Cold rain poured on our shoulders while I jogged after Rick and Colt to the open barn doors. I nearly collided with Colt’s back when he stopped abruptly to look down at something on the ground. Thunder boomed loudly above us, and the horses inside the barn whinnied uneasily.
“What is it?” I asked, peering around him to look at the ground.
Black scorch marks covered the ground along with what appeared to be pieces of paper. The smell of rotten eggs filled the barn along with a faint trace of smoke.
“A firework,” Colt said. “Whoever was in here shot off a firework to spook the horses.”
Tears filled my eyes as I rushed inside to find a few of the stalls open and empty. The remaining horses shifted uneasily in their stalls despite Rick’s best efforts to calm them down before they hurt themselves. I grasped the barn door frame to peer through the heavy sheet of rain. The horses in the back pasture were long gone by now, but I couldn’t bear the thought of them wandering around in the wilderness alone and in the cold rain.
“We have to go get them,” I said and turned to look at Colt as he tossed the firework down on the ground with an angry cry. “Colt, we have to go out there to get them. The horses—”
“No,” Colt interrupted, shaking his head at me. “We can’t, Cheyenne. Whoever did this could be waiting for us out there in the rain. The horses will find some trees to hide under. It’s too dangerous to go out there.”
“Do you think someone did this on purpose?” Rick asked.
Colt’s eyes met mine. The cold hard truth slapped me in the face as I turned back around to look at the wet land. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks while I listened to Colt’s answer.
“It’s no longer someone trying to scare Cheyenne or me. They’re trying to send a completely different message now.”
Chapter Eighteen
Colt
I couldn’t stop pacing around the kitchen while I waited anxiously for Rick to call back with good news. Cheyenne sat at the breakfast bar with her head in her hands. Her shoulders trembled in silent sobs. A part of me wanted to reach out to console her, but I couldn’t contain the anger brewing inside of me.
The minutes stretched on into hours. Thunder boomed in the distance again. The storm was refusing to let up no matter how hard I prayed that it would. Rain poured down from the gray clouds. The evening hours were approaching fast, and I couldn’t afford to wait any longer.
“I’m going to go look for the horses,” I said.
Cheyenne looked up from the mug of tea she had made herself while waiting next to phone on the kitchen counter. “If you’re going, then I’m going to go look too. They are my rescues after all.”
“Someone needs to stay here in case Rick calls.”
“He hasn’t called for the past two hours, Colt. I think that’s a sign that he hasn’t found them.”
Headlights filled the living room window. I glanced out to find that it was Tiffany hobbling towards the front door on her crutches as fast as possible. She was drenched, even with a raincoat, and looked utterly miserable when she made her way slowly into the mudroom.
r /> “This storm isn’t letting up,” Tiffany grumbled, balancing on one foot as she shrugged out of her rain jacket. “It’s been raining all morning. Can you all tell me why Rick is driving around town—”
She stopped talking when she took in Cheyenne’s tear-streaked face. She glanced over at me sharply.
“What’s going on?”
“Someone lit a firework in the barn,” I said. “They left the back door open, so some of Cheyenne’s horses are out in the storm.”
Tiffany’s eyes widened in horror. She clasped a hand over her mouth, turning to look at Cheyenne, who nodded.
“How do you know it was a firework?” she asked.
“We found the evidence on the ground. Rick is out looking for the horses now.”
“I’m going to go look,” Cheyenne announced, turning away from the living room window with a determined glint in her eye. “I can’t sit around and wait any longer. Those horses are my responsibility.”
“I’m not comfortable with you going out there alone,” I said firmly. “I’ll go look for the horse with the trailer.”
Cheyenne shook her head at me. “She won’t come to you. Not in this storm.”
“Cheyenne—”