Chapter 24
Colt
When my eyes opened, I saw Cheyenne sleeping next to me. Having her there felt so good and so right. Despite never having gone out on any dates, we’d been sleeping together for a week now, though neither of us had mentioned it to Tiffany yet. If she knew, she’d surely kick up some sort of fuss that would cause Cheyenne to backtrack, and neither of us wanted that to happen. Plus, with everything that had been going on, it had been nice holding on to each other at night.
It made me smile that she felt safe with me, and I’d do whatever it took to preserve that feeling within her.
I bent over to give Cheyenne a kiss on the cheek, then slipped out of bed. It was almost time for me to get up anyway. I was going to feed the horses this morning before I headed into the Iron Stallion so Cheyenne could get some sleep. Plus, Tiffany had been riding my ass on not doing much around here anyway. The farm was never something I’d wanted to be responsible for. It made me feel chained to a place I didn’t want to be. I’d always been used to owning the things around me, but instead, I felt that this farm owned me.
My life.
My aspirations.
But Cheyenne had changed a bit of that. I watched how carefree and beautiful she was with her horses. I saw how much she loved them and what she would sacrifice for their safety. She owned this town and everything she did within it, and in some ways, I envied her for that. I felt that powerful at the restaurant, but I felt helpless and chained at this farm.
I knew Cheyenne could use the sleep, especially with all she’d been through. When I found my way into the kitchen to get a drink of water, I decided to brew a pot of coffee. I was more tired than I thought I’d be, and Cheyenne would want some whenever she got up. I’m sure she’d be upset at first that I didn’t wake her so she could keep her routine, but I had ways of making it up to her.
I walked over to the window while the coffee brewed in the background, and I looked out at the barn. The sun hadn’t quite started to rise just yet, and everything was still blanketed in a settled darkness. The horses weren’t whinnying, and the grass wasn’t blowing with any excess wind. The stars were just now closing their eyes for the day, and the moon was slowly beginning to fade. For me, it was the most peaceful part of the day. The earth was vulnerable, the ground was still, and everything that surrounded the people who still slept was anxiously awaiting their presence.
I looked out at the stables and finished my water, the smell of coffee filling my nostrils. I was just about to turn and go grab a cup, but a movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I focused on it—on the corner of the barn—and then the dark movement fluttered again.
Except it was running towards the barn.
I ran to the hallway closet and grabbed my robe. I threw it over my shoulders, dug out my shotgun, and ran out onto the porch. If I shot the gun, I’d wake Cheyenne and startle the horses, so I settled for yelling out first.
“Hey! Who the hell is on my property?”
I watched while the sun slowly began to peek its first eye open for the day, but nothing looked like it moved. I reached inside the house and flipped on the floodlights. I wanted to know who the hell was poking their nose around my fucking stable.
“I know you’re there!” I called out. The floodlights illuminated the driveway in a fluorescent light. I stepped out onto the driveway when I didn’t hear Cheyenne come down the stairs, and I cocked my gun just in case someone—or something—came running out at me.
I made my way slowly towards my stable, and that’s when I heard it. The horses started nickering before I heard a couple stomp their feet. Even with the sun slowly rising, it was still a bit early for any of them to be causing a fuss, and I knew what I’d seen. I felt the hair on my arms stand on end as I slowly approached the fence, knowing I was feet away from catching the son of a bitch who was meddling in our farms.
“It’s done! I know you’re in there! Now, come on out!” I exclaimed.
I saw a shape dart from the main door of the barn, and for a split second I watched the figure raise its head. I wasn’t close enough to see their eyes or read the expression on their face, but I knew it was human. I knew, deep down, that it was the person who was causing all the trouble.
And the figure looked nothing like Bill Coates.
I raised my gun to my shoulder, and the figure stood completely still. If I needed to, I had the perfect shot. I could take down this son of a bitch, and this would all be over. For all of us.
But then, the figure turned to run.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot!” I roared. I hopped the fence and aimed my sights down the barrel of the shotgun, but a part of me hesitated. I was concerned about the nagging sensation in the back of my head that told me it was just some asshole kid playing a prank. If it was a kid, I didn’t want to shoot them. I just wanted to scare them.
One thing was for sure: it wasn’t Bill Coates.
I watched the figure run off into the woods, and I lowered my gun from my shoulder. Now, I had definitive proof that someone was intentionally attempting to sabotage anyone who helped and associated themselves with Cheyenne. A very long talk between myself and the sheriff’s department was going to be in order, and I would tell them the next time someone stepped foot onto my property, they’d be coming to collect a body and not a story.
I was ripped from my thoughts, however, when I smelled smoke.
“What the—”
“Colt!”
I whipped my head around and saw Cheyenne standing on the porch. The commotion of my yelling must’ve woken her up, and the smell of smoke just got stronger. Whoever the hell just ran from my barn had set something on fire, and I wasn’t about to watch everything our parents had built go up in smoke.
“Get the hose ready, Cheyenne!”
“Colt! What’s wrong?”
“Just do it!” I yelled. I dropped my gun and ran towards the stable. I ripped the door open, and smoke poured into my face, and my lungs burned with the need for oxygen while Cheyenne cried out from the porch. I barreled my way through and began unlocking the horse’s stables, trying to get them out of the smoke that was quickly filling my barn. I had a fire extinguisher in here; I just had to find it.
“Where the hell is it?” I said with a groan. My eyes were watering, and my chest was heaving. My stomach was retching from the smoke filling my lungs, and I knew I’d have to backtrack if I couldn’t find the source of the fire. I finally made my way to the back of the barn and realized one of the empty stalls had burning hay in it, and when I turned my head, the fire extinguisher was hanging on the other side of the wall.
I yanked it down and went to pull the pin, but when I couldn’t dislodge it, I threw it to the ground. The pin had been bent, no doubt by the asshole that had set this fire in the first place, and the only hope I had was that Cheyenne had heard me and was heading toward the barn with the hose.
And just like the angel she was, she busted in and promptly turned on the water.
She sprayed it right into the smoke in order to part the clouds. Like a goddess parting the flames of hell, she emerged in her pajamas with a robe slung around her shoulders. Her eyes were watering from the smoke, and her chest was panting for oxygen, but when she got back to me, I took the hose and pointed it at the burning hay.
The fire had started licking its way up the wall, but this time we put it out before anything could collapse onto us.
Even though I’d thrown open all the stalls, there were three horses that were too scared to gallop their way into the fields. I threw the light on and inspected the damage, but I couldn’t see much through the red flooding my vision. Someone had intentionally set my barn on fire, and an attack on my horses was an attack on me.
Someone was going to jail for this, and I wasn’t going to stop until I knew who the hell had done it.
“Oh, my God,” Cheyenne said. “What happened out here, Colt?”
“I came downstairs to get some water and make some coffee, and I saw someone rushing into the barn.”
“Was that all the yelling I was hearing?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No, no. You should’ve woken me. You know I like to keep my routine anyway.”
“You needed the sleep,” I said.
“Colt—”
“Cheyenne,” I said, cutting her off, “Someone just came into my barn and set it on fire. But I got a pretty good look at them when they came out of the barn.”
It was now that I really wished the stable hand was still around, but he moved out when his mom got sick. Had he been around, we could have had some more help. I knew I needed to get him replaced ASAP.
“Holy cow. Did you see who it was?” she asked.
“No, but I saw who it wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The sun was coming up, and it outlined pretty well the figure coming out of the barn. They looked at me for a while before they took off, and that’s when I threatened to shoot.”
“I heard,” she said with a smirk.
“The figure was taller and pretty lean,” I said.
Cheyenne was silent when I told her that. All along, she’d been dead set on the fact that Bill Coates was doing all of this to us. And while I wasn’t insinuating that he didn’t set the initial fire that burned down her barn and killed the stallion, I knew—beyond a shadow of a doubt—that Bill Coates was not who I was looking at.
“I know that Bill Coates—”
“Cheyenne, I’m not saying he didn’t torch your barn,” I said. “I’m just saying he didn’t torch mine.”
“What in the world is happening, Colt?” she asked.
I took her into my arms while the horses slowly grew more agitated. Those that were still in the barn were sweating from the heat and smoke from the fire, and the ones in the pasture were running in, looking for food. I held her close to my chest and tried to calm her trembling body, the only thing I knew how to do. I had wanted to surprise her with some sleep but realized what she really needed right now was something to keep her rooted.
Keep her sane.
Keep her mind from running away from her.
She needed her routine, and she needed these horses.
“We need to check out the horses that didn’t go out, and they all need food,” I said.
“I can get them checked out. And they’ll probably need to be washed anyway, so we’ll get them fed and then take them out and hose them down.”
“You alright?” I asked. I pressed a light kiss on the top of her head, and for a split second, she nuzzled into my body. But the moment was lost when one of the hungry horses barged in and interrupted.
Laughing, she said, “Yeah, I’ll be alright. I’ll get the horses fed and looked over. You inspect the damage of that fire.”
“It wasn’t a massive—”
“Inspect it,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said with a grin.