Thunder Horse Redemption (11 page)

As she laid the empty paper sack in the stack to be recycled, another aroma seeped into her consciousness.

The acrid, biting stench of smoke, coming from the back side of the barn where they kept the stack of hay bales they fed to the livestock on a daily basis.

Had something set off a fire in the hay?

A flash of concern sent her scurrying through the dark barn toward the door. She had to get outside and determine the source of the smoke and put it out before the barn went up in flame.

But when she pushed on the door it didn’t open. She tried to lift the large wooden braces that locked the door in place—they wouldn’t budge.

Smoke sifted through the walls. Sheba stamped her feet in her stall and whinnied.

“I know, girl.” Roxanne spoke to the horse in a soothing voice, as much to calm her own nerves as the animal’s. “I’m working on it. Something’s jammed. It’ll just be a minute.”

No matter how hard she leaned on the latch, it wasn’t going anywhere. Roxanne abandoned that exit and raced for the small side door. Again it wouldn’t open, the lock jammed.

Smoke was filling the interior of the barn.

Sheba kicked the inside of her stall, her frightened cries echoing against the old oak timbers.

Roxanne ran her fingers along the wall beside the door and flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. Panic spiked as Roxanne realized this was no accident. Someone had started the fire on purpose—and beforehand, they’d deliberately locked her in. She raced back to the larger barn doors and pounded her hands against it. “Help! Someone help us!”

The men were out on the range, which left Dante as the only one who could free her from the barn. Surely he’d see the smoke rising and come out to help. But would he come soon enough?

Roxanne dragged in a deep breath to yell again. Instead smoke filled her lungs and she coughed uncontrollably. “Help!” she cried, coughing, falling to her knees to avoid the worst of it, praying for someone to come.

Roxanne crawled across the floor searching for something to pry the doors open. Then she remembered the pitchforks and shovels used to clean the stalls. Pulling her T-shirt up over her nose, she rose to a crouch and raced across the floor for the tools.

“We’ll be okay, Sheba. Just hold on.”

* * *

P
IERCE
AND
J
IM
HITCHED
a ride with a trucker on his way west. When they reached Medora, Pierce borrowed a car from a waitress he knew at the diner and drove the rest of the way out to the Carmichael Ranch, Jim beside him, his face pale but determined.

“I don’t like it. Too many accidents to be considered accidental,” Jim commented.

Pierce’s thoughts exactly, and the reason he didn’t wait to find a ride from Medora. Now as he turned onto the drive leading up to the Carmichael ranch house, his stomach clenched. A plume of smoke rose behind the house.

“You seein’ what I’m seein’?” Jim sat forward.

“Damn.” Pierce gunned the accelerator, shooting the little car forward. He skidded to a stop in the barnyard and leaped out.

Dante was running from the direction of the house, holding a hand to the back of his head, blood caked in his dark hair.

“What the hell happened?” Pierce asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Where’s Roxanne?”

“Last she said, she was going to the barn.”

Pierce ran for the barn door. A heavy metal lock held the latch in place. He grabbed it and yanked hard. “Roxanne!”

“Help. I’m in here.” Her voice sounded thin, gravelly.

“Get a crowbar from my truck.”

“You didn’t drive your truck and I don’t have a crowbar in mine,” Dante said.

Pierce remembered his truck was somewhere between Medora and Bismarck, stuck in a ditch. With nothing around to break the lock, he had only one choice. He reached his hand out. “Give me your keys.”

Dante dug into his pocket and handed Pierce the keys to his pickup.

“Get away from the doors!” Pierce shouted to Roxanne, then ran for the truck.

Chapter Eleven

Roxanne’s first attempt to force the door by shoving the pitchfork between the two large doors and throwing all of her weight into it hadn’t worked. The door hadn’t budged an inch. She’d been on the verge of tears when she’d heard the voices murmuring outside, carrying through the thick wood doors of the barn.

Pierce’s voice called her name. She forced herself to answer as loudly as she could, and was startled by his response. “Get away from the doors!”

She hesitated. Had she heard right? Her haze-muddled brain kicked in and Roxanne leaped to her feet. Smoke filled her lungs and stung her eyes as she threw herself to the side.

An engine raced, the sound moving toward her fast. Then the wooden doors exploded in a shower of broken boards and splinters as the hood of a pickup burst into the barn. Smoke spilled out through the opening.

The truck backed out through the hole.

Stumbling to her feet, Roxanne flung herself out of the barn and into a strong pair of arms. When she blinked the smoke from her eyes, she could have cried anew. Pierce held her, a fierce frown denting his beautiful brows. “Oh, thank God, you’re here.” She coughed and pointed back inside the smoldering interior. “Sheba. Please, help Sheba.”

Pierce shoved Roxanne into Dante’s arms and flung the damaged doors wide. Then he covered his nose and mouth with his arm and ran into the smoke.

He remained inside for what felt like a very long time.

Sheba’s frightened whinny was followed by the smack of a stall door sliding sideways on its runners.

Sheba burst through the barn door, tossing her head and trotting as far from the flame-belching building as she could before she stopped and stamped her feet.

Roxanne held her breath until Pierce emerged, his eyes red rimmed and his face gray.

Jim hobbled toward her from a strange car parked in the barnyard. “Looks like it’s comin’ from behind the barn.”

Pierce and Dante took off at a run, vaulting over corral panels and ducking through fences to reach the back.

Roxanne followed, not as fast, her lungs burning from all the smoke she’d breathed.

When she reached the other side, Pierce and Dante were tossing burning hay bales away from the back of the barn.

Roxanne ran forward to help.

“Stay back—you’ll get burned,” Pierce shouted.

“So will you!” Roxanne continued forward.

“Just do it, Roxy. You’ve already breathed too much smoke.” Pierce ripped the shirt off his back and beat at the flames licking up the wooden slats on the back of the barn.

Roxanne ran to the front where Jim was wrestling with a water hose one-handed. “Take this.” He handed the hose through the corral panels.

She raced to the back of the barn with the hose while Jim turned on the water.

When she arrived, Pierce and Dante were in an all-out battle against the rising flames.

Roxanne aimed the nozzle at the fire and hosed down the wood, praying with all her heart that the thin spray of water would be enough. She couldn’t lose the barn.

Pierce and Dante wet their shirts and beat at the burning hay bales, while Roxanne soaked the back of the barn. Slowly, the flames retreated, dying down to nothing more than wet charcoal by the time Roxanne was done.

With the hay bales scattered across the dirt, they burned down to ashes without lighting anything else on fire.

Roxanne stared at the charred barn, heartsick.

“It could be worse.” Pierce slipped an arm around her waist and relieved her of the hose.

“Sheba could have died.” Her voice didn’t sound like her own, all gravelly and hoarse. She leaned into Pierce’s side, pressing her face against his naked chest.

Pierce dropped the hose and held her close. “
You
could have died.”

“But I didn’t.” She coughed, her lungs hurting, her throat scratchy and raw.

“You could have.” Pierce led her around to the front of the barn.

Jim limped forward, his face pale and anxious. “You okay, Miss Roxy?” He hugged her carefully, his movements awkward with the cast.

Roxanne smiled at the older man. “I’m okay, just a little smoke-filled.”

“Speaking of which.” Pierce grabbed her elbow. “We need to get you to the hospital. You don’t take chances with smoke inhalation. I should call for an ambulance.”

“No. Don’t. Really, I’m fine,” she insisted, her heart warming at Pierce’s concern. “Just a little sore throat.”

“You’re at least going to the clinic in Medora. If the doc says you’re okay, then you’re okay. Until then, you’re not.”

She frowned. “I have cattle—”

“That can wait,” Jim said, siding with Pierce. “Your health is more important than a few strays.”

“You don’t understand.” Roxanne glanced from Jim to Pierce. Both had those stubborn looks, and she really didn’t feel much like arguing. She could lose her ranch to the bank and they’d still stand firm on her seeing a doctor. “Fine. As long as Dante has to go, too. He looks worse than I do.”

Dante had a hand pressed to the nape of his neck.

“Yeah, what happened to you?” Pierce turned his brother around and parted the hair at the back of his head.

Roxanne whistled, her stomach rolling. “You’ve got a lump the size of a goose egg.”

“Yeah, and it hurts like hell.” Dante rubbed the back of his head. “I was going to the ranch house to make a call when someone hit me from behind with what felt like a tire iron. I must have passed out.”

All the blood rushed from Roxanne’s head and she staggered. “Someone hit you?”

“Apparently whoever hit Dante probably wasn’t trying to kill him. Otherwise, it would have been easy enough to take him out while he was unconscious. No, they just wanted him out of the way, so he wouldn’t interfere.” Pierce’s frown deepened, his dark eyes icy. “This was a deliberate attempt on Roxanne’s life.”

The pounding of horses’ hooves made Roxanne’s head jerk up and she looked out across the pasture.

The four ranch hands raced toward them.

Toby arrived first, followed by Abe and Fred and finally Ethan.

“We saw smoke and came as quickly as we could.” Toby dropped down out of his saddle and hurried up to Roxanne, stopping when he saw the destroyed barn door. “Holy smokes, are you all right?”

Roxanne smiled at the young man. “I’ll be okay.”

“What happened?” Abe dismounted, a frown creasing his forehead.

Roxanne sighed, not really feeling like going into it all. She just wanted to take a deep breath and have it feel good, instead of burning and making her chest ache.

Jim took over. “Someone started a fire in the stack of hay behind the barn.”

Pierce gave a narrow-eyed look at the four ranch hands. “When I get back from taking Roxanne to the clinic, I’ll want a full accounting of where each of you were, down to the minute and GPS coordinate. Got it?”

Three of the four men nodded. Ethan glared, a sneer pulling his lip up.

Feeling she was letting her men down, Roxanne made the call to back off the roundup in the canyon. “I don’t want you all out in the canyon until I get back and can ride with you. Someone’s causing problems, and until we figure out who it is, I don’t consider any of you safe.” She turned to Jim. “Can you handle things here?”

“Yes, ma’am. Don’t you worry about a thing.” He patted her arm with his good hand.

Roxanne swallowed hard on the lump in her sore throat. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.” She stared at the ranch hands. “Work on getting this mess cleaned up and don’t give Jim a hard time. He needs to put his foot up as much as possible.”

With her final instructions issued, there wasn’t much more she could do there. Roxanne turned to Pierce. “Let’s get your brother to a doctor.”

* * *

P
IERCE
HELD
OPEN
THE
DOOR
to the borrowed car for Roxanne. His brother climbed into the backseat, still holding a hand to the back of his head.

As he drove into town, Pierce’s gut clenched. Who the hell was behind all the trouble on the Carmichael Ranch? And just how many of the “accidents” were related? Had the same man sabotaged his car and attacked his brother just to keep them from protecting Roxanne?

“Whose car is this?” Roxanne sat up straight. “I hate to get it all smoky.”

“It belongs to Rita from the diner in Medora.”

Roxanne frowned. “Where’s your truck?”

“Had a problem with the wheel on the way back from Bismarck.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

Dante leaned forward. “Did you get a chance to talk to Tuck in Bismarck?”

Pierce nodded. “No prints on the bullet casings or wrapper.”

“That’s too bad,” Roxanne said, her eyes closed and her head tipped to one side.

Pierce reached out and touched her arm. “Are you okay?”

Roxanne opened her eyes and gave Pierce a lopsided smile. “Yes, I’m just resting my eyes. They’re still burning from all the smoke.”

Pierce’s eyes still stung from the little time he’d spent going in to retrieve the horse. He could only imagine Roxanne’s discomfort. “We’ll have the doc check you over good.”

Roxanne shrugged and closed her eyes again. “Did Tuck find anything else?”

Pierce glanced her way. “I had him run a background check on your employees.”

Roxanne’s eyes opened and she frowned. “And you didn’t ask me?”

“It’s routine in a case like this. You always look to the people closest to the victim.”

“I would think I could tell you what you need to know about the men who work for me.”

“Sometimes employers only know what the employees want them to.”

“I’d trust every one of them.”

“With your life?” Dante asked from the backseat.

Pierce could tell she wanted to say yes, but for once, Roxanne hesitated. “Usually.”

“Did he find anything?” Dante prompted.

Again Pierce glanced at Roxanne as he said, “Ethan Mitchell has a prior arrest record.”

Roxanne gasped. “He does? He didn’t mention it when I hired him.”

“The charges were minor. He paid a fine, and that was the end of it.”

“Then why is there a problem?” she asked.

Pierce’s gaze met hers for an instant. “It was for disturbing the peace during one hell of a fight with his girlfriend. Looks to me like he’s got a problem with his temper.”

Pierce didn’t like breaking it to Roxanne. She’d always been so trusting and open with the people who worked with and for her.

“He’s never yelled at me.” Roxanne’s voice was nothing more than rough croak.

“Are you sure you haven’t been the victim of his temper in other ways?” Pierce gave her a penetrating stare before returning his attention to the road. “An angry man can find a lot of ways to hurt someone, as you should be very familiar with by now.”

Roxanne sat silently in her seat the remainder of the ride into Medora.

The clinic had already closed. Determined to get medical attention for both Roxanne and Dante, Pierce said, “We’re going to Bismarck.”

“No.” Both Roxanne and Dante said in unison.

“Take us to where they house the ambulances,” Dante suggested. “There should be EMTs there on call.”

“Yeah,” Roxanne agreed. “They should be able to help. It will give them something to do.”

“They’ve had plenty here lately.” Pierce frowned, not sure he liked the solution. He was outvoted, though, so he drove directly to where the ambulances were housed, calling on the expertise of the emergency medical technicians on duty.

After a thorough exam and observing Roxanne and Dante for a full hour, the EMTs pronounced them fit enough to return home.

Pierce insisted on grabbing dinner at the diner since he had to return the borrowed car to the waitress who was due to get off work by then.

As they entered the diner Roxanne headed for the bar. “I’ll call one of the hands to come get me and take me back to the ranch.”

Pierce cut her off. “You and Dante sit. I’ll take care of the call. Order me a steak and baked potato.”

She frowned. “Bossy much?”

“Tired. And you have to be just as worn out with all that’s happened in the past couple days.” He motioned toward a booth. “Please. Let me handle it.”

She sighed. “I don’t want to get used to anyone organizing my life for me, but you’re right. I’m tired.” Roxanne gave him a little smile. “Medium rare, like usual?”

Pierce grinned. “That’s my girl.” He chucked her under her chin just like old times, when they’d been a couple and nothing could have separated them. Or so they thought.

The death of her brother had proved that theory wrong. He froze a little when he realized what he’d done, how he’d fallen back into old habits with her…but he pointedly didn’t apologize before walking away.

While Dante and Roxanne slid into a booth, Pierce made arrangements he was sure would make Roxanne mad. He was through backing down when it came to her protection. If she wanted to yell at him for it, he’d deal with it. But he’d take the hit on a full stomach. Not before.

* * *

M
UCH
TO
R
OXANNE
’
S
CHAGRIN
and relief, Pierce paid the bill at the diner. By the time she’d finished a heaping helping of Ma Clements’s famous chicken and dumplings, Roxanne didn’t have the energy to argue. The smooth dumplings had slid right past her sore throat and hit bottom on her empty gut, filling her up and warming her inside and out. Sleepy and ready to call it a day, Roxanne left the diner, hoping whoever was coming for her from the ranch would be sliding up to the curb right about then.

A truck did pull up to the curb, but Maddox Thunder Horse was driving it.

Dante got in the front passenger seat and closed the door.

Roxanne stared down the street, hoping to see one of her men soon. She could barely hold her head up, much less stand for long. Sleep called to her and, despite the weight of the world resting on her shoulders, Roxanne was ready to give in. Tomorrow was another day. The cattle they’d rounded up already would have to do. Maybe the beef prices would be up on the day of the sale. She could always hope.