A Real Cowboy. Carla Cassidy

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       Chapter 4

      Lucas jumped off his bed at the sound of the big dinner bell ringing through the night, adrenaline instantly exploding inside him. He pulled on his jeans and grabbed his holster and quickly buckled it, the weight of his gun familiar on his hip as he opened his bunk door.

      Other men were coming outside, as well. “What’s going on?” Dusty asked.

      “Maybe one of them wants one of us to make a cappuccino run,” somebody else replied.

      Lucas didn’t pay attention to anyone. He ran, his heart racing, vaguely aware of the sound of running feet behind him. He knew something was wrong...somebody was in trouble. Otherwise that bell would have never been rung.

      All he could think about was that the house held two defenseless women and one young boy and something bad had happened or was happening.

      The distance between the bunkhouse and the main house had never seemed so far. When he was halfway there the bell stopped ringing, the sudden silence creating even more anxiety in his chest.

      He didn’t bother with the back door, but rather ran around the house to the front where the big bell hung. His gun was in his hand as he reached the front door.

      Cassie opened it for him. “Thank God,” she exclaimed. He released a deep sigh of relief when he saw Sammy in his mother’s arms on the sofa.

      Adam came in just behind him, along with most of the other dozen cowboys, all of them armed and ready to protect their own.

      “There was a man,” Nicolette said, her voice trembling with fear and her eyes simmering a deep green. “He...he was at Sammy’s window.”

      A couple of the cowboys left the house, and Lucas knew they’d be checking it out and scouting around the area for anyone who didn’t belong.

      “The police are on their way, but I rang the bell after Nicolette screamed and grabbed Sammy out of bed. We knew you could get here quicker than law enforcement,” Cassie explained.

      Nicolette’s eyes were huge, as were Sammy’s, and a swift sense of protectiveness rose up inside him. What in the hell had somebody been doing looking into a second-floor window? There was nothing he wanted more than to find the person who had put such fear in Nicolette’s and Sammy’s eyes.

      Instead he holstered his gun and walked over to where they were cuddled together. “You both okay?”

      Nick Coleman came back in from outside. “There’s a ladder against the house. We didn’t touch anything, but it’s definitely not one of ours.”

      “Spread out all the men and see if you can find who was on that ladder,” Adam said. “He can’t have gotten too far. Lucas and I will stay in here to wait for Chief Bowie and his men to arrive.”

      As if to punctuate his sentence, a siren became audible in the distance. Lucas remained next to the sofa, and despite the circumstances he couldn’t help but notice the evocative scent of Nicolette mingling with the minty soap scent of a freshly bathed little cowboy.

      Who would have been at the window? Was somebody trying to harm Sammy, or had his window just been an accidental choice for a break-in? And if it was a break-in attempt, why not come through the front or back door instead of trying to gain entry on the second level, where the culprit had to have known they would all be sleeping.

      Maybe the perp had seen lights on downstairs and had just assumed nobody would be in bed already. It still seemed a stretch to believe that somebody wanting to rob the place had decided to come and go from a ladder at a second-floor window. What did he intend to carry out?

      These thoughts created a tighter, more powerful knot in Lucas’s chest as he wondered what the real motive of the person might have been.

      He was glad to see Chief of Police Dillon Bowie walk through the door. Lucas and Dillon had become friends throughout the years, and there were few people Lucas trusted as much as he did the tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired keeper of the law in Bitterroot.

      Adam made the introductions and Dillon took Cassie’s hand in his. “I’ve been meaning to stop by to meet Cass’s niece before now. I’m sorry we have to meet under such circumstances. Now, tell me exactly what happened.”

      Lucas listened intently as Nicolette talked about going up to bed and peeking in on her son, only to see a person with a ski mask at the window.

      Two of Dillon’s men entered the room. Officer Juan Ramirez nodded to everyone and then looked at his boss. “There is a ladder against the house going up to the bedroom window. All the ranch hands say it isn’t one of their ladders.”

      “Print the whole thing, although I imagine since whoever it was had on a ski mask, he probably had on gloves, as well,” Dillon replied.

      He motioned СКАЧАТЬ