She closed the stall gate, secured it, and then ran down the path toward the open door. She’d left her jacket in the arena, something she didn’t notice until she was standing outside in the bitter cold. She abandoned the idea of going back to get it when she heard raised voices in the barn. The barn door was only a few yards away, so she ran the few yards to barn. But not before noticing the split in the wood, most likely caused when Mad Dog escaped.
Once inside, she raced down the center aisle toward the grooming room where she heard Kas and Trip’s voices. Most of the stall doors were closed and the horses that occupied them were showing distress instead of eating hay and grain, or resting. When she reached the grooming room, she saw Trip crouched over Levon as he lay on the floor. Kas grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away, reaching in his jeans pocket for his cell phone.
“What’s going on? What’s happened to Levon?” she said, trying to pull free from Kas’s grip.
Kas quickly dialed a number while holding onto her arm, hurting it. Without letting go of her, he listened on his cell phone and then said, “We need an ambulance at the Lone Creek Ranch right away.”
Forgetting the pain in her arm, Tabby gasped softly and said, “Ambulance? It’s that bad?”
“Yes.”
She glanced at Kas and realized he wasn’t answering her but to whoever it was he was talking with on the phone. She yanked free of Kas’s grip and ran to Trip. As she reached the grooming room, Trip was getting up from the position he was in over Levon. He pulled off his cowboy hat and staggered as he turned to her.
“Trip? What’s wrong with Levon?”
She’d grown to know Trip well over the years. He wasn’t a man who showed emotion. Not like her father had. But by the heavy slouch of his shoulders that made him look as if he were carrying a weighty load, she knew he was rattled.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Kas said coming up behind her.
“We won’t need it,” Trip said as he stepped away from Levon, giving Tabby a clear view of the ranch hand laying on the floor.
“Oh no!” Tabby cried as tears filled her eyes. “He’s hurt!”
Blood poured from the side of Levon’s head and flowed to the drain in the center of the room. His skin was gray, most likely from the blood loss, and his eyes were only slightly closed.
Trip took Tabby by the arm as she advanced forward. “No, Tabby. Stay back.”
“He needs help! We need to stop the bleeding.”
“What’s done is done. You can’t help him now,” Trip said, forcing the words up his throat as the gravity of what was before them sank in. “I need you to go with Kas and see if you can find Mad Dog. Can you do that for me? He took off on a run, but he won’t get too far.”
Tabby gazed up at Trip unable to understand anything he was saying. “He…what? He’s a fast horse. I won’t be able to catch him. We need to—”
“He won’t go far,” Trip pressed. “He’s lost a shoe. He’ll probably get the ranch gate before whatever spooked him is forgotten. Go. I’ll tend to Levon.”
She hated the sound of his voice, dark and dire. “Trip?”
“Come with me, Tabby,” Kas said, taking her by the arm. He wrapped his fingers around the same spot she’d yanked free of his grip earlier. She winced, which Kas saw. His distressed expression changed to guilt before her eyes.
“I want to stay and help Levon.”
“Let Trip do it,” Kas said, his voice low and strangely gentle.
She wrenched her hand free as irritation surged through her. “My parents were alive in their car for hours when they were in that crash. No one stopped to help them. No one. I’m not going to search for a horse and let Levon bleed to death while we wait for an ambulance before he gets help. What’s the matter with you two?”
“You can’t help him,” Trip said, his voice harsh and raw. Blood drained from her body leaving her colder than she’d been when she’d left the arena without her jacket. “Tabby, he’s dead.”
Sweet Montana Sky: Chapter Three
It took over thirty minutes to find Mad Dog. Then another thirty to get him back to the barn through all the snow he’d run through. During all that time, Tabby wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. But she only felt numb.
As Trip had said, Mad Dog’s shoe was missing. But they didn’t find that out until they’d reached the road and could inspect his hoof.
When Tabby and Kas finally made it back with Mad Dog, Tabby saw a police cruiser parked in front of the barn. The ambulance they’d seen speed down the driveway while they searched for Mad Dog out in the field had come and gone. But the police remained. Levon was dead and they wanted to know why.
Caleb Samuel walked up the aisle and met them at Mad Dog’s stall. Tabby had known Caleb for a few years. He’d been on the Sweet Police Department for several years, having joined after his military service.
“Is this the horse?” he asked.
“He’s the one who took off running, if that’s what you mean,” Kas said.
Trip walked up the aisle to meet them. “Is Mad Dog injured at all?”
“It doesn’t seem so,” Kas said. “He’s missing a shoe, just like you said though.”
“Good. Good.” Trip said the last word quietly. He looked beaten down. Tabby knew the feeling. She knew how to dress warm for these Montana winters. But nothing was going to keep the chill from her body today with what had just happened to Levon. She’d gone back to the arena to fetch her jacket and ran to her apartment over the garage to get her warm boots
