Page 75 of Scorched

“Damn. Good thing you were in the barn. If it had been one of the houses, you might not have made it out.”

“That’s no lie. We’re going to have to rig up some alarms. This was too close.” He didn’t know how they would accomplish that on a ranch the size of the Broken Bow, but they had to do something.

“Anyone hurt?”

“No. Just some minor smoke inhalation. Tara should be looked at since she’s pregnant. And Maggie, since she had a recent exposure. Oh, and London too. Maggie told me yesterday she’s expecting as well.”

“I’ll get the medics on it. The kids all okay?”

“Yeah. We kept them low and evacuated them first, so they escaped the worst of it.”

“Good. Go sit with your woman. I’ve got this.”

Declan glanced between the burning barn and the Archer clan grouped in the field, torn. He wanted to work the fire, but he wanted to be with Maggie, too.

His desire to be with her won out. “Come get me when you’re ready to do the survey. I doubt we’ll find anything I’m not already expecting, but I still want to look.”

“You got it. Go.”

Declan jogged back to his friends, one eye on the fire. Anger made his spine rigid. He was going to bring this bastard down.

Sweat trickled between Maggie’s breasts as she leaned against the wall in Brady’s office in the main barn. Soot lent a fine grit to her skin. She couldn’t wait to get into the shower and wash off the grime. But she wanted to see the ranch security footage first. Seb and his deputies had little luck finding the perpetrator. The K-9 traced a scent away from the houses about half a mile, then lost it. Seb thought they had a vehicle waiting. The good news, though, was that the bomb squad didn’t find any hidden devices elsewhere on the ranch. Maggie had a feeling Declan chased the man away before he could plant any.

“Can we make this quick?” Macy asked. “We’re crammed in here like sardines, and it’s hot.”

“Typing as fast as I can, babe,” Brady muttered. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he pulled up the footage.

She flicked him in the ear. “Not your babe.”

“Ow!” He ducked away from her hand. “Knock it off, Mace.”

“Don’t call me babe.” A naughty grin spread over her pretty face. “Unless you mean it.”

His face flushed. Maggie smothered a smile. It was so funny to watch her big, burly brother blush.

He kept his mouth shut and his eyes on the computer screen.

“Queue it up to just before the fire erupted,” Seb said.

Brady moved the cursor on the video, queueing all the feeds up to a few minutes before flames were visible, then split the feeds between three monitors so they were easier to assess. They all leaned in as he hit play.

On the center display, a figure ran into view. A man walked the perimeter of the barn with a gas can, pouring the fuel beneath the windows. He disappeared from view for a minute, then showed up again at the corner of the barn where he lit two Molotov cocktails. He ran forward and threw them into the open doorway of the barn, then dashed around back to throw a third at the closed doors.

“Damn. There’s no good shot of his face,” Jace said.

“Not at the barn.” Brady isolated the barn feeds and put them on a side screen. “But there’s better lighting near the houses.” He put the feeds from the housing area on the center screen and hit play. They watched for several minutes before the man showed up. He checked each house, attempting to go inside, but because of all the trouble lately, everyone had locked their doors before leaving.

The cameras caught Declan arriving. Brady moved to the camera nearest Thomas’s house. The man checked the windows, then froze when he saw Declan, only taking off when Declan spotted him.

“Can you zoom in on his face?” Seb asked.

“Yep.” Brady scrolled the wheel on the mouse, zeroing in on the man’s face.

Declan gasped. “What the fuck?” he growled.

“What?” Seb asked.

“How did I not see it?” Declan pointed at the screen. “That’s one of my rookies, Jameson Gehring.”

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