Free Smoketree by Jennifer Roberson

, Kelly. Remember that.”
    I knew what he meant, and I appreciated it. But I couldn’t help smiling. “At least with me it wasn’t intended. The fire was purposely set.”
    He looked at me sharply, furrows appearing between his brows. “What the hell are you talking about? Are you mixed up in some sort of trouble?”
    I laughed at him and put out my hands as the horse came up to the rails. He—or she—set his nose against my hand and blew softly. “Not me, of course not. There just seems to be some skullduggery going on around here. Evil’s afoot at Smoketree.” For a moment I gave my imagination free rein, eager for something different to talk about. Who cared if it was all a tall tale?
    “Kelly—”
    “No, really. Just listen.” I mulled it over a minute. “It’s like this. Smoketree’s a very valuable piece of property—it’s an ideal place for land developers to come in and build condominiums.” I shrugged. “After all, the ranch is practically surrounded by government land, and there’s a ski area just over the hill. So some big outfit comes in here and makes Nathan, the owner, an offer. But he says no, because he loves this land.” I was warming to my subject. “Right about then, the wrangler buys half the ranch. And then, these odd incidents begin occurring.”
    “Kelly—”
    “And, if these incidents go on long enough”—I paused for dramatic effect—“and cause Nathan enough losses, he’ll have to sell. ”
    Brandon sighed. “Have you figured out who’s behind it?”
    “No.” I frowned into the darkness, thinking about it. “Unless, of course, it was the butler.”
    “ What? ” It was a gust of air from his lungs.
    I grinned. “It’s always the butler in whodunits. Well, Smoketree doesn’t have a butler, but it does have the loyal retainer—sort of. Harper Young. Head wrangler… and half-owner.” I laughed. “You see?”
    He didn’t. “I think you’re out of your mind. Still, I’ll admit I’d sooner see you out of it than in it.” He grinned back, “Come on, Kelly, you don’t really mean to tell me—”
    “Why not?” I demanded. “The land developers are paying Harper to make Nathan sell his portion. Then Harper sells his half—and Smoketree is no more. ”
    “It’s too simple,” he retorted.
    “Simple things work best,” I proclaimed. “Don’t you see? All these accidents. A man on the inside would be invaluable. As a matter of fact, I’d be willing to bet these incidents started happening right after Harper bought into Smoketree.”
    “No, they didn’t,” said Harper from the far side of the pens. “They started right before.”

Chapter Six
    I jerked my head around and stared at him, stunned. He climbed the pen bars like rungs of a ladder, stepped over the top one and dropped down. The horse left off investigating me and wandered over to inspect Harper; he patted the dark neck and approached. His face was expressionless.
    “You heard,” I said lamely.
    “It was hard not to, seeing as how I was so close.”
    “Were you listening?”
    He grinned and paused at our end of the pen. “I came down to finish my evening chores. I overheard my name. Wouldn’t you have listened?”
    I swallowed. “How much did you hear?”
    “Enough.” The grin faded, but the amusement remained in his eyes. “You tell a mighty tall tale, ma’am. But I got to admit you do it well.”
    I opened my mouth to explain it had been nothing more than a moment’s diversion, but Harper was extending a hand to Brandon and introducing himself. So I had to content myself with making a mental note to explain things later.
    Harper did not stick around. Once he and Brandon had exchanged amenities he was gone, intent on finishing his chores. I considered beating a hasty retreat to my cabin, but Brandon’s hand settled on my shoulder and stopped me. “He’s your villain?”
    “Well, he seemed like the type,” I muttered.
    Brandon grinned. “He wears a white hat—or almost.