Beside her, Talia whined.
“What’s wrong, girl?” Reaching down, she ruffled her pet’s fur. “Do you need to go for a walk?”
Though of course the border collie couldn’t answer, Skylar left the barn and headed in the dark toward the empty field. There, she unclipped the lead and let her dog take care of business.
Once Talia had finished, Skylar whistled for her and headed back to her trailer to eat a breakfast bar and have a cup of coffee. She had several hours to kill until the promised photo shoot. Heck, she had at least an hour’ maybe more’until sunrise.
Sitting on a chair outside the small trailer, sipping her Kona breakfast-blend coffee and waiting for the sun to come up, she debated phoning the office, but since no one would be there yet, plus she had nothing real to report yet, she decided against it. Other than Matt’s single comment about being licensed to carry, she hadn’t seen a single clue that might tell her if he really was planning to smuggle ammunition across the border.
They’d seen the receipts and knew he had it, but thus far she hadn’t been successful in locating where he stored it.
Of course, she hadn’t really expected to find it lying around out in the open, now, had she?
As she was about to get up for more coffee, Talia’s bark had her stopping. She knew her dog’s barks and this was the warning one. Expecting an intruder, she looked around her carefully and saw nothing.
A moment later, she smelled smoke. More than smelled it. The air was thick with it, the southern breeze carrying it low and thick, tendrils of gray against the darkness
The barn! Her first thought was immediately followed by another. Ammunition! If Matt’s stockpile were to catch fire, the explosion could take out his entire ranch.
She took off running in the dark, heading in the direction of the smoke. The air smelled awful. In her limited experience, that meant some sort of toxic accelerant had been used. Running full-out, she grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and used it to cover her face so she could breathe.
The horses. She had to get to the horses. But she couldn’t do it alone. She didn’t know if the others had been alerted to the fire, so she yelled for help over and over as she ran toward the inferno.
Chapter 4
Even that effort left Skylar gasping for breath and coughing. She didn’t dare waste any more energy.
Eyes watering, she hurried. Arriving at the barn, she saw it was ablaze. Rushing inside, despite the now-black smoke roiling off it, she heard the panicked screams of the horses.
Someone loomed up in front of her’Matt, leading one of his terrified horses. She jumped aside, grabbed a halter and entered the first occupied stall.
Inside, the panicked animal lashed out with her hooves.
“Don’t halter her,” Matt shouted. “Just release her and my men will herd them toward the door. Hurry.”
His words made sense. Opening the stall door wide, Skylar used the halter to slap at the frightened mare’s hindquarters. The horse bolted forward, eyes wide with terror.
Skylar didn’t wait; she hurried to the next stall. Matt rushed past her, doing the same.
In the next few minutes, she lost track of time, focusing intently on saving the horses one by one. Soon all the stalls were empty except the stallion stall at the end of the barn.
And the fire had leaped across the aisle from the empty stalls, the hay in the feeding trough already ablaze.
The staccato sound of hooves pounding the wooden stall door mingled with the roar of the fire. This one, this one last horse, had to be freed. She would not let it roast alive.
Beside her, Matt’s grimy face showed similar resolve.
Heedless of the danger, he ran to the stall and yanked the door open. Nothing but black smoke and the bright orange and red of the flames.
Skylar’s heart skipped as she cursed. No way the horse could survive that conflagration. No way. Heart pounding, she rushed after Matt, whether to offer her assistance or try to drag him to safety, she didn’t know.
A shape appeared out of the smoke. Burned and terrified, huge nostrils flaring, Matt’s stallion nonetheless let Matt lead him to safety. The instant they were free of the stall, the horse bolted, nearly knocking Skylar out of the way.
“Come on, hurry,” Matt shouted. “The roof’s about to collapse. Get out!”
Side by side, they ran for the door. They’d barely cleared the opening when something inside the building exploded, sending them flying and knocking them to the ground.
Dazed, Skylar pushed herself up to a crouch. She’d skinned her knee, and her elbow was bloody, but that appeared to be the extent of her injuries.
Squinting in the smoke, she tried to locate Matt.
José and several of the stable hands hurried over, helping Skylar up. Matt limped toward them. From his appearance, he had similarly minor scrapes and cuts.
Belatedly, she realized the stallion had disappeared. “The horse,” she croaked. “Where’s the horse?”
“Go find Saint,” Matt ordered, his voice sharp with what sounded like fury. Two of the stable hands rushed off to do his bidding. He turned to his friend. “José, call the vet and get him out here pronto. Saint is burned and some of the others probably are, too. They all inhaled a lot of that smoke.”
Nodding, José whipped out his cell phone and turned away to make the call.
Dusting herself off, Skylar coughed. Her legs felt shaky. “Don’t you think you should call the police?” she asked quietly. “It seems pretty obvious that fire was deliberately set.”
“Do you have proof?” He stared at her, his gaze narrow, his mouth a hard, thin line.
“I smelled something. Right before the explosion. Gasoline or kerosene’some kind of accelerant.”
He turned away, the rigid set of his shoulders telling her he already knew. “We’ve already called the fire department. It’s going to take them a while to get here, though’they’re volunteers. I know they have one guy who specializes in that sort of thing. We’ll see what they find out.”
Though she knew she might be pushing it, she had to find out what had exploded in the barn. Surely he wasn’t foolish enough to keep explosives around his precious horses?
“Matt, wait.” Grabbing his arm, her heart still pumping with adrenaline, she took a deep breath to speak. Instead, she immediately began coughing.
To give him credit, Matt waited until the coughing fit had subsided.
“Something exploded there in the barn,” she said, wiping at her stinging eyes with her fists. “Any idea what that might have been?”
Clearly exhausted, he dragged a hand across his face, smearing the soot. “No.” His answer short and sweet, he seemed to sway as he stared at her. “Do you?”
Since she couldn’t come right out and voice her suspicions, she slowly shook her head. “I have no idea.”
“I thought not.” To her surprise, he held out his hand. His fingers were black and filthy, exactly like her own. “Come on. By the time the fire department gets here, the barn will be nothing but embers. You can help me round up the horses so the vet can check them over.”
Not sure how to react, she finally slid her hand into his. As his fingers closed around hers, she couldn’t help but think how long it had been since she’d held a man’s hand.
Five years or more. A lifetime.
Again she pushed the thoughts away, letting Matt tug her after him. This was different. This was a crisis, not