Jennifer Lewis - The Maverick's Virgin Mistress / Lone Star Seduction

“Alex, where are you?” Fear made her voice crack.

Alex was always at the center of everything. She knew with every cell of her body that he was inside that burning barn.

Heart pounding, she raced toward the fire. He might be bossy and overbearing, but he was also the best brother and the warmest, most caring man in the world.

He’d raised her since their parents died and managed to scrape and struggle to provide a good life for them—a wonderful life, now that he was so successful.

A figure rushed up to her in the dark and she recognized one of the ranch hands. “Diego, have you seen Alex?”

“He sent me to wake you. He said to make sure you stay inside the house until he comes.”

“He’s okay?”

Diego hesitated. “He’s trying to rescue the calves.”

“Oh, no! I knew he was in there. We have to get him out.” She started running to the barn.

Diego grabbed her sleeve. “Miss Alicia, please. Alex wouldn’t want you near the fire.”

“I don’t care what that stubborn fool wants. I’ve got to get him out of there.”

She wrenched her arm free and took off running again. She wasn’t the Our Lady of Fatima senior track champion for nothing.

She heard Diego behind her, pleading for her to stop, protesting that Alex had personally entrusted him with her safety and that if he found out—

“There he is!” She saw him emerge from the vast doorway on one side of the barn, driving a herd of calves in front of him.

The young cows were confused and ran in all directions—even trying to get back into the burning barn—as the workers tried to shove them out into the safety of the darkness.

Alicia ran into their midst and grabbed hold of the collar of the calf nearest her. “Come on, princess, you don’t want to go back in there.” She tugged it away from the doorway.

The hot glow of flame brightened the inside of the barn and seared her skin like noonday sun. Cinders whirled in the smoky air, and ash pricked at her eyes. Every instinct told her to run far, far away.

But she turned to see Alex heading back inside. She gave the calf a slap on the rump to drive it out and plunged for the doorway, toward Alex.

“Alejandro Montoya! You get out of that burning barn or I’ll—”

Alex wheeled around. “Alicia, you shouldn’t be here. I told Diego—”

“I know what you told Diego, but I’m here now and you need to get out of this barn before the roof collapses. The whole ridgeline is on fire!”

He frowned and glanced back into the barn. “I’ll just check to make sure they’re all out.”

“No!” She grabbed the front of his shirt. His face was almost black with soot but his dark eyes gleamed with purpose.

Desperation made tears spring to her eyes. “Don’t risk your life!”

“We’ve got them all out!” A voice shouted from the darkness. “I counted. All forty-five calves are safe.”

“Thank God.” Alex grabbed Alicia and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift that knocked the breath from her lungs.

Alicia fought the urge to kick and protest his overbearing reaction. But he was running from the barn, so at least she’d got him heading in the right direction.

“You need to get back in the house and stay there until I come for you!” he shouted as he set her down on her feet a safe distance from the barn.

“I’m not a child, Alex. I can help.”

“Nothing’s going to help save the barn.” Alex winced as a sidewall gave way and the roof started to lean to one side, like a ship keeling over in rough seas.

“It was here before the house. It’s over a hundred years old. It’s been home and shelter to thousands of animals, and now…” He shook his head.

Alicia bit her lip. She knew how much every inch of this ranch meant to her brother. He’d sweated and saved and worked so hard for it.

Buying El Diablo had been a crowning moment in both of their lives. The proof that despite all the odds stacked against them, they’d made it and were going to be fine.

She looked back at the barn, now a heaving mass of bright flame. “What happened?”

“We don’t know. The fire came out of nowhere. Thank heaven we have smoke alarms that woke Dave and Manny in the apartment above it. They called the fire department, but the building was already going up by the time the first truck arrived.”

A tall man strode toward them. Reflected flames illuminated his police badge and the handcuffs glinting at his waist.

“This way, please.” He gestured to the driveway where a host of different emergency vehicles winked and flashed their lights in the orange half-light. “We need you all in one place.”

“I’m the owner,” Alex said. “I need to protect my animals.”

The tall policeman squared his shoulders. “Everyone must be interviewed for the investigation.”

“What do you mean, investigation?” Alicia squinted through the firelit darkness.

“It’s early yet, but the fire marshal thinks this fire was deliberately set. They found empty gas containers near where the blaze started.”

Alicia bit her lip. Who would do this?

Alex stood up for himself, and as a result he’d made some enemies, but who could hate him—or her—enough to destroy the ranch?

“Arson?” Alex’s voice rumbled like a train. “If I find out who did it I’ll—”

“Please, sir. Come this way. We have to take a statement from everyone, and I need your cooperation.”

Alex blew out a snort of disgust and took Alicia’s hand. “Whoever did this will pay.”

She kept her mouth shut. No use arguing with him at a time like this. Better to get him out of danger and focus on getting through this awful night.

They picked their way across the grass. An ember landed on Alex’s shirt and Alicia slapped it out with her palm.

A strange thought occurred to her. “Didn’t Lance Brody’s place have a fire recently?”

“There was a blaze at Brody Oil and Gas, yes. That swine had the nerve to accuse me of setting it. As if I would stoop to something like that.” He clucked his tongue.

She frowned. “If Lance Brody really thinks you burned his building, could he have done this as revenge?”

She could tell by the look on Alex’s face that he’d already thought of this. The rivalry between Alex and Lance Brody went back all the way to Maverick High School, where they’d jostled for position on the soccer team. The last thing she needed was to fan the flames of that rivalry.

“I’m sure it wasn’t him.” She waved her hand in the smoky air. “I don’t know why I just said that. Why would a successful businessman get involved in a criminal act?”

“They have paid flunkeys to do their dirty work,” Alex growled. “I wouldn’t put anything past Lance Brody, or his brother, Mitch. I’ve been a burr under their saddles for years. Maybe this is their way of trying to push me out of town.”

He turned to the barn, where the roof had now collapsed and flames licked out of the hayloft windows.

His eyes flashed with a mix of anger and pain. “But no one’s going to run me off El Diablo, and whoever did this will regret the day they were born.”

At lunch the next day, Alex paced back and forth across the dining room at the ranch, his burger growing cold on the plate.

“Alicia, it’s not safe for you here right now. If someone’s out to get me, who knows what they’ll try next. You can stay with El Gato.”

Alicia looked up from her plate as goose bumps spread over her skin. “I’ll be fine here. Besides, you need someone to look after you.”

She pointed to his plate with her best schoolmarm expression. “Eat your food.”

“I’m serious, ‘Manita. It’s not safe.”