Controlled Burn (3 page)

“Don’t tell me you spent the night at the fire station.”

Boone looked up to see his top hand, Rusty Davis, walking into the barn.

“No. But I wasn’t ready to come home yet, either.” He went back to methodically coiling the lunge rope in his hands.

“Should I ask where you went?” The other man studied him. “I heard last night’s fire was a pretty bad one.”

Boone stopped what he was doing, the coil hanging loosely from one hand. The memory of the heat and flames rushed over him, and he swore, for a moment, he could actually smell the barn burning.

“It could have been a lot worse.”

He couldn’t get the image of Jeb and Darlene out of his mind, standing with their arms around each other, watching the firefighters lose the battle with the blaze consuming their barn. Boone was just glad they’d been able to prevent it from spreading to the house. The couple had lived all their lives in Winslow. Raised a family here. Owned the Sunrise Diner for as long as he could remember. Everyone in town—hell, in the county—loved the Royals. He couldn’t imagine who would want to burn down their barn and endanger them that way.

And he was positive it was arson, like the other four fires they’d put out in the past eight weeks. There seemed to be an epidemic of barn burnings in their little town. So far, it hadn’t spread throughout the county, but if they didn’t find whoever was doing this, it was only a matter of time before a blaze roared out of control.

A big part of the problem was most of the homes in town were generations old, built when horses were the general mode of transportation. Over the years, the houses had been modernized and many had garages added to them. But people hung onto the barns, partly for the history and partly because they made good storage facilities. Those on the edges of town with enough land often kept a horse or two. So far, they hadn’t had to rescue any animals but, again, it was a danger always hovering at the back of his mind.

“Chief Curtis still think those fires were deliberately set?” Rusty asked.

Boone nodded. “We all do. The thing is, though, we can’t seem to find any evidence.” Although Boone had his suspicions, he hadn’t said anything yet because he wanted proof. But he’d been watching one member of the squad during the past couple of episodes, unsettled a little bit by his behavior. He needed more than suspicions, however, so he planned to keep a sharp eye out.

“Well.” Rusty scratched his jaw. “It does seem odd to have an epidemic like this all of a sudden.” He took the lunge line from Boone and hung it on a peg. “So, where did you crash last night?”

With a woman who took my breath away.

And that was no lie.

He could still hardly believe they’d woken twice during the night and fallen into more of the incredible sex. He didn’t know where he’d even found the strength. There had been an intensity about everything they did, as if she, too, was trying to wipe something away and bury herself in the sex. Whether that was true or not, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. Who was she? Where had she come from? Would he ever see her again?

“Boone?”

Rusty’s voice pierced his consciousness.

“What? Oh, yeah. Last night. I stopped at Pete’s for a couple of beers to wash the smoke out of my mouth and ended up crashing at the motel next to it. I was so beat, I figured I’d be a hazard on the road.”

“Good idea. You might think about knocking off a little early today, too. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately, if you’ll pardon the expression.”

“I wanted to ride out with you and the boys and check on the cattle in the south pasture. Almost time to cull the calves.” He pointed to the rope he’d coiled. “And I wanted to get back to work, training the new cutting horse I bought a few weeks ago.”

“You trying to kill yourself?” Rusty shook his head. “We can check on those calves, and the horse can wait until tomorrow. He ain’t going anywhere.”

Boone had started to object when he heard the sound of tires on gravel and turned his attention to a truck heading down his driveway. He recognized the fire chief’s Ford F-150 right away. Had the man found something?

“Go talk to your chief,” Rusty said. “And leave the calves to us. If you really want to make yourself useful, you can go into town and pick up those sacks of horse feed they’re holding for us. Save me a big nuisance trip.”

Maybe he’d do that. And take a run out to Pete’s to see if the bartender knew who the sexy blonde from last night was.

Dumb, he told himself. You had a night so hot it singed the sheets. Let it go at that.

“Let me see what the chief has to say, and I’ll let you know.”

Ray Curtis had been hired as fire chief about two months before Boone moved to Winslow. Homegrown, he’d lived in San Antonio for seven years, working for the SAFD, until he and his wife decided they liked country living a lot better. The county had been damn happy to get him. He ran a top-notch department on a shoestring budget. This was not a county with a lot of money, so he used a lot of his budget to have the best equipment and increased the size of his department with volunteers like Boone.

“Got any news for me, chief?” he asked, shaking hands with the man.

“Maybe. Mostly looking for someone to run some ideas past. You got some time?”

“Sure. Come on in the house. Coffee’s fresh.”

Settled at the kitchen table with their coffee, he waited for Curtis to open the conversation.

“You know I’ve had an arson investigator going over everything since the second fire, right?”

Boone nodded, sipped his coffee, and waited.

“Mostly, he hasn’t found anything. No accelerant. No oil-soaked rags.” Curtis idly stirred his coffee. “Whoever is doing this, they know exactly what they’re doing.”

“I can’t even begin to think someone around here would be causing this.” Boone shook his head, “This is a close-knit community, not just the town, but the whole county. I mean, countywide, the population would barely fill a good-sized town.”

“I know. Now you know why I’m so stumped. It’s like one big family. And not a dysfunctional one, either. So, what in hell has prompted this?”

“You said you might have found something,” Boone prompted.

“Yeah. Only because the arson investigator is thorough and relentless.” He took a long swallow of his coffee, set the mug down, and stared at it for a moment. “The barn was old, the wood so dry it incinerated in minutes. You saw it happen.”

“I did.” Boone waited.

“Pieces of it were still standing. Not much. But there were some small sheets of metal leaning against the far wall by the rear entrance. They fell over as the flames consumed the wood around them. When we lifted them this morning, we found the remnants of newspapers. Of course they were pretty soaked. Shredded when we picked them up with tongs to put in an evidence bag. But there was enough left to tell us the fire was deliberately set.”

“Whoever did this had to sneak onto the property, get into the barn, set the blaze. And no one saw anything?”

Curtis shook his head. “We’ve talked to all the neighbors. But the way the places on the street are set up, none of the yards are lit, and there are a lot of trees for cover.” He stared into his mug. “We’re damn lucky none of the trees went up.”

“What can I do for you?” Boone wanted to know.

“Start thinking about who could do this. Take notice of people when you’re in town. The sheriff’s asking questions to see if these folks had anything in common, or anyone had grudges against them.” He drained the rest of his coffee and set the mug down. “But, mostly, I guess, be my sounding board. You’re smart, Boone. The sharpest of my volunteers. And you see a lot of people on a regular basis. Keep your eyes open for me, okay?”

“You know I will.” He rubbed his jaw. A little suspicion had been niggling at his mind. Behavior he’d observed that was a little over the top. Some things that didn’t quite add up. Should he mention it to the chief? What if he was wrong? No, he’d better wait until he had more proof.
Any
proof.

When the older man had left, Boone sat quietly for a moment, thinking. Like Curtis, he hated the idea this was the work of someone they knew. But maybe focusing on that would get his mind off the woman from last night. Lord knew his cock hadn’t forgotten. It had been aching and sending him messages all morning. Even now, he had to adjust his jeans to make himself more comfortable.

Maybe Rusty was right. Instead of riding out with the hands, he’d go into town, pick up the feed. In fact, he could stop in at the Sunrise Diner for lunch and see how the Royals were doing.

****

“I know you won’t like me saying this,” Patsy Wade told her daughter, “but I never did like Richard.”

Montana laughed and spread jam on a piece of toast. “Mom, you’ve been saying that since the day I introduced you to him.”

“And I was right.” Patsy sat down across from her with her mug of coffee. “Admit it.”

Montana sighed. She’d known she would be having this conversation. It had been building for twelve years. She was only grateful she’d had last night to give her fortitude.

Last night!

Holy mother!

Sure, her sexual experience had been limited to Richard Havilland and two or three others. After all, she’d met him at the beginning of her junior year in college and everyone else had ceased to exist. But even she knew last night had been extraordinary. Off the charts. The kind of sex she read about and drooled over. The kind she’d waited all these years to find with Richard Havilland, only it had never materialized. How could he make great love to her when he was so fixated on himself?

Last night, the stranger had been totally focused on her in a way she’d never experienced. Today, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. Yes, they’d been two people with a desperate need. But beneath all that, something else simmered. Would she ever see him again? Ever find out if there was really something there beyond the off-the-charts sex?

“Montana?” Patsy’s voice nudged her out of her musings.

“Um, yeah, sorry. Guess my mind must have taken a detour for a minute.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re regretting anything,” Patsy snapped. “You’re not too old for me to put you over my knee.”

The words conjured up an image of the stranger slapping her ass and telling her he’d love to spank her.

Stop it!

She made herself laugh. “No, Mom, not regretting anything at all. Just wondering how I could have been so stupid in the first place.”

“You wanted a world beyond Winslow. Beyond the county. I can understand that.” Patsy sighed. “I wish you hadn’t thought you had to marry that dickhead to get it.”

“Mom!” Montana’s mouth dropped open.

“What? You think I don’t know words like that? You hang around cowboys long enough, you pick up a whole new vocabulary.”

“I thought you only hung around their wives,” Montana teased. “Dad’s the one who spends time with the guys.”

Patsy Wade ran a specialty shop in town offering handcrafted purses, jewelry, and accessories. Over the years, she’d made it into an established success. Her father was a veterinarian who tended to the horses and cattle at most of the ranches in the area.

“I hear my share,” Patsy joked. Her smile disappeared. “Seriously, honey. I’d throw a party to celebrate your liberation if you’d let me. I ache for you that your decision came at such a high price.”

Yeah. Like finding out he’d screwed three of the interns in his law office, not to mention a few of his clients. Apparently, in Los Angeles, nobody thought anything of it.

Montana sighed. “I feel like such a failure.”

“Do not even use that word in my presence. You are
not
a failure. You’re a smart woman who’s come to her senses.”

“And needs to find something to do with the rest of her life.” She took a sip of her tea. “By the way, in case you’re worried, I don’t plan to hang around and sponge off you and Dad.”

“And that’s another horseshit word.” Anger flashed in Patsy’s eyes. You take as long as you want to decide your next move. Your attorney got you a nice settlement from the dickhead. You just take your time. You’ve got a degree in hospitality and ten years’ experience at that hotel in Los Angeles. I’ll bet there’re dozens of places in San Antonio or Dallas or Houston that would jump at the chance to hire you.”

Montana shoved her fingers through the tangled mess of her hair. “You know, I’m sure this will surprise you, but I think I might have had enough of big cities for a while.”

Patsy stared at her. “Really? You couldn’t get away from here fast enough, before.”

“I know, I know. I was young and stupid.”

“No. You were young and adventurous. Do you have any idea what you might want to do?”

Montana shook her head. “Not yet. But I am going to hang out for a while and see what my options are.”

“And it’s not sponging,” her mother pointed out. “This is your home. You stay as long as you want to.” She glanced at her watch. “I need to get dressed and get into the shop. If you go into town, you might stop into the Sunrise Diner
.
Say hello to the Royals. They had a bad night last night.”

Montana leaned forward. “Why? What happened?”

“Someone burned down the barn. Thank the lord, the fire department kept it from reaching their house.”

“Burned the barn? You mean, someone deliberately set it on fire?”

“Uh-huh. As a matter of fact, we’ve had a rash of barn burnings lately. We always worry about lightning strikes during storm season or prairie fires when it’s so dry. But this is deliberate.”

“I can’t believe someone around here would do something like that.”

“I know. We’ve all been saying the same thing. We’re so glad Ray Curtis moved back here from San Antonio to head up the fire department. You can’t find a better chief anywhere. And that first-rate volunteer of his, Boone Crider. He could be a pro, he’s so good.” Patsy’s lips curved in a smile. “Now, there’s a man for you to take a look at.”

Montana threw up her hands. “Mom? I’m not considering any man of any kind for a good long time.”

Unless I happen to run into Mr. Hotstuff from last night.