Things are not always as they seem. Rachel Warren has escaped from an abusive headmaster at a boarding school in San Francisco. The mysterious stranger, Tyler Burton, who helps her on the way to her homestead in Colorado, looks like he could be on the run from the law. Is he really a gunslinger like he appears? Her parents' deaths from a wagon accident now turns out to be murder. Why? Someone tried to kill her brother, Daniel, as well. Will Rachel be next? Who is trying to force Rachel and her brother off their land? And why? Things aren't always as they seem in Trails of Deception.