Melody Snow Monroe Read Free Page A

forbid that bodyguards became necessary. She shivered. Maybe she’d just do one film and live the rest of her life on that money.
    They rode the rest of the way in the silence. Instead of admiring the scenery, Lara focused on what Imelda had told her. Even after a quick lunch, nothing the psychic said made sense. The fact she was in the screened porch for an hour really threw her. She would have sworn the discussion took less than ten minutes. Even if she bought into the idea that the psychic received images from some higher being, it was up to Imelda to interpret what each meant. The concept that she’d meet two powerful men from some unknown place who were there to protect her wasn’t her idea of a great reading.
    “Lara!”
    Krista’s warning speared her mind and made her focus on her surroundings. Christ . They’d reached the top, yet she hadn’t dismounted. Before she made an unwanted return trip, she jumped off. “Sorry. I was daydreaming.”
    “I’d say. You got the map?”
    “Yeah.” She handed the glossy brochure to Krista and retrieved her compass from her backpack. Too often she’d get turned around and needed to get oriented. “Which way, oh fearless leader?”
    Krista chuckled as she pointed to the sign that directed them to the trailhead. “Let me take a few shots first. It’s gorgeous up here.”
    The tops of the mountains seemed close compared to those in Denver. Once Krista was satisfied she’d captured every peak, they entered the forest. The trees were huge and beautiful, and the path wide and flat. Other than an occasional bird chirping or a few squirrels dashing along the leaves, the place was wonderfully silent. They saw no other tourists headed their way.
    The path soon began to descend, and it took a bit of balance not to slip. After an hour, they decided to take a break. Lara pulled out her bottled water and drank some. “Let me take a look at the map.” She studied it for a minute. “As I see it, we have two choices. We can take this fork up ahead, which will lead us to the entrance of a gold mine. It says here it’s boarded up, so we can’t go in, but we can observe remnants of the camp, or we can take the left fork, which leads to a waterfall and some caves.”
    Krista patted her camera. “If we can only do one today, I say the waterfall.”
    “I agree.”
    Ten minutes later, they came to a fork all right, but there were three branches instead of two. Lara studied the map again. “Something’s amiss. How about if you take the middle fork and I’ll take the left fork. We’ll walk for ten minutes and come back here. If you find the falls first, yell.”
    “Yell? Why not just text me.”
    That seemed like a feasible plan. They checked their phones to make certain they both had a signal. “Ten minutes then.”
    Krista headed down her path while she went along the other road. For the first five minutes, Lara enjoyed how the sunlight eased its way through the trees. She bet Krista would stop a few times to take pictures since her friend never could just walk a straight line without photographing something.
    After six minutes, she stopped to listen for the waterfall. The leaves rustled, but it sounded more like wind than water. As she continued, her stomach turned queasy and her energy level took a decided drop. She shook off the discomfort and rubbed her stomach. Less than a minute later, a piercing pain stabbed her behind the eye. “Ow.”
    She leaned against a tree to get her balance. While she often got migraines, this ache seemed different. Since she always carried her headache medicine, she fished out the bottle and popped two pills. Confident they’d fix the problem in a few minutes, she decided to continue on, not wanting Krista to wait for her.
    She’d taken a few steps when her vision blurred. “Whoa.”
    Waterfall or no waterfall, it wasn’t worth getting sick and lost for. The moment she turned to head back, her legs nearly gave way. What the hell was going