Take the Reins (A Cowboy's Promise #2) - Megan Squires Page 0,68

take in.

His pants and shirt weren’t even all the way on and he was already out the door, fumbling to button himself up while he jammed his feet into his muddied boots.

“Josie!” he shouted, flying down the porch steps two at a time.

There was no reason for her to be out at this hour, but his gut knew he would find her there. His heart dreaded just what shape she might be in.

“Josie!” he yelled again, covering more land with his stride than he ever had on horseback.

“Over here!” A raw voice screamed from the paddocks, then choked out through a sputtering cough, “With the rescues!”

The old dairy barn creaked in the distance as a support beam crumbled, snapping it in two like a brittle wishbone. Shards of red-hot wood splintered to the ground below and within seconds, the stacked bales of hay stored there ignited, the dry grasses the perfect tinder to set the entire barn ablaze. Flames shot up the rustic walls and sparks flared, sending dime-sized cinders spraying out like a fourth of July firework.

“I can’t get them to go!” Josie cracked the whip on the ground, right next to the stallion’s hooves, but he wouldn’t budge. The five horses huddled together and the more she prodded, the more they remained mulishly immobile. “We have to get them out of here, Seth!”

Another crack. Seth cast a glance over his shoulder just as the barn roof caved in the middle, decimating the structure as it fell to the ground with a shake that made the earth move. Flames instantly swelled, plumes of smoke billowing in thick, ebony clouds.

Seth tugged his bandana from his back pocket and quickly tied it at the back of Josie’s head for a mask, then he ripped a strip from the hem of his shirt to twist a makeshift one for himself. Smoke burned his eyes, the dry, intense heat singeing his lashes and brow. His lungs felt like they were on fire, just like everything else around them.

He yanked on her hand. “We have to get out of here, Josie.”

She shook free. “We have to get them out of here.” She slapped Bruiser on his rump and the horse kicked out in a narrow miss, fear evident in his panic-stricken eyes. “Tanner already got Hank and he’s opening up the pasture gates for the cows now. These horses are all that’s left.”

She was as unyielding as the animals she fought to free and Seth knew he would never be able to convince her to go. Not when the animals were in such immediate danger.

“What can I do to help?”

“Open up those panels.” She nudged her head toward the paddock fence rails surrounding them, the threatening fire encroaching steadily just on the other side. “We’re not going to be able to guide them out through the narrow gate, so we’ll just have to let the heat push them that way. I’m praying they still have some survival instincts left, because there’s not much more that we can do.”

Seth jerkily rushed toward the panels. When his hand met the pipe, he recoiled, the smarting pain from the heat the metal retained making him flinch. He tucked his hand back into his shirtsleeve and used the fabric as a barrier while he attempted another grip on the panel. Heaving with all of the strength he could muster, he unlatched the first section of fence, then the second, until half of the paddock paneling was unhooked and laid flat on the ground.

Even with the fencing gone, a barrier remained. Flames taller than Seth pierced skyward in a taunting dance that trapped them within its hellish inferno ring.

“The water trough!” Josie exclaimed. They raced to the hundred-gallon tub that was only three-quarters full. Josie grabbed a nearby grain bucket and passed it off to Seth, then took another up in her hands. Together they scooped pail after pail, dousing the flames until the fire diminished with a simmering hiss.

“Come on, Bruiser!” Josie cried once on the other side of the enclosure, her hoarse voice cracking on the syllables. “Move!”

She doubled at the waist, racked with a guttural sob that left her a crumpled heap in Seth’s arms.

“We have to get out of here, Josie,” he said a second time. This time, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He’d carry her out of danger if he had to.

“They’re not moving!”

“They will,” he assured, but only half believed it. “They’ll get out of harm’s way now that there’s a