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“Everyone clear out of the stall and let me see what I can come up with. Liam, grab my camera from the house and meet me back here. I want you to tell me if something looks off. Matt, I want you to go around the perimeter and do the same. Same goes for you, Gavin. Comb through this barn,” I dished out orders and started pushing people out of the stall. I’d treat this like a crime scene the best I could, since they didn’t want anyone else involved. It wouldn’t be the best, having so many people walk through it, but it would do well enough.
Everyone in the vicinity was given a task, and when I was finally alone, my chest tightened. I rushed out the back door to get much-needed fresh air. The smokey barn was making it hard to breathe on top of the heavy feeling settling on my shoulders and chest.
It was my job to keep this place safe, and twice I’d failed this month. How had this happened and who was targeting us? We had created a safe space for everyone here, and we took security seriously. The ranch was far away from the nearest neighbor, and we kept to ourselves.
Leaning on the fence, I rested my forehead on my forearms. The smoke seemed to follow me, but at least I wasn’t in the confined stall, sucking it in. I could breathe easier. I closed my eyes and tilted my head toward the sky, letting the warmth of the sun seep in. The October breeze hit my face, trying its best to calm me, but the fear continued to build in my heart.
“I know that look. You can’t blame yourself.” Liam’s voice wafted over to me. I opened my eyes and noticed his slow approach from the fence on the other side of me.
I rolled my neck and winced at how tight it was. “How is itnotmy fault? What is it I do here? I’m the head of security for the ranch, and we’ve had two incidents in the last week.”
“These are hardly normal incidents, and you know it.” He arched his eyebrow. “Mon pote,you know no one is thinking you didn’t do your job.”
I groaned. “I should have known something was happening.”
“Unless you just became psychic, how would you have known?” Liam pushed back on my thinking.
“Liam…”
“Duke. You had everything in place that you needed to do your job. Now at least you can use those tools, like the cameras, to see if there are additional clues.”
I nodded and let out a heavy sigh.
Liam patted me on the back. “No one here blames you, and no one would want to see you beating yourself up about this.”
I ignored him. A part of me couldn’t fully believe what he was saying. “Did you check on Abbey?” I was hyper alert and wanted to be sure she was safe.
“Yes, she was painting when I stopped in,” Liam answered.
“Good. She can’t find out,” I rasped.
“She’s going to at some point,” Liam reminded me.
“Right, and I want to have answers by then. We’re keeping her in the dark for now. Or better yet, maybe she shouldn’t be here. If I can’t protect our ranch, what makes you think I can protect her and you? Maybe she should leave.” I pushed from the fence. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to ignore the blood pounding in my ears and regain control over my breathing before it was too late. Without another word, I grabbed the camera bag from him.
“You don’t mean that, Duke. It’s just your fear talking. While this is scary, you need to have more faith in her… and in us.” Liam followed me.
“Of course it’s fear talking. Do you want me to tell you it wouldn’t destroy me if something happened to the woman I love or anyone else on this ranch? It’s myjobto keep everyone safe.” I stopped short. I replayed the words.Love. I’d just admitted I loved Abbey.
“No, Duke. I want you to admit it will. You are just like the rest of us, with fears and emotions.”
I sighed and put the camera together. We’d had this argument many times before. He wanted me to admit toallthe emotions racing through me, but he didn’t know I never suppressed them. I just hid them so I could be what everyone else needed. If I let my fears rule me, there was no way I’d keep anyone safe. It’s why I had to lock them down.
“Comb through Zeus’ stall and let me know if you see anything out of place.” I pointed to the door, and Liam climbed the fence to join me. I snapped pictures of everything I could find. The burned hay pile, the message, the cigarette pack, the cut hose, and a pair of garden clippers Matt found nearby.
If I’d been running this through the town’s police force, I’d have numbered each piece of evidence, but since it was just for us, I didn’t bother. I bagged everything I could, even though the Kingstons didn’t want a formal investigation. It was frustrating we didn’t have any footprints I could try to match. Too many people had run in and out of the stall before we realized it might be a crime scene. And there were likely multiple fingerprints on the stall that would be hard to weed out if the culprit left any behind without the proper devices to catalog and identify each one.
At least I would have some evidence to use as clues about the vandal’s identity.
When I finished, I left Liam to finish cleaning out the stall with instructions to call me if he found anything else. In Gavin’s office, I downloaded videos from all the cameras around the ranch. I was going to watch every video as many times as I needed to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Back at the house, I went straight to my office and plugged in the drive. I went through the cameras that would have had the least activity on them and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
The next ones I loaded were the main ones from outside and inside the barn. I was grateful I’d insisted we needed cameras in both places. The upcoming days had nothing unusual until I came to the day before. We’d had multiple deliveries according to Gavin, but none of the drivers ever stepped foot in the barn. They always unloaded outside, and Matt and his crew would bring everything in.
This time, there was a tall, thin man who entered the barn and walked up and down the aisle. He didn’t touch anything, he just looked around. His hat shielded his face, and he was wearing jeans and a basic t-shirt he could have purchased at any big-box general retailer. He easily blended in with everyone else working the ranch.
I continued watching, coming up to the last few hours. The guy came back today. The timestamp indicated he’d been there only thirty minutes before the fire started. He still covered his face, but this time, when he came in, he went immediately into the camera’s blind spot, and a few minutes later, the camera went dead.
