Reining in Trouble

by Tyler Anne Snell

  He’d always been an early riser—one of the perks of being raised on a ranch—and was glad to see it hadn’t failed him despite his active night. It was six-thirty. Plenty of time to get ready, eat and head out to the hospital. He slipped out of bed, felt the chill of the air conditioner against his naked body and strode off to the bathroom. When he came out, dressed, Nina was awake and sitting up in bed.

  She smiled a little uncertainly. The sheets were up around her chest. There was a blush on her cheeks.

  “Good mornin’,” he drawled in his most Southern accent. Over the last week he’d noticed how Nina would smile when his Southern twang slipped out.

  “Good morning,” she repeated, her smile growing. She motioned to the bed. “Sorry if I was a bed hog.”

  Caleb went over and kissed her full on the lips.

  “I have no complaints here,” he assured her.

  Nina nodded.

  “Good,” she said. Her expression went from open and sweet to determined. She eyed his phone. “So, what’s going on? Are you going to go see Daniel Covington?”

  “I am, but not until after breakfast.” He patted his stomach dramatically. “I seem to have worked up an appetite after last night.”

  Instead of falling back into her quiet, slightly detached ways, Nina surprised him. She laughed and sent him a wink.

  “Now that’s a workout I can get used to.”

  A deep-chested chuckle escaped Caleb before he gave her one more kiss and then got to work. He excused himself and called Declan to update him about Daniel Covington before calling Jazz. She sounded much less enthused.

  “I hope he can tell us who the heck attacked him because I haven’t been able to track down anyone who can,” she said, irritated.

  “I want to know who else had an interest in Nina,” he said. They had already talked about the possibility of Daniel knowing the person who had cut the power at the barn. The picture he had taken of Nina and sent in the email was framed differently than the ones left across the barn floors, but that was too much of a coincidence to pass off as unrelated. “I bet my bottom dollar he knows who that sonofabitch is.”

  Jazz agreed with an added huff.

  “We need a win somewhere,” he said. “Between this and the fires I think some people around here are losing morale. Roberto was even talking about heading to his parents’ place until all of this chaos was controlled. His words, not mine.”

  Caleb didn’t blame Roberto for what he’d said, though it grated that someone from the ranch would consider leaving it because they felt unsafe.

  They ended the call by agreeing to meet up after he went to check on Daniel. Then Caleb turned his attention to Nina. She had dressed in an open flannel shirt with a black skinny-strapped thing beneath it and pair of jeans that acutely reminded him of how long and smooth her legs were, despite her petite frame. She even had on a pair of boots that went over her jeans at the ankle. Her freshly washed hair was pulled back in a wet braid.

  “If you don’t look like a bona fide cowgirl,” he said, admiring her. “All you need is the hat and you’re cooking with gas.”

  She laughed.

  “Never thought I’d be called that, but I’m not going to lie, I’m not against it.” She sidled up to him and that concern came back. Caleb had never met a woman who went from lighthearted to down-to-business so quickly. He wondered if his changes between the two were just as abrupt. “I don’t think I should go with you to the hospital,” she said, sure in her words. “Not that you asked me to go or anything, it’s just that I wanted you to know that I prefer not to.”

  Caleb had been on the fence about inviting her along. He was glad she’d brought it up first.

  “I don’t want to see Daniel in bad shape any more than I want to see him in good shape,” she continued. “I think my emotions might get the better of me. I might say something I’d regret later.”

  Caleb nodded. He’d been there before as a rookie. There were some instances where it had been a struggle for him to keep his cool talking to men and women who had done things he definitely hadn’t approved of.

  “Do you mind hanging out at the main house while I’m gone? Mom offered to make breakfast for us last night before we left the barn.” He gave her a soft smile. “She’s worried about us worrying. Plus, I’d also worry less with you not being alone.”

  There was a softness to his words. A touching concern that Nina appreciated.

  “That sounds wonderful.”

  They made their way five minutes up the road to the main house. Declan’s truck was in the driveway. When they went inside he was asleep on the couch. Caleb’s mom descended the stairs with her index finger pressed against her lips. She waved them to follow her out to the back porch. Caleb should have been surprised that there were covered plates of eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy but he wasn’t.

  When Dorothy Nash was trying to keep her own stress levels low, she cooked. It was therapeutic for her. It threatened the rest of their waistlines.

  “Your brother was up until dawn,” she said once the back door was closed behind them. She motioned to the benches on either side of the table. “That man will avoid sleep at any and all costs if I don’t holler at him about it.”

  Nina took the spot next to his mother and the three of them immediately went to eating. To his mother’s credit she didn’t talk about what had happened at the barn and instead kept talking about the Retreat. It seemed to be exactly what Nina needed. Work talk energized her, and before long the two of them had commandeered a notebook where they wrote out their ideas for future events for the ranch. The decision to open on schedule or postpone wouldn’t be made until the next day. Neither woman let that worry them. Caleb believed that to be in partial thanks to his mother. She let Nina know right then and there that, even if they delayed opening, Nina’s job was still secure. That, plus his mother refused to let someone take away her dream of the Retreat without fighting for it. So, until she said otherwise, they would continue to plan for every eventuality they could think of, which included events from the grand opening party to months away. One in particular caught Caleb’s fancy.

  “A good old-fashioned dance out under the stars,” he repeated. “We could invite the town to that. You know Jazz’s husband, Brando, is in that band. I heard them at the bar once and they were pretty great. I’m sure they’d loved to play it.” He smiled at Nina. “Though I suppose I might need to figure out that dancing thing beforehand.”

  Nina returned his grin.

  “I think you managed just fine before.”

  His mother looked between them. Then she was beaming. Caleb was sure the next time they were in private their main topic at hand would be the dark-eyed beauty from Florida.

  Caleb had to say goodbye once his food was finished. Both women adopted looks of concern but neither voiced them, which he appreciated. He already felt guilty about leaving them, but he had to do his job. Despite his mother’s objections he woke Declan up on his way out and made sure he’d keep an eye on both women. Declan promised and then Caleb was in his truck, staring at the house in the rearview.

  He couldn’t help but wish he’d grabbed a kiss for the road.

  * * *

  THE HOSPITAL WAS QUIET. Caleb met his friend Katie in the hallway outside of Daniel Covington’s room. She got right down to business.

  “That kid is a freaking miracle.” She greeted him, pulling a peppermint from her scrubs pocket. She worked third shift and would be leaving soon. Caleb had grown up around Katie due to her close friendship with Madi. She had occasionally helped the sheriff’s department, namely him and Declan, with her expertise and connections to the hospital and her colleagues’ insights. “He shouldn’t even be awake, let alone able to talk.” She shrugged with a sigh. “But, you know, youth and all of that. If that had been me I think my body would have already called for the check.”
<
br />   “So I can talk to him now?”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll warn you, though. He’s still medicated. He might be able to form words but I don’t know how much of those words you should trust.” Caleb thanked her and started for the door. She held out her hand to stop him. “I have to ask, does he need a lawyer here? I mean, I love you Nashes, but I’ve got two kids at home who need their mama to not get sued if this all goes sideways.”

  Caleb smirked. Katie had always been clever. Even when they were kids she’d been fierce.

  “He was the victim this time. I’m just here to see if I can figure out who did that to him and see if he has any connections to another case I’m currently pursuing.”

  Katie smiled and waved him past.

  Daniel’s room was small but private. The rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor indicated the young man lying on the bed, propped up and looking like hell, wasn’t out of the woods yet. Caleb was glad Nina wasn’t here to see him. With or without a connection with the kid, it was hard to see at how bad off he looked.

  “Hey, Daniel,” Caleb greeted the boy, catching his eye. He moved slowly to the other side of the bed and pulled up one of the two chairs next to the window. “Do you remember me?”

  It took a few seconds but then there was a small nod.

  “Good. Well, I’m here to ask you a few questions,” Caleb continued, using a soothing voice he adopted for sensitive situations. “I was wondering if you remember who did this to you. Who attacked you yesterday morning?”

  Daniel’s eyes widened but no sound came out. Instead, he looked around the room, moving his head slowly to gauge it in its entirety.

  “Can you talk, Daniel? Do you understand me?”

  He moved his head back. His gaze slid slowly up to Caleb’s. He opened his mouth a few times before any words formed.

  “You alone?”

  Caleb leaned forward.

  “Am I alone? Yes, I am. I wanted to talk to you as soon as possible so I could figure out who did this to you.”

  Daniel seemed okay with this answer. He licked his lips and blinked slowly before speaking again.

  “—paid me but—but I didn’t know...”

  Caleb tried to keep his mounting frustration tamped down. Katie was right. It was a miracle Daniel had even survived, let alone could talk.

  “Someone paid you,” he tried instead. “Who paid you? And to do what? Get beaten up?”

  Daniel inhaled loudly and let it out with a wince. Caleb wasn’t the only one frustrated by the situation.

  “He said—it—was for camping.” Daniel paused, confusion changing his expression before he seemingly regained his train of thought. His brows pulled in together, disapproval cascading over his bruised and scabbed face. “...didn’t believe him. Then she called—and—” Daniel’s hand made the smallest of waves.

  “Then you were attacked,” Caleb guessed.

  A small, barely there nod confirmed it.

  Caleb took a steadying breath. He didn’t want to push the boy but he wanted answers. Needed them.

  “Daniel, who attacked you?” Daniel’s eyelids were drooping. “Daniel? Who attacked you?”

  Caleb believed Daniel was really trying to be cooperative but the miracle man was already low on steam and losing it fast. Only one answer came out of his lips before he slipped back to sleep, pulled under by exhaustion and pain medication, but Caleb still heard it clear as day.

  “Kerosene.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The sky looked like it had been flipped upside down. One moment it was sunny and blue, the next it was as dark and menacing as the bruises across Daniel’s body. The darkness cast ominous shadows inside of the sheriff’s department. They reached out and made the whiteboard set up between his and Jazz’s desks even more daunting.

  “Daniel, the fires and the incident at the barn,” Jazz said, reading out the three headlines along the three timelines they’d reconstructed. She tapped the spot beneath Daniel’s line. “He said he was paid to do something and all we know that he’s done is take the picture of Nina at the stream and then send it from Claire’s. He also dramatically said ‘kerosene.’ And then you were kicked out before he could corroborate anything at all.”

  Caleb nodded.

  “It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d stayed. That boy is going to be out for a while. Katie was right. It was a miracle he was able to say what he did. She said her husband would give one of us a call if anything changed. He’s working day shift on the same floor as a nurse.”

  Jazz shrugged, attention back on the whiteboard. She moved to perch next to him on the edge of the desk facing it. “So, what’s your gut telling you, cowboy? Because mine is saying we’re missing something.”

  Caleb was quiet a moment. He’d already gone over what they knew three times since they’d started. It made him angry every time he spoke of the parts that included Nina, knowing how scared and violated they had made her feel. He rubbed his chin and started back at the beginning.

  “Daniel took the picture and sent the email. No denying that. But there’s no way he was at the barn. Honestly, my gut is saying he had nothing to do with it. The pictures at the barn were all similar. Nina’s face was always visible and she was smiling. The one Daniel took was of her back. He also left a message about everyone thinking she was a good girl.” Caleb’s jaw clenched in fresh anger. He pushed past it. “There was no message at the barn.”

  “But they tried to grab her at the barn,” Jazz pointed out.

  “Daniel could have easily grabbed her from Connor’s Trail. Either before I showed up or after she left the stream. If the goal was to get Nina, then he had the perfect opportunity.”

  “And Daniel wasn’t at the barn,” she said.

  “No. He wasn’t. But if he was working with the person who was, they’re not on the same page about what they want.”

  “Which seems to be Nina.”

  “Which seems to be Nina,” he repeated.

  “Okay, so Daniel is paid by—who? Nina’s stalker? Statistically stalkers are loners. Not to mention, what’s the point of using Daniel at all to send the email? Especially if they’re going to do something as daring as what happened at the barn while Daniel had one heck of an alibi.”

  “It makes no sense,” he agreed.

  “And we’re not even touching on the fires yet.”

  A thought occurred to Caleb, stirred by a memory. Then it was like the flood gates had opened.

  “Daniel was a distraction.” As soon as he heard it out loud, Caleb believed it to be true. He went to the whiteboard and touched Daniel’s name. “He’s paid to take Nina’s picture and send her the email. We arrest him and suddenly he has a lawyer who gets him out.” He touched the note about Daniel being attacked. “But then he has a change of heart because he’s told something he didn’t know and investigates. He finds—” Caleb touched the one word that he’d have preferred to be the name of whoever was behind the barn incident. “Kerosene. He said it was for camping.”

  Adrenaline shot through Caleb at the rush of seeing something he’d missed. He jabbed the spots on the whiteboard beneath the Gentry’s house fire and the one at Overlook Pass.

  “Kerosene was used as an accelerant at both. Did you hear what the fire chief said about kerosene?”

  Jazz nodded, standing. The look of excitement he recognized from leads panning out crossed her expression.

  “Yeah, that it’s not a popular tool for arson because of the smell and how careful you have to be to use it. There are much easier and less deadly ways to start a fire.”

  “But what if there’s a reason you use kerosene?”

  He picked up the dry erase marker and wrote down Angelica DeMarko at the beginning of the timeline for the fires.

  “This is the only fire to not be related somehow to a front-pag
e story in the paper that ran a week before it took place. This fire spread so quickly because it hit camping supplies, namely kerosene.”

  He tossed the marker to Jazz, who caught it, and then went to his computer. He started a search, emboldened by a potential connection.

  “So, what? You’re thinking Angelica is our arsonist? Kerosene was only at two of the four other fires,” Jazz pointed out. “Not to mention yours was started by fireworks. Once arsonists find their grooves, pathologically they usually have to stick to that method, like a serial killer might. Breaking that pattern would be nearly impossible for them. And how does that tie in with Daniel?”

  Caleb didn’t respond. Not yet. He was working through a hunch, one that he knew was a long shot. A hefty, long-wing-spanned stretch.

  Then he found what he was looking for and felt another wave of excitement.

  “I don’t think Angelica had anything to do with the fires. She hasn’t been back since she left town for a better job out of state.” Caleb looked at Jazz. “But her son, Jay, was cited for drunk and disorderly in town a month before the Gentry’s house fire.”

  “That’s a stretch, Caleb,” she warned.

  “Oh, I know,” he said, breezing past it. “But what if, after Jay watched his house burn, he realized he liked it? It triggered something in him.”

  Jazz continued to look skeptical. She opened her mouth to argue but then closed it fast. Her eyes widened.

  “Caleb, he was the grill cook.”

  “What?”

  This time she went to her computer and did a search. Caleb hurried around his desk to look at her screen. She pulled up a picture of the newspaper article about the fire at the restaurant that he’d taken at the library. She pointed to one of the last paragraphs. It was a quote.