“Suits me fine.” She set off at a quick pace, running her switch up and down the barbwire as she hummed “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
He just stood there and watched her. He could do it all day. He didn’t know how moving a few head of cattle back into their pasture had turned into so much fun. But that was Misty’s doing. He chuckled as he watched her sassy sway. In bed or out of it, she was making his life so much better.
Still, his teasing and her antics brought home the fact that they stood on opposite sides of a fence. He’d been seeing her as the cowgirl next door. Not true. She’d been seeing him as a cowboy firefighter. Not completely true. They were both complex, with hopes and dreams, loves and hates, pasts and presents. He didn’t know how the hell they would get the barbwire down from between them, but he was willing to give it a good shot.
He turned serious as he stepped back to look down the line of fence. He wanted to sort out what didn’t fit in the picture. Didn’t take him long to see the problem. In one section, barbwire strands curled outward and a post leaned out, too. Culprits had tried to take out a post. That was serious stuff. They must have given it up as too much work or too much time.
What concerned him more than anything else was the boldness. Like he’d been thinking all along, he figured more than one person had to be involved in the sabotage. This time they’d chosen to do their dirty work up close to the main house. That put them near the barn and horse stables, which were all vulnerable to fire. They must want to make a statement: “We can get you where you live. We can cut your fence. We can set your house on fire.”
Trey felt chilled to the bone. The culprits targeting Wildcat Ranch had to know his parents were out of town and he was distracted with Christmas festivities. Work by the ranch hands was cut back, too. Some were gone visiting kinfolks. Others were working shorter hours. From a saboteur’s point of view, this had to be the perfect opportunity, so the attack’s place and time wasn’t an accident.
He hated to think it, but the culprits were somehow keeping tabs on him. That meant Misty was vulnerable, too. He needed to have a heart-to-heart talk with her real soon. First, he had to get his head out of the clouds and focus on safety. He would set up a watch with his ranch hands. He wanted somebody making the rounds at the house, barn, and stables at all times, day and night. The sabotage had cut way too close to the bone, and he had to take a strong defensive position.
“Misty, I see the break up ahead.” He walked past her and pointed at the fence. “But don’t come any closer. I want to examine the ground for prints.”
“Good idea.” She stopped beside him. “I’ll help.”
He checked the area, but he was disappointed when he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Ground’s too churned up by the cattle to tell much.”
“That’s too bad.” She made a wide circle around him before she walked out toward the road.
He stayed near the cut fence. “I doubt there’s much to see out there.”
She stopped and pointed at the ground. “Look here.”
He walked over, still looking for anything that’d give them a clue as to the saboteurs. “Dirt’s too dry to take much of a print.”
She knelt and used the tip of her forefinger to indicate a spot. “Maybe I’m wrong, but couldn’t that be the print of a high heel that sunk into the ground?”
He knelt beside her and looked closer. “Good work. I’d never have noticed it. See how the grass is crushed in front of the indentation? Looks like a shoe print to me. And it’s not from Mom’s shoes. She’d never be so foolish to walk around in the pasture wearing high heels.”
“Someone else might have thought the ground was hard enough to hold up under heels.”
“Ground’s hard, but you can still punch into it.”
Misty slipped her phone out of her pocket. “Just in case this is important, I think we ought to get photos.”
“Can’t hurt.” He pulled out his cell phone, too. “As hard and dry as the ground is right now, those holes aren’t going anyplace.”
“Maybe we’ll get rain.” She snapped several shots from different angles.
“Where’d you ever get an outlandish idea like that?”
She laughed at his response. “I know. Seems like it’s been forever since we got rain in North Texas.”
“I keep hoping for snow.” He took photographs, too. He snapped her feet near the holes to indicate size and long shots near the fence for position.
“Now you’re really living in a dream world. At least I only suggested rain might fall.”
“Afraid you’re right.” He glanced up at the sky. Not even a wispy cloud in sight. But the sun was lowering in the west. They’d better get a move on. Night came on early in the winter and he wanted the cows back in their pasture before it got too dark to see what he was doing.