Page 83 of Colton First Responder (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

Her eyes widened. “I... I can’t ever go back there again.”

“Why? Why do you have to leave town?” Bitterroot was a big pond of gossipmongers, but he hadn’t heard anything about Maddy in recent days. What in the heck was going on with her?

“Please...don’t ask me. I can’t tell you. I... I can’t tell anyone.” Her eyes took on a frightened haunting. “I’m sorry for being here. I’ll just get my things and leave.” She turned and grabbed the handle of a medium-size, beat-up suitcase that had been half-hidden in the hay.

“Wait...where are you going to go from here?” Flint asked. She had always been thin, but at the moment she looked positively frail. She said she couldn’t or wouldn’t go back to her trailer. “Where are you going, Maddy? Somebody else’s barn? We’re having some of the hottest days of the summer right now.”

“I... I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.”

Flint took a couple of steps back from her and she walked out of her little hidey-hole with the suitcase in her hand. She was clad in a long blue, sleeveless dress that was wrinkled and damp with perspiration.

“How long have you been in here?” he asked, appalled as he thought of the hot nights and even hotter days.

“Just since last night. My car broke down and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to stay in the car so this was the closest place to walk to. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother anyone. I just need some time to get the car fixed.” She started for the barn door.

Flint watched her go, but before she could get all the way to the door he stopped her by calling her name. She turned to look at him. A simmering fear shone from her eyes.

“I have a place you can stay,” he said. “It’s a cabin in the woods about fifteen miles from here.” He couldn’t let her...he couldn’t let any woman walk out of here with no place to go on such a miserably hot day, especially since he had a place to offer her.

“A...a cabin in the woods?”

He nodded. “Nobody is staying in it right now.”

“Who knows about it?”

The question surprised him. “Just a couple of the cowboys here on the ranch. Why?”

“I don’t want anyone to find me.” Her eyes once again welled up with tears. “I don’t want anyone from town to know where I am.”

“Nobody will know you’re there,” he assured her.

“Then, yes, please. I don’t want to take advantage of your kindness, but if I could just stay there for a day or two until I can sort out my car issues, I’d really appreciate it.”

“Then let’s get you out of this hot barn. I’ll go and get my truck and I’ll pull it up to the door. I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”

He left the barn and headed for the vehicle shed in the distance. Thoughts whirled around in his head at a dizzying speed. Why was she hiding out? What had happened to her? It was obvious she was afraid of something or somebody.

Was it possible she had embezzled money from the grocery store and was making her getaway when her car had died? Was she a criminal or a victim of something?

And more important, what was he getting himself involved in by offering her the use of his cabin?

* * *

Madison sat in the passenger seat and shot a surreptitious glance to the man who was driving. Around his brown cowboy hat, his shaggy blond hair shone in the sunshine drifting in through the window. He had a strong jawline and a slightly crooked nose and yet that didn’t detract from his rugged handsomeness.

Flint McCay. She didn’t know much about him, although her heart had certainly fluttered a bit whenever she’d check him out at the grocery store.

He was definitely something of a legend around these parts. He was a champion bull-rider who had successfully ridden some of the biggest and meanest bulls in the rodeos. She also knew he was well liked around town.

She’d never heard anything bad about him, but she knew that didn’t mean anything. A man could wear a wonderful facade that drew people to him, but that same man could turn into a horrible monster when there was nobody else around.

Right now she hoped Flint was her savior. She hoped he really was taking her to a cabin in the woods where she could cool off and take a moment to breathe...to think. And she needed to think to figure out how she was going to get out of town as quickly as possible.

“Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?” Flint’s question broke the silence of the ride.

“There’s nothing going on,” she lied. “I had just decided to move away from Bitterroot and in the process my car broke down.”

He cast her a quick glance, his green eyes filled with skepticism. “If it’s as simple as that, then why are you so worried about people knowing where you are?”

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