Can't Stop Believing (HARMONY)

by Jodi Thomas

  Which left Cord with only one answer. The man trying to kill Nevada might be Bryce Galloway, but he didn’t have the proof he needed. Bryce might threaten her now and have knocked her around when they were married, but Cord couldn’t prove anything.

  He kept his phone close, hoping Cameron would call in with facts.

  Another piece of information kept rolling around in his head. Bryce spent his days building alibis. The kind of folks he was talking to wouldn’t be able to remember if they talked to him on a certain day of the week by the time they were questioned. In a week he’d probably be able to produce someone who swore he was in town all day, every day. So far everything he’d done to try to harm Nevada had been at night, but he might have to act during the day if he wanted to get closer. Which would mean that he’d have to come on the ranch in daylight.

  Cord had told the cowhands to search in groups of two. They were all armed with rifles, standard for any man in the saddle. Cord guessed he was the only man on the ranch not armed. Nevada must have taken the Colt from the office drawer because it had been missing since the snakes visited.

  The now-familiar feeling of trouble thundering in rattled through his body. He had to protect her. He had to do the right thing. He had to follow the law.

  He crossed one more time over the place where he’d been working last night. His truck, with the windshield missing, looked abandoned. Knowing Nevada, she’d probably ordered him a new one. He’d never known anyone to spend money faster than she did.

  As he circled back to his farm to refuel, he spotted the sheriff’s cruiser parked near the field he used as his landing strip. Cord rolled to a stop and climbed out.

  “Nothing?” she said.

  “Nothing,” he answered.

  “I was afraid of that.” She walked with him toward his old pickup. “I found your truck out in the south pasture earlier. It was shot up, just like you said. The crime team came over from Amarillo to work the evidence.”

  Cord pulled out two bottles of water from the cooler in the bed of his truck and offered her one. “They find anything?”

  “Yeah, your truck was shot to hell.”

  Cord smiled because she’d used his exact words when he’d told her where to find the truck. “I should have gone into law enforcement.”

  “Something else. The bullets used were hollow point. Not as accurate from a distance, but if they’d hit one of you, they would have done some serious damage.”

  “Which means?”

  “Which means whoever was firing at you wanted you dead, not just hurt.”

  Cord leaned against the old pickup. Between digging holes in hard earth all day and half the night and then sleeping on the sheriff’s couch, he felt like a pretzel left out to dry.

  Alex took a drink and added, “We’re not dealing with just a mad ex-husband. If you’re right and it is Bryce Galloway, he means to kill you both. Maybe he figures if he can’t have Nevada, no one should.”

  “I figured that out up there.” He pointed at the sky. “I think he tried to pay someone else to bother us, but when he got serious, he decided to do the dirty work himself. Nevada said that as far as she knows he’d always gotten everything and everyone he wanted until her.”

  Alex followed his logic. “Who stands to benefit from her dying?”

  “Me, I guess. The lawyer asked us if we had wills, and we said we’d worry about it later. So if she dies, I inherit.” He hardened. “That makes me a suspect.”

  Alex smiled. “You forgot one thing. Whoever was shooting last night was shooting at you both. I’d think that pretty well takes you out of the lineup.”

  Alex let her words sink in, then continued, “Nevada and you are both in danger. This isn’t about the ranch, it’s about you two.”

  “I’m not worried about me.”

  She smiled. “I could have guessed that, but I am. I don’t like the idea of someone killing anyone in my town.”

  “Even me?” He wasn’t sure he believed her.

  “Even you.” She laughed. “You’re starting to grow on me. How about we go find Nevada?”

  Cord tossed his empty water bottle in the bed of the pickup. “She’s at the ranch house.”

  Alex straightened. “No. I was just there. I even tried her cell. No answer.”

  Without a word they both jumped into their vehicles and raced toward the ranch.

  Five minutes later Cord hit the kitchen door first. Ora Mae looked up from pulling a pie from the oven and glared at him.

  “Where’s Nevada?” He didn’t have time for her to remind him to wipe his feet or tell him what time it was. Any time he walked in early, that always seemed to be her first response.

  Ora Mae nodded at the sheriff as Alex stepped beside Cord. She answered formally as if testifying. “She got a call about twenty minutes ago saying one of her horses was acting sick.”

  “Who called?”

  “I don’t know, but Nevada took off in that old Jeep.” She looked from Cord to the sheriff. “I’m sure she’s safe. Her barn is not that far from the house and you’ve got an armed guard posted over there.”

  Alex didn’t answer the housekeeper. She just lifted her phone and hit a number. “I need all deputies on the roads into the Boxed B. No one, and I mean no one, leaves this land unless I say so. Then ask the highway patrol to log all cars on county roads that border the ranch.”

  Cord walked beside her as she moved to her cruiser. “We may be overreacting—”

  “We’re not,” he snapped.

  Cord looked in the direction of the barn where Nevada kept her horses. He couldn’t see it, but what he saw stopped his heart.

  A few thin lines of smoke rose, widening in the air and disappearing.

  Cord ran toward his truck.

  Chapter 38

  NEVADA STARED AT THE FIRE GROWING IN THE CENTER stall of her barn. She could hear the horses moving, kicking at their stalls, making low sounds of fear. They knew something was wrong; they could smell the fire.

  “You can’t do this!” she screamed toward the loft above her. “Leave me here, but get the horses out. Please don’t kill them!” Hot tears rolled down her face. She fought against the rope binding her hands and feet.

  “Why?” Bryce’s angry voice came from above. “What do I care if they die—these pets of yours? You’ve made a fool of me, Nevada. I thought when you divorced me I’d go back to my life, but I couldn’t. Not when you didn’t get what you deserved.”

  He tossed a bale of hay on the fire he’d started a few minutes before. “My friends back home, even my family made fun of me. Where’s the little wife, Bryce? Lose her, did you? I couldn’t stand the jabs. Even when I tried dating, it never worked. They weren’t as pretty as you. They didn’t crumble as easily. I was treated like damaged goods. If you didn’t want me, no one else seemed to. I finally figured out I’d have to deal with you before I could move on.”

  He glared down at her from above. “Only you messed it all up. I thought I could frighten you and you’d give in like you did when we were married, but you married someone else. You belong to me, Nevada. You have since I first saw you. After seeing the way your father and brother treated you, I knew you were made for me. I’d have no problem with control.” He swore at her, then added, “Only you tricked me, and you’ll pay by dying with the screams of your beloved horses in your head.”

  Bryce laughed. “Poor little unloved Nevada. Once you’re gone I’ll think of myself as a widower; after all, I will have lost the one woman I ever wanted.”

  Smoke began to fill the barn, and the horses’ cries ripped at her mind. “Please,” she said, knowing that he wasn’t listening. “Please let the horses out.”

  Bryce started down the ladder at the far wall. He stopped to watch the fire as smoke fogged the air inside the barn. “I thought I could whip you into shape, but you were stronger than I thought. You didn’t take the bit like you should have.”

  She struggled, wishing she could reach her duster onl
y a few feet away. Deep in the pocket was her father’s old Colt.

  “You never cared for me,” she said, more to herself than him. She’d known more love in the weeks married to Cord than she’d known all her life.

  “You got that right, but I wanted you.”

  Nevada coughed. The smoke was getting thicker. “You’ll never get away with it.”

  He laughed. “Who’s going to stop me? The fire in your barn was an accident. I made sure it looked like the guard you left upstairs was smoking. He tossed a few cigars out the loft opening, and the fire department will find them and think one must have started the fire.”

  Nevada had been so shocked to see Bryce waiting for her in the barn, she hadn’t thought of the guard. Johnson, the youngest of the brothers, was on duty today. “Where’s the kid?”

  “Oh, he’s dead”—Bryce almost giggled—“or he will be soon. The smoke’s getting thicker and thicker up there. I knocked him over the head and tossed the body in the back of the loft. They’ll find his body during the cleanup. What a mess this place is going to be. In fact, I’d better hurry if I want to get out alive. I parked a bike out behind the barn, so I’ll be miles away before anyone gets here.”

  Nevada steadied her voice. “You are really going to leave me here to burn to death?”

  “Oh no, dear. I couldn’t do that.” He pulled her to her feet and shoved her toward the horse now going wild in the first stall. “I want you to be near your horse. You always worried more about them than you ever did me. I’ve even locked the barn door and plan to leave out the back. By the time anyone sees the fire and breaks in, it will be too late.”

  Nevada stumbled, unable to move her feet.

  He jerked her forward, half dragging her with him. The ropes cut into her wrists, but she barely noticed.

  “I’m going to let the horse kill you. Fitting, don’t you think?”

  He pulled her hands free of the ropes as he shoved her inside and pushed the bolt closed. “One more thing,” he yelled above the horses’ screams. “I shot this one full of a steroid. Even you won’t be able to calm her, but don’t worry, I’ll wait until you stop screaming before I leave.”

  The mare shoved against Nevada, knocking her off her feet. She tried to reach the rope binding her feet, but the horse was too near, too threatening. All she could do was twist out of her way.

  Nevada rolled against the stall as the animal raged, fighting to get out. A hoof slammed against her leg, snapping the bone just above the knee.

  Nevada screamed and fought to press flat against the stall wall. She heard Bryce laugh as smoke blurred her sight.

  If she couldn’t see anything, neither could he. She clamped her mouth closed so tight she feared her teeth might crack, but she didn’t make a sound. Let him think she was dead; she would be in seconds. If the horse didn’t trample her, the smoke would suffocate her before the fire even reached her.

  She waited for death, listening to the screams of her horses. She’d ride into the hereafter with them.

  Chapter 39

  BY THE TIME CORD REACHED THE BARN, SMOKE WAS COMING from the roof. He didn’t slow the old pickup as he raced toward the barn door, closed and locked.

  The Ford hit the huge doors hard and Cord hit the brakes as lumber tumbled around him. Bellows of smoke escaped with waves of heat that felt like opening an oven an inch from his face.

  By the time he was out of the truck and running, his face felt sunburned.

  He reached the first stall and threw the bolt. The horse almost ran over him.

  As he ran for the second stall, he heard Alex yelling for everyone to stay away, but the cowboys came barging in, their bandannas around their faces, like bandits of old. One by one the stall doors were flung open and the horses were herded out. A few of the hands grabbed fire extinguishers and tried to fight the fire, but it had spread too far.

  “Nevada!” Cord yelled, but there was no answer.

  He moved to the next stall, where a mare was bleeding from fighting so hard to get out. When the horse ran past him, he saw a dark movement in the back of the stall. For a second, he thought it might be a colt, and then Nevada’s blond hair brushed across the bloody floor.

  Men were shouting all around him, but the world went silent. All he saw, all he could think about was the woman curled on the floor.

  “Everyone get out now!” Galem shouted. “The roof is about to fall!”

  Cord knelt, knowing he wouldn’t leave her. Carefully, as if she were a newborn, he lifted her up. Her arm was bleeding and a gash on her head poured blood over her beautiful hair. One leg twisted at an odd angle. He knew it was broken. “Come on, Babe,” he said as he pulled her against his chest. “Let’s go home.”

  She cried out once as he moved her, but she never let go of him.

  He carried her through the burning barn with fire flying around him. All the horses were gone, but the flames seemed to be laughing in victory.

  Ten feet out of the barn he cleared the smoke, and a cheer went up. He knew they were safe.

  A fire truck and an ambulance were pulling up as everyone backed away from the burning barn.

  Medics ran toward Nevada. They both had packs of supplies and a stretcher balanced between them.

  Cord slowly laid her on the stretcher. He looked up at the barn, now completely engulfed in flames. Only the charred outline of his truck showed at what had once been the opening. The cowboys were standing back several yards. Galem bandaged one man’s hand and Ora Mae passed out water bottles.

  The adrenaline slowly drained from Cord’s body. Every man on the ranch must have seen the smoke and come running. Pickups and trucks were parked along the road and in the pasture like scattered toys.

  “She’s stable,” a medic said. “Looks like we’re dealing with a broken arm and a compound fracture of the leg. Got to have the doc check that head wound as well. We need to transport her. You coming along, sir?”

  Cord didn’t answer. He knelt beside Nevada and smiled when he saw her blue eyes open. “You all right, Babe?”

  “I will be. Thanks to you.”

  He smiled. “We got an agreement; you have to sleep with me every night. I couldn’t let you die and back out on that.”

  She tried a smile but couldn’t manage one. He had a feeling the shot the medic had given her was taking the edge off the pain. “Tell the sheriff it was Bryce who did this.”

  Alex moved closer. “You don’t have to tell me. We found him behind the barn.”

  The medics moved in, lifting Nevada’s stretcher. “Are you coming with her, sir?” he asked again.

  “No.” Cord looked at Nevada. “I’m going to stay here and end this now.”

  His wife nodded as if she understood. “I’ll be waiting when you’re finished.”

  When he leaned in to kiss her cheek, she added in a sleepy whisper, “I love you, you know.”

  He straightened. “I know.”

  As the ambulance pulled away, Cord followed the sheriff around the barn to the horse tank.

  Johnson sat on the ground, while Dr. Freeman looked at his head. “I need to get to the horses and check on them, son. I don’t have time to thump on you, but if you were a horse I’d say you’re fine. Not too bright, of course, to drop out of a twenty-foot loft door.”

  Johnson grinned. “I had this guy to break my fall. I was coming to when I heard him say he was leaving out the back, so I held my breath and waited just above the little door. He didn’t even look up, but he must have thought he was hit by a falling train.”

  Cord looked over at a man in handcuffs standing beside the sheriff’s cruiser.

  “If you’re thinking of killing him, forget it.” Alex walked up behind Cord.

  “He tried to kill my wife,” Cord said simply.

  “He’s going with me and he’ll be locked away for a long time.”

  Cord smiled at the sheriff. “That’s worse than anything I could do to him. I know. He’s all yours, Sheriff.” He took a few
steps and added, “Remind him a few times on the drive in that Nevada is fine and she’s with me.”

  “I’ll do that, Cord.”

  Jackson and Jefferson straightened from where they’d been hovering over their brother. Jackson balled his fists. “He tried to kill my kid brother, Sheriff. Mind if I pound on him a little?”

  “Sorry. I can’t let you do that, but look at the bright side. Johnson had to get out of that barn. Bryce here saved him a broken bone or two by giving him something to land on.”

  Neither Jackson nor Jefferson looked happy about having to settle for nonviolence, but they respected the sheriff. “Would you let him know that if he ever gets out, one of us will be waiting for him?”

  “Sure.” Alex headed toward her car. “Johnson, if your boss has no objections, I’d like you to come on in and give a full statement. Then I’ll get Nevada’s as soon as the doctor gets finished with her.”

  As they moved around what was left of the barn, Galem offered, “Boss, you might want to ride along with me. Your truck wasn’t in too good of shape the last time I saw it. It appears trucks have a very short life around you. At this rate you might singlehandedly keep Ford in business.”

  Cord laughed. “Yeah, I keep parking them in the wrong spot.”

  Chapter 40

  MARTHA Q PULLED INTO HER DRIVE, TRYING NOT TO touch the steering wheel any more than necessary with wet fingernails. Looking up, she swore.

  Two cowboys and a sheriff’s deputy looking like they’d just had a run in with Smokey the Bear were sitting on her front porch.

  “I’m going to chop that porch off and drag it into the creek bed.” She climbed out of her car, forgetting all about her nails. As she headed up the walk, she yelled, “I’m full up, boys. No more room in the inn.”

  Amid all the dirt and soot, she recognized Cord McDowell. “And you, Cord, you need to go home to that wife of yours.” She was at the steps when she added, “But take a bath first. You smell like a campfire.”