He glanced up at a noise in the barn, the sound of hooves pounding against the stall. Satan was at it again. He started walking. Damned horse would be the death of him—or somebody else.
The animal probably should have been put down, and he might have done it if it hadn’t been for his sixty-seven-year-old neighbor, Clara Thompson. The woman was convinced Josh could save the stallion if he was patient enough, and he was dumb enough to give it a try.
“Señor Cain! Señor Cain!” His latest hire came racing out of the barn, the jet-black stallion hard on his heels. Josh ran toward them, flapping his hat and shouting, driving the great black beast off in another direction.
“I quit!” Ramirez stomped toward him. “I am through with this place and that crazy horse!”
“Take it easy, Diego. I’ll take care of the stallion.”
“He nearly killed me! I am finished. I have a better job offer, one where I do not have to risk my life.”
Josh didn’t try to talk him out of it. He had a feeling the stable hand was partly to blame for the animal’s foul temper, at least this morning. He had a hunch Ramirez had been antagonizing the stallion. There were guys who liked the control, liked lording it over what they considered a dumb beast, and Josh had a feeling Ramirez was one of them.
Josh watched the man grab his rope, halter, saddle, and bridle and toss them into the back of his old brown pickup. The engine fired up and the pickup shot backward, spun, and roared off down the dirt road toward the two-lane highway that led to Iron Springs.
Josh sighed as he crossed the stable yard and went into the barn for a bucket of grain. When he came out, the big black stallion tossed its head and snorted as it trotted back and forth along the fence line.
Sonofabitch. Another half hour shot to hell trying to coax the horse into the pasture. And now he’d have to drive into town, post some notices, and put an ad in the paper for another stable hand.
He had two full-time ranch hands lined up, due to start in a couple of days, but they would be mending fences, helping him rebuild the cow barn, and doing deferred maintenance the property desperately needed, the reason he had bought it for such a reasonable sum.
The life of a rancher was never easy, and yet Josh loved every minute. He relished the solitude, the time it gave him to deal with the past and come to grips with the present, think a little about the future.
Grabbing the bucket of oats, he went after the cantankerous horse.
* * *
It was hard to believe four months had passed since Tory had left Phoenix. After the attack, she had moved to Houston, taken a high-paying job as an executive secretary, assistant to the president of Huntley Drilling, a small oil company. She’d liked the work, which paid well and was less stressful than her former job as an advertising executive with the Elwin Davis Group, the top marketing agency in Phoenix.
But she had gone to a headhunter to find the job so it hadn’t taken Damon long to track her down. The harassment had started right away, with him showing up at her apartment, at work, making threats, scaring Ivy. Demanding Tory return with him to Phoenix.
She’d called the police and they had done their best to help, but in Texas, the restraining order she’d gotten in Phoenix had to be updated to be valid. That meant her abuser had to be notified and given a chance to argue his side of the case in court.
She didn’t have the money for more attorney fees, and the restraining order she’d gotten after the attack hadn’t really done any good. In Houston, when the neighbor’s kitten had turned up with a wire around its neck, strangled and bloody, dead in front of her apartment door, it had been time to move on.
New Mexico sounded good. She’d taken an interim job at a dry-cleaning store in Albuquerque just to earn some money. But the first day of work, the owner had cornered her in the garment racks and suggested her job could be a lot easier if she provided a few fringe benefits. She had quit the same day.
She’d been lucky. By the end of the week, she’d found a job over the Internet, office manager of Dominion Potash, a potassium mining company in Carlsbad. She’d liked the challenge of organizing the office and keeping the company running; she’d liked the small, high desert community famous for its world-famous caverns.
After two months with no sign of Damon, she had finally begun to settle in. She’d even allowed herself to make a few friends, relax enough to leave Ivy with a sitter once in a while and go out to a show or dinner in the evenings.
But every day she worried.
Every night, she lay awake, straining to hear the sound of an intruder. Tonight, as she lay in the darkness and listened to the heavy footfalls outside her bedroom door, she knew Damon had found her again.
Cold fear slid through her. It was as if her worst nightmare had come to life and she had to live it all over again.
Only this time, she was prepared.
Her heart slammed like a hammer against the wall of her chest as he shoved open the bedroom door. She had no idea how he had gotten inside, but she knew him well enough to know if he wanted in, nothing was going to stop him.
There was no time to pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1. Help wouldn’t arrive in time if she did. Instead she summoned her courage and forced down her fear.
“What are you doing here, Damon?” Glad for the white cotton nightgown she’d started wearing after the beating, she sat up in bed, her eyes on the man who had just stepped into her bedroom.
She knew exactly what to do. In her mind, she had rehearsed this scenario a hundred times. The knowledge calmed her a little. “Get out before I call the police.”
He just laughed. “You think I’m leaving? It’s taken me months to find you. When I leave, sweetheart, you’re going with me.”
