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She might be right.
We really might need that gun if there was still someone out here.
Grudgingly, I held out a hand. “I’ll take the gun,” I said. “You stay between me and Cade.” I gave her a hard look. “Actually, no. You need to get back inside. This isn’t safe.”
Her eyes narrowed. “This is my ranch. I’m going with you whether you want me to or not.” She nodded toward the stables. “We should check there first. I could have sworn I heard the stable door slam earlier.”
Maybe that had been the loud thud that I’d thought was a car door. Not that it really mattered. We’d all heard something, and that was enough to make me feel really uneasy about bringing Janessa along with us.
If anything happened to her, I’d—no. I wouldn’t even think about it because I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. And I wasn’t going to admit it out loud, but she also made a good point.
This was her land—or it would be soon enough. She had just as much business—more, really—as we did out here.
“Fine,” I ground out through gritted teeth. “Just stay close and try not to make too much noise.”
She nodded and Cade moved to take up a position behind her. He hadn’t objected, which meant he and I had probably come to the same conclusion.
We couldn’t make Janessa stay behind. Staying behind ourselves wasn’t an option, either.
I turned back toward the stables and took a step out from the shadow of the house. If there was still someone down there, they’d be able to see us coming long before we saw them.
Jesus, this was a bad idea.
I just hoped it wouldn’t turn into something worse.
“The lock is broken,” Janessa whispered over my shoulder as we got closer to the stable doors. “I can see it dangling from here.”
“And look over there in the mud,” Cade added, pointing to the patch of ground a few feet away. “Those tire tracks weren’t there earlier when Justin and I came down here to look at the horses.”
“But why here?” I asked, more to myself than to either of them. “Why would anyone need to get into the stables in the middle of the night?”
It was no secret that the Thoresons had valuable quarter horses. All of their animals—from their cattle to their horses, even their chickens—were some of the best in the state after generations of careful breeding.
Still, for someone to come here and try to steal a horse right from under Janessa Thoreson’s nose? I didn’t know anyone with balls big enough to attempt something like that.
And a horse trailer would have made a lot more noise than what we’d heard earlier. Hell, it would have probably still been stuck right here in this mud. Whoever came out here had to have known that.
But if they hadn’t planned on stealing the horses, then… what? What other reason could there be?
I was afraid to open the doors but not because there might still be someone in there. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be the case. What I was more afraid of was what we’d find. I could deal with another person easily enough, but if they’d done something to these defenseless animals… fuck, I couldn’t even think about it without feeling sick to my stomach.
“We have to check,” Cade said, stepping up next to me. He gave me a knowing look, then turned to Janessa. “I don’t know what we’re going to find in there, but you’d better let us take a look first.”
Thankfully, she didn’t argue. Her face was pale in the moonlight, and her eyes were wide as she nodded. Maybe seeing the broken lock and the tire tracks had finally made her realize just how dangerous the situation could have been. And just how dangerous it still could be.
I swung open the heavy doors and peered inside. It was pitch black. Every horse in the place could have been gone for all I could tell.
“There’s a light switch on your right,” Janessa whispered, stepping up close behind me.
If there was someone in here, they would have already seen us, so any advantage the darkness could have given us was already gone.
I reached over and felt for the switch, then shut my eyes tight for a moment as the big overhead lights flickered to life.
“Nothing looks out of place so far,” Cade said, walking ahead as I still struggled to open my eyes and squint into the horse stalls. “Do you see anything weird, Janessa?”
She shook her head as we followed along, then she stopped and pointed to the stall on the end. “There. I don’t see Rebel’s head.”
Cade and I both moved cautiously toward the last stall. It was possible the horse was just standing far into a corner, even though all the other horses were up and alert now. It was no surprise that none of the other horses seemed to be sleeping since they’d had to deal with the earlier stranger, the overhead lights, and now the three of us moving around among them.
