Cash had always thought he was a patient man, but to his way of thinking, nineteen days might be too long for him to wait. There were details that he wanted to nail down right away.
But it was the wrong time to push her. As he rounded the last curve in the drive, the shadowy outlines of the ranch buildings came into view. “That’s odd.”
“What?”
“The floodlights aren’t on. They usually only go off during a power failure.” He braked to a stop in front of the ranch house and they both climbed out.
Cash smelled it first. The faintest sting in the air. He glanced at Jordan and saw that she’d caught it, too.
“Smoke,” he said as he scanned the outbuildings.
Nothing. In the starlight, it was hard to see.
Then a horse whinnied in the stables, and there was an explosion that blew windows at the near end of the stable out. Flames shot upward behind the broken glass. Then the night filled with the sounds of panic-stricken horses.
For a moment Jordan couldn’t move. The horses. Brutus and Lucifer were in there. Cash had covered half the distance to the stables before she unfroze and tore after him. By the time she reached him, he had both palms pressed against the stable door. “It’s hot. Stand back.”
Once she had, he pulled the doors open, jumping back himself. Smoke and heat billowed out. Greedy flames began to lick their way up the frame as hooves crashed against stall doors. She recalled that Brutus was at this end, her father’s horse at the other.
“I’ll get Brutus,” she said.
“No. Wait here. I can get them both.”
The horses were shrieking now, and the flames had made their way to the top of the door frame. “There isn’t time. I can handle Brutus.”
“You’ll have to take him out the far door. You’ll never get him back through these flames.”
“Go. We’re wasting time.”
He disappeared into the dark smoke that filled the building.
Jordan held her breath and kept her eyes straight ahead as she followed Cash. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that the fire had taken hold in the stall to her left. Heat blasted at her as flames shot upward. When she had to take a breath, smoke stung her lungs. Just a few steps more. Brutus was in the next stall to her right.
“Brutus.” She pitched her voice above the noise of the fire. “Brutus.”
His only reply was to rear and shriek with fear.
Behind her, she could hear the fire growing, spreading, and a fit of coughing nearly overtook her. Wood splintered in the door of the stall. She felt her own panic; icy fingers of it clamped on her stomach like a vise. Ignoring it, she forced her mind to go cool. She had to act fast if she was going to save the horse.
Grabbing a blanket off a hook on the wall, she called Brutus’s name again, then opened the door. He rushed past her, then reared in pure terror at the sight of the flames that now framed the doorway.
The second his hooves came down, she threw the blanket over his head and grabbed his halter rope. Screaming, he reared again. But the blanket stayed in place. When his hooves clattered to the floor a second time, she placed a hand on his neck and began to talk to him. A quick glance over her shoulder told her that the smoke had thickened. If she tried to lead him out the far end, the smoke could kill them before the fire could. Her best bet was to take Brutus out the way she’d come in.
She didn’t let herself think about it anymore. Going on instinct, she moved her hand to where the tether rope circled his neck and half vaulted, half muscled her way onto Brutus’s back. He reared again, but she held on. Then, holding tight to the rope and the ends of the blanket, she dug her heels into his flanks and sent up a prayer of thanks when he leaped forward.
For an instant, she knew what hell was like. The heat was intense, and fire reached out greedily on either side of them. Then they were out. Blanket and all, Brutus lunged forward. For the next few moments, she concentrated her attention on calming him. He ran blindly all the way to the ranch house before she was able to get him under control.
Still talking, she got the blanket off him and slid to the ground. Then she glanced back at the stables. The doorway she and Brutus had raced through was an inferno. Flames danced along the roof now, and an icy fear clawed through her. Had Cash gotten Lucifer out? Where were they?
CROUCHED LOW, Cash raced down the length of the stable. The fire wasn’t as bad at this end, but the smoke surounded him. It had his eyes burning and his throat stinging. But he was very much aware that the fire behind him had started to roar.
Jordan.Fear clawed at his gut, freezing him in his tracks. But when he turned, all he could see was an impenetrable wall of blackness. How was she going to get through that? A fit of coughing overtook him. Then the sound of a stall door splintering and Lucifer’s frightened shrieking had him whirling and running toward the sound. He’d get the horse out first, then circle around the barn to help Jordan. There would be time. There had to be time.
He ran to the stable doors first and opened them. Smoke whooshed past him and the straw in the stall to his right burst into bright flames.
Behind him he heard Lucifer’s hooves crash against his stall door again. Cash reached him just as he lunged free. Eyes watering, he grabbed for the tether rope, then held tight as the panic-stricken horse reared and reared. Cash pointed the horse in the direction of the open door and slapped his flank.
Lucifer raced forward, and Cash tore after him. He had to get to Jordan, make sure that she was out. He’d cleared the stable door and had just reached the corner of the building when the blow struck him from behind. He saw stars before the ground came up to meet him.
PUSHING DOWN her fear, Jordan kept her eyes on the far side of the stables as she tied Brutus’s tether rope to the railing on the front porch of the ranch. The moment she’d secured it, a familiar voice said, “Hello, Jordan.”
She whirled so fast that Brutus whinnied and pulled at the tether. Raising a hand automatically to soothe the horse, she stared at her uncle Carleton. He was standing in the doorway to the ranch house, and he had a gun pointed at her.
14
“UNCLE CARLETON, what are you doing here?” Jordan asked.
“Technically, I’m in Phoenix attending a conference for investment bankers. Several people attended the talk I gave this afternoon. Others will vouch for the fact that I ate dinner with them. But actually I’m here because of Dorothy.”“I don’t understand.” Behind her the fire was roaring now, but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the gun in her uncle’s hand.
“When your mother became a problem for Dorothy, she took care of it on her own. She didn’t even consult me.”
“You didn’t know she killed Eva?”
“Heavens, no. Neither she nor Adam confided in me. We’re not a particularly close family, and running Ware Bank takes all my time.”
Her uncle’s casual, careless tone had her blood chilling even further.
“However, Dorothy has inspired me to follow her example in this instance.”
“You’re the one who was working with Daniel Pearson. He was representing you?”
“No. He was representing Rainbow Limited, a charitable foundation that I established some time ago in Dorothy’s name. I took care to make sure that he never dealt with me directly. They’ll never trace him to me. Now, with the situation Dorothy is in, they’ll probably be satisfied that she was pulling Pearson’s strings. That part has worked out quite well.”
“Why would Dorothy or you want the ranch?”
“For the turquoise mine, of course. It’s worth a fortune. I learned about it years ago. Your mother let it slip once. Then she swore me to secrecy. Of course, I was already keeping a much bigger secret for her.”
Jordan studied him. “You knew about Maddie all along. Did she tell you?”
“No.” His voice took on an edge as he walked across the porch. Jordan had to keep herself from stepping back.
“I made it my business to find out exactly what my sister was doing when she deserted her duty to Ware Bank and ran away from home to pursue her frivolous dream. Keeping Maddie a secret gave me some real leverage over Eva for the first time. As long as I didn’t say anything, Eva agreed to let me vote her stock at Ware Bank, make decisions on my own and live in Ware House. And that was only what was due me.”
The edge in his voice had become angrier. Jordan had never seen her uncle express any kind of a heated emotion before.
“My father should have left the bank and the house to me.” He gestured to his chest. “I was the oldest son. I was the one who shouldered the responsibility of running the bank. Eva ran away from all her rights to either of them when she went off to Santa Fe to study her art. Then when she returned, my father welcomed her like the prodigal son.”
“But if you got everything you wanted by keeping my mother’s secret, why do you need the turquoise mine?”
“Because Ware Bank is in trouble. Just temporary. A few unlucky calls on my part. All I need is a quick influx of cash to turn things around. I’d forgotten about the mine until Eva mentioned that Michael Farrell died. As I said, we weren’t close but she seemed to need to tell someone, and I was the only option—fortunately for me. But Pearson was taking too long even after I offered a percentage of the future profits from the mine.”