Chapter 23
Cheyenne
I watched Colt pull away and head off to work before I headed back in the house. The fact that he made me promise and was insistent about the gun was enough to chill me to the bone. If things were getting bad enough around here that a man like Colt was that worried while he was apart from me, then I really needed to make sure I knew where the gun was before I did anything else.
I walked back inside to the wonderful smell of coffee and thought another cup wouldn’t hurt before I went looking for it.
I needed to check on the progress of my own place and was excited about that, but a part of me was sad that I would be leaving here before too long. It had been a very long time since I’d felt at home like this anywhere, much less in my own home. My house had plenty of furniture for example, but there was no one to sit in it, and it just reminded me of bad memories and how lonely it really was out here sometimes.
I stood and took in the view of the barn while I drank my coffee and thought back to the passion Colt and I had shared. It still heated me to my core to think about it, and it had been hard to look at him ever since. I couldn’t even glance at him without remembering what it felt like to have his fingertips flutter down my skin. I couldn’t think about kissing him without remembering the trouble those lips got me into whenever they latched onto my neck that night.
It didn’t help that the kiss this morning was not only passionate, but secretly desired.
I had sworn completely off men after Dexter. He had chased me out of town, everyone I thought I loved had sided with him in the entire debacle, and I ran away for a fresh start. Honestly, had it not been for Colt talking me out of it, I probably would have taken off and run to somewhere else after my barn had initially burned down.
I had him to thank for a lot of things, even though I may not have wanted to admit it.
Colt was mesmerizing, honestly. I’d never been as physically weak to a man as I was to him. Not even Dexter. Dexter expected sex at every turn for everything he did, and it only served to make our sex less special and passionate. It seemed to be more about a treat he deserved rather than an experience we shared between the two of us.
In stark contrast, my experience with Colt a few nights ago was very different. It was warm and passionate and felt like something to be cherished. It was definitely a shared experience between the two of us, instead of an obligatory reward given as a pat on the back.
The experience with Colt was very different than what I was used to, and I found that I really enjoyed it.
Which put me in a much tougher position than I had anticipated.
I couldn’t afford to let a man skew my end goal. I had to get my sanctuary back up and running. Part of that was convincing my grant holders that we were back in action, and I had to keep the fact that I was residing at and accepting help from another ranch to myself. I also had to make sure I could resume life as normal without someone trying to burn down everything I’d worked so hard for. Having a man like Colt distracting me could be detrimental to that goal.
But oh, how his muscles felt against my skin.
When I finished my cup of coffee, I went in search of the gun. It wasn’t too hard to find, though I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I decided to try holding it up just in case I needed it. I moved it around and made sure it wasn’t too heavy, even trying to aim it a few times. I figured if I really needed, it my instincts would kick into gear, but honestly, I knew I would probably be better at wielding a cast iron frying pan or a shovel than a gun.
I knew Colt was worried and had grown protective of me, given everything that had happened over the past couple of weeks, but I also knew how to take care of myself. I’d never owned a gun before, and I wasn’t going to need one now. Honestly? It frightened me that I might actually have to use it, so I put it away quickly and went upstairs to clean up. The horses needed their morning feed, and Tiffany was still laid up with her leg, so I needed to get busy. I didn’t want the horses getting restless and causing a scene or any trouble. It felt like my presence here had been one episode after another.
I went out to feed the horses and found they were more than ready for their morning meal, banging in their stalls as I suspected they would be. It felt good to be in the barn and among my horses, keeping some semblance of a normal routine, but that routine was quickly broken when a sound rang out from one of the stalls.
No, not rang. Rattled.
Something rattled out from one of the stalls.
“What the hell?”
I slowly approached the stall, thankful there wasn’t a horse in it, and when I rounded the corner, I saw just what I expected to see. A massive rattlesnake with its tail going and its fangs flared stopped me in my tracks. It was way too cold for them to be roaming around outside, and I had absolutely no idea how or why it would have gotten into the barn.
I tried to take a small step back, but it slithered closer to me. I looked around to see if there was anything I could reach for, like a shovel to beat its head in, a rake to ward it off, or a bucket to feed it into. But, there was nothing within my reach without moving, and I knew that snake was capable of moving far faster than I could.
I would be bit before my hand could grab the shovel in the stall next to me.
When my hands began to shake, I drew in a deep, cleansing breath. There were horses in every single stall except this one, and I knew if I startled it, I was putting all of them at risk. I wasn’t willing to lose another horse to something else in this damn town, and I felt my blood boiling with anger. As it was, the horses were already nervous and creating more of a ruckus.
I still couldn’t believe there was a rattlesnake in here.
“Hey, Cheyenne! You in—”
I held up my hand to stop Rick, and that’s when he heard the rattle as well. He slowly approached me before he rounded the corner, and that’s when I felt his hand come down onto my shoulder.
“Don’t move. That thing’s ready. I’m gonna go grab our snake stick.”
“Hurry,” I whispered.
I kept my eye on it, waiting for it to pounce. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if it did, but I had on rubber boots and I had better aim with my feet than I did a gun anyway.
Though shooting its head off didn’t seem like a bad idea right now.
I felt as much as heard Rick walk back up behind me with a snake stick and a bag. I panned my gaze over to him, and I saw how intently his eyes were locked onto it.
“Rick, you gotta be careful, alright? If it gets away from you and gets after one of these horses, all hell is gonna break loose in here.”
“I’ve got this, alright? Just don’t make any sudden moves, and pray one of those horses doesn’t kick up,” he said. Honestly, we were very lucky I had just fed the horses because I knew their eating was what keeping them pretty preoccupied. They were on alert, but still reasonably calm. I just couldn’t get past the fact that it was even happening; my mind was frantically trying to find a logical explanation.
The moment the snake stopped rattling its tail was when Rick lunged. It dodged him the first time and flared its fangs, and when it snapped back at Rick, one of the horses started to kick up. I turned and ran to try and calm the excited horse, praying that Rick could get it under control.
“It’s alright,” I cooed as I patted and scratched the horse. “Just calm down. Everything’s fine.”
Rick grunted and shuffled around, and at one point I thought he slammed his back up against the barn. That sent another horse over the edge across the way, and it immediately starting bucking in the stall, which I knew was likely to cause a chain reaction.
“Ho. Down, boy! It’s alright. Come here, come here, come here.”
“I think I got it,” Rick called it.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. If you want, just let that horse run before he’s gets them all fired up.”
I threw open the stall and let the horse go, and he scurried out of the barn and into the pasture. He raised such a ruckus in the process the rest of them started kicking up a fuss, so I let them out as well. None of them were done with their breakfast, but I figured I’d let them run off their nervous energy and let them back in after a bit.
“These poor horses are going to develop anxiety issues,” I said, with a sigh.
“I’ve got it in the bag. I’m gonna go drive it on out to the other side of the field and let it go.”
“Just keep it away from the horses,” I said. “God, how in the world did a rattlesnake that size get itself into the barn? It’s too cold for them to be out here, Rick.”
“Well, it’s uncommon, but not unheard of. Happened to Colt and Tiffany a couple years back. I didn’t tell them about it because it was just a baby at the time, but if they wander off and find somewhere warm to curl up in, they’ve been known to survive entire winters in barns and lofts and stuff.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Yep. It’s why people tell you to check your attics around here before winter settles in. They love attics.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said with a grumble.
Rick smirked at me, and I felt relieved to have someone here. I knew I could have wielded that snake stick on my own, but I wasn’t sure if one of the horses or I wouldn’t have been bit had I left them alone with a snake in that barn.
“My God, what would’ve happened had that snake been in one of the other stalls, Rick?” I asked. I felt tears welling up once my adrenaline started wearing down. My hands began to shake, and my knees felt weak. Never in my life had I felt so helpless and powerless when around horses, but it was like I couldn’t keep them out of danger any longer. Being the horse whisperer and having a sanctuary did me no good if I couldn’t keep my horses safe.
“Don’t worry yourself with stuff that didn’t happen,” Rick said. “We got the snake, and once I dump this one, I’ll check the barn for more. The last thing we want is to have a nest of them and not know it.”
“You think they could’ve been living in those rotted out beams?” I asked.
“Nope,” Rick said with a chuckle. “But I’ll check the horse’s hay that’s in their stalls as well as the feed room. That place stays pretty warm in the winter because of how insulated we keep it. It’s actually built that way to keep animals out, but if a snake gets in, it’s easy living.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. I knew if that rattlesnake had been in one of the other stalls, the vet wouldn’t have gotten out here in time before permanent damage would have been done. At best, the horse would’ve limped for the rest of its life. At worst? Well, I honestly didn’t want to think about that.
“Why don’t you go get yourself another cup of coffee? These horses will run for a bit longer, and then you can take them in one by one to finish their breakfast while you groom them,” Rick said.
And that actually didn’t sound like a bad idea.
“I’ll be back in fifteen,” I said.
“Make it twenty, and put your feet up for a bit. Seriously, I know everyone around here is wound tight, but this is just an animal looking to stay warm.”
“We’ll call it a cool seventeen and make it even,” I said with a wink.
“You drive a hard bargain, ma’am.”