Rita Herron - Roping Ray Mccullen

The smoke thickened as the wind picked up. “Yeah, but it did.”

“We’ll discuss installing them in the future.”

Brett gave him an odd look. “I didn’t think you were going to hang around.”

Ray hadn’t planned to. But they still had the reading of the will and the bombshell about their father’s mistress and his son to contend with.

“I’ll be here for a while, at least until things get settled.” Which would probably be longer than he’d first thought.

Another siren wailed, and an official fire department-issued SUV barreled down the road. A sheriff’s car followed. Deputy Whitefeather had probably been notified by his 911 call.

Both vehicles careened to a stop, the deputy climbing out followed by a tall, broad-shouldered man in a uniform.

Introductions were quickly made. The arson investigator’s name was Lieutenant Garret Hawk.

“What happened?” Lieutenant Hawk asked.

“When I got home, I saw smoke and found the barn on fire,” Ray explained. “I called for help, then ran in to rescue the horses. That’s when I smelled gasoline.”

Lieutenant Hawk acknowledged the other firefighters with a flick of his hand. “It looks like you lost one barn and part of another.”

Ray nodded. “Thanks to your men and their quick response, or it could have been so much worse.”

“You think someone set the fire?” Deputy Whitefeather asked.

“Our builders certainly didn’t have gasoline out here,” Brett said. “But I don’t know who would sabotage us this way.”

Ray bit the inside of his cheek. The first person that came to mind was their half brother. If Bobby was ticked off and thought he’d been left out of the inheritance, maybe he wanted revenge.

Then again, if Bobby expected to inherit a share of the ranch, why would he want to damage any part of it? Destroying buildings would only lower the value of the property. And if he was caught, he’d face charges and go to jail.

Lieutenant Hawk moved closer to the edge of the burning embers. Ashes, soot, burned wood and leather covered the ground. He knelt and used a stick to push aside some debris. A cigarette butt lay in the pile.

“Any of you smoke?”

“Not me or Brett,” Ray said.

“How about ranch hands?” Lieutenant Hawk asked.

Ray and Brett and both shrugged. “It’s possible,” Ray said. “But they know better than to smoke around the hay.”

Deputy Whitefeather walked around the edge of the embers then went inside the second barn.

“Did your father have any enemies?” Lieutenant Hawk asked.

Brett shook his head, but Ray didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t ready to divulge the truth about his father’s indiscretion to a stranger, especially when Maddox and Brett were still in the dark.

He would investigate the half brother himself. If he’d tried to hurt them by setting this fire, Ray would make sure he never saw a dime of the McCullen money or any piece of the land.

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