I watched the figure run off into the woods, and I lowered my gun from my shoulder. Now, I had definitive proof that someone was intentionally attempting to sabotage anyone who helped and associated themselves with Cheyenne. A very long talk between myself and the sheriff’s department was going to be in order, and I would tell them the next time someone stepped foot onto my property, they’d be coming to collect a body and not a story.
I was ripped from my thoughts, however, when I smelled smoke.
“What the—”
“Colt!”
I whipped my head around and saw Cheyenne standing on the porch. The commotion of my yelling must’ve woken her up, and the smell of smoke just got stronger. Whoever the hell just ran from my barn had set something on fire, and I wasn’t about to watch everything our parents had built go up in smoke.
“Get the hose ready, Cheyenne!”
“Colt! What’s wrong?”
“Just do it!” I yelled. I dropped my gun and ran towards the stable. I ripped the door open, and smoke poured into my face, and my lungs burned with the need for oxygen while Cheyenne cried out from the porch. I barreled my way through and began unlocking the horse’s stables, trying to get them out of the smoke that was quickly filling my barn. I had a fire extinguisher in here; I just had to find it.
“Where the hell is it?” I said with a groan. My eyes were watering, and my chest was heaving. My stomach was retching from the smoke filling my lungs, and I knew I’d have to backtrack if I couldn’t find the source of the fire. I finally made my way to the back of the barn and realized one of the empty stalls had burning hay in it, and when I turned my head, the fire extinguisher was hanging on the other side of the wall.
I yanked it down and went to pull the pin, but when I couldn’t dislodge it, I threw it to the ground. The pin had been bent, no doubt by the asshole that had set this fire in the first place, and the only hope I had was that Cheyenne had heard me and was heading toward the barn with the hose.
And just like the angel she was, she busted in and promptly turned on the water.
She sprayed it right into the smoke in order to part the clouds. Like a goddess parting the flames of hell, she emerged in her pajamas with a robe slung around her shoulders. Her eyes were watering from the smoke, and her chest was panting for oxygen, but when she got back to me, I took the hose and pointed it at the burning hay.
The fire had started licking its way up the wall, but this time we put it out before anything could collapse onto us.
Even though I’d thrown open all the stalls, there were three horses that were too scared to gallop their way into the fields. I threw the light on and inspected the damage, but I couldn’t see much through the red flooding my vision. Someone had intentionally set my barn on fire, and an attack on my horses was an attack on me.
Someone was going to jail for this, and I wasn’t going to stop until I knew who the hell had done it.
“Oh, my God,” Cheyenne said. “What happened out here, Colt?”
“I came downstairs to get some water and make some coffee, and I saw someone rushing into the barn.”
“Was that all the yelling I was hearing?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No, no. You should’ve woken me. You know I like to keep my routine anyway.”
“You needed the sleep,” I said.
“Colt—”
“Cheyenne,” I said, cutting her off, “Someone just came into my barn and set it on fire. But I got a pretty good look at them when they came out of the barn.”
It was now that I really wished the stable hand was still around, but he moved out when his mom got sick. Had he been around, we could have had some more help. I knew I needed to get him replaced ASAP.
“Holy cow. Did you see who it was?” she asked.
“No, but I saw who it wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The sun was coming up, and it outlined pretty well the figure coming out of the barn. They looked at me for a while before they took off, and that’s when I threatened to shoot.”
“I heard,” she said with a smirk.
“The figure was taller and pretty lean,” I said.