Page 59 of Bridles and Bribery

“Looks like the storm shelter’s been in use.” Looking grim, Gil trained his gun on the doors while Dave pulled them open. What they found on the other side was not the case of water and blankets Gil had described.

A black cloth lay crumpled on one of the benches built into the side of the tiny space. It was draped half over a gasoline can. The strap of a pair of black goggles was looped around the nozzle. Its wide UV-coated lens was cracked on one side.

Dave sniffed the air. It smelled like dirt, grass, and gasoline. Leaping down into the shallow storm shelter, he examined the black fabric closer. It was waterproof with elasticized edges like a bedsheet. “It’s a cover of some sort.”

“Yep.” Gil frowned. “An ATV-sized one.”

“Looks like.” It made no sense to Dave. The four wheelers the patrol guys rode were housed in a padlocked shed, not inside the storm shelter they were currently examining.

He climbed out of the storm shelter to gaze around the backyard.What are we missing?The sense that they were overlooking something grew.

Jordan loped across the yard in their direction, muttering something too soft for Dave to hear. As he drew closer, Dave was finally able to make out some of it.

“Six o’clock in. Eight-thirty out. North side. Bathroom break. Nine o’clock in. Eleven-thirty out. South side. Bathroom break. Loud music. Four-wheeler leaves.”

As Dave listened, it dawned on him that Jordan must be repeating the movements of today’s guard team as they cycled on and off duty. Lonestar Security scrambled the schedule of their guards every day. However, they typically maintained the leapfrog style of rotations that Jordan was describing.

The more Dave thought about it, the more he was convinced that Jordan’s mom must have figured out the exact moment in the guard’s schedule when their surveillance of the cabin was minimal. Or Jordan had figured it out and inadvertently shared that information with her, which was the likelier scenario.

He jerked his head up to meet Gil’s gaze. “New theory. Jan Jacobson left on an ATV she’s been storing inside the storm shelter.” He had no idea how the broke rancher had gotten her hands on an ATV and what she was planning on doing with it, but that was what the evidence was telling him.

“She left with the gambler,” Jordan announced in a more animated voice than Dave had ever heard him use.

Gil swiftly got back on the phone with Josh. “Any sign of a woman on a four-wheeler anywhere near Dave’s house? There might be two people riding on said four-wheeler. A man and a woman. Jordan is claiming his mother left the ranch to deliver a present to a baby boy.” He mashed the speakerphone button so Dave could listen in.

Dread tightened Dave’s chest as he waited for Josh to respond. Today was the day the Prophet had threatened to kidnap Bo. He no longer cared how many more security guards Lonestar had covering his home. He should’ve thrown all caution to the wind and made it a priority to be there personally. If anything happened to his family in his absence, he was never going to forgive himself.

Josh started speaking again in a rush. “Yeah. Looks like our guys have eyes on an ATV moving in the direction of Dave’s home. We’ll relocate his family to the safe room pronto. Don’t let Jordan out of your sight until you hear back from me.” He hung up.

“I’m not crazy,” Jordan said again.

“No, you’re definitely not crazy.” Remorse thickened Dave’s voice. “You were right about everything, my friend. Looks like I’m the one who got it all wrong.” He reached out to clap Jordan on the shoulder. As he raised his arm, he caught sight of a flashing red light beneath the ATV cover inside the storm shelter. He dropped to his hands and knees to peer closer at the light and discovered it wasn’t flashing at all. The red lights were a set of digital numbers on a countdown!

Dave didn’t wait to see what the countdown was for, though he had his suspicions. He lunged to his feet, whirled around, and grabbed Jordan by the shoulder to spin him away from the storm shelter. “Run!”

He, Jordan, and Gil took off at a sprint. No sooner did they leave the yard and scramble over the fence into the pasture did the world behind them erupt.

Dave hit the ground, pulling Jordan down with him. Gil dove after them. Smoke and heat enveloped them, bringing a wave of smoldering debris and ashes.

The three men writhed and slapped at the red-hot shards, knocking them into the grass on either side of them. Smoking pockets of grass burst into flames.

“Come on!” Dave urged them back to their feet and got them running again. If they stayed where they were, they’d be burnt alive.

Ahead of them in the distance, Western Storm screamed and dug his hooves into the ground as he galloped away from the billowing smoke and flames.

With a guttural cry of alarm, Jordan took off after him.

Five minutes earlier

Jillian rocked little Bo,adoring the way he nuzzled his soft head against her neck. There was no feeling in the world more amazing than cuddling a newborn baby.

Unless, of course, it involved cuddling with Dave… She blushed at the direction of her thoughts. Only one more week until the big federal trial began for the two biggest kingpins in the murderous horse gambling ring. She wasn’t supposed to know anything about the case. Ever the professional, Dave had kept his lips sealed on the topic. However, she’d heard about the trial in the news and put two and two together. Her mother-in-law had put her nosy skills to work and filled in the rest of the details for them.

Jillian didn’t care about being “in the know” about her husband’s case. All she cared about was that it would soon be over. Yes, she wanted justice served to the injured parties involved, but she mostly wanted her husband back.

She was so ready for them to be a family of three. She wanted it all — trips to the park with Bo in his blue canopy stroller, Little League baseball games when he got older, spaghetti dinners around their dining room table, and family board games afterward.

The rumble of a motor in the distance interrupted her daydream, making her grimace. Funny how she’d never noticed sounds like that before having a baby. In the past, her ears had automatically tuned out stuff like that. Nowadays, every extra noise was like a growling gremlin threatening to wake their son during his nap time.

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