Cowboy Country (75 page)

“All the horses are out, did you call the fire department?” she rasped as she clung to the person’s shirt.

“Of course I didn’t, you stupid twit. All of those damn horses were supposed to die when I set the fire. You were supposed to be in the house and not be able to get to them. Once again, you screwed up my plans. But maybe this will be better, the dedicated horse lover perishing in the flames, trying to save her precious beasts.”

She stumbled back, bile threatening to rise into her throat as she heard Kip’s cold voice. Kip’s hands closed over her bare arms and gripped her painfully.

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere this time, witch. It’s time you paid your dues.” He pulled her closer and realized she was topless. “Oh, what is this? Came out to save your precious creatures without your clothes? Maybe I’ll have some fun before I end your life. You gonna give it to me like you do Luke Grayson so I will forever know what he has been bragging about?

“Maybe it was
you
holding out on me this whole time. Was there someone else? Were you pleasing some other man and neglecting your poor hubby? I think you
owe
it to me this one last time.”

He dragged her over to the tree line away from the burning barn and she knew if he got her in the forest she would never live to see daylight. Even though her eyes, throat and lungs were burning from the smoke, she started to fight him blindly. She brought her knee up, hoping to catch him in the groin but he nimbly blocked her kick.

Coughing from the smoke, he tried to laugh. “Not this time, Becks.” He let go of one of her arms and grabbed her around her waist to drag her farther into the dark. She took the opportunity and began to punch him in the face and claw at his eyes. He cried out, his grip loosening, back-handing her across the face. She felt the blow explode across her cheekbone and white light flashed in her eye. The fear of dying renewed her attack as she felt him regain his hold, trying to grab her free hand. She gathered all of her energy and punched him, her fist falling short of his jaw and hitting him in the neck. She felt him release her and she fled back to the burning barn, not wasting any time to look back, trying to listen for his following footsteps.

She heard sirens and shouts coming from the driveway and she stumbled blindly towards them. Her eyes were watering so badly that she screamed when she felt hands grab her shoulders and she started flailing within their grasp.

“Rebecca! Rebecca! It’s Deputy Heather. It’s all right, calm down!”

Rebecca recognized Heather’s voice and she slumped into her, sobbing and shaking.

“Rebecca, you’re safe but I need to know is there anyone else in the barn?”

“Kip. Kip is here somewhere.” she cried.

“Is he in the barn? Rebecca, focus. Is Kip in the barn?”

“No, over by the trees. That’s where I got away from him.” She was shaking and her eyes still burned but she pointed over to where she thought she had left him.

Heather led Rebecca over to her cruiser, grabbing a blanket from the trunk and wrapping her in it. Firemen were unrolling hoses from the pumper and starting to spray the burning structure as two other cruisers pulled up.

“We have a code ten on the property.” Heather yelled at her fellow deputies as they got out of their vehicles. She pointed in the direction that Rebecca had indicated before turning back to Rebecca. “We have an ambulance over here and I’m going to have them check you out. I think you have a broken cheekbone and you’re bleeding under your eye. They will take good care of you and keep you safe. Were you able to get the horses out?”

Rebecca nodded numbly and looked at what had once been her beautiful barn.

Heather took a deep breath and led Rebecca over to the ambulance. She was amazed that Rebecca had been able to get her horses out. Growing up in the small town, she knew how important the horses were to Rebecca and knew she would have been devastated if any of them had perished. When she had arrived on the scene, the barn had been engulfed and there wouldn’t have been any way for the firefighters to save any living thing.

She handed Rebecca over to the paramedics and heard shouts coming from the other deputies. She ran down to where they were standing. On the ground at their feet lay Kip, looking sightlessly at the burning barn, his neck swollen and bruised. Heather called on her radio. “Dispatch, we have a code echo out at the Gordon ranch. Please send an ambulance and the coroner.”

She turned to her co-workers. “Alright, guys. Let’s treat this as a crime scene now. Get the tape and markers. I have a feeling our arsonist is lying here and we need to document everything. I want this to be an easy case to close.”

She turned away and made her way back to the ambulance. When she got there, the paramedics had started an IV and were getting ready to transport Rebecca to the hospital. She climbed into the back and held Rebecca’s hand.

“Rebecca, I need you to answer some questions, can you do that for me?”

Rebecca looked up at her and nodded, her left eye blood red, her cheekbone swollen twice its size.

“Did Kip do this? Did you see him?”

“He was in the barn. I’d just gotten Sadie and the foal out and he was right behind me.” Rebecca’s eyes tearing up again and her voice hitched in her throat. “He said he wanted to make me pay but because I’d already gotten the horses out, he was going to kill me. But he said he wanted to make me suffer first, that he was going to have some fun with me. He…he dragged me to the trees…he was going to rape me before he killed me. He said they would find my naked body…” she began to cough, her sobs overtaking her.

“It’s alright now, you’re safe.” Heather soothed.

“But he’s still out there. I hit him and he released me but he’s still out there somewhere.”

“We got him, Rebecca. You can relax. He’s never going to hurt you again. Can I call someone for you?”

“My mom. Please call my mom. She’ll call Megan for me. Can I go get my cell phone? I need to call Luke. He wanted to send out bodyguards and I wouldn’t let him. I was wrong, I’m so sorry. I never thought Kip would do something like this.”

“Sshh. It’s ok. Luke had sent bodyguards, you must not have known about it. They were the ones who called 911 when they saw the smoke. They were looking for you in the house but couldn’t find you. They were down at the barn when I showed up then you come running out of the smoke by the trees. If they hadn’t seen the flames and called, we wouldn’t have been here in time. I’m glad Luke sent his goons.

“I’ll bring your phone to the hospital but let them check you out first, alright? I’ll call your mom right now. She’ll probably beat you there; I’ve seen the way she drives.” Heather joked and was rewarded with a smile from Rebecca.

“Just don’t arrest her if she’s going too fast.” Rebecca tried to laugh but she felt hollow inside, the shock sinking in.

“I promise. I’ll put out an APB that your mom is off limits tonight.”

Heather climbed out of the ambulance and called both paramedics over. “She doesn’t know Kip is dead and I think it would be too much for her if she found out so keep it under wraps for now. I’ll let her know once we have this buttoned up and she has family with her.”

They both nodded and climbed into the ambulance, taking off towards the hospital.

“I knew this one was going to end ugly.” Heather mumbled to herself. “Just glad it wasn’t her leaving in a body bag.” She watched the ambulance drive away. She waiting until the taillights were out of sight before heading back down to the waiting corpse.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Rebecca lay in the hospital bed, anxious to be discharged. The fire had happened on the tenth of October, she had found out the morning of the eleventh that Kip was dead and she was able to talk with Luke a few hours after that. He’d been adamant about coming back to be with her but she insisted that he stay and finish his tour. It was the hardest thing she did, wanting to feel his arms around her, but she knew if he flew out, he would disappoint millions of his fans by cancelling the rest of his tour and that he wouldn’t want her to go to her show.

She felt the weight and the guilt of taking another person’s life and she wasn’t sure how she would deal with that for the rest of hers but she also knew that if she hadn’t fought back, she would have been the one whose life had ended. It had been divine intervention, luck, whatever you wanted to call it, that had save her. Her initial blow to Kip’s neck with her riding crop had weakened the wall to his jugular and when she had hit him there again, in that exact same spot, it had burst and he had bled out internally, killing him almost instantly. Kip’s mother had of course been devastated but with all of the facts that the Sherriff’s department had gathered, she had slunk back to her home to grieve privately.

They had found Kip’s car parked just beyond the trees, a can of gas almost empty, sitting in his trunk. It was assumed that he saw her run to the barn when the fire had started and knowing it didn’t have enough time to consume the barn, had gone after her. Traces of gasoline had been found on his hands and clothes during the autopsy.

Rebecca’s mother and Megan had helped convince her that she needed to follow through with her dreams, that she couldn’t let Kip win. Her cheekbone had been fractured but no surgery was required. Though it was swollen and sore, she could still ride.

Luke had been more difficult to convince but after talking with Megan and Rebecca’s mother, he had finally agreed that he would finish out the tour and keep their plans.

The hospital had kept her for two days for observation before releasing her. Her doctor cleared her for the show with the promise that she come back in for a recheck when she got back from the show. It was now October seventeenth and she was excited to get ready for her trip. She was dressed in the clothes her mother had brought and was relieved when the nurse finally came in with her discharge papers. Her mother, who had never left her side, was down bringing the car around. Rebecca was wheeled out to the entrance, blinking against the bright sunlight. She got into the family Explorer, comforted by the fact that she was going home.

Her mother babbled about how all of the horses were fine, happily grazing at the ranch and enjoying the last of the pasture grass.

Rebecca knew she was trying to distract her with the positives. Deputy Heather had already visited her in the hospital and let her know the barn had been a complete loss. The insurance company would pay for a new barn but it would have to wait for spring. Rebecca thought she’d mentally prepared herself for the sight but when they pulled into her drive and she saw the blackened skeleton of her once beautiful barn, she burst into tears. It was completely destroyed.

“It’s not a total loss, Rebecca.”

She heard the tears in her mother’s voice and reached over to grab her hand, touched that she was affected by the pain her daughter was going through.

“The community heard what had happened and they started delivering hay out to our place. There’s about ten tons of hay, enough to feed this winter. And look, they stocked your trailer too. You’re loaded and ready for your trip.”

Rebecca looked at her trailer and saw it loaded with bright, green alfalfa, the top covered with a travel tarp to protect it from the elements. Her jaw dropped when, instead of her old Ford truck hooked up to it, there was a brand new F-350 diesel.

Her mother smiled, tears brimming in her eyes. “Luke and the local dealership decided you deserved a break. They got you a new truck to go to the show in style. And the Johnson’s said you can use their barn as your breeding facility until you get yours rebuilt. You won’t have to lose any of your bookings. Everything is going to be alright, Rebecca.”

She smiled at her mother and nodded. “Yes, it is, Mom. My dreams are still going to come true.” And they both sat there and cried tears of happiness.

***

As she pulled into the fairgrounds in Kentucky, she was still filled with gratitude at the outpouring of generosity from her community. She had enough hay to feed all of her horses this winter, they had warm barns to stay in and the smell of the new truck she was driving was heavenly.

Though she appreciated all of the gifts bestowed upon her, her heart was still heavy with the knowledge of why she had these blessings. She shook her head, trying to clear the tears and focus on why she was here. This was her chance, her opportunity to make her mark. She found the barn she was assigned to and parked near it. Leaving Othello in the trailer, she made her way into the barn and found the stall and tack spaces that were marked for her use. After getting Othello settled in his stall, she began to unload her tack and hay, falling into her familiar routine.

She wasn’t due to show until tomorrow night but she’d sent in Luke’s sheet music weeks before so the live orchestra could familiarize themselves with the music and prepare for the live show. All she had to concern herself with now was making sure she and Othello were ready.

Because her horse trailer had living quarters in the front, she was only a few yards away from Othello’s stall in the barn. She was relieved that she was so close, especially after the recent turn of events. Logically she knew she had to move on with her life and that Kip’s death had been a result of self-defense but her subconscious couldn’t seem to accept it. Her nights were filled with nightmares, always starting out the same, the sound of her horses screaming and the smell of the fire, but that’s where the facts ended and her imagination took over. Various scenes played out, all as horrific as the other. One night, her dream had been that she hadn’t gotten to her horses in time and she had to listen to them scream as they perished in the flames, with her only being able to watch, unable to do anything. In another one, she got her horses out and was confronted by Kip but this time she hadn’t been able to escape. He had raped and beaten her repeatedly before closing his hands over her throat, choking off her life’s breath. Each night she would wake up screaming and flailing and the only thing that eased her mind had been going down to her parent’s barn and petting Othello. She hadn’t been able to stay at her house, she was afraid of being alone so her mother helped her pack up some things and getting into her new truck, she drove the trailer over to her parent’s house until she left for the show.