Chapter 2
Brax Firebrand muttered a curse. This was the second time he’d misplaced his wallet this week.
Don’t even get him started on his keys. He’d lost count.
It was a good thing he lived in the kind of town where keys were normally left inside his truck at all times and belonged to a family well known enough for folks to give him whatever he needed with a signature.
Several of his brothers and cousins had left Firebrand Ranch the minute they’d come of age. Not Brax. Being a Firebrand, living and working the land, was his life.
It did nothing to help with keeping track of his personal belongings though.
The barn was the last place he remembered having his wallet, and he hoped it was still there. Ranch hands could be real comedians when they wanted to be and he didn’t want to be on the wrong side of another prank.
Plus, there was a recent crime that had touched the family. Everyone was a little bit on edge since his brother Adam’s ex-girlfriend had been murdered, leaving him with an infant daughter he never knew existed.
The barn was as good a place as any to begin the search. Eyes to the floor, there was an open space when he first entered followed by a string of small offices to his left. A row of stables sat to his right. The tack room was around the stables and to the right.
There was a loft upstairs that…
A piece of hay drifting down like a feather caught his eye.
No one should be in the barn at this hour.
If someone was in the loft, Brax needed to give himself an advantage.
Anyone who knew him would have called out the minute the barn door opened, which meant the person who was up there didn’t want to be noticed.
He walked over to the light switch and dimmed the lights until he could barely see his hand in front of his face.
His wallet must have fallen out of his back pocket because he found it next to the stairs.
An eerie feeling settled over him after recent events. The murderer had been caught but a horrific crime in his own backyard wasn’t something he could erase from his thoughts so easily.
Brax moved to the metal staircase. He toed off his boots so he could slip up quietly in his socks, a trick he’d learned having eight brothers and nine cousins around, all boys no less.
They’d explored and memorized every inch of the barn and much of the land as well, especially anything close to the main house.
With the stealth of a lion closing in on its prey, Brax made progress toward his target. His eyes weren’t adjusted to the dark, but he didn’t have time to waste.
At some point, it occurred to him the prowler he was stalking might actually be a barn cat. Still, he was on edge and taking nothing for granted after recent events.
A noise to his right drew his attention. Something small had been tossed…an acorn?
He immediately spun left and grabbed the shadow beside him. Before it could register this person was much smaller than him and smelled a whole helluva lot better, he had her back against the wall and his hands pinning her there.
“It’s Raleigh,” the shaky voice said.
“Prove it.” He would have known if Raleigh was back in town. His brother had convinced him to go to Austin a time or two to hear her sing but there was no way she was back. She’d be news now that she was a big deal.
“I swear,” she said, and he recognized her voice this time. “Raleigh Perry,” she continued, irritation laced her voice. There was no fear in her tone now. She was all ire and attitude. “Now, let me go and I’ll prove it.”
He one-armed her to hold her in place, not completely convinced she was the real deal. He fished his cell out of his pocket and with a flick of his thumb, the flashlight app brightened the darkness. He shined it at her and she immediately squinted and turned her face away.
“What the heck, Brax?” she managed to say.
He let go of her and she issued a sharp sigh.
“You scared me to death. What’s wrong with you?” she said as her chest heaved.
“Well, I didn’t mean to but I wasn’t exactly expecting anyone to be hiding in the loft, and we’ve had trouble in town recently.
Let’s go downstairs and turn on the light so we can see each other when we talk.
” He led the way, unsure if she would follow.
The one thing he remembered about Raleigh was that she was headstrong.
He walked over to the switch and flipped the light on. She sat on the bottom step, twiddling a piece of hay in between her fingers.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to trespass,” she started but he waved her off, still in slight disbelief the famous singer was in the barn.
“Come on, it’s not a big deal,” he said. “You surprised me is all. Plus, I feel like the last time I saw you here, you were like,” he held his hand three feet off the floor, “this tall.”
Raleigh’s cheeks turned a few shades of red and he couldn’t help but notice that she had grown into a beautiful woman.
Although beautiful seemed too generic a term for her.
Her long red hair framed an oval face with the creamiest skin dotted with freckles.
She resembled a famous redheaded TV star who had a popular show, a show his mother was addicted to.
She’d have it on in the kitchen while cooking.
And then there was her body with those long runner’s legs of hers.
Don’t even get him started on her voice, which was smooth as silk.
She recovered when she said, “There was a bomb threat at my last concert. Turned out to be real.”
“That’s wild and scary as hell,” he said, realizing it must be the reason she was hiding in his family’s barn.
This had been a second home to her growing up.
She was four years younger than him. They’d gotten along about as well as a sister and brother could.
If those siblings fought over every little thing.
But there was nothing sisterly about the way she was making his heart batter his ribcage.
He chalked it up to being surprised. “They caught him, right?”
“Nope.” She cupped her face in her hands.
Then, she looked up and he had an unexpected reaction when their eyes met.
A jolt of electricity rocketed through him.
He had to remind himself this was little Raleigh.
Only his body pointed out the fact she’d grown up.
Suddenly the four years between them didn’t seem so shocking.
“Sounds like a mess,” he admitted.
“It is,” she said with more than a hint of fear and stress in her voice.
“I’m guessing the law is involved,” he said.
She nodded.
“They must have some idea who would do this. Leads?” He chalked his level of concern up to their shared history, and not the way she seemed to stir his heart.
“None so far. The threat was called in and, of course, we all thought it was a hoax. These things usually are,” she said like it was another day at the office.
“How often do you deal with threats?” He couldn’t wrap his mind around how awful that must be.
“It’s not too bad. Every once in a while you get a fan who’s a little too into me, but you just keep moving forward, you know?” She said the words like he would have an idea what it was like to be a singing sensation.
He threw his hands up and shrugged.
“I deal with poachers and the bad ones can be pretty dangerous. But I know what I’m dealing with and they’re on my turf,” he said. “I can’t imagine being on stage and looking out onto a crowd of strangers wondering who might have rigged a bomb underneath.”
“It’s not the best part about my job. Honestly, I can’t let it get inside my head or it would be game over. And there is so much I love about what I do,” she said. “Besides, as soon as the threat came through, we postponed my performances.”
“From what my mom says, you’ve made it. Bona fide country star.” His mother had been following Raleigh’s career ever since she left Lone Star Pass for Austin at eighteen.
Raleigh laughed and it was nice to see her smile. Her face lit up and a dozen campfires lit inside him at the sight.
“I wouldn’t say that exactly,” she quickly countered.
“Your fans say otherwise,” he said.
“I’m a Regional Wonder at best.” She laughed at her own joke and he couldn’t help but do the same. “Remind me not to tell you what that means later.”
“How long until its safe for you to get back on the road?” His mother would want to know all the details.
“We’ve canceled the next two weeks’ worth of shows, so we’ll see after that. This guy seems like the real deal. We have to give the feds time to track him down and arrest him. Get him off the streets,” she said. “He threatened me in particular.”
“Jerk,” he spit out. His protective instincts kicked into overdrive.
This was Raleigh. They’d practically grown up under the same roof.
It was natural for him to be enraged at the thought someone wanted to hurt her and not because he felt a pull of attraction toward her stronger than anything he’d ever experienced.
“My sentiments exactly.”
Raleigh had been caught off guard by Brax finding her. But it was good to see him despite the fact he’d annoyed her more than the others growing up, teasing her about her pigtails and freckles.
“Hey, I’m sorry to hear all this. You’ve worked hard for your success and some random jerk shouldn’t have the ability to take it away from you even for a few weeks.” Brax’s voice washed over her like Amaretto over vanilla ice cream.
She performed another mental headshake.
This was Brax Firebrand. The guy who’d teased and tormented her mercilessly growing up, when he bothered to notice her at all.
She crossed her legs and folded her arms. “You were a real brat when we were kids. You know that, right?”
He laughed.
“Yeah? So were you if memory serves. What did we use to call you?” He seemed to be searching his mind. “Oh, right the Red Streak.”
“I almost blocked that name completely from my thoughts,” she said with a chuckle. “But Red Devil seemed to be your personal favorite.”