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it.
    â€œIf Hotspot were to be taken into some stallion’s herd.”
    Sam had just about gathered the strength to tell Ryan, again, why it was a really bad idea, when her eyes strayed to her watch.
    â€œOh my gosh, I’ve got to get back. Dad and Brynna could be there already. Ryan, help me get this stuff picked up. We’re starting back. Now!”
    He laughed at her order, then hurried to obey.
    â€œIt will be quicker getting back to the Jeep than it was climbing up,” Ryan promised. “I’ll get you home in time, honest.”
    He sounded determined, but twice as they slipped and slid back down the hillside, Sam caught Ryan looking behind them with a strangely thoughtful expression.
    Â 
    When they reached the truck, Ryan squatted behind it, trying to unhook the horse trailer from the Jeep.
    â€œThis isn’t as easy as it looks,” he muttered.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Sam fidgeted, shuffling her feet in the dust as she looked down on him. When he still didn’t answer, she suggested, “Just leave it on.”
    Ryan shook his head. “Returning home with an empty horse trailer would make my father suspicious.”
    â€œI don’t see why,” Sam said. “You were supposed to leave Hotspot at Sterling Stables for a few days, right?”
    â€œAnd then there’s Boots,” Ryan said.
    â€œYou promised me you were going to talk with your father,” Sam reminded him.
    â€œThis is time well spent. We’ll be faster without the trailer, and you are in a hurry,” Ryan said.
    He might be right, but Sam couldn’t shrug off her impatience, especially when he began muttering again.
    â€œâ€¦wires go to brake lights…”
    Sam’s hands curled into tighter fists. Could she possibly reach home before Dad and Brynna? If not, she’d be in trouble, and she’d have an audience for it.
    Jen would be there, and so would Mikki and the new HARP girl, Gina.
    Oh, she’d make a great impression. She’d be late, in trouble, and—she tried an experimental smile, then gasped in pain—she’d have a black eye from Tempest’s hoof.
    â€œJust leave the trailer on,” Sam ordered.
    Again, Ryan gave a stubborn shake of his head.
    â€œThat thing has beaten you. Admit it.”
    â€œGive it a rest,” Ryan snarled. “I won’t be beaten by an inanimate object.”
    Could she just shove Ryan away from the trailer hitch and drag him to the driver’s seat? Sam wasconsidering it when Ryan gave a triumphant laugh.
    â€œGot it!” he said, standing to rub greasy hands together.
    He leaned his weight against the horse trailer and shoved the bolt closed, but Sam was already climbing into the Jeep and snapping her seat belt.
    As soon as Ryan started the truck, Sam began formulating the script for her talk with Jen. First, she’d ask why Jen had told Ryan about the box canyon in the first place. Next, she’d ask why Jen thought the horses would be safe in the box canyon. Last, she’d recommend that Jen upgrade her taste in guys.

Chapter Five
    S am stood by the kitchen sink, chugging down a third glass of water. Ryan had dropped her at the River Bend bridge and sped away.
    Sam had missed lunch, but Gram hadn’t seemed to care. She’d just looked up from pulling weeds in her garden long enough to ask, “How’s that cut?”
    So Sam made her own lunch, slicing a slab of wheat bread from the loaf, then smearing it with cherry jam and peanut butter. It had been a fine lunch, but it had only magnified her thirst.
    â€œJen’s here,” Gram called from outside.
    Sam peered out in time to see Silk Stockings, a palomino mare so skittish that Jen called her Silly, jog across the ranch yard.
    â€œYes!” Sam said to herself. This was going to work out great.
    Dad and Brynna had called to say they’d been delayed at the airport. She and Jen would have time to turn