Chapter 6

Caitlin waited until Sarah was asleep before slipping out of their room. She wanted to tell Dom and somehow get a message to Hawke about Kim and Paul Lewis. "How odd that she never mentioned they dated," she thought. "I can see how maybe an ex-boyfriend could be a problem. Hawke's ex-girlfriend is sure turning out to be one."

She quietly walked past the main stable towards Dom's sleeping quarters. Something quickly caught her attention. "Smoke," she thought. "I smell smoke." Caitlin looked to see smoke coming out from under the stable door.

"Fire!" she screamed as she went in the stable to get the horses out. When she entered the smoke was suddenly thick. She could hardly see as she made her way to the back stalls. To her surprise, most of the horses were missing. Only one remained. She led the horse out of its stall towards the front door. Before she reached the exit, someone hit her on the head from behind, knocking her to the ground. Hardly conscious, she got up and tried to get out of the stable. She could barely breathe from all of the smoke. Caitlin began coughing uncontrollably as she reached for the door only to find that it was locked. She pushed as hard as she could but it wouldn't budge. "Help! Help!" she screamed. "Somebody help me!" Finally, unable to hold on any longer, she collapsed to the ground.

Around the corner from the stable, Hawke began to regain consciousness. He found himself lying face down in the dirt. Slowly, he rolled himself over and attempted to shake the cobwebs from his head. "What happened?" he thought before reaching behind his head and feeling a slight lump. "Damn," he said as she slowly got to his feet.

Moments later he smelled smoke and heard the commotion coming from the stables. He ran around the building to see what was going on. The rest of the staff was using hoses to try and get the fire under control. Two of them were working on removing a lock that was placed on the outside of the door.

"Are all the horses still in there?" he asked.

"It looks like they're all in the corral," replied Sarah. "I don't know how they got there. Someone put a lock on the door. We're trying to get it off to make sure."

Hawke looked around and panic set in. "Where's Caitlin?" he asked.
"I don't know," replied Sarah. "She wasn't in the room when I woke up. I thought she was already out here."

Hawke quickly helped the others remove the lock and opened the stable door. To his horror, Caitlin lay unconscious just inside. He ran in and gently picked her up and moved her outside to safety. Hawke checked her pulse and could barely find it. He realized she wasn't breathing. "She's taken in a lot of smoke," he thought.

String placed her flat on the ground and began mouth to mouth resuscitation. It seemed like an eternity to him before he finally realized that she was breathing, even if lightly, on her own. Moments later the paramedics took over. They placed an oxygen mask on Caitlin and began assessing his condition as well. Hawke suddenly realized that he was shaking uncontrollably and he felt like he couldn't breathe.

"You're hyperventilating," said one of the paramedics. He gave him a small brown bag and told him to continue to breathe evenly into the bag.

Hawke felt like his world was crashing down around him. He tried to calm himself and breathe as the paramedic had instructed. He noticed Dom was by his side although he didn't know how long he had been there. Dom put his arm around String's shoulder. "Take it easy kid," he said. "You're going to be okay." A few minutes later he had his breathing under control.

String finally stood up with Dom's help and watched as they loaded Caitlin into the ambulance. The paramedic informed them that she had a slight concussion along with the smoke inhalation so they were taking her in for observation. They asked Hawke if he needed to go in as well but he declined, saying that he was okay. "Since I'm her uncle," said Dom. "I'm going in with her. I'll keep you posted on her condition."

Hawke hated to let Caitlin leave without him but he knew whatever was going on at the ranch was getting more dangerous and he had to keep his cover. He was more than determined now to prove that Paul Lewis was behind all of this.

An hour later the fire was completely out and the staff was helping to clean up as much as possible for the evening. They helped move the horses from the corral to the second stable.

Kim came over to check on Hawke as the fire marshal met up with her. "It looks like the fire was an accident," he said. "We found a cigarette butt in the back stall. Someone was pretty careless."

"Hawke does Caitlin smoke?" she asked.

"What?" Hawke was furious. "You think Caitlin did this?"

"Well, she was in the stable," said Kim. "Everyone else was in bed and no one on the staff smokes. It's my policy."

"Caitlin doesn't smoke and if she did, she wouldn't be that careless," he replied nearly yelling at her. "Someone did this on purpose and it nearly killed her. How else would you explain all the horses being in the corral this time of night?"

"Calm down String," replied Kim. "I just had to ask to cover all bases. This has to be Paul Lewis then. Who else would benefit from this?"

"I don't know," replied Hawke. "But I'm sure as hell going to find out."