When he reached the trees, he turned and glanced at the farmhouse and the second-floor bedroom window, where Darcy was sleeping.They’d had a great day, a stunningly sexy night, and then he’d had to leave her in bed for patrol.
He didn’t mind being on patrol.Every herd member took turns on the various shifts, but he sure hated being away from Darcy at night.He was sure Crew, Avi, and Grey felt the same way.
The walkie crackled as Neo, the gorilla shifter, who’d volunteered an overnight shift on patrol, reached out.
“I’m in the pasture, all’s quiet here,” Neo said, his voice crackling over the walkie.
“I’m at the front of the farm and it’s quiet here too.”
“I’m heading down to the fields.I’ll radio when I’m on the way back,” Neo said.
“Sounds good.Talk to you later.”
Ford put the walkie back on the belt clip and set off at a moderate pace, planning to walk the main yard, from the treeline to the other side of the farmhouse, and then he’d head into the trees to check the motion detectors and security cameras along the farm’s territory.
His stallion was restless, and Ford felt the same way.Colton was out there, plotting.Waiting.
There were only two members of Colton’s original herd left: Asher and Levi.Ford hadn’t thought much of the males when he’d met them in the first place.The fact that they were still standing with Colton despite losing two other herd members— and continually being beaten by the Little River Herd—made him wonder just how unhinged they actually were.
Ford had just passed the barn where the few cows they had were kept when loud alarms shattered the quiet night.The perimeter alarms!
Ford’s stallion lurched inside him, and for a moment, Ford wasn’t sure where the alarms were coming from.
Then he smelled gasoline.
And instinctively he knew the alarms going off were the ones surrounding the farmhouse.
He bolted for the farmhouse, grabbing his walkie.“Crew!Fire!Wake everyone!!”
“We’re already moving!”Crew said.
Ford heard smashing glass and smelled fire as something exploded at the back of the farmhouse.
Darcy!
He jumped up the front steps as the door opened and the herd rushed out, Crew shouting for Avi and Grey to get the hoses and for the females to run to the storage barn and wake Dexter, Khyle, and the others.
“Where’s Darcy?”Ford shouted.
“I don’t know!”Crew said.“She wasn’t in your room.”
Another window shattered and a whoosh of flames made his blood run cold.The farmhouse was on fire.Where was Darcy?
“Shit, Neo’s chasing someone!”Crew yelled.He raced off the porch, but Ford didn’t follow.He had to find Darcy.
Running into the house as smoke poured out of the open door, he grabbed the banister to head upstairs.“Darcy!”he shouted.
He heard coughing from the kitchen and jumped down from the middle of the stairs and hit the hardwood floor.Running into the kitchen, he found Darcy with a fire extinguisher, spraying the base of flames that were climbing the walls.She looked small against the wall of flames, but she wasn’t backing down.
He called her name again and she startled at the sound of his voice.“Ford, help!”
He knew there was another fire extinguisher in the pantry, and he ran to it, throwing open the door and pulling it from the wall anchor.Pulling the pin, he aimed the hose at the fire and squeezed the handle, sending a powerful spray into the flames.He moved toward Darcy and together they were able to put out the fire.
Darcy’s extinguisher was empty, and she dropped it, her whole body trembling.Ford finished spraying the walls of the kitchen, then set the extinguisher on the counter and pulled her into his arms.He smoothed back the hair from her soot-covered face.
“Holy shit, baby.”
“I-I didn’t want to let the house burn.Or myself,” she added with a grimace.
