“Josh! Wake up, Josh!” More banging. “The barn’s on fire! Josh, wake up!”
Fear gripped him. Terrified for the horses, he shot out of bed, dragged on his jeans, and raced barefoot and shirtless through the living room. The sky was unnaturally bright outside the window as he jerked open the front door and ran flat-out toward the barn.
Orange-and-red flames licked out of the hayloft, clawing their way into the sky. The windows were ringed with tendrils of red, exploding as the fire grew hotter inside.
Tory ran ahead of him, racing toward the fire. His heart nearly burst when she disappeared into the smoke-filled interior.
“Tory! Tory, wait!” Josh raced after her, running full speed across the yard into the burning building. He spotted her opening one of the stall doors, trying to shoo a bay gelding out of the stall. When the wild-eyed animal just stood there trembling, she grabbed a rope, looped it around the animal’s neck, and started tugging, but the horse still refused to budge.
“Cover his eyes!” Josh yelled over the roar of the fire as he grabbed a couple of towels off the stack next to the tack room door. “He’s afraid of the flames!”
He tossed one of the towels to Tory, who put it over the horse’s eyes and started running with him out of the barn. Josh was leading two of the animals out to safety when she ran back in, heading for another stall. She looped her rope over the head of the little gray mare who was about to foal, covered her eyes, and tugged the mare toward safety.
He led another gelding outside, his worry building. The flames were burning through the rafters, chewing through the roof. Any minute the whole ceiling could come crashing down. “Get out of here, Tory! I’ll get the other horses. You’ve got to get out now!”
There were only two horses left, Sunshine, his palomino mare, and Thor, a big buckskin gelding that was his favorite to ride. Sunshine was in the far back corner, impossible to reach, and time was almost gone. He opened the buckskin’s stall.
Josh took a last glance around, didn’t see Tory, and prayed she’d done what he’d told her. Looping the rope over the buckskin’s head, he covered the horse’s eyes with the towel and ran out of the stall. As he raced for the door, he heard Sunshine’s pitiful neigh, but there wasn’t time to save her. If he went back inside, he’d die.
He looked around for Tory as he burst through the smoke into the cool night air, but he didn’t see her. “Tory!” When she didn’t answer, everything inside him went cold. “Tory!”
If she was inside, the smoke was so thick he’d never find her. A huge chunk of the roof came down, right over Sunshine’s stall. He glanced around, frantic now. Tory was in there. He knew it.
Josh pressed the towel over his mouth and started running back to the barn, raced through the door just as Sunshine came thundering toward him, Tory hanging on to the rope around the mare’s neck.
The mare jerked free and kept running. Josh grabbed Tory, swung her up in his arms, and ran out of the barn—just as the roof came crashing down.
Chapter Eight
Tory sat on the damp grass a safe distance from the burning barn. Two red fire trucks sat next to each other out front, one of them a tanker. Half a dozen firemen in full turnout gear handled the heavy hoses, shooting massive streams of water out of the tanker onto the flames, sending up thick white columns of smoke.
She managed to tear her gaze away from the fire as Josh walked up, his face and torso black with smoke. He was barefoot, wearing only a worn pair of jeans, his chest bare. Even covered in greasy black soot, all those muscles were ridiculously distracting.
When she’d run out of the trailer, she hadn’t had time to put a bra on under her T-shirt. She could still feel the imprint of those hard muscles as he’d carried her at breakneck speed out of the burning building.
Tory shivered. She’d come within seconds of dying. Adrenaline still pumped like a drug through her veins.
“You all right?” Josh asked.
“I’m okay.” Considering she had almost died. “What about the horses?”
“I opened the gate to one of the pastures and they ran right in. They’re fine.”
“What took the fire department so long to get here?”
“Department’s all volunteer.” Too restless to sit down, he paced back and forth as he watched the fire crew at work. With his property going up in flames, she didn’t blame him.
“Plus we’re ten miles from town.” He looked back at the burning structure, most of it collapsed in on itself, occasional red-and-orange tendrils still licking through holes in the blackened wood. Volunteer firemen worked skillfully to knock down the last of the blaze. “Barn’s a total loss, anyway.”
“What do you think happened?”
“No idea.”
“I’m glad none of the horses were hurt.”
He stopped pacing and turned to face her, clamped his hands on his hips. “What the hell were you thinking? I told you to get out of the barn. Dammit, you could have been killed!”
She shrugged. At the time she didn’t feel as if she had any choice. “Sunshine was in there. I couldn’t just leave her.”
“Sunshine is a horse! You’re the mother of a little girl!” He glanced around. “Where is she, anyway? Where’s Ivy?” A thread of worry colored his words.
“I just checked on her again. She was asleep when I spotted the fire. She still is. Once she crashes, she doesn’t wake up till morning.”
Josh ran a hand over his short brown hair. “Next time I tell you to do something, you do it. You understand?”
A memory of Damon slipped into her head and she drew back from him a little. “Or you’ll what?”
Josh gave her a long, assessing look. “Christ, I’d never hit you, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ve never hit a woman in my life. I don’t plan to start with you.”
He sighed and crouched down next to her on the grass. “What you did in there. It was incredibly brave. You helped me save the horses. Saving Sunshine was stupid, but it was brave.”
Tory’s gaze swung to his. “I’m not stupid, Josh. Don’t ever underestimate me. I saw a chance to save the mare and I took it. You would have done the same thing.”
Some of the tension seeped out of his shoulders. He sighed as he sprawled on the grass beside her. “You’re right, I would have. I’m sorry.” He glanced off, staring at the fire for the longest time, as if watching the flames had sent him someplace into the past.
Those blue eyes finally returned to her, deep and intense. For a second it was hard to breathe.
“I know what it’s like to lose someone,” he said a little gruffly. “I’ve had friends die in battle, soldiers who had wives and kids. Death comes swift and hard, sometimes out of nowhere. You scared me. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”
She was surprised at his apology. Damon wouldn’t have done it. A hundred times, she wondered how she could have been duped so badly by a man like him.
Tory sighed. “I probably should have listened to you. I took a dangerous chance. It probably was stupid.”
He stared at her as if he were trying to figure her out. “It was brave,” he said.
The fire chief walked toward them. She couldn’t see him clearly but beneath his helmet, he appeared to be a man in his fifties with a bushy salt-and-pepper mustache.
“Sorry, Josh,” he said. “Not much to save.”
“Barn went up like tinder. All that straw . . .” Josh shook his head. “It’s a miracle we were able to get the horses out.”
The chief’s gaze swung to Tory. “I’m Chief Leland.”
“Tory Ford.” In the cool night air, without a bra, her nipples were standing out against her T-shirt. She’d always had full breasts, which the chief didn’t miss. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Why don’t you go on home?” Josh suggested softly. “Get a little sleep? Nothing more you can do here.”
“There’ll be an investigation,” the chief said. “As soon as the fire cools down enough, the arson boys will be out to take a look. Depending on what they find, they may need a statement.”