And so far, they had been doing a damned good job of getting around him. Like the dead rabbit that he had lied about. What she hadn’t seen was the knife sticking out of its little chest. He had crushed it into the snow so she didn’t realize it was a message, not an act of nature.
Once he had his boots on, Ellie clung to him. "Please be careful."
He smoothed her hair from her face. "Listen to me. You've been through so much because of this idiot, and yet you're still the strongest chick that I know. Don't let him get to you. We'll figure it out, and he'll have to deal with me. This was made personal when he messed with the horses. He's lucky my brothers are in Wyoming, or we'd form a posse and hunt him down."
Ellie drew in a deep breath. "And I'd be on the posse. I'll be right here when you get back."
Her nervousness was almost palpable, and he had to drag himself away from her. First things first. He waited until he heard the latch slide into place before he stepped off the porch, and he was halfway across the cleaning to the barn when he remembered the trail cam. He hurried over to it and hit the playback button. Other than a little movement before the whoosh of flames, there wasn't much on it to go by. The person had obviously come up from the backside of the barn where it was blocked from the camera.
He left it on as he walked away and headed for the footprints. He talked quietly to the horses as he passed. "I'll be back to put you two up in a little bit. Enjoy the fresh air while you can."
Roscoe whinnied at him, and Diva just gave him the eye. The horses didn't mind the cold as long as they were doing something, but to just stand around, they preferred the warmth of the barn. The fact that they had almost been barbequed weighed heavily on Colton's mind.
The footsteps led down into a gully and up the other side and then through a pine thicket. When he cleared the pines, the tracks in the snow kept going, but he stopped. He was already a way from the cabin, and with no way of knowing how long the tracks went on, he didn't want to get too far from Ellie. It didn't appear that the tracks circled back around, and there was only one set heading away.
Colton retraced his steps and stopped to untie Diva and Roscoe. As he turned to lead them back into the barn, he happened to glance at his own tracks, coming and going.
Coming and going.
He almost face-palmed himself. He had been following one set of tracks walking away. How had the guy gotten to the cabin? Colton hurried the horses inside. "I have too much woman on my mind, and I'm getting stupid." He talked to Diva as he removed the lead rope. Once they were settled, he closed the barn doors without locking it. It didn't seem to be important anymore.
He walked around behind the barn again to look for another set of tracks. He found the incoming trail, but they had come from a totally different direction than where they went afterwards. He wondered if whoever this person was had watched him put up the trail camera, because both coming and going, they had evaded being filmed.
On a whim, he walked behind the cabin. "Well, I'll be damned."
Several sets of tracks marred the snow. Some led up to the windows, others looked like someone had paces, and one set led around to the front porch. Whoever messed with the horses had been watching him and Ellie. They were all the same tracks, and they seemed relatively fresh. As he circled around, he found where the tracks that led to the front door had actually come from the woods, not around the building. And he was pretty sure they hadn't been there when he left because he would have noticed them.
Fear pierced his heart as he calculated how long Ellie had been by herself. Once again kicking himself for being stupid and giving her stalker time to access her, he hurried to the door. It was unlocked, and the icy stabbing got worse.
"Ellie?"
There was no answer except for the soft crackle of the fire. Colton ran a hand through his hair as he looked around.Way to go, dumb ass. If you could screw this up any worse, you'd be amazing.
As he started to turn to head back outside and do a more thorough search in the snow to find Ellie's prints, a movement crossed his peripheral vision. Before he could move, something hard and heavy hit him upside the head and knocked him down. All he saw was a pair of boots standing next to his head before his entire world went black.
Chapter Sixteen: Taken
Ellie Dampier
Ellie paced from window to window after Colton went back outside. Too much was going on too fast, and she had no idea how to figure any of it out. Her thoughts whirled with any and all possibilities of who could be trying to destroy her life. At this point, she had pretty much crossed Curtis off the list. He may have been vindictive with his lies to the media but setting a barn on fire with two horses inside was above his pettiness.
Everyone in show business had their share of crazy fans, but she had never had anyone who made her feel unsafe or unsettled. Not even the fans who sent love letters put as much time and effort into things as this stalker was doing.
But who could it be?
And an even bigger question that she hadn't figured out yet was the one that Colton had asked. With Nita the only one who knew where she was going, how had everyone known? Ellie trusted Nita implicitly. They had been friends for years, and Nita had always taken care of her and been her ride or die friend. They had spent many nights with many bottles of wine trying to solve life's problems, and Ellie had no reason to believe that her bestie would betray her.
And yet, the fact remained that it couldn't have been anyone else. And even if Nita has leaked it to get brownie points with some media outlet, did she know what she was doing with the stalker, or did the stalker just take advantage of the betrayal? They were definitely questions that needed answers when she got home.
Home. Another thing heavy on her mind. She loved her house, but since she had been with Colton, she was having trouble thinking about life without him around. Maybe it was because she had already had sex with him, but she knew in her heart that it was deeper than that. She wasn't some school girl who had a crush and very little experience with men. Ellie had been around the block a few times and knew that what she felt for Colton was on a deeper level. And it scared her a little bit.
But right now, she needed to focus on what was happening. She could see the horses standing patiently off to the side of the barn. They didn't look any worse for wear, and they didn't seem to be agitated by anything. She still wasn't sure how Colton had put the fire out so fast, but she hadn't had time to ask him.
She moved his socks so they could dry evenly, and her gaze fell on her camera. She straightened as she got an idea. "He put the trail camera up earlier. Maybe this guy is on there."
Even though she knew she should wait for Colton, she grabbed her coat and ran outside. He was off tracking the person, so she had a minute to check the camera. As it turned out, it took her more than a minute to figure out the camera and how to view the photos and videos. She was more than a little disappointed when she flipped through them all and there was nothing to see.
When she went back inside, the door was ajar just a little bit. She paused before she went inside. "Did I leave the door open? That's not very conducive to keeping the heat in."
