The help he’d given Beau Reese and the Pleasant Hill Police Department during a hostage rescue two months ago had made him even more recognizable—unfortunately.
Josh climbed out of the truck and walked up the cement path, climbed the steps, and knocked on the front door. It took a while, but when the door finally swung wide, Randy Stevens stood on the other side of the opening.
“You got a minute?” Josh asked.
The lanky black-haired teen glanced over his shoulder as if checking to be sure no one was around. “I guess so.” He stepped outside and closed the door.
“You hear about the fire over at my place?”
Randy shrugged his slim shoulders. “Everybody in town heard about it.”
“Sheriff Howler talk to you?” Josh asked.
“About what?” Randy stuck his hands into his jeans pockets and rocked back on his heels.
“About the possibility you stole five gallons of gas from me, I fired you, and as payback you used the gas to burn down my barn.”
Randy’s dark eyes flared, then went hard. “You got nothing on me, soldier man. You think I burned down your barn, prove it.”
“I didn’t say you did it. I asked you if the sheriff talked to you about it.”
“He and my dad are friends.”
“Fine, then I’m the one asking you. Did you burn down my barn?”
Randy smirked. “You shouldn’t have fired me.”
Josh clamped down on his temper. “You aren’t even going to deny it?”
The kid just shrugged. “I didn’t say I did it. I know my rights. I’m not sayin’ nothin’.” But the look on his face made it clear he was the one who’d set the fire and he was proud of what he’d done.
Fury sent a jolt of adrenaline into Josh’s veins. “What about the horses, Randy? Killing helpless animals didn’t bother you?”
Randy’s spine stiffened. “I knew you’d get ’em out. They weren’t in any real danger.”
“You little shit.” Josh grabbed the kid by the front of his T-shirt and shoved him up against the wall. “You damn near got a woman killed! You really want to spend the rest of your life in prison for murder?”
“Let me go!” Randy squirmed.
Josh slammed him up against the wall again. “You come near my place, I swear I’ll shoot you on sight. And one thing you’ve probably heard about me—I don’t miss.”
The door swung open and Randy’s father appeared. “What’s going on out here?”
Josh let Randy go, but stood between him and escape. “I’ll tell you what’s going on. That spoiled kid of yours burned down my barn and nearly killed my horses.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Jim Stevens was black-haired like his boy, but filled out in the chest and shoulders from years of hard work. “Randy would never do a thing like that.”
“You don’t think so? Why don’t you ask him?”
Stevens’s gaze swung to his son. “Tell the man you had nothing to do with that fire.”
Randy glanced away.
“Randy, tell Josh you weren’t involved in the fire.”
Randy looked at Josh. “Okay, I didn’t do it. He’s just making it up.” He turned back to his dad. “Happy now?”
Stevens caught his son’s chin and held it immobile. “Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t set that barn on fire.”
Hot color rushed into Randy’s face. At nineteen, he was plenty old enough to know right from wrong.
“Did you set that barn on fire?” his father pressed.
Randy’s mouth thinned and his narrow face went iron hard. He jerked away. “He had it coming! He had no call to fire me!”
“Good God!” Jim Stevens looked appalled. “This is what comes from your mother’s refusal to discipline you. I let her raise you and look how you turned out! I should have paddled your ass years ago instead of letting your mother spoil you rotten. Now get in the house!” He shoved the kid inside and slammed the door behind him.
Stevens shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
“You’re not going to be able to ignore this, Jim. If you do and it happens again, someone might get killed.”
Stevens blew out a shaky breath. “I won’t ignore it. I promise you. I’ll figure a way to make it right.”
“You can’t make this right for your son. That won’t solve anything. Randy has to make it right for himself.”
Stevens ran the back of his hand over his mouth. “You’re right. I’ll call Emmett Howler, turn the boy in myself. My wife will go ballistic, but maybe if I’d stepped in sooner, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Josh just nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” Stevens said.
Turning, Josh walked back to his truck, got in, and fired the engine. Making a U-turn, he headed back the way he had come. It was five o’clock somewhere and he really needed a drink.
He checked his watch. Hell, it was five-thirty right now in Iron Springs. Pulling onto the highway, he headed for Jubal’s Roadhouse. After his run-in with the kid, it was way worse than a Lone Star night. He needed a shot of Jack Daniel’s.
The good news was, Damon Bridger hadn’t set the fire. At least for now, Tory and Ivy were safe.
He hit the hands-free button and pushed the number for the landline he used for business. He’d been putting off hiring someone to design an Iron River Ranch webpage and set up the ranch’s bookkeeping and tax records, but he’d need to do it soon.
The phone rang a couple of times before Tory picked up, which reminded him to buy her one of those throwaway phones to use when she was in the trailer. He didn’t like her being over there with no way to communicate.
“Tory, it’s Josh,” he said.
“Hey, Josh.”
Just hearing her voice made his groin tighten. He couldn’t believe it. “You don’t have to worry about Bridger. Randy Stevens set the fire.”
“Oh, God, that’s the teenage boy you hired?”
“Randy’s nineteen. Grown up enough to know the difference between right and wrong.”
“Did the sheriff arrest him?”
“Not yet, but odds are he will. His father’s taking care of it. I trust him to handle it.”
“At least it wasn’t Damon. I can’t tell you what a relief that is.”
“Yeah. Listen, I’ve got to go. You and Ivy have a good night.”
“You too,” she said softly.
He was hard by the time he hung up. It made no sense. She wasn’t even his type. He liked big, buxom women, the kind who could handle what a man his size had to give. Not some petite little female half afraid of men. For him sex was a stress reliever. He didn’t want to have to hold back, worry about hurting the lady in his bed.
He stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of items and buy that phone, then headed for Jubal’s, even more in need of a drink after talking to Tory. When his phone rang, he hit the hands-free. “Josh Cain.”
“Josh, it’s Noble Blanchard.” The guy he’d bought the ranch from. “I got your call about the stallion.”
“What can you tell me about him?”
“I bought that horse as part of a package deal, just the way I sold him to you. The previous owner was a fella named Porter Sturgis. Sturgis is kind of an a-hole, if you don’t mind my saying. Treats his stock really poorly.”
“Makes him worse than an a-hole in my book.”
“Sturgis had the stallion for a while, but the horse was raised from a colt by a woman named Amanda Bonner. When she was killed in a boating accident, the horse was sold to Porter.”
“You think Porter’s mistreatment was what made the stallion so crazy?”
“I hate to spread gossip, but yes, that’s what I think.”
“I appreciate the help, Noble.” And it might just be the answer to the question he’d wanted answered.
Why did the stallion respond to Tory and no one else?
After talking to Noble, Josh believed the obvious might be correct. The horse trusted her because she was a woman.
He ended the call as he pulled into the parking lot of Jubal’s, a false-fronted wood-framed building at the edge of town that looked like something out of the Wild West. Even had a board walkway out front.