Page 38 of The Breakdown

“I’m just doing my job, Mrs. Ruger.”

She scoffed and kicked at the dirt with her boot. “Real convenient timing if you ask me.”

“Look,” Vaughn said. “I know Ricky is your cousin.”

“That’s got nothing to do with it,” Theo said.

“Whatever,” Vaughn said, holding up a palm. “I’m not suggesting anything here. I just want whoever did this caught.”

Theo made some more notes and flipped his notebook closed. In the near distance Natalie heard footfalls and she saw Greer and Benny on horseback leading three horses back toward the stables.

Vaughn and June spotted them too. “Well, at least I got most of my mares back,” Vaughn said.

“Who’s gonna pay for the missing one?” June demanded. “That no good cousin of yours gonna cover the cost if we can’t find her?”

Theo tucked his notebook and pen away. “If he did it, then yes, the law will hold him accountable.”

“He won’t have to pay for her if he returns her,” Vaughn said.

“You think whoever did this kept her?” Theo asked.

Vaughn nodded. “I got a sneaking suspicion he did. Miracle’s worth some money and he always favored her.”

Theo rested his hands on his gun belt. “I’ll look into it. I promise.”

“You damn well better,” June said. “And you tell those two, tell ’em if we catch them on this property that we got the right to shoot and shoot we will. Without hesitation.”

Theo looked at the ground and lightly kicked a pebble. “Now don’t go shooting from the hip just yet, Mrs. Ruger. We haven’t got proof of anything.”

June spit at the dirt. “I got all the proof I need. Those boys was always trouble. From the word go.”

Theo looked to Vaughn as if she were the reasonable one. “Keep the guns at bay. We don’t want this to escalate to where people get hurt.”

“Then you give those two our warning,” Vaughn said.

Theo nodded. “I’ll be in touch.” He left and walked back to his cruiser.

Greer and Benny led the three horses into the corral where Vaughn inspected them. June leaned on the bars of the pen and watched.

“They look injured?”

Vaughn ran her hands over each horse, carefully examining them. “Nah. They seem to be okay.”

Benny lifted hooves for a quick look-see while Greer filled a trough with fresh water. Natalie left O’Malley to join Vaughn.

“They really okay?” she asked, stroking one of the horses.

“This time,” Vaughn said. “We were lucky.”

“I’m glad the weather has cooled a bit,” Natalie said. “I’d hate to think of them out there in one-hundred-fifteen-degree heat with no shade.”

Vaughn clenched her jaw as if thinking about it. She looked like she could kill whoever cut the fence. Her horses seemed to be everything to her. They were not just her livelihood, but her heart. She obviously loved them, and when anything bad happened to one of them, she seemed to suffer right alongside them.

Natalie felt for her, already developing feelings for the horses herself. Vaughn must feel so helpless, unable to stop the two men from targeting and tormenting them. She knew exactly how that felt.

She touched Vaughn’s arm. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know how this feels.”

Vaughn looked as though she didn’t believe her. So Natalie explained. “I know what it feels like to be targeted and to have no control or a way to stop it. You’re simply at the person’s mercy. It’s an awful feeling and no way to have to live.”

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