Includes never-before-seen chapters

Twelve-year-old "Andi" Carter attracts trouble the way her palomino horse, Taffy, attracts flies on a hot summer day. Lately, she can't do anything right, from forgetting important chores to putting herself in danger with her brother Chad's wild stallion. After a particularly scary incident where Andi gets in trouble once again, she wonders if her family would be better off without her. So she saddles up Taffy and leaves the Circle C ranch.

But her escape quickly leads to frightening encounters with a horse thief and a vicious young lady....

Thirteen-year-old Andi Carter wants to surprise her mother with the perfect birthday gift. But earning the money for it proves harder than she expects. It takes time, but at last, one of Andi's ideas is working out. . . until the day she witnesses a back-alley crime that places a beloved citizen at the scene. A divided town and the suspect's vengeful younger bother put pressure on Andi to admit she made a mistake.

When her horse, Taffy, disappears, Andi must reexamine her conscience and make a decision: Is the price of telling the truth worth losing Taffy forever?

When innocent horseplay temporarily lands Andi and her friends in jail, they decide that a trip into the mountains will leave their troubles far behind. Accompanied by big brother Mitch and armed with a map showing old gold diggings, they can't wait to strike it rich. What could be better than two weeks of camping and horseback riding?

But instead of gold they find heaps of trouble--trouble that leaves Mitch gravely wounded. Andi needs help fast. But who can she trust? And what good is a bag of gold when her beloved brother lies near death in the middle of nowhere?