Money makes people do bad things.
He knew it and Bree knew it.
Does she remember she told me?
He’d been at her bedside five days ago when she’d opened her eyes from a sound sleep and met his gaze. “Left eye. Twenty-two steps. It’s for Lucas. Save it for Lucas,” she whispered. Her eyes fell shut, and she didn’t open them again that evening. The words had rattled around in Ollie’s head for days until he’d seen photos of where Art Juergen committed suicide. In one photo the horse’s left eye stared directly at him.
I had to look. Otherwise I would have always wondered.
Ollie pushed to his feet and carried the box back to the hole. He set it down and scooped dirt onto its lid with his shovel. Moments later he stomped on the dirt, packing it solid. He ran a branch over the dry dirt and scattered pine needles about. The cursed treasure was hidden again.
Will I tell Lucas?
That’s Bree’s secret to share.
“Some secrets are better left buried,” he told Shep.
The dog wagged his tail, and they started home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Authors don’t sit around waiting for their muse to show up and inspire them. We write. Even when our brains are completely blank (which happens a lot more than we let on), we sit down and force words through the keyboard. I know authors who wrote through family deaths, divorce, and illness. To get through the tough times, we surround ourselves with other writers who understand how isolated our chosen profession can be. We encourage each other during the dry spells, celebrate the amazing times, and joke our way through the numerous mundane and tedious days. This book was written during a dark time for me, and I wouldn’t have succeeded without my tribe. Melinda, Toni, Amy, Selena, and Leanne always step up when I need a push. The amazing people at Montlake—Anh, Colleen, Jessica, Galen, and Gabby—go out of their way to support my work. My agent, Meg Ruley, is my enthusiastic head cheerleader and creates amazing opportunities for me. Of course, Charlotte Herscher is the person I rely on to kindly tell me when changes need to be made in my books. I can never see the forest for all the fat trees in my way.
To my readers, thank you for enjoying my Mercy books and returning for more. Your kind letters and messages make my day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series as well as the Mercy Kilpatrick novels: A Merciful Death, A Merciful Truth, A Merciful Secret, A Merciful Silence, and A Merciful Fate. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born and raised, and still lives, in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her family, but she looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2019 by Oceanfront Press Company
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
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ISBN-13: 9781503903302
ISBN-10: 1503903303
Cover design by Eileen Carey