Page 16 of A Triple C Ranch Christmas Wedding
I’ll take them all.
The thought gave him great satisfaction.
There’s not a damn thing Buck can do about it. I’ll have those horses over the border before anyone even knows to look for them. The security at the ranch is a joke.
Right now, there was only one man from that security guard company. He looked to be a younger guy, military haircut, likely fresh out, and he mostly stayed inside the main house.
He would come outside onto the porch to play with a toy helicopter, which probably had one of those fancy cameras. He’d come out, play with his whirly bird toy, then he’d go back inside. That was their security.
Not even one camera outside the barn. Probably none inside. But even if they had a camera inside, with Buck gone, it would be easy to cut the camera off.
Their whirly bird boy never came out before three o’clock, and he was always back inside before it got dark.
Maybe his whirly bird didn’t work so well after dark.
Or maybe he was too lazy to come out and take a look around after dark, in the snow and cold.
Once back inside, he didn’t bother to come outside again.
Lazy.
Just because he had military training didn’t mean he wasn’t lazy.
Probably a city boy.
Then there was the caretaker, George, but he was only out during daylight hours. Once he had dinner with his wife Emma, he was inside their little house for the evening and into bed early. Both were early risers and, like many aging couples, their lights were out before younger people even went to bed.
Zeb hadn’t seen George lately, so something was keeping the old man busy inside.
Good.
Zeb watched as more delivery trucks pulled up and started unloading boxes.
The Indian woman, Leah, met each of the drivers and directed where to take their deliveries.
Something big must be happening.
He saw a case of champagne and several other boxes being unloaded from the first truck. A florist truck delivered large red and white floral arrangements. The bakery delivered a multi-tiered cake that had white icing with red poinsettias on it. Then a woman got out of an SUV and reached into the back seat, emerging with a wedding dress.
A Christmas Wedding. How sweet.
Plenty of people about, focusing on other things.
That redheaded woman came out to take care of the horses but never before three o’clock, and she was always gone before dark.
Zeb could slip into the barn unnoticed and wait. He could do it now. He wanted to.
No.Timing was important. Impatience could get a man caught.
He needed help to pull this off. The men were lined up, and the truck and trailer were ready. If they were here right now, he could do it. But they weren’t.
Buck won’t be returning to his quarters any time soon. It’ll be the perfect place to hide.He could hide there right now.
Or he could come back with that truck.That was the better idea.
He would wait until nightfall, once they were all asleep, and then make his move.
They would come in on snowshoes, lead the horses down the road to the trailer, load them, and then take off.
