by Roma James
“We need to get the vet out here,” I said, exchanging a look with Cade over Janessa’s head. “Can you go back to the house and get Justin? He’ll know who to call.”
“Logan Hensley,” Janessa said, shooting me an annoyed look. “He’s the vet we use now that Dr. McHenry retired. He’ll know what to do.”
“We’ll give him a call.” Cade nodded, already moving back toward the stable door. “I’ll be back down here in a few minutes.”
“You should probably go back with him,” I said to Janessa as Cade walked away. “There isn’t anything else for us to do here right now.”
“I’m staying,” she said, taking another moment with the horse before turning back to face me. “This is my ranch. These are my horses. If you guys hadn’t been here, I would have come down here on my own—and it wouldn’t have been the first time, either. Whatever happened here, I want to know. I want to get to the bottom of whatever is wrong with Rebel. And I’m not leaving until I get some more information.”
She held my gaze for what felt like a full minute until I finally nodded. “Okay,” I said simply.
What else could I say?
Again, she was absolutely right. Just because I hated the thought of her putting herself in harm’s way didn’t mean she wasn’t exactly where she belonged. If anything, I was the one who had been out of line—even if I wasn’t about to admit it out loud.
It was just that the thought of something happening to her scared me in a way that no stranger, no intruder ever could. I cared about this girl, whether I was ready to admit it out loud or not. I’d known her family my whole life. I’d known her parents. I’d watched her grow into a beautiful, confident woman who would be more than capable of taking over this ranch when the time came.
So yeah, I cared about her. In a different time, under different circumstances, I would have happily acted on those feelings. And I knew Cade felt the same damn way.
But that just made the whole situation even worse.
We both wanted her.
Neither of us could have her.
And neither of us seemed willing to let her go.
Chapter 6
Janessa
The tension in the air was so thick that it was hard for me to concentrate—hard for me to breathe, really—as my uncle, Cade, Boone, and I crowded around Rebel’s stall and waited for Logan Hensley, the town vet, to tell us what had happened.
I knew from the hard looks Uncle Justin kept tossing my way that he was upset I’d slipped out in the middle of the night. And even though he should have been thankful that Cade and Boone had been here to help, I was pretty sure that fact had only upset him more.
Especially since nobody had told him what had happened until after the fact.
That part felt bad, of course, but… there really hadn’t been any other way. If I’d gone to him first, he never would have let me out of the house. Convincing Cade and Boone that I wasn’t some helpless child had been hard enough. Convincing Uncle Justin?
That would take a little longer. Probably a lot longer.
“Is she gonna make it, Doc?” My uncle asked, finally turning his disappointed stare away from me. “Can you tell what’s happened to her? She was just fine yesterday evening when I came down here to lock the doors.”
The vet didn’t answer right away, and I held my breath as he continued checking over the nearly lifeless mare. When he looked up, he made eye contact with me first. “It’s a good thing you called me when you did. Another couple of hours and she might have been too far gone.”
“But what is it?” I asked, blinking hard to fight back the tears that were welling up. Rebel had been around nearly my whole life, for as long as I could remember, anyway. I had so many happy memories with her—memories that were also tied to my parents. Losing her now would just be another link to the past that I didn’t have anymore. “Why can’t she get up?”
“It looks like poison,” Logan said, frowning. “And it seems to have traveled very quickly through her bloodstream. I’ve given her some medication that will hopefully neutralize the poison, but there isn’t much we can do for her right now besides wait here and watch her carefully.”
“Poison?” Uncle Justin asked. “But wouldn’t the other horses be sick, too, if it was something in their food?”
I looked around the stables at the other horses. Most of them were staring right back at me, perfectly alert and curious about all the commotion we’d caused this morning. None of them seemed to have any of the same scary symptoms as my poor Rebel.
“They would almost definitely be showing signs of the poison if that was the case,” Logan said, nodding. “But I don’t think this was a case of something accidentally getting mixed in with their grain.”
I could tell from the expression on my uncle’s face that he was just as confused as I was. I didn’t doubt that Logan knew what he was talking about—he’d been a perfectly good veterinarian up to this point, at least. But he wasn’t making any sense.
“You’re saying someone poisoned this horse intentionally?” Boone asked, making my stomach automatically clench at the thought. “That it wasn’t an accident at all?”
Logan nodded as he stood back up from tending to Rebel. “I don’t see how it could have been anything but an intentional act. And you said you saw someone here earlier, right?”
“We didn’t actually see the person—” Cade started to answer.
“But we saw enough to know someone was here,” Boone finished. “Headlights out the window and tire tracks in the mud. Whoever it was didn’t put much thought into covering their tracks.”
Logan only nodded as he looked back and forth from Cade to Boone. “Well, it’s pretty obvious someone was here. Seems like they might have wanted you to know.”
“Why would someone want to get caught poisoning our horses?” Uncle Justin asked. “That doesn’t make any damn sense.”
None of it made sense to me, but I was glad he was at least giving a voice to the anger I could feel bubbling up inside me. It was bad enough to know that someone had come here to trespass on our property in the middle of the night, but to intentionally hurt our animals? It was too much. What kind of horrible person went after an animal like that?
“I’m not saying the person was trying to get caught…” Logan shrugged. “I honestly don’t know why someone would do any of this, except maybe to send a message. Or to get back at you for something you’ve done, maybe? Can you think of anyone around here who would have a reason to be upset with you?”
Uncle Justin shot me a quick glance, and I wondered if we both happened to be thinking of the same person. But that didn’t make sense, either. Nora Statler might be a mean, ruthless woman, but to come out here and break into our stables? To poison our horses? It wasn’t that I’d totally put it past her, it was just… that wasn’t her style.
“Nobody who would do something like this,” Uncle Justin said, gesturing toward Rebel. So he felt the same way about Nora. Good. At least that meant I could probably trust my instincts on that one. “But you’re right that it seems very deliberate. Whoever it was, they had a purpose in doing this.”
“And you didn’t find anything else?” Logan asked. “No other animals on the ranch that are acting sick or injured?”
The four of us looked at each other, then back to the vet. “We haven’t really had time to do a thorough check,” Boone confessed.
“We came out here to the stables first,” Cade added. “Then we called you immediately once we realized something was wrong with the mare.”
My uncle gave a curt nod, then stepped back out of the stall as he spoke to Logan. “I’m going to go check on the cattle. If that bastard did anything else, we’re better off knowing about it while you’re still here to help.”
“We’ll go with you,” Boone said, already moving along with Cade.
The three of them paused, then turned to face me as if the same thought had struck them all at once.
“I’m stayi
ng here with Rebel,” I said, guessing they would have probably rather seen me go back up to the house where it was supposedly safe.
It hadn’t been that safe last night, though. Not when some kind of horrible animal poisoner had been right there under our noses.
“I’ll stay as well,” Logan said. “At least until I can say for sure whether Rebel will be okay.”
The other guys nodded and headed for the door. I smiled at Logan. “Thank you so much for staying,” I said. “And for coming out here so soon. I know how busy you must be, so I really appreciate it.”
He reached out to squeeze my shoulder. “I’m just glad I got here in time. I hate to think of what could have happened.” His hand lingered a few more moments before he took it away and his expression hardened a little. “I’m sure you were in good hands with Cade and Boone, though. I didn’t realize they were friends of your uncle’s. Do they come here often?”
I blinked as I tried to take in everything he’d just said. First, I felt a little weird that his hand had lingered on my shoulder for just a little longer than what felt normal for a veterinarian and a client. Which was probably just me being jittery, right? It had been a super stressful morning, after all. And then the weird look when he’d asked about Cade and Boone…
“I didn’t realize you knew them that well,” I said, deliberately avoiding his question. I was sure he didn’t mean anything by it, but I didn’t care to invite even more questions by telling him that Cade and Boone were here because I’d invited them. It really didn’t have anything to do with my uncle.
And I sure didn’t think it was any of his business to know how often they may or may not have visited. Not that they ever did visit, but still. That was between me and the two of them.
He opened his mouth like he was going to say something else but snapped it closed again instead. As we both turned our attention back to Rebel and the silence stretched out between us, I started to think that maybe I should have gone with the other guys. I didn’t know Logan Hensley that well, and even though he hadn’t exactly been rude or said anything particularly wrong, I just felt like there was some weird tension in the air that hadn’t been there before.
Logan must have sensed it, too, because he finally sighed and gave me a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to pry. Once this is all over, I’d actually love the chance to get to know you a little better. Maybe over dinner?”
I cocked my head to the side. Was he… was he asking me on a date? Right now?
“That’s a nice offer,” I said. “And thank you, but… I’m really so busy here, you know? Learning the ropes from my uncle and now with taking care of a sick horse plus God only knows what else they’ll find while they’re out looking around. It’s just not a great time for me to try and get away.”
Sadly, all of my excuses happened to be true. But it really would have been pretty irresponsible of me to think of going on a date right now when I had so many more important things to worry about—even if I had been interested in going to dinner with Logan.
Which, for the record, I definitely wasn’t.
He seemed like a nice enough guy and obviously had a good, steady job, but just… no.
Hard pass.
“I understand,” he said. Thank God. “I just thought maybe you’d like the opportunity to get away from all this stress for a while, even if it was only for a couple of hours over dinner. You don’t ever miss the freedom you had while you were in college?”
“Nope,” I answered, maybe a little too quickly. “Never. Most days I don’t even have time to miss it. I always knew I’d end up coming back here eventually anyway. It just happened a lot quicker than anyone could have imagined.”
And most of that was true, at least. Sure, there were things I missed. I sometimes wondered what Becca and Daisy Lynn were up to or wished I could have a little more time to go visit them every once in a while. More often, though, I missed the innocence of that time. Back then, I thought my parents would be around forever. I knew I could come right back home if anything ever got too hard or too scary.
Things were different now. Everything was different now.
But as far as Logan needed to know? Yeah, I was fine. I didn’t miss anything, and I didn’t need anything beyond what he could provide as our veterinarian.
I just hoped he wouldn’t press the issue because I really did need him to make sure Rebel would be okay.
Before he could ask me anything else, though, my uncle came back with Cade and Boone.
“Did you guys find anything else?” I asked before they’d even fully made it through the stable door. I wanted to know for the sake of the ranch, of course, but I was also really thankful for the chance to talk about something other than myself. Or dating.
“Just the tire tracks we saw earlier,” Boone answered. “And some footprints around the building. None of the other animals seem to be sick, though, and there doesn’t seem to be any other damage or theft.” He shrugged. “Whoever it was either did what they set out to do or they got spooked by something and left before they were finished.”
“Either way, it pisses me off that someone would be so cocky to try it,” Uncle Justin grumbled. “They were right here last night, not even a hundred yards from our house.” He shook his head. “I wish I would have caught them in the act. There would have been a whole different story today.”
“The good news is that it looks like Rebel is going to make it,” Logan said, smiling warmly at my uncle and speaking for the first time since his attempt to take me out to dinner. He wouldn’t even make eye contact with me now, though. “I’m going to leave some medicine with you to give her through the day and night, but I think the worst of it is behind us.”
“Thank you, Logan.” My uncle reached out to shake his hand. “I don’t know what we would have done without you. You’re a miracle worker.”
I dropped down to the ground next to Rebel, leaning in to nuzzle her as she tried to lift her head. I wasn’t sure I’d go so far as to call him a miracle worker, but I would gladly give thanks where it was due. And right now, that I was thankful for Logan.
“You’ve really been a great help,” I said, looking up at him as he packed up his medicine bag. “Thank you so much.”
“Always a pleasure to spend a little time out here,” he replied, still smiling. “I just hope we’ve all seen the last of this troublemaker. If you notice anything suspicious with the other animals, please don’t hesitate to call me.” He looked directly at me, then added, “I’ll always be here for you.”
I could only nod.
Did it feel like maybe he was trying to send me a message? Maybe trying to say I could call him if I changed my mind about that whole dinner date thing?
Yeah, it felt a little like that.
More than a little.
But I couldn’t fault him. Because we had needed him this morning, and he had dropped everything to come help—totally true to his word.
Still, I really hoped we wouldn’t need his help again for a while.
Chapter 7
Janessa
God, what a morning.
I walked into my bedroom and looked longingly at my unmade bed. It was practically begging me to climb back in and pull the warm covers up around me.
It felt like we’d done an entire day’s work before the sun had come up. And by the time Logan left around mid-morning, I was honestly exhausted.
Maybe if I hadn’t been awake thinking about Cade and Boone half the night before this whole crazy poisoning madness had happened… but then I probably wouldn’t have heard the truck pulling away in the middle of the night if I’d been sleeping like normal.
So… silver lining, I guess?
And finding out that Rebel was most likely going to be okay had been a huge relief as well.
From down the hall, I could hear the shower running and couldn’t stop myself from wondering if it was Cade or Boone. They had stayed behind to help with the morning chores
after Logan had gone, and we had all just come back to the house to clean up before they had to leave again to go back to their own ranch.
They’d both been so perfect throughout this whole ordeal, and I really didn’t want them to go. Not that I was particularly worried about the trespasser coming back—I felt pretty confident that Uncle Justin and I could handle things here on our own if we had to—but just having them around had been so nice.
And now one of them was just down the hall in the shower.
Completely naked.
My whole body seemed to respond to that thought as a wave of heat rushed through me. What would happen if I walked into that bathroom right now? I would have been just as happy to see either one of them standing there waiting for me, but would they feel the same way? Would they make me turn around and get out or invite me to step in under the hot water?
I poked my head out of my bedroom and looked around, seriously considering it for a moment.
But no.
That couldn’t happen. Not today, anyway, with all the craziness we’d already been through together. And not with my uncle still wandering around at his wits’ end over this trespassing situation.
I gave one last longing look toward the end of the hall and then huffed out a short breath. No, I couldn’t give in, no matter how tempting it might be. I needed to go take my own shower downstairs. Alone.
Hopefully that would be enough to clear my mind and get rid of any remaining temptation.
But God, I could just picture them—both of them, either one of them, whatever—on the other side of that bathroom door just waiting for me to come in and give them what they wanted.
What I’d been hoping they wanted.
It was what I wanted, anyway, and this was my fantasy.
I hurried out of my bedroom and down the stairs before I could tempt myself any further, not stopping to think or even breathe until I was locked inside the downstairs bathroom.