She rolled her eyes and continued to savor.
Kevin gulped his down. “Er, thanks and all, but I’ll stick with the regular stuff.”
Mackenzie didn’t decline a second cup of Gideon’s amazing coffee. Who knew when she’d next have access to a warm beverage?
She should contribute somehow. “I could make French toast,” she found herself saying. “You know, to go with the coffee.”
The two men agreed with enthusiasm, and she whipped up a batch that they ate with syrup and Gideon’s third round of pressed coffee. They talked mostly about the weather, and Gideon pressed Kevin to show him on a map the route to the stables. Taking notes, she thought. Gideon always knew where he was geographically and the best way to get to his point B.
It must be nice to have such certainty about your future plans. Hers ended with Bullseye’s fall. What would her life be like after? It was a nebulous, impenetrable void.
At the agreed-upon departure time, the sky was still dark, an unrelieved black made gloomier by the steadily falling rain. They climbed into the same vehicle, now with a horse trailer hitched to the back. Kevin took off, following a road that was so muddy in spots she feared the wheels would get mired or the trailer stuck. The sunrise eventually revealed a wall of clouds the color of steel wool.
Kevin wasn’t exaggerating about the topography or the steepness of their route. He gripped the wheel, creeping at a sober pace that made her want to leap out and walk. Gideon, she noticed, checked the side mirrors at regular intervals, but the road was so wooded and uneven she didn’t see how anyone would stage an attack.
“Cordelia’s gonna be fuming that it took us so long,” Kevin said. The morning passed into early afternoon since they had to stop and pry the vehicle out of the mud, and finally, they dropped down into a small valley. The few houses they passed looked empty, the residents having evacuated.
The dirt road led them to a graveled one and Kevin took a final turn.
“Here we are,” he said and pulled up a paved circular drive that fronted a barn with a Cotton Flower Stables sign nailed to the red-painted wood. The two adjoining corrals were soaked, water pooling in both.The barn itself was under attack from water, several accumulated inches already creeping up the walls.
“Barn’s flooding,” Kevin said. “Hoped we’d have more time.” He hopped out and quickly unhitched the trailer with Mackenzie and Gideon’s help.
They’d just completed the job when a young woman sprinted out from the barn in jeans and a soggy long-sleeved shirt. Her long dark hair was caught up in a tight braid.
“What’s wrong, Cordelia?” Kevin called.
“I need help with a horse. Hurry.” Then she abruptly changed course and returned to the barn.
Kevin chewed his lip. “That’s Cordelia. She owns the stables.”
“All right.” Gideon motioned to Mackenzie. “Stay here,” he said. “Lock yourself in the car.”
Kevin shot a look at her. “Right. We’ll go help.”
She nodded and watched them jog away after Gideon had slung on his backpack. They disappeared into thebarn. This was her opportunity to run, bolt from the car and sneak away toward the main road. A clean break, the best kind.
But she hesitated. Gideon had no experience with horses. As a matter of fact, he’d always had kind of a phobia around them. Her horse-loving brother had dragged his best friend to the stables in their neighborhood at every opportunity. Mackenzie tagged along so many times the stable owner allowed her to ride the animals that needed exercising.
“Gonna get me one someday,”Aaron had said, fawning over every horse he saw and engaging their owners in his chatting.
In spite of cajoling that bordered on harassment, Aaron had not convinced Gideon to ride, not even once.
And Aaron never got the horse he’d pined for.
With an endangered horse, she’d be a lot more help than Gideon. A quick assessment of the situation would only take a few minutes. Then, if they had it well in hand, she’d hurry away and take off.
She grabbed her pack, splashed through the ankle-deep water into the barn. At the far stall, she heard the sound of a horse in distress, fearful snorts and whinnies, hooves striking against wood. There had been a partial collapse, the water funneling down.
“Roof failed.” Cordelia jutted her chin at a hole in the ceiling that had allowed in a torrent of water that left the horse knee-deep.
Cordelia pulled hard at the sliding door of the stall while inside the horse battered and struck at it. Gideon and Kevin helped the woman.
A section of wood had fallen in and bent part of the stable door, keeping it from sliding open.
“I can’t get her out and she’s freaked,” Cordelia called over the rush of water.
It was only a matter of time before the horse broke a leg or impaled itself on the torn wood beam.
