style="font-size:15px;"> RAY RAN TOWARD the third barn to check for more horses with Brett on his heels. The first barn was completely ablaze, as flames climbed the front of the second.
Wind hurled smoke and embers through the air, wood popping and crackling. The firefighters were blasting both buildings with water, working frantically to contain the blaze.
“What the hell happened?” Brett yelled as he yanked open the barn door. “How did this start?”
Sweat poured down Ray’s face. “I don’t know. The first barn was on fire when I arrived. I ran to the second one to save the horses.”
Together they raced inside to free the terrified animals trapped in the stalls. The horses stamped and whinnied, pawing and kicking at the wooden slats. A black quarter horse protested, but Brett had a magic touch with animals and soothed him as he led him into the fresh air.
Ray eased a rope around a palomino that was balking and slowly coaxed him through the door and outside, then away from the fire.
“Go on, boy,” Ray yelled as he removed the rope and patted the palomino’s side. The horse broke into a run, meeting up with the other animals as they galloped across the land.
Sweat trickled down Ray’s neck as he and Brett rushed inside to free the last two horses.
When they’d rescued them, he and Brett stood and watched the firefighters finish extinguishing the blaze.
“I can’t believe this,” Brett said, coughing at the smoke. “We just got these buildings finished and settled the horses in last week.”
“The insurance was taken care of, right?”
“Yeah,” Brett said with a scowl. “But this will cost us time. I was hoping to start lessons in the spring.”
And time meant money. Not that Brett didn’t have some from his rodeo winnings, but he had invested a good bit into building a home for him and Willow and their son.
“At least we didn’t lose any horses,” Brett said. “I couldn’t stand to see them get hurt or suffer.”
That would have been a huge financial loss, too.
Ray gritted his teeth. “I smelled gasoline, Brett.”
Brett’s gaze turned steely. “You mean, someone intentionally set the fire?”
“We’ll have to let the arson investigator determine that, but it looks that way.”
Brett reached for his phone. “We should call Maddox.”
Ray shook his head. “Wait. He’ll be back day after tomorrow. We can handle this until then.”
Brett winced as the roof to the first barn collapsed. “You’re right. He should enjoy his honeymoon.”
“You said you smelled gas?” the fireman said to Ray. “I called our arson investigator. As soon as the embers cool enough for him to dig around, we’ll do a thorough search.”
The blaze was beginning to die down, although the first building was a total loss. The front of the second building suffered damage, but hopefully the interior and stalls had been saved.
“I should have had an automatic sprinkler system installed,” Brett said glumly.
Ray detected an underlying note of blame in his brother’s voice. “You couldn’t have known this would happen.”
The smoke thickened as the wind picked up. “Yeah, but it did.”
“We’ll discuss installing them in the future.”
Brett gave him an odd look. “I didn’t think you were going to hang around.”
Ray hadn’t planned to. But they still had the reading of the will and the bombshell about their father’s mistress and his son to contend with.
“I’ll be here for a while, at least until things get settled.” Which would probably be longer than he’d first thought.
Another siren wailed, and an official fire department-issued SUV barreled down the road. A sheriff’s car followed. Deputy Whitefeather had probably been notified by his 911 call.
Both vehicles careened to a stop, the deputy climbing out followed by a tall, broad-shouldered man in a uniform.
Introductions were quickly made. The arson investigator’s name was Lieutenant Garret Hawk.
“What happened?” Lieutenant Hawk asked.
“When I got home, I saw smoke and found the barn on fire,” Ray explained. “I called for help, then ran in to rescue the horses. That’s when I smelled gasoline.”
Lieutenant Hawk acknowledged the other firefighters with a flick of his hand. “It looks like you lost one barn and part of another.”
Ray nodded. “Thanks to your men and their quick response, or it could have been so much worse.”
“You think someone set the fire?” Deputy Whitefeather asked.
“Our builders certainly didn’t have gasoline out here,” Brett said. “But I don’t know who would sabotage us this way.”
Ray bit the inside of his cheek. The first person that came to mind was their half brother. If Bobby was ticked off and thought he’d been left out of the inheritance, maybe he wanted revenge.
Then again, if Bobby expected to inherit a share of the ranch, why would he want to damage any part of it? Destroying buildings would only lower the value of the property. And if he was caught, he’d face charges and go to jail.
Lieutenant Hawk moved closer to the edge of the burning embers. Ashes, soot, burned wood and leather covered the ground. He knelt and used a stick to push aside some debris. A cigarette butt lay in the pile.
“Any of you smoke?”
“Not me or Brett,” Ray said.
“How about ranch hands?” Lieutenant Hawk asked.
Ray and Brett and both shrugged. “It’s possible,” Ray said. “But they know better than to smoke around the hay.”
Deputy Whitefeather walked around the edge of the embers then went inside the second barn.
“Did your father have any enemies?” Lieutenant Hawk asked.
Brett shook his head, but Ray didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t ready to divulge the truth about his father’s indiscretion to a stranger, especially when Maddox and Brett were still in the dark.
He would investigate the half brother himself. If he’d tried to hurt them by setting this fire, Ray would make sure he never saw a dime of the McCullen money or any piece of the land.
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