Unbroken: Country Fever, Book 3 (32 page)

“Fuck—my horses.” The choked way Tucker ground this out sent Christian running. He hurled himself into the dim recesses of the barn. Tucker followed, and they started wildly opening stall doors and slapping thousand-pound animals to get them to run out.

Fire licked up the rear wall, very close to the place where Tucker’s favorite riding horse was kept. “I’ll get Rapid Fire,” Christian called, running.

Something whizzed past his ear. Every hair on his body stood up, but it took a moment for him to register what had happened.

Until a second shot was fired.

He jerked around to see Dale through the open rear door of the bar, a rifle at his shoulder and sights trained on Christian.

“Tucker, get down. Get out,” he roared and hurtled on toward the stalls to free the rest of the horses.

“He’s got a gun.” Tucker’s statement was really a question. Christian could only imagine the shock Tucker was feeling that his own family member would resort to this over money.

One misplaced bullet…

Claire.
He frantically looked around but thankfully didn’t see her. With any luck, she would remain in the house like a good girl, but it was as unlikely as talking Dale down from this skyscraper he’d built.

“Jesus, boy, what are you thinkin’?” Tucker raged. He gave Christian a fleeting look and a jerk of his head to remain out of the line of fire. Then he spun and sprinted out of the front doors.

Sneaking around the side, Christian guessed. Tucker wasn’t armed though. Did he plan to disarm his cousin with nothing more than a pocketknife?

The fire was spreading. About ten more horses were trapped behind a wall of flame. The old wood went up like a dry Christmas tree.

Smoke choked him, and he coughed violently, leaning over at the waist. Another shot whizzed through the barn, from back to front. If someone walked by that door…

“Jesus, Claire. Please don’t come out of the house.” He fumbled for his phone, thinking to text her, but it was too late. Her high-pitched shriek resounded from just outside the barn.

“Get in the house,” Tucker roared from somewhere near the back. The bellow gave up Tucker’s position and intention of sneaking around and stopping Dale.

The horses pawed at the stalls and reared, their massive bodies making the wood tremble.

I’ve gotta try.

Christian looked for a path to the horses through the flames. Claire appeared in the wide double doors at the front of the barn, her face wild with terror.

“Get out,” Christian called, his throat a burning hell from the smoke. She shook her head and came forward.

Another shot rang out, this time from the front of the barn.

Claire whirled, a hand to her mouth. Then suddenly Letty appeared in the entrance too, a rifle in hand.

“Shot me a trespasser. Claire, go call 911 while we get these horses out.” The older woman started into the barn, but Claire bodily removed her.

With them safe and Dale obviously injured or dead, Christian threw himself into the water trough. Water filled his nostrils and every crevice of his jeans and shirt. He threw off his hat with a shake of his head and made sure his hair was saturated. Then he jumped back out of the trough and ran through the flames.

Panic seized Claire’s chest. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, think, feel, register anything she was seeing. Letty standing with her rifle like a geriatric gunslinger. Dale crumpled on the ground, bleeding from the upper thigh. The barn on fire and Christian inside, trying to save the remaining horses.

Crazed horses, running wild across the muddy turf to escape the smoke and fire. And alpacas roosting like chickens in every corner of the ranch yard.

Boom Boom was still in the trailer, safe and sound.

But a few important people were unaccounted for. Darcy, Leon…and Tucker.

“Call 911, Letty,” she cried as she ran past her aunt. She shoved her phone at her, knowing there was no hope for that barn. By the time the fire crews showed up, the structure would be ash.

Claire took off in a run around the barn, searching for Tucker. He should have shown his face at the sound of Letty’s gunshot, but he hadn’t, and that meant something bad.

With water in her veins and jelly knees, Claire searched through the rain for one of the men she loved.

At that moment, she caught a flash of a horse and rider in the far corner, on the other side of the corral. The dark hat and solid form were unmistakable.

Tucker and the horse jumped the fence and headed down the driveway as if the hounds of hell chased them.

Running again? Her heart lurched.

No, leaving them to deal with a harvest or a horse injury was one thing, but abandoning her and Christian at a time like this was unthinkable.

If Tucker was running, he must be chasing. And that someone must be his uncle.

With them accounted for, she ran for the barn. The entire back wall was gone, eaten by a monster of flames. Fear made her sway on her feet. She reached out to grab something but found nothing solid.

Her whole world was a movie scene. Where was the diner, her comfortable house, hell, even her neglectful father?

She was left with fire, blood, terror and tears.

But she had the people she loved more than life.

Drawing a huge gulp of smoke-tinged air, she threw herself into the barn. The roar deafened her, but through it she felt the horses’ screams. They pulsed in the atmosphere, as tangible to her as the heat.

Her curls waved wildly around her head in the air currents.

“Christian!” she tried to yell, but she couldn’t breathe.

Suddenly, a sleek body shoved her backward—a horse on its way to freedom. She lost her footing and rolled out into the rain.

Three horses, four, all ran past her. She curled onto her side to avoid getting trampled. Then a big hand clamped around her shoulder, and she was hauled up. Not to her feet, but being dragged.

She fought to get her bearings in this insanity. She was jerked against a soaking form and yanked across the yard, like a fresh kill. And the tiger doing the dragging was Christian.

Wet, blackened with soot, but alive and the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.

He collapsed beside her on the ground and rolled on top of her, grinding her into the mud while alpacas and horses moved around them.

A harsh sob vibrated her chest, and it didn’t come from her. The sound mechanized her. She locked her arms around him and pulled his head to hers, raining kisses over his dirty cheeks.

“Thank God you’re okay…”

“Crazy woman…”

“You’re shaking.”

“You’re mine.” Christian crushed his lips to hers in a kiss that would have scared her with its intensity if she hadn’t already half-peed her pants.

Before she could get accustomed to his weight or the gravity of the situation, he was on his feet again. He picked her up and set her on her boots too.

“Letty? Tucker?”

“She’s okay.” Tucker? He was still a variable. If he was chasing down Leon, it was possible they’d be in love with a murderer.

Christian gave a hard nod. “Where is he?”

“Took off down the drive.”

“North toward Leon’s?”

“Probably.” Her teeth clacked as her nerves finally connected to her brain and the shakes began in earnest.

Christian tugged her off her feet and into his arms and ran with her to the front of the house, where Letty still stood sentry over a writhing Dale.

Unceremoniously, Christian dumped Claire on the porch steps and stormed into the house. A moment later he came out with a blanket, which he wrapped around her shoulders.

“Letty, you and that Wincester are in charge. I’m going after Tucker.”

Her aunt’s fierce expression softened when she looked to Christian. “Go on with ya. I’ve got it covered. Police and fire department on the way.”

Christian sent Claire a long look.
Don’t move from that spot or you will get the coarse ropes again,
it said. “As long as the stars burn,” he said.

She shooed him with her hand, and the blanket flapped. “Go. Hurry.”

He ran to his truck and vaulted behind the wheel. All rugged man and determination.

All cowboy.

Tucker didn’t even know if they were alive. Claire was probably running into danger, and Christian in that inferno…

He swallowed hard. Plastering himself to the horse’s neck, he gave it several sharp kicks in the sides to get her up to speed. This is what his horses were bred for—beauty and grace as well as speed. Rodeo horses, smart horses that were good at taking commands. Well, today Tucker needed his hard work to pay off.

The animal surged forward, eating up the ground between his ranch and his uncle’s. That bastard Dale lay in the yard, bleeding, shot by an old lady with more common sense and skill than most men.

His mind cycled back to Claire and Christian. Then launched right on to Heather. If he lost them as he’d lost her, he couldn’t function. He’d ride this horse until they both died from exhaustion or starvation. He just couldn’t go on without both of the people he loved.

He was running on the highest octane of adrenaline, his instinct to end this whole thing once and for all consuming his every thought and guiding his decisions.

Leon had to be at home, and Tucker was damn well putting a stop to this insanity. Money and greed had started a modern-day gunfight. Being pinned down in his own yard by gunfire was something he couldn’t have ever dreamed up. Maybe Dale’s actions hadn’t been egged on by Leon, but his uncle had fed his son’s hate.

He veered off the driveway and sent the horse sailing through the fields. Dips and swells, the roll of the beast’s body beneath his and the sting of rain against his face grounded him.

By the time he reached the enormous, sprawling ranch house, his heart had blackened a lot more for his family.

He leaped from the horse mid-stride and gave a sharp whistle to bring the animal to a halt. Then he thundered up the front veranda, over hand-laid flagstones and past the prim landscaping. No sagging of these porch steps.

He burst through the front door, calling for Leon. His voice bounced off the perfect stucco walls and the high ceilings fashioned with chandeliers that cost more than some people’s cars in these parts.

“Leon! Show your yellow face to me.”

Leon stepped out of a door into a marble-floored hall. “Son of a bitch, you dare to come into my house and make demands?”

Tucker faced his uncle, his breathing labored as he fought to restrain himself. Damn, if they could only have settled this with pistols at dawn as he’d thought long ago. “Your son’s been shot.”

Shock overtook Leon’s craggy features, and Tucker almost felt sorry for him. “Shot? Who in the hell? Where?” In three strides, he stood in front of Tucker, fist cocked.

“Go on and throw that punch. We’ll see whose lifestyle made him stronger.” Leon pushed a pencil and counted his funds, while Tucker worked his ass off for his ranch.

Leon dropped his hand. It swung at his side as if lifeless. “Tell me my boy’s okay.”

“Ah, so there is a heart in there after all.” Tucker hitched a thumb in the pocket of his jeans. “Good to hear that one family member earns your concern.”

“Tell me, goddammit. He’s at your ranch? In the hospital? Where?”

“Dale was at my place. Set my animals free in the yard, but left the horses locked in the barn while he set fire to it.”

A sharp intake of breath. “No.”

“Seems he’s been hurting my horses too. But you knew about that. Didn’t you visit the ranch on four-wheelers with shovels on the back?”

Leon’s gaze slid away.

“Dale had a shotgun too. He fired a few shots at me and the people I love.”

His uncle’s face flipped between stunned disbelief and a sneer of derision. “So you
are
with that man and woman on your ranch.”

Tucker gave a hard nod. “Yeah, and I’d like to see the man who challenges me on that. I lost a good woman and was rewarded with a good man and another wonderful woman. Now listen, Uncle Leon…” he emphasized the words, “…call this off. I’m not signing those papers, now or ever. And—”

He was cut off by a pounding noise. Leon shoved past him and went to the front door. He yanked the heavy slab open, and Tucker took a step back.

There stood Christian, looking between them.

“Ambulance on its way. Might wanna head up to the ranch,” he said to Leon.

Leon took off for his vehicle. Tucker slapped the horse’s rump, and with a sharp word, sent it running for home. Then he followed Christian to his truck. They rode in loaded silence all the way back to the ranch. The scene before Tucker unhinged him.

Fire trucks, squad cars. Two ambulances. And Letty and Claire in the middle of it all.

While Leon spoke with his son on the stretcher and the medical personnel, Tucker and Christian went directly to the women. They huddled together, talking quietly. When Claire looked up, relief washed over her beautiful features.