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“I know the picture can’tproveanything.” Proving the facts was what the investigation was supposed to do. Frustration steamed Tess’s face. “This is the best lead we’ve had to go on. I know you’re low on resources right now, but we can’t let these people get away with shooting horses.”
“We haven’t had another incident in a while, Tess. Maybe this is over.” Natalie opened her laptop back up. “Maybe whoever is responsible now knows that everyone’s watching so they’ll find something else to do.”
Tess shot to her feet. That was it? The woman was just going to let this go? “They should still be held accountable for what they did to Legacy.” And what if she and Morgan were out riding again in a few weeks? Would she always have to worry about getting caught in the crosshairs of someone’s vendetta against the wild horses on her own land?
Natalie dismissed her concerns with a shrug. “I’m sorry. Without real evidence or proof that the UTV in Kline’s garage has the purple stripe, there’s nothing I can do.”
“All right then.” Real evidence. The woman needed real evidence… and Tess knew exactly where she would find it.
Breaking and entering had never been a skill Tess wanted to master, but Natalie had given her no other choice.
She parked the truck down the hill from the Klines’ property and cut the engine, her nerves prickling. When her alarm had gone off at two o’clock in the morning, she’d briefly considered abandoning her mission, but she had to know if that UTV was sitting in Brad’s garage. If Natalie wasn’t going to check, she had to. She had to get a peek in that garage for her own peace of mind. It wasn’t breaking the law if you were just planning to look in a friend’s garage in the middle of the night, right? She wasn’t going to take anything, after all.
Before she lost the nerve, Tess put up the hood of her dark sweatshirt, grabbed her flashlight and backpack, and then slid out of the driver’s seat into the cold. Everything seemed so much quieter at night. Even her footsteps in the grass sounded deafening as she crept away from the truck, though it was hard to hear much over the thundering beat of her heart.
Keeping a low profile, Tess made her way through the woods, aiming the flashlight at the ground in front of her boots. She’d considered bringing Silas in with her but she couldn’t ask him to risk getting caught. She would ask him not to go on this upcoming mission but she didn’t want to force him to stay because she’d gotten him into trouble.
So she was on her own out here. In the middle of the night. Just her and the coyotes and the bears.
At the edge of the woods, Tess paused, gauging the best route through the pasture. The waning gibbous moon gave off enough light that she could see out in the open, so she tucked her flashlight in her backpack and decided to move along the fence all the way up to the property. Judging from the picture Morgan had shared with her, it appeared the UTV had been stored in the main garage, which would prove tricky given its close proximity to both Brad’s house and his parents’ place.
She would have to move quietly and not get caught. There was no other option.
With that in mind, she moved slowly along the fence line, watching the houses to make sure all stayed dark. Now all she needed to do was get close enough to peek in the windows of the garage so she could snap a picture on her phone and then she’d be out of there.
Tess swiftly crossed the driveway, doing her best to stay out of the floodlights coming from the houses, and walked the perimeter of the garage in the shadows.
Damn.Curtains covered every window. She tried the door handle on the back side but it was locked. Okay, new plan. She’d climb in through one of those windows and take a quick look around.
Tess walked back along the right side, away from both houses—which still sat dark and quiet, thank God—and pushed against the glass pane. It slid open a crack, enough that she could get her fingers inside to open it the rest of the way. Standing on her tiptoes, she moved the curtain aside, but couldn’t see much past Brad’s huge diesel truck. Great. Now all she had to do was figure out a way to climb inside without killing herself.
Channeling her inner gymnast, Tess pulled herself up into the window frame, leaned her upper body through first, but then momentum took over and pitched her all the way over, feet flying up as she flipped and landed on the floor on her back.
Crash!
Her flailing boot hit the glass on the way down, shattering it all over the floor around her.
No!Inching herself away from the mess, she quickly scrambled to her feet. Amazingly, she wasn’t bleeding at all but the whole window had broken.
And that had been one loud crash.
She didn’t have much time. Tess flicked on her flashlight and maneuvered around the truck to the back of the garage but there was no UTV. Just a big empty space where you might park one and muddy tire tracks. They must’ve moved it—
A buzzing noise sounded and the lights flicked on. The garage door started to slowly roll up.
“Hey! Who’s in there?” That sounded like Brad’s father…
“I’m calling the cops,” the man yelled.
Tess made a run for it—unlocking and bolting out the back door and across the pasture, then down through the trees, not stopping until she made it back to her truck. She threw herself into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine before peeling out onto the road. All the way back to the ranch, she watched for a patrol car, but it never passed by.
When she finally turned into her driveway and pulled into her garage, she cut the engine and let her head fall back. So much for finding real evidence. All she’d done was break a window—and she’d nearly gotten caught by Mr. Kline.
She clearly didn’t have what it took to be a criminal.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Is it really almost time to let her go?” Silas steered his horse up the last switchback behind Tess and Dreamer, still guiding Legacy with the lead rope they’d rigged up before they’d left the ranch. “I’m not sure I’m ready to send her back out into the world.”
