Chapter 13
Nerves danced over the surface of her skin as Colette walked toward the stable doors, clutching the computer. Was her mind playing tricks on her?
Had she truly seen a ranch hand or someone leaving Marshall’s office?
Yes.
There was no denying it.
As she walked through the stables, she noticed a rise in the movements of the horses, nervous whinnies, and shuffling. Her heart raced, anxious to put space between herself and the animals. What the hell was going on? Were the horses upset?
They must be picking up on her emotions.
That was impressive.
Her ears picked up on frantic barking from Hank outside. Hadn’t Marshall told her how quiet he was? Strange. Not brave enough to investigate, she decided to let whatever was going on with Hank be solved by the ranch hands, if any of them had stayed behind. She was done with this day already.
Emerging into the warmth of the sunny spring day, Colette sighed heavily as the barks became louder. The dog sounded beyond upset, and even though she did not want to get involved, she followed the sound.
What if someone was hurt?
Her footsteps covered the distance quickly as she walked around the enormous stables to the barn.
Colette shook her head as she took in what was happening.
The large, heavy iron gate was open.
Fuck. Her worst nightmare had come to life.
Cows were eating fresh grass along the newly opened entrance, a mass of the huge brown creatures making their way out of the enclosure.
And Hank was fucking corralling them.
The useless farm dog was herding the large animals to prevent them from escaping further.
All Colette could do was blink in disbelief. She swore under her breath, eyes darting around to see if someone else was coming. Please let someone be coming.
No.
With a groan, Colette placed the laptop on an abandoned tractor tire and ran toward Hank, her mind racing with how to fix this situation. This went way beyond her capacities as an accountant.
She was out of her fucking depth.
Her heart raced and her body shook with tremors as she tried to think, not panic.
The animals raised their heads curiously before going back to calmly chewing and grazing.
Should she call them? No. That would only bring more to the opening.
She was aware that Marshall or the ranch hands called them for mealtime, but she had no idea what words they used to gather them.
How did one make these massive animals do anything?
They seemed frightened enough of Hank; maybe she could gently encourage them to move back into the pasture and lock them in.
Somehow. She had seen the other cowboys riding alongside the herd, and the animals seemed to move along instinctually.
Opening her arms wide, she started shouting, “Let’s go, ladies,” and moving toward them. At first, they kept their heads down, ignoring her in favor of the grass.
Fine.
She could just stay here all day and wait until someone more experienced came along, right? Colette growled, causing a cow to lift her head.
“Come on, ladies,” she said again, waving at them to move in the direction opposite her. After a few complaints from the herd, Colette could see a shift, a slight movement. The animals were trained to move, and thankfully, they began to listen as a group.
“Let’s go. Move it,” she shouted, trying to make herself sound authoritative.
Slowly, the herd moved back inside the pen, eyeing her as they moved, while Colette kept shouting and waving for them to move. Never mind that she was scared out of her wits and forget that these immense animals could kill her if they charged. She was fucking doing it.
Later, she would take time to wonder how and what had propelled her to be so brave, but for now, thinking was a hindrance.
“Let’s go, ladies, almost there,” she shouted, while Hank supervised. The dog was satisfied after having sounded the alarm bells and surrendered the responsibility of containing the cows to Colette.
After much grunting and some definite begging, Colette was able to capture the two gates and pull them together to close. Did she have a key for the lock?
Absolutely not.
Did that matter? Nope.
As she eyed the chain that wrapped around the gates to keep them secure, she noticed something concerning.
It looked like the lock had been cut, making the chain useless.
Why would anyone do that?
Even if she managed to open the lock for this gate, she wouldn’t be able to close it, because the thick, rusted metal chain was compromised.
Great, she had gotten the cattle contained, but now had to contend with her arms being the only thing keeping the gates closed. She threw a desperate glance at Hank, hoping for some support, but the exhausted dog was already stretched out and nodding off in the grass.
“Thanks for the confidence,” Colette said.
The cows were docile and sweet, making their way back deeper into the pasture and putting less pressure on the gate, for which Colette was grateful. She searched desperately for something to use to secure the double gates and keep them closed.
A rope or another chain, maybe?
Seeing nothing, she despaired of having to stand here all day.
Leaning against the gate with her butt, she pulled out her phone, calling Marshall.
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t answer.
Again, she needed to meet the ranch hands and have more people to contact in a crisis. This was ridiculous.
She texted him another message and turned back to her problem.
Tucking her phone into her pocket, her hand grazed against her belt. Her thick leather belt. An idea lit up her brain. Though she wouldn’t tell him, she was so happy she had listened to Marshall and worn jeans that day.
It wasn’t a great solution for the long term, but it was the best one she had right now.
Undoing her belt buckle, she tugged on the belt, pulling it out of her pant loops.
Thankfully, there wasn’t a huge gap between the two parts of the gate, and she was able to twine the leather strip around both sides of the gate. Sliding the tongue of the belt into the buckle, she secured it around both doors, tying it as tight as she could.
There.
The situation was once again under control. Now she just had to sit here and wait until someone came to fix the gate. Settling into the grass next to Hank, she passed her hand over his back, and his tail lifted slightly in appreciation.
“Nice work, buddy,” she said, kissing the top of his messy head.
Releasing a heavy breath, Colette shook her head, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Something suspicious was going on. Her instincts hadn’t been wrong, despite all Marshall’s reassurances.
First, someone was rooting around in Marshall’s office.
A few minutes later, the gate holding in this herd of cattle had been tampered with. She was no expert, but the lock looked like it had been cut.
Separately, these events could be brushed off.
Together, they added up to someone trying to sabotage Rosebud Ranch.
Colette just had to figure out why they were doing this.
And how far they would go to harm the King family.