Killer Cowboy

“No way,” Adam replied flatly. “There’s nothing funny about this and none of my men would have done anything to frighten Cassie.”

“Before you heard her and unlocked the door did you see anyone else around?” Dillon asked.

Adam shook his head. “No, nobody.”

“How did you happen to have a key to the shed?” Dillon was still struggling to figure out the how and why of what had happened.

“As the foreman, I have keys to all the ranch outbuildings.” Adam pulled a key ring out of his pocket with dozens of keys.

“Dillon, Adam isn’t the bad guy here,” Cassie said softly. “He’s the one who let me out, not the one who locked me in.”

“Maybe one of the men from the ranch next door is responsible,” Adam said, his disgust obvious in his voice. “We all know Raymond Humes’s men love to cause trouble. One of those creeps was probably skulking around and thought this would be a funny thing to do. It sounds like their sick sense of humor.”

Dillon had to admit that it did sound like something one of those men would do. Still, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his gut. “I’ll take it from here,” he told Adam. “Could you gather up all the men in the dining room?”

“Of course.” Adam gazed at Cassie, a frown etched across his forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her.

“I’m fine. Thank you, Adam.”

“I’m just glad I was at the right place at the right time. I’ll see you in the morning.” With a nod at Dillon, Adam went out the back door.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Dillon asked. He eased down on the sofa next to her. “You weren’t hurt?”

“I’m not hurt, but I’m not really okay. I keep wondering what would have happened if Adam hadn’t shown up when he did.” She pulled the throw more tightly around her.

Stay professional, Dillon told himself. Don’t let your emotions get involved. Still, it was damned difficult to stay emotionally removed from her when her eyes seemed to need some sort of reassurance and she leaned toward him as if desperate for his arms around her.

He couldn’t offer her reassurance until he got to the bottom of things, and he refused to embrace her because he feared he’d never want to let her go.

He got up off the sofa and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I need to go check out that shed and talk to your men. Which shed was it?” He knew there were several on the property.

“It’s the smaller one closest to the house.”

“Will you be all right here alone?” She didn’t look as if she would ever be all right again.

She roused herself from the sofa, clutching the throw around her shoulders. “I’ll be okay as long as I lock the door behind you.”

They reached the door and he turned to face her. “This shouldn’t take too long and I’ll come back in when I’m finished.”

She nodded, her eyes still simmering pools of fear. “You know what I thought when I was in that shed?” She released a small, shaky laugh that had nothing to do with humor. “For just a brief moment I thought the door was going to swing open and somebody was going to attack me with an ax.”