Cowboy Sanctuary

“What do you mean?”

“Vance Franklin died in a car wreck after Jennie filed for divorce.”

Cameron withheld comment, holding back the string of curses he wanted to let loose. How could any man be cruel enough to hit a woman? And to hit Jennie, that was unconscionable. If Vance were still alive, he’d take the man out. He agreed with his sister, the man deserved to die.

Had he only known Jennie was in trouble back then…

He knew she was in trouble now and he’d do everything in his power to keep her safe.

MEN DIDN’T MAKE good patients—especially hardworking ranch owners who didn’t know the meaning of downtime. For most of the afternoon, Jennie helped Ms. Blainey fetch and carry for her cranky father. Unused to being trapped indoors, Hank groused and hollered over every little thing.

By dusk, Jennie was fit to be tied. If she didn’t get out of the house soon, she’d go nuts. The horses needed feed and Lady needed her dressing changed.

Cameron had told her to stay inside until he returned, but the sun tipped toward the horizon and he still wasn’t back. Unwilling to stay indoors a moment longer, she took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. A quick glance around had her laughing at herself. What did she expect? The bogeyman?

Shaking her shoulders loose of the tension building there all day, Jennie strode toward the barn, a trip she’d made a million times since the day she was born. Why should today be any different?

Because someone had taken a potshot at her father? Or because Cameron Morgan might show up at any time? What was she more frightened of? The unknown threat or the known?

Ten years had passed since she’d seen Cameron. The years had hardened him into a man, not the teenager she’d fallen in love with. Had she made a mistake taking him on as a bodyguard? Did she still harbor feelings toward this man?

Jennie jerked open the barn door and entered its dark interior. Stan, Doug and Rudy were out working the fences. They would be back at dark, hungry and tired—too tired to deal with the stabled horses. All the more reason for her to feed, water and apply first aid where needed. When Jennie flipped the light switch, nothing happened.

At first, Jennie thought nothing of it. The wiring was old and occasionally a breaker tripped. The near dark didn’t bother her. She knew the barn like the back of her hand and her eyes were beginning to adjust to the dim interior.

Lady whinnied from her corner stall, the sound high-pitched and accompanied by a hoof slammed against the wooden sides of her stall.

“What’s wrong, girl? Didn’t I get out here soon enough for your liking?” As Jennie made her way through the shadowy barn, she talked to the horse in a soft, reassuring voice. When she reached out to open the large trash can housing the grain she fed the horses, she waited a moment before sticking her hand inside, remembering the surprise snake her father had found a few days prior. Just as she reached for the feed bucket, something moved at the corner of her peripheral vision, and it wasn’t a horse.

Before she could shout or even turn, something hard hit the back of her head.

Pain knifed through her, she crumpled to her knees, and her world went fuzzy around the edges.

Jennie fell to the ground, her brain working, albeit not well. If the attacker thought she was unconscious, perhaps he’d leave her alone. She lay still, her head pounding, fighting back the inky blackness threatening to engulf her.

Footsteps sounded on the hard-packed earth, headed for the front entrance to the barn.

Crawling low behind the feed bin, Jennie pulled herself to her knees and waited for her attacker’s return. She heard the sound of the large wooden door closing with a click. Had he gone? Was it safe to come out?

Then footsteps ran across the floor in front of the feed barrel. Jennie hunkered low, ready to jump out and face the menace. She strained to see in the near dark, only managing to catch a glimpse of the shadowy figure racing for the back door. Something flashed in the dark. A spark?

The scent of sulfur and smoke filled the air as if a whole book of matches had been lit.

Jennie jumped up and ran after the man, her head swimming, making her progress wobbly at best. She had to stop him from dropping the fire inside the barn. The place would burn so fast there wouldn’t be time for the Dry Wash’s Volunteer Fire Department to respond.

The burning bundle flew toward the corner where stacked hay bales sat. The man hustled through the door and out of the barn so fast Jennie didn’t have a chance to catch up to him. As she reached for the back door, the sound of a horse’s hooves pounding against the dirt let her know he’d gotten away, but maybe she could see who it was.

She tried the door. It didn’t budge.

Flames rose behind her, dancing dangerously close to her back. Jennie leaped out of the way and grabbed for a horse blanket. Using the blanket, she beat at the flames, trying to put out the fire now firmly entrenched in the straw bales. As smoke filled the interior, Jennie realized she couldn’t put the fire out on her own. She had to get Lady out and go for help.

As she ran for Lady’s stall, dry, scorching heat flared behind her, smoke rose choking off her air.

Inside the horse’s stall, Lady screamed and reared, slamming against the wooden walls.

Jennie slid open the gate and grabbed for the horse’s halter. Smoke filled her lungs and she gave in to a bout of coughing. Then, pulling her shirt over her mouth, she ran for the front door, dragging the frantic horse behind her. She had to get her out, quickly, before the smoke overcame them both.

With her arm stretched out in front of her, she felt her way through the smoke. Once she located the door, she pushed the latch and leaned her weight into the heavy wood. It still wouldn’t budge. She pushed again, putting all her strength into the effort.

The front and back doors didn’t move. It had been locked with her inside.

The stack of hay became a towering inferno shooting flames up the beams into the dry wooden flooring of the loft, also full of dry hay bales.

With heat scorching her skin and lungs, Jennie sank to her knees, trying to get as low as possible. She pulled hard on Lady’s head to move the horse’s nostrils closer to the ground and away from the rising smoke.

With the back entrance blocked by flame, all Jennie could do was beat against the door, screaming until her voice cracked and her lungs were raw and scratchy from smoke.

Chapter Five

Molly’s revelation about Jennie’s marriage roiled around in Cameron’s thoughts as he traveled the road between the Morgan and the Ward ranches. How could Jennie put up with the abuse? She’d been a firebrand when he’d known her—full of confidence and a strong sense of family. How had he missed this piece of news? Molly had always kept him up to date on the goings-on in the small community of Dry Wash. Had she been too young to understand Jennie’s plight at the time?

All Cameron had heard was that she’d married shortly after he’d left for the military.

Shadows thickened as he rounded the curve in the road leading to the Flying W ranch house. Nearing the ranch, he caught a glimpse of flames and black smoke billowing above the treetops.

What the hell? His foot slammed the accelerator to the floorboard and the truck leaped forward, eating up the remaining distance.

By the amount of smoke filling the sky, the fire must be big and it appeared to be coming from the back side of the house. Cameron’s chest squeezed. Jennie was in the house with her father. Had the same person who’d taken a shot at Hank come back to finish the job?

Cameron slammed a palm to the steering wheel. Why had he thought it all right to leave the Wards without his protection? These criminals had already killed two people and probably others he didn’t know about.

As he skidded around the side of the house, he noted that it wasn’t the house on fire, but the barn. For a moment, Cameron breathed a sigh of relief. Jennie was given strict instructions to stay in the house with her father.

When Ms. Blainey burst out of the kitchen door and headed toward the burning barn, Cameron knew instinctively that Jennie hadn’t followed instructions.

Gunning the accelerator, Cameron raced the truck toward the inferno, reaching the barn a couple yards ahead of Ms. Blainey. He dropped out of the driver’s seat and ran for the barn door. “Anyone in there?” he called out to the woman behind him.

“Jennie!” Ms. Blainey kept running until she skidded to a halt in front of the barn door. “Jennie came outside a few minutes ago to take care of the horses. Oh God! She’s in there!”