The Millionaire Cowboy's Secret (5 page)

A moment later, the door opened and the black-and-white dog bounded out, nearly pulling Skylar after.

He noted she’d changed not only her high-heeled shoes, but she’d exchanged the dress for a pair of faded jeans and a T-shirt. Even from this distance, she still looked hauntingly lovely. Every nerve ending in his body came alive as he watched her.

Weird. While he wasn’t sure why he reacted so strongly to her, the fact that he did intrigued him enough to make him want to explore the connection more deeply.

In the pasture, Skylar raised her arm and threw a red ball. Her dog joyously bounded after it, returning a moment later to drop it at Skylar’s feet.

Matt grinned. There was nothing on earth like the happiness of a dog with one of its favorite toys. And when Skylar laughed, the musical sound carrying on the light breeze, he realized her uncomplicated joy equaled that of her pet’s.

Taking another drink of wine, he debated joining her. He liked dogs, and even though he hadn’t allowed himself another one since his beloved Rottweiler was killed in the massacre, he wasn’t averse to spending time with hers.

He frowned. Usually he wasn’t in the habit of lying to himself. He’d enjoy the dog, true. But it was the woman who fascinated him. It wasn’t her beauty—hell, ever since he’d won the lottery and become a multimillionaire, he had his pick of gorgeous women.

Maybe, he mused, it could very well be the challenge of getting past her defenses that drew him to her. Either way, it had been a long time since he’d been attracted to any woman for any reason other than the occasional consensual sexual encounter.

Before he had time to reconsider, he moved across the patio and headed down the sloping lawn toward her.

The dog—Talia, he remembered—saw him first and came bounding across the grass to greet him. With one joyous bark and a series of acrobatic spins, the black-and-white fur ball launched into an elaborate greeting. He could swear the border collie wore a silly canine grin the entire time.

Skylar not so much. Expression wary, she eyed him with the same enthusiasm one might give a rattlesnake coiled in the grass. Her earlier carefree expression had been replaced by guarded curiosity.

Though he felt a twinge of remorse, he pretended not to notice.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked, aware she most probably did.

“No problem,” she replied, her smooth voice and pleasant expression giving away the lie, though he doubted she realized how transparent she was.

Though he’d originally intended to discuss his horses, giving credence to his pretense of believing her cover story, as he watched her with her dog, he chose silence instead.

After she realized he didn’t intend to chat, she went back to playing with her pet, though she never completely relaxed.

Watching her, he tried to analyze why Skylar continued to fascinate him. She was pretty, though not his type. As a rule, he favored tall, leggy blondes rather than curvy redheads. Even ones who exuded an unconscious sex appeal, as she did.

No, he decided, it wasn’t just physical. It had to be her inner vulnerability that fascinated him. He’d noticed the shattered expression flash across her face as she took in his home, his life. He’d seen the pain—from what?—that she’d tried so earnestly to hide.

In that, they were very much alike. He, too, had known his share of pain, of loss. He couldn’t help but wonder what life events had wounded her. She intrigued him, even as he wondered why he cared. He never cared. Too much potential for hurt. He was safer living on the surface, keeping his focus on his goal.

With that, he realized standing here watching her was a colossal waste of his time. Dipping his chin in a brusque nod, he turned away and headed back to the house.

* * *

The instant he strode off, Skylar felt all the tension leave her in a whoosh. “Matt Landeta is weird,” she told Talia, who dropped her ball at Skylar’s feet and now watched intently for another throw.

They played for another fifteen minutes in the diminishing light before Skylar called it quits.

As soon as she crawled into bed, she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

In the morning, waking for once without the nightmares haunting her, she rose hours before dawn. Unable to sleep, she finally gave up and rose. She’d showered and dressed long before the sun began to color the eastern sky pink.

Checking over her camera, she briefly wished she truly was a photojournalist, then shook her head at her odd flight of fancy.

Prior to this assignment, she’d been given an intense photography class, so she knew at least the basics of operating the expensive, professional-looking camera. She’d taken several artistic landscape shots as part of her homework and discovered, rather to her surprise, that she enjoyed photography.

She’d even begun using her free time composing shots, learning her way around the different settings for action shots versus landscapes.

She couldn’t wait to begin the official photo shoot later today.

In jeans and boots—yes, she’d brought a pair—she snapped a leash on Talia and walked down toward the barn area in the dark, hoping to beat the barn crew’s morning feeding process. Instead, they were already there, much earlier than she would have guessed. A small tractor pulled a flatbed trailer heaped with hay and a huge bucket of grain. One stable hand doled out the hay and the other used a coffee can to scoop out grain, pouring it into each stall’s feed trough.

All the horses, every single one of them, had their heads out the stall doors, watching and waiting in the darkness for their early-morning meal.

With Talia sticking close to her side, Skylar sidled around the feed wagon, earning a few semi-curious glances, but no one questioned her. She supposed word had gotten around that she was here on behalf of the horse magazine and no one wanted to bother her.

Which was good, as she didn’t want to be disturbed. Since she knew after the horses were fed they’d be left alone for at least an hour to digest their breakfast, she could take a few candid photos. Of course, she wouldn’t bother to pretend these were for the magazine—true horse lovers wouldn’t be interested in head shots; they’d want to see the entire animal so they could judge conformation and coat. But among horses, Arabians had the most chiseled features, aristocratic and regal. She always admired them from afar, though she’d never really gotten this close to them.

In addition to horse photos, she needed to do some snooping around and see if she could learn where Matt stored the ammo. She doubted he’d store something so explosive anywhere near his expensive livestock, but maybe she could pick up a few clues.

Gradually, the horses were fed and the barn emptied of people and went quiet. The only sound was the horses contentedly munching. Skylar wandered down the well-lit aisle, inhaling the familiar barn smell, feeling more at home here than she did anywhere else on his ranch.

Beside her, Talia whined.

“What’s wrong, girl?” Reaching down, she ruffled her pet’s fur. “Do you need to go for a walk?”

Though of course the border collie couldn’t answer, Skylar left the barn and headed in the dark toward the empty field. There, she unclipped the lead and let her dog take care of business.

Once Talia had finished, Skylar whistled for her and headed back to her trailer to eat a breakfast bar and have a cup of coffee. She had several hours to kill until the promised photo shoot. Heck, she had at least an hour— maybe more—until sunrise.

Sitting on a chair outside the small trailer, sipping her Kona breakfast-blend coffee and waiting for the sun to come up, she debated phoning the office, but since no one would be there yet, plus she had nothing real to report yet, she decided against it. Other than Matt’s single comment about being licensed to carry, she hadn’t seen a single clue that might tell her if he really was planning to smuggle ammunition across the border.

They’d seen the receipts and knew he had it, but thus far she hadn’t been successful in locating where he stored it.

Of course, she hadn’t really expected to find it lying around out in the open, now, had she?

As she was about to get up for more coffee, Talia’s bark had her stopping. She knew her dog’s barks and this was the warning one. Expecting an intruder, she looked around her carefully and saw nothing.

A moment later, she smelled smoke. More than smelled it. The air was thick with it, the southern breeze carrying it low and thick, tendrils of gray against the darkness

The barn! Her first thought was immediately followed by another. Ammunition! If Matt’s stockpile were to catch fire, the explosion could take out his entire ranch.

She took off running in the dark, heading in the direction of the smoke. The air smelled awful. In her limited experience, that meant some sort of toxic accelerant had been used. Running full-out, she grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and used it to cover her face so she could breathe.

The horses. She had to get to the horses. But she couldn’t do it alone. She didn’t know if the others had been alerted to the fire, so she yelled for help over and over as she ran toward the inferno.

Chapter 4

E
ven that effort left Skylar gasping for breath and coughing. She didn’t dare waste any more energy.

Eyes watering, she hurried. Arriving at the barn, she saw it was ablaze. Rushing inside, despite the now-black smoke roiling off it, she heard the panicked screams of the horses.

Someone loomed up in front of her—Matt, leading one of his terrified horses. She jumped aside, grabbed a halter and entered the first occupied stall.

Inside, the panicked animal lashed out with her hooves.

“Don’t halter her,” Matt shouted. “Just release her and my men will herd them toward the door. Hurry.”

His words made sense. Opening the stall door wide, Skylar used the halter to slap at the frightened mare’s hindquarters. The horse bolted forward, eyes wide with terror.

Skylar didn’t wait; she hurried to the next stall. Matt rushed past her, doing the same.

In the next few minutes, she lost track of time, focusing intently on saving the horses one by one. Soon all the stalls were empty except the stallion stall at the end of the barn.

And the fire had leaped across the aisle from the empty stalls, the hay in the feeding trough already ablaze.

The staccato sound of hooves pounding the wooden stall door mingled with the roar of the fire. This one, this one last horse, had to be freed. She would not let it roast alive.

Beside her, Matt’s grimy face showed similar resolve.

Heedless of the danger, he ran to the stall and yanked the door open. Nothing but black smoke and the bright orange and red of the flames.

Skylar’s heart skipped as she cursed. No way the horse could survive that conflagration. No way. Heart pounding, she rushed after Matt, whether to offer her assistance or try to drag him to safety, she didn’t know.

A shape appeared out of the smoke. Burned and terrified, huge nostrils flaring, Matt’s stallion nonetheless let Matt lead him to safety. The instant they were free of the stall, the horse bolted, nearly knocking Skylar out of the way.

“Come on, hurry,” Matt shouted. “The roof’s about to collapse. Get out!”

Side by side, they ran for the door. They’d barely cleared the opening when something inside the building exploded, sending them flying and knocking them to the ground.

Dazed, Skylar pushed herself up to a crouch. She’d skinned her knee, and her elbow was bloody, but that appeared to be the extent of her injuries.

Squinting in the smoke, she tried to locate Matt.

José and several of the stable hands hurried over, helping Skylar up. Matt limped toward them. From his appearance, he had similarly minor scrapes and cuts.

Belatedly, she realized the stallion had disappeared. “The horse,” she croaked. “Where’s the horse?”

“Go find Saint,” Matt ordered, his voice sharp with what sounded like fury. Two of the stable hands rushed off to do his bidding. He turned to his friend. “José, call the vet and get him out here pronto. Saint is burned and some of the others probably are, too. They all inhaled a lot of that smoke.”

Nodding, José whipped out his cell phone and turned away to make the call.

Dusting herself off, Skylar coughed. Her legs felt shaky. “Don’t you think you should call the police?” she asked quietly. “It seems pretty obvious that fire was deliberately set.”

“Do you have proof?” He stared at her, his gaze narrow, his mouth a hard, thin line.

“I smelled something. Right before the explosion. Gasoline or kerosene—some kind of accelerant.”

He turned away, the rigid set of his shoulders telling her he already knew. “We’ve already called the fire department. It’s going to take them a while to get here, though—they’re volunteers. I know they have one guy who specializes in that sort of thing. We’ll see what they find out.”

Though she knew she might be pushing it, she had to find out what had exploded in the barn. Surely he wasn’t foolish enough to keep explosives around his precious horses?

“Matt, wait.” Grabbing his arm, her heart still pumping with adrenaline, she took a deep breath to speak. Instead, she immediately began coughing.

To give him credit, Matt waited until the coughing fit had subsided.

“Something exploded there in the barn,” she said, wiping at her stinging eyes with her fists. “Any idea what that might have been?”

Clearly exhausted, he dragged a hand across his face, smearing the soot. “No.” His answer short and sweet, he seemed to sway as he stared at her. “Do you?”

Since she couldn’t come right out and voice her suspicions, she slowly shook her head. “I have no idea.”

“I thought not.” To her surprise, he held out his hand. His fingers were black and filthy, exactly like her own. “Come on. By the time the fire department gets here, the barn will be nothing but embers. You can help me round up the horses so the vet can check them over.”

Not sure how to react, she finally slid her hand into his. As his fingers closed around hers, she couldn’t help but think how long it had been since she’d held a man’s hand.

Five years or more. A lifetime.

Again she pushed the thoughts away, letting Matt tug her after him. This was different. This was a crisis, not a date.

Somehow, they managed to round up all the horses, chasing them into a large fenced arena across the parking lot and upwind a distance from the still-burning barn. All the horses were accounted for. All except one. The beautiful stallion he’d called Saint was nowhere in sight.

“The vet’s on the way,” José said. “Where the hell is the fire truck?” About to say more, he apparently got a good look at Matt’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Saint’s missing.”

“Is he badly hurt?”

“I’m worried,” Matt muttered. “He looked like he had some pretty bad burns.”

José clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Well, hell, you know this entire area is fenced. Even if he made it out of the barnyard and into one of the other pastures, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him. He’s got to be here somewhere.”

Still, despite the reassuring words, worry continued to etch lines in Matt’s face.

Rubbing the back of her neck, she turned a slow circle, searching. “There’s no chance a gate could have been left open, right?”

José shot her a look heavy with annoyance. “Anything is possible. Whoever started this fire could have left a gate open. But all the pastures are divided up and fenced.”

Biting back an instinctive retort, Skylar kept her gaze on Matt instead. She wouldn’t allow José to bait her. Whatever his problem was with her, she wanted no part of it.

“Even if someone left a gate open, Saint couldn’t have gone far.” Matt’s voice, weary and husky with worry and exhaustion, made her long to go to him and put her arms around him.

Since there was no way in hell
that
was going to happen, she clenched her hands into fists instead.

Behind them, there was a loud pop, then the crack of lumber as the barn’s roof collapsed. Fire roared up into the sky, engulfing the remains of the building.

Matt nodded, gesturing toward the blaze. “Even if the fire department shows up now, it’s too late. The barn’s a total loss.”

At least the other buildings appeared to have been spared. One of them, she knew, was his office. Two men stood near that smaller building, continuously spraying it with hoses to make sure the fire didn’t spread.

Matt sighed. “Skylar, you can go back to your trailer. Thanks again for all your help. I’m going out to find Saint.”

“I can help search,” José offered. “But it’s pretty damn dark out there. You know it’ll be easier to find him once the sun comes up.”

“That’s true.” Matt set his jaw. “But he’s hurt and scared and I can’t leave him alone. I want to bring him back so the vet can take a look at his burns. We’ve got a couple more industrial-strength flashlights in the tack room.”

With a nod, José hurried off to retrieve those.

“I’m going to look, too,” Skylar said quietly. “And before you turn me down, think. You know you need all the help you can get.”

Expression shuttered, Matt finally nodded.

José brought the flashlights. Matt took two from José and handed one to Skylar.

“I thought she was going back to her trailer,” José protested, his voice dripping with dislike.

“Look,” Skylar started, clamping down on a flash of anger, “I don’t know what your problem is with me, but—”

Matt squeezed her shoulder in warning. “Easy, now. Both of you. It’s been a rough couple of hours. Arguing isn’t going to solve anything.”

He was right. Just like that, she felt the urge to fight roll off her. José nodded. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” she bit back, managing to soften her tone a little.

Apparently satisfied, Matt nodded. “Skylar, thanks for all your help. You saved several horses.”

Keeping her chin up lest her own exhaustion show, she nodded. “Now we just need to find your stallion. Have you heard from the stable hands?”

“No.” Matt checked his phone. “They know to call me if they locate him. They went in pairs. I sent one group to the north pastures and the other group went south. We probably should search separately.”

“Agreed. I do think we should split up,” José put in, his expression and his tone neutral. “We can cover a lot more ground separately.”

Her heart skipped a beat while Matt considered. If he agreed, searching for the missing horse would be the perfect time to also conduct a search for the hidden ammo.

“Good idea,” Matt finally said. “Skylar, do you want to go alone or with me?”

She pretended to consider. “I think José’s right. We can cover a lot more ground if we go alone.”

“José and I will take west, you go east.”

She nodded, then watched as they vanished into the darkness. Now, while she helped search for the missing horse, she could also take a look around for a potential ammunition-storage site. They knew he’d purchased enough bullets to supply an army. Her job was to find out what he’d done with them.

Despite the mini explosion in the barn, she knew that hadn’t been due to ammunition. According to the reports she’d been given, if a stockpile the size of Matt’s blew, it would have left a crater.

Matt’s devotion to his horses was obvious after this morning. She knew he wouldn’t do anything that might endanger them.

Ergo, he must have an outbuilding on another part of the ranch. No doubt far enough away from the livestock that it would never be a threat.

Hefting the heavy flashlight in one hand, she set out, glancing back over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching her. Flashing lights down the road indicated the arrival of the fire trucks. The still-burning barn illuminated the corral of agitated, frightened horses, the flickering light of the flames an eerie mix with the sour smell of smoke.

The acrid scent seemed to follow her as she set off. At the last moment, she decided to go the same way as Matt. She had a hunch. While she didn’t doubt he was actually searching for his stallion, she knew if she were in Matt’s position and someone had set fire to a barn, her next concern would be to check on the stored ammunition. In case that was his plan, her best bet would be to follow him while continuing to keep an eye out for the missing horse.

* * *

“That Skylar chick surprised me. She was really something,” José mused, falling into step beside Matt.

Matt hid his grin. “Yes, she was. She’s obviously a horse person. Without her, I’m not sure we could have gotten all the horses out.”

“Yeah, we need to have a talk with the stable hands.”

“I agree.” Matt grimaced, the knot that had settled into his gut twisting. “They were so disorganized and in such a panic that they got in each other’s way.”

“You’re also wondering if one of them might have had something to do with starting the fire,” José guessed.

“Exactly. They said they’d already fed the horses. What were they doing feeding so early?”

“True. And why didn’t they smell the smoke?”

Considering, Matt nodded. “Especially since Skylar did.”

“True. Speaking of her...” José glanced back over his shoulder as if to make sure she hadn’t followed. “Do you think she might have had something to do with this?”

“What?” Shocked, Matt stopped, staring at his friend. “Why would you think something like that?”

“To smoke out where the ammo is, of course.”

“But to endanger all those valuable horses...” Matt’s horror-filled voice trailed off.

José shrugged. “Just a thought.”

“I think you’re way off base with that one. You saw her this morning. She was obviously concerned for the horses.”

“And that’s it? That’s the only reason you don’t suspect her?”

“Isn’t that enough? Plus, what would be her motive? The ammo thing doesn’t really fly, as any idiot would know not to store explosive ammunition anywhere near horses.” And, even though Matt didn’t say it out loud to his friend, the simmering attraction he felt for the redhead also had something to do with it.

Ha. He needed to make sure he thought with his head, not with his groin. Which was ironic, in its own way. He’d never had a problem getting women, and most of them, like the models he occasionally dated, were happy with his no-commitment philosophy as long as he occasionally bought them a bauble or two.

Maybe that would be the solution. But though he knew if he picked up the phone and called, any one of them would come running, the knowledge did nothing for him. He simply wasn’t interested.

No, he was better off keeping his focus where it belonged—on his plan to draw in Diego Rodriguez. He was too close now to screw it up.

Meanwhile, his most valuable horse had completely vanished.

“I don’t see him.” Once again, José shone the flashlight beam out into the pasture. The high-intensity light illuminated a good area, but there were no signs of the stallion.

“Keep looking,” he ordered tersely, turning in the opposite direction with his own light. “The sun should be up soon.”

“Do you wanna check out the—”

“No.” Matt cut José off before he could finish the sentence. He gave a second, meaning-filled glance behind them. “You never know who might be following or listening.”