Page 26 of Cowboy Mountain Man

He looks at me. I reach for the pistol and train it on him, searching for a good shot. One that doesn’t put Hope in the other room in danger. One that doesn’t just piss him off more.

Before I can find it, he throws the lantern.

I duck as it strikes the wall. Glass shatters. Burning oil spills across the floor.

For one second, the whole room flashes orange. The man bolts through the front door. The first is gone, too.

I could follow.

Instead, I turn toward the bedroom. “Hope!”

“I’m here!”

“Stay there.”

I grab the extinguisher beside the stove and empty it across the fire. White powder fills the air. The flames shrink, then disappear.

I check the wall, the rug, and the table leg nearest the spill. Nothing burns. Outside, an engine starts. By the time I reach the front window, red taillights are already moving down the lane.

I memorize what I can. Dark pickup. No clear view of the headlights. Maybe the truck Hope described, but I can’t be sure.

I lock the front door. The jamb is split, but the deadbolt still catches. The back door needs more than a lock. I drag the kitchen table across it.

Then I go to Hope.

“Open up.”

The lock turns immediately.

She stands on the other side with the tablet clutched against her chest. Her face is pale. “You’re hurt.”

I glance at my shoulder. A tear in the shirt. Blood beneath it. “It’s shallow.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.”

Her eyes go past me to the haze in the hall. “It smells like smoke. Was that a fire?”

“It’s out.”

She makes a sound I don’t want to hear again. Small. Caught somewhere behind her teeth.

I take the tablet and set it on the dresser. Then I put my hands on her shoulders. “Look at me.”

She does.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Did anybody get in here?”

“No.”

I check the window anyway. Locked. Intact.

Then I bring her against me. She comes without hesitation, arms wrapping around my waist. Her cheek presses into my chest. I hold her harder than I should.