Page 80 of The Cowboy’s Reckoning

“You understand what I’m telling you.”

“Yes. Stay in the truck. Get the tag number. Let the sheriff do his thing. You’ll tell me all about it later, right?”

“Right. Stay in touch,” Jordan said. “Call if you see a rig. Then drive away.”

“I will,” Burke promised before ending the call.

The trip to the Willow Creek road, normally a twenty-minute drive from Marietta, took about a hundred years. Hayes slowed as they approached the thick aspen grove and pointed out that there were no fresh tire tracks on the damp road before pulling to the side and turning off the headlights.

“Walk or drive?”

“Walk,” Jordan said.

The moon was up and it wouldn’t take them long to cover the half mile from the grove to the ranch. If someone were there, he wanted a fighting chance of surprising them. They avoided the road and the gravel and walked along the grassy edges, Hayes and Trev on one side and Jordan on the other, straining to see if there was any movement around the ranch buildings. It seemed quiet, but the cows in the field, darkish masses in the moonlight, were not grazing. Their heads were up as they grouped together, facing the ranch buildings.

Something was up. Cattle only acted like that when a predator was nearby. So, bobcat? Or human?

They were perhaps a quarter mile from the dark ranch, when the first flickers of light appeared from behind the barn. Jordan glanced at Trev and Hayes and, without a word, the three of them started running, their boots thudding on the sod.

Jordan’s lungs were close to exploding by the time he reached the barn. The lights were off in the house, but Lil and Meg were making their way down the walk. He hoped they weren’t armed, but just in case, he called out.

Lil was at his side a few seconds later. “We just saw the flames. I think it’s the old hay pile.”

If he were going to torch a barn, that would be a great way to do it. Old hay could spontaneously combust, thereby putting the cause of the blaze into question, as in, it wasn’t necessary to look for an arsonist.

“I’ll get the goats,” Meg said, bolting toward the barn, but Jordan beat her to it while his brothers raced around the side of the barn.

He yanked the door open. No smoke inside. Meg ducked in behind him. She opened the door to the pen and grabbed two collars, dragging the bleating goats out of the pen and then to the man door. Jordan spied the kitten who usually attacked his boots huddled on a shelf. He grabbed the cat by the neck just in case he was a fighter and tucked him into his jacket. A paw came up and smacked his face. Jordan buttoned the top button as he headed toward the rear door.

“It’s the manure pile,” Trev called when he emerged.

Smoke rolled over him as the wind gusted, and it was obvious that the back wall of the barn was ready to combust.

“There’s a hydrant there,” Lil said, pointing Hayes toward the hydrant near the weanling pen before she raced to the next closest stand pipe and started dragging a hose toward the fire. Meg joined her, shaking out the kinks as the cranky hose unrolled.

With spray hitting the fire from two directions and Trev wetting down the barnwood close to the flames, the smoke thickened and flames died. Jordan wasn’t sure where Lil was. He scanned the area, then narrowed his eyes as he watched the cattle. They seemed unfazed by the fire but were instead slowly following something across the field. A predator. Perhaps an arsonist.

“You got this?” he asked Hayes.

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to see what the cows find so interesting,” he said.

“Be careful,” Hayes told him as he continued to spray water.

Jordan took the kitten out of his jacket and popped him into a feeder as he passed. The little guy immediately jumped out and climbed the nearest fence post.

“Where are you going?”

Lil’s voice startled him. She’d caught up with him, but if she thought she was going with him, she had another think coming.

“The cows are following something.”

That something, which had been traveling in a small gulley, suddenly appeared as land flattened about fifty yards away.

“There he is,” Lil said.

The dark shape moved quickly, too quickly to be Libby Weston unless she was in remarkable shape for her age. And Jess Connery was larger than the figure heading for Weston conservancy land.