“Give it some thought,” Wheeler said. “The sheriff’s going to be out here asking the same questions.”
Josh bit back a curse. Sheriff Emmett Howler was a real dickwad. How he had kept the job for twenty-plus years, Josh had no clue. On top of that, he had a major hard-on for anybody with the last name Cain.
Back in his brother’s wild high school days, Linc’s best friend, Beau Reese, and the sheriff’s son, Kyle Howler, had tried to rob a convenience store. Howler had been the arresting officer.
Beau and Kyle, underage at the time, had their records sealed and received light sentences. Linc, at eighteen, had been tried as an adult and sentenced to two years in prison.
With the help of the grandfather of the girl Linc had married, he was able to turn his life around. Linc and Beau had both become incredibly successful, while the sheriff’s son had ended up addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Howler blamed Linc. The fact that Josh’s last name was Cain wouldn’t be helpful.
Josh waited while the men loaded their equipment back into the van, then watched the van pull away. He was heading for his truck to make the trip into town when he saw Tory hurrying toward him, her fiery curls bobbing up and down.
An unwanted surge of heat settled deep in his groin. “What’s wrong?” he asked, clamping down on his hunger and forcing himself to focus.
“Nothing, I just . . . I wanted to know if the investigators found the cause of the fire.”
He hated to tell her. He didn’t want to scare her, and the notion of a firebug on the loose wasn’t good news. On the other hand, he needed her to be wary, watchful for anything out of the ordinary.
“Turns out the fire was arson. Someone used flammable accelerants in multiple locations. The blaze was started on purpose.”
Her face paled. “Are they . . . are they sure?”
“There wasn’t any doubt.”
“Oh, God.”
“Until they catch whoever did it, you need to be vigilant. I don’t know if it was personal or just some nut who likes to watch things burn, but we need to be on the lookout.”
She nodded. “Yes, yes, of course.” He could tell she was upset. She could have died last night. He wasn’t happy, either.
“I-I need to get back to work. I’ve got something on the stove.” She tried for a smile but it didn’t quite surface. “I’ll keep my eyes open.”
Josh watched her hurry toward his house, his mind going over possible suspects. He and Ramirez hadn’t parted on particularly good terms, but Diego had another job even before he’d quit and he didn’t seem too upset. Josh had fired the teenager who had stolen from him but surely burning down the barn would have been overkill.
Still he’d give the kid’s name to the arson guys, and the sheriff if he asked. Aside from that, he couldn’t think of anyone.
A more sinister thought arose. What about the guy Tory was running from? Was there a chance he had found her? And if he had, was he the kind of man who would go as far as arson to punish her in some way? She was obviously afraid of him. He’d left the little girl terrified of men in general.
Tory seemed a sensible woman. He couldn’t help wondering why she would let a guy like that into her life, especially with a child to consider.
He’d told her he didn’t need to know about her past and he’d meant it. But the situation had changed last night when his barn had gone up in flames.
He needed to talk to Tory and he needed to talk to her now. Josh headed back to his house.
Chapter Nine
Josh followed Tory to the house, but when he walked through the front door, Tory and Ivy weren’t there. There was nothing in the oven. Hell, the oven wasn’t on.
Suspicion rolled through him. Heading for the trailer, he climbed the porch steps and started to knock on the door. His hand froze as the door swung silently open and he heard voices coming from the hall leading to the bedrooms.
Remembering the look on Tory’s face when he had told her the fire was arson, he pushed the front door open and stepped inside. Heading down the hall, he stopped when he reached her open bedroom door, saw her madly throwing clothes into a suitcase, taking hangers out of the closet and tossing them onto the bed.
Suspicion gave way to irritation. No way had she set the fire then risked her life to save the horses, but something was definitely going on.
Propping his shoulders against the doorjamb, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Going somewhere, Tory?”
She jumped as if he’d shot off a cannon. She saw him and her body sagged in relief. “Josh . . . I thought . . . What are you doing here?”
His irritation crept up another notch. “If you’re quitting, I’d appreciate at least a couple of days’ notice.”
She looked at the jeans and blouses strewn all over the bed, looked back at him, and her eyes filled. “I have to go. I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble. I’m so sorry, Josh.”
It wasn’t what he’d expected her to say. He pushed away from the wall and walked toward her. “You think it was him? Is that what’s going on here?”
“I-I don’t know.” She blinked and wiped a tear from her cheek. “It could be. I’m afraid it’s him.”
“He’s that bad? He’d burn down a barnful of horses just to get back at you?”
She released a shuddering breath. “He’s that bad, Josh. The night I tried to leave him, he beat me nearly to death.” She looked past him out the window, toward the lush Texas grasslands and the mottled gray sky overhead.
“I don’t know how he fooled me so completely,” she said. “When I met him, I thought he was this really great guy. We’d only been dating a couple of months when he asked me to marry him. I said yes. I thought he would make a great dad for Ivy. As soon as we moved in together, things went rapidly downhill.”
“Was it booze? Drugs?”
“Not at first. Later it was both, but I don’t think that was his problem. We’d only been living together a month before I realized I was in trouble. We started fighting and he got more and more violent until I wound up in the hospital. His family is rich and powerful. Instead of jail, Damon got rage counseling and community service.”
“What happened after that?”
“Damon started harassing me right away. I was able to get a restraining order, but it didn’t really do any good.”
“Yeah. Piece of paper making something illegal doesn’t keep people from breaking the law.”
“No, it doesn’t. I finally gave up and left Phoenix.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Five months. I took a job in Houston but Damon followed me, started harassing me again. After he strangled the neighbor’s kitten and tossed it on my doorstep, I knew we had to leave. I found a job in Carlsbad, one I really liked. Things were good. I thought maybe he’d given up, but three weeks before I came to the ranch, Damon found me again. After that I was on the road until I got here.”
“What happened in Carlsbad?”
She took a shaky breath. “Damon and I had a little . . . umm . . . altercation.”
“You got into a fight? How bad was it?”
“Not nearly as bad as it could have been. I was prepared this time. When Damon broke into my apartment in the middle of the night, I used a stun gun to incapacitate him, tied him up, and left him on the floor. Damon was really pissed.”
Imagining the scene, Josh felt the pull of a smile. “Yeah, I bet he was.”
“I’ve been extremely careful since then, disposable phones, paying cash for everything, but maybe somehow he found out I was here.”
She returned to her packing, threw in another dress. Josh walked over and caught her shoulder, turning her to face him.
“Look, we don’t know for sure it was him. It could just be some firebug passing through who gets his kicks out of burning things down. Until we find out, there’s no reason for you to leave.”