling the weight of a decision that would change everything.
The rancher looked out the window in the direction of the stream, where it had all begun that morning. The breeze carried the scent of wildflowers and the distant sound of running water.
He knew he needed to decide quickly, hand the young woman over to the authorities and receive the reward, or follow the instinct that whispered in his heart.
For five years he had lived like a dead man, existing only among memories and solitude. Now destiny had placed in his path a situation that demanded more than simply surviving.
But how had a young woman from a prosperous family become the most wanted fugitive in the territory, what had really happened to Esperanza Valdés when dawn turned the sky pink?
