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“I’m scared,” Morgan whispered, whimpering.
“Everything’s all right.” Anger burned through her. “I won’t let anything happen to you. We just need to get home as quickly as possible.” She’d never been afraid to ride up to the high meadow. It had never occurred to her that she had to fear people with guns roaming around the woods. This had to stop.
They navigated the trail all the way back to the ranch and once she saw the barn, Morgan gave her horse its head. Tess struggled to keep up with her daughter and they both came to an abrupt stop outside the stables.
On the other side of the driveway, Silas stood stock-still halfway between the door to the Cowboy Construction office and his truck, watching them intently. “Morgan, what’s wrong?”
Her daughter started to cry again. “We were riding in the high meadow and the bad guys were up there… shooting at the horses!”
Tess watched the man’s entire countenance change. A darkness fell over his expression and his body recoiled as if he’d been hit.
“They were on the southern border again—in the woods,” she told him, still rattled to her bones. “Not on our land, but close.” Very close.Too close.
“You two go into the house.” The man lurched toward his truck and pulled out a rifle.
“Wait.” Tess rushed to him and caught his free hand in hers, towing him back to her. “Don’t go alone. Please.” The people who were shooting wouldn’t be able to see him any better through the trees than they would’ve been able to see her and Morgan.
“Thatch is in the office. He’ll go with me.” He squeezed her hand before letting go. “Call the chief and tell her what’s going on. Maybe she can get up there in time to catch these guys.”
Tess nodded and forced herself to step back. She stood with Morgan as Silas ran back into the office. He and Thatch quickly emerged and bolted to the outbuilding where she kept the UTV.
While they peeled out and drove away, Tess led her daughter into the house.
“What’re we gonna do, Mom?” Morgan asked, still sniffling.
They were going to do what she’d been trying to do for days. Mobilize. She’d sent out an email to everyone who’d signed up at the town meeting, but she was done waiting to get responses. “We’re going to get on the phone right now and invite everyone in our community to gather here. And all of us are going to put a stop to this together.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Silas topped out the UTV’s odometer at sixty miles per hour, launching them down the dirt road that ran through the back pasture behind the ranch.
“You better slow it down before we hit the trees,” Thatch called, gripping the roll bar above their heads. “If you really want to bust these guys, we’ve got to make it up to the high meadow first.”
“We’re gonna find them.” His helmet muffled the words. “I don’t care if I have to get out and run all the way up there.” For the second time, Tess had been out there exposed when those assholes were randomly shooting in a heavily wooded area. And now Morgan too. Bile rose up in the back of his throat. Anything could’ve happened up there.
“What’s the plan when we find them?” Thatch raised his voice over the engine noise. “We gonna go all SEAL on them or what?”
Silas knew what Thatch was asking. Was this situation going to put them in a fight that would inevitably get messy? “We’re gonna talk to them,” Silas decided. He’d thrown the rifle in for protection—but he had no intention of using it unless someone else fired on them first. “And then we’ll hope to God the chief gets there before the confrontation has the chance to escalate into something ugly.”
He slowed their speed and steered over the ruts and into the first patch of forest they would have to travel through. There was no way they could maintain sixty miles per hour the whole way up.
In the seat next to him, Thatch adjusted his helmet. “I assumed the fuckers who’d shot Legacy were from out of town but that happened more than a week ago. Would outsiders really stick around that long?”
“I’d guess we’re dealing with locals.” That was the only thing that made sense. It wasn’t hunting season. And there weren’t many campers around this time of year. But in the end, it didn’t matter who they were—he’d find them. “I can’t imagine someone would target wild horses if they didn’t have an agenda.” And he wasn’t going to let them carry out their vendetta anywhere near Tess and her daughters.
“You have any ideas on who they are?” his friend asked.
Silas cranked the wheel to get them around a fallen tree across the road. “I have some suspicions.” Mainly the men who’d publicly challenged Tess at the café. Those guys were old-school. They’d made it clear that they saw the wild horses as a threat to their land. And they’d also made it clear they didn’t care who knew exactly how they felt.
“Let me guess. Ford and Darrell?”
“They’d be my top suspects if I were the chief.” It was one thing to disagree with Tess, but to actually take it a step further and publicly challenge her meant they felt passionate about their cause.
Thatch braced his hand against the dash while they flew over a series of deep potholes in the road. “Doesn’t seem like the chief is too concerned about what happened to Legacy.”
“She doesn’t have the manpower to deal with this situation.” He jerked the wheel back and forth, doing his best to stay on what was now two barely visible ruts in the forest floor. He continued to push the UTV as fast as he dared, but the elevation gain was slowing them down.
“Any more making out with Tess lately?” Even with the roar of the engine, Silas could hear the humor in his friend’s voice.
