What if that were to happen? Sky had the pistol. He could shoot the horse if he had to. But could he shoot Lauren?
“No! Lauren, get back!” Sky raced toward her, trying to wave her to safety. But she kept coming, urging the horse ahead. Sky could tell Storm Cloud was terrified. He could easily throw her to the ground and bolt.
With the fire closing in, they met halfway. Still gripping the reins, Lauren slid to the ground. Sky caught her close, but only for an instant. He knew they were running out of time. Without a word, Lauren handed him the reins. The black gelding was tossing and snorting, on the verge of panic.
Springing onto the saddle, Sky pulled Lauren up behind him. As she settled into place, her arms around his waist, he spoke to calm the horse. “Easy, boy, it’s all right.” Storm Cloud seemed to recognize his touch and voice. His agitation lessened. But when Sky turned the horse back the way Lauren had ridden, he saw the danger. The unburned gap had closed. They would have to leap the fire to get away.
“Protect your head,” he told Lauren. “Press your face against my back and hold on tight. We’re going through.”
He took an instant to pat the gelding’s lathered shoulder. He knew he was asking a lot of the horse. He could only hope Storm Cloud would trust him. “You can do it, boy,” he said. “Let’s go!”
Communicating with his knees, weight, and hands, Sky urged the horse to a thundering gallop, then to a soaring leap that carried them over and through the flames. A searing breath of heat brushed past them. Then they were clear and running, the fire blazing behind them.
Sky swung the horse toward the safety of the escarpment. They were gaining distance on the fire now, but Storm Cloud was tiring. Sky slowed the gelding’s pace to an easy canter. They had a little time now.
He freed a hand to reach back for Lauren. Her fingers caught his and held on tight. Later they would talk and make plans. Right now no words were needed.
They were nearing the escarpment when the whirring, droning sound of aircraft reached their ears. “Sky! Look!” Lauren cried.
Sky turned the horse. Behind them, above the ranch, planes and choppers were swarming in to dump their loads of water and fire retardant. Sirens wailed as the ground crews moved in from the far side of the fire. The flames were already losing the battle.
As the sun set over the caprock, Sky halted the horse in a shadowed canyon by a spring, dismounted, and gathered Lauren into his arms. The fire had done plenty of damage. But grass would grow again. Fences and buildings could be repaired. Only lives were irreplaceable. Lives and love.
EPILOGUE
August Fifteenth
Will and Jasper sat on the front porch, listening to the sound of the cool rain drizzling off the eaves. They were waiting for Beau and Natalie’s wedding, which would take place in the family parlor as soon as Sky arrived with Lauren and Reverend Sykes, who suffered from a mild narcolepsy that kept him from driving safely.
Will glanced at his watch. “Damnation, where are they? I need to get out of this blasted suit and get back to work on the bunkhouse.”
Jasper’s mouth twisted in a half smile. “Stop your gripin’, Will Tyler. Look around you. The rain’s fallin’, the grass is growin’, the barn’s got a new roof, and your brother’s gettin’ hitched to a fine woman. For Pete’s sake, relax and enjoy the day!”
Will exhaled and shifted his legs. True, he had plenty to be happy about. The fire had spared the house and the duplex, and only damaged the long barn. The machine sheds and their contents had been saved, as well as the four bungalows for the married hands a half mile away. With the rains, the land was greening fast, both here and up on the caprock. Soon there’d be plenty of feed for horses and cattle. Meanwhile, Sky had opened up his untouched acreage to the Rimrock for grazing.
And Beau would be staying—that alone was enough to celebrate. He and Natalie would live in one of the bungalows until their new house on the ranch was finished. Natalie would work part time in partnership with the new vet who was renting her house and clinic.
There was another house going up, this one on Sky’s land. Proud as always, he’d insisted on putting off his wedding to Lauren until he could offer her a suitable home. For now she’d found a small apartment in town, where she was working to grow her accounting business. But the two were already spending most of their nights together.
“Did Abner ever figure out what happened to start that fire?” Jasper asked, making conversation.
“Not Abner,” Will said. “As you know, we all figured that the fire came from that burned SUV down by the east property line. But when the deputies found a body in it, the FBI got involved. We didn’t hear anything for a while, but Beau made some calls. They’d traced the rented vehicle to a hit man for the Dallas mob, and the DNA was a match. But nobody seems to know how it caught fire in the first place.”
“What about Sky’s cousin, that woman who shot me? Maybe she got burnt up in the fire, too. It’d serve her right!”
“The FBI didn’t find any sign of her or her motorcycle. A clerk at a truck stop in Wichita Falls remembered selling cigarettes to a woman matching her description—hard to forget, with that scar. But she’s in the wind—until she gets caught, which is bound to happen sooner or later.”
Jasper spat off the porch. “Never mind. We all know who was behind this mess.”
“We do.” Will thought of Stella, like a black widow spider with a network of webs, too crafty and too dangerous to get caught. “Her day will come, Jasper. And when it does, Blanco County will be a better place.”
“Hope I live to see it.” Jasper peered through the rain at the new dark blue truck that had turned the corner onto the long, graveled lane. “Well, I’ll be damned. Here they come, and right on time.” He glanced at Will. “Sky and Lauren make a right handsome couple, don’t they? And those looks they give each other—” The old man gave a low whistle. “I’m guessin’ there’ll be another wedding before long, maybe sooner than we think.”
“And I’m guessing there’ll soon be more little Tyler cousins to run around the ranch.” Will let the words hang, fully aware of what he’d just said.
Jasper’s jaw dropped. He stared at Will. “How long have you known?”
“I’ve suspected all along—those blue eyes, the little mannerisms, the way my dad treated him. But I didn’t know for sure until Sky got shot and we had to give him blood. How many people have AB negative? Sky knows, doesn’t he?”