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They were all but held hostage on the ranch, while Mac was…where?
“If that asshole hurts a horse or anyone else,” she said through clenched teeth, “I will hunt him down.” She stomped her foot, once again wanting like hell to kick Mac in the balls. Hard. Really, really hard. The kind of hard that would send him straight to his knees and make him scream in agony.
Reese gave her a quick hug, then said, “You need to stay out of this from here on out.”
Sky stared at her, incredulous. “How can you even suggest that? I’m the reason we’re all in this boat.”
“No. Mac Willet is the reason we’re all in this boat. You realized he was trying to extort money from you and you got the hell out of Nashville.”
“When I should have gone straight to the police.”
She knew her mistake. She owned up to it.
“I understand why you didn’t,” Reese said. “Ginger didn’t want to go to the sheriff after she was robbed and assaulted in her boutique. She didn’t want the reverend and Lydia to know what had happened to her, because Lydia was so hell-bent on getting Ginger’s lingerie shop shut down. Ginger thought it’d just be one more black mark against her if anyone knew. As though she’d brought on the trouble herself because she sells sexy lingerie.”
Sky bristled. “How anyone could lay a finger on that sweet girl is beyond me.”
“Well, she stood up for justice, and it prevailed. It will for you too. You just have to let the authorities do what they do best. And let Sam protect you.”
“I just don’t want anyone to get hurt, Reesie.”
“I know. We all know. You just have to trust in everyone, Sky.”
Conceding the point, she nodded. Though the tension didn’t ease within her.
Minutes later Sam’s voice came over Al’s radio and he said, “We have Midnight. Willet’s not in sight. Caleb’s walking the horse back. I’m on the ATV. I’ll do a perimeter search with the others.”
Sky reached for the radio and said, “Be careful, please! Both of you.”
“You know we will, dar—”
A loud pop made Sky’s heart launch into her throat. A second one followed. “Sam! Sam! Are you okay?”
“Didn’t come from this direction,” he said in a tight voice. “You stay put, you hear me? We’re on our way. Let me talk to Al.”
She thrust the radio toward the guard and they worked their way through checking in with everyone, luckily making satisfactory connections. No one had been hurt or was in immediate danger.
To Reese, she said, “Those were gunshots. I know the sound as well as my own voice.”
And the shots agitated some of the jumpier horses. Sky tended to them, starting with the white Arabian, talking calmly, trying to soothe him, though she was equally on edge. Both Reese and Al joined the effort with the other horses.
All the while, Sky tried to discern Mac’s intentions. He obviously hadn’t come for the horse. Did he even know what a huge chance he was taking by being on the property? Maybe he had no idea of the amount of people who knew to be on the lookout for him.
What exactly was his plan? To separate her from Sam? That didn’t mean he’d get her alone. There were plenty of others around to keep him from getting close to her. If he’d kept tabs on ranch activity from his post on the lake, he had to have come to the realization that the Painted Horse had plenty of security. Though he likely wouldn’t know about the surveillance cameras and round-the-clock monitoring.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t as though he could storm the stable. Especially with Sam and Caleb on their way back. Then again, he might not even have ascertained they were on their way back.
Jesus, what was he thinking?
Sky tried to shake off a bit of anxiety, hopeful Mac would quickly come to the conclusion that trying to get to her on the ranch was fruitless. With any luck, he’d fired a couple of shots because he was pissed off and had then taken the old heave-ho in the boat, knowing he wasn’t going to get around all of the activity on the premises.
When she reached the back of the stable, she poked her head around the corner of the open double doors and surveyed the lit area that encompassed an open corral. Six pens were arranged to the right of the corral and another six to the left, spanning a good stretch of land. The horses outside appeared relatively calm, not quite as disturbed as the ones inside. Though one of the mares circled her pen nervously.
Behind Sky, Reese called to Al to help her with Bells. She glanced over her shoulder to see both moving cautiously into the stall. Sky wanted to help the mare outside. She stepped into the corral, took a couple of short strides, then decided it was best she not be out in the open, even in a contained area.
She turned around to retreat into the building, but the shadows along the outer wall shifted and a hand shot out, strong fingers curling around her upper arm and yanking her to the side with such force, she stumbled and fell against a hard body.
Mac’s hard body.
