Unsure as to how to get hold of him, she left him a note on the desk to come see her when he returned from whatever task he was completing. He wasn’t great at answering her text messages, but she left him one of those, too. Out of an abundance of caution, she tucked the laptop under her arm and carried it back with her.
She tried to forget how many people could have accessed this sensitive information already. Once she got back to the guest house, she would reset the passwords and add extra security authentication codes to prevent anyone from messing with the work she was doing.
It was time to lock everything up tight.
Marshall may be a country boy now, but she was a city girl. She locked her doors and watched over her shoulder, because you never knew where danger lurked. Now that someone was targeting the King family and potentially messing with their systems, Marshall was going to have to change, whether he liked it or not.
CHAPTER 13
Nerves danced over the surface of her skin as Colette walked toward the stable doors, clutching the computer. Was her mind playing tricks on her?
Had she truly seen a ranch hand or someone leaving Marshall’s office?
Yes.
There was no denying it.
As she walked through the stables, she noticed a rise in the movements of the horses, nervous whinnies, and shuffling. Her heart raced, anxious to put space between herself and the animals. What the hell was going on? Were the horses upset?
They must be picking up on her emotions.
That was impressive.
Her ears picked up on frantic barking from Hank outside. Hadn’t Marshall told her how quiet he was?Strange.Not brave enough to investigate, she decided to let whatever was going on with Hank be solved by the ranch hands, if any of them had stayed behind. She was done with this day already.
Emerging into the warmth of the sunny spring day, Colette sighed heavily as the barks became louder. The dog soundedbeyond upset, and even though she did not want to get involved, she followed the sound.
What if someone was hurt?
Her footsteps covered the distance quickly as she walked around the enormous stables to the barn.
Colette shook her head as she took in what was happening.
The large, heavy iron gate was open.
Fuck.Her worst nightmare had come to life.
Cows were eating fresh grass along the newly opened entrance, a mass of the huge brown creatures making their way out of the enclosure.
And Hank was fucking corralling them.
The useless farm dog was herding the large animals to prevent them from escaping further.
All Colette could do was blink in disbelief. She swore under her breath, eyes darting around to see if someone else was coming. Please let someone be coming.
No.
With a groan, Colette placed the laptop on an abandoned tractor tire and ran toward Hank, her mind racing with how to fix this situation. This went way beyond her capacities as an accountant.
She was out of her fucking depth.
Her heart raced and her body shook with tremors as she tried to think, not panic.
The animals raised their heads curiously before going back to calmly chewing and grazing.
Should she call them? No. That would only bring more to the opening. She was aware that Marshall or the ranch hands called them for mealtime, but she had no idea what words they used to gather them. How did one make these massive animals do anything? They seemed frightened enough of Hank; maybe she could gently encourage them to move back into the pasture andlock them in. Somehow. She had seen the other cowboys riding alongside the herd, and the animals seemed to move along instinctually.
Opening her arms wide, she started shouting, “Let’s go, ladies,” and moving toward them. At first, they kept their heads down, ignoring her in favor of the grass.
