“You showed me what to do. I can handle this,” she said, sending him a look that told him he would be unwise to argue with her. He looked as if he was about to object, but he finally just shrugged and muttered under his breath. “What was that, Joe?” she asked.
Quickly turning back to her, he flashed her a big grin. “Nothing, boss.”
She knew he was being cheeky, but she couldn’t prove it, so she decided to let it go. After all, they’d be working together all day.
“All right then. Let’s get started.”
When Tony stepped out and saw her standing there, he was wise enough not to say a word to her. “You all know what to do,” he told everyone. “Let’s have a productive day, because this will be a long three weeks.”
And then Brielle followed the crew out to the harvesters. Man, were those machines intimidating.
It didn’t matter. She could do this. Climbing up into one of the giant beasts, she tried desperately to remember how to get it going. When she started it on only the second try, she was feeling pretty damn accomplished. When the others pulled out and she was still sitting there, she picked up her pace, and soon, though the combine jumped a little, she had it moving and a satisfied grin split her face.
“You take the field on the right.”
Looking down, Brielle found the CB that Joe’s words had just come through. She’d never used one before, but picking up the handle, she pushed the button. “Roger that,” she said and then a giggle burst from her mouth.
For some strange reason, she’d always wanted to say that. Oh, how her old friends would mock her if they could see her now. But as she sat there, she realized how vain an existence they had all led. Yes, she’d traveled to numerous other countries, lounged on beaches around the world, and sat in the VIP section of all the best clubs, but she had nothing to show for it.
Today, she was doing something that mattered. The wheat would be harvested and then used all around the world to fill bellies, to provide nourishment. That was something much more important than lying topless on the sands of Brazil.
She felt pretty dang cool sitting in this behemoth harvester. Taking a few minutes, she watched what the other men were doing, and soon, she was on the edge of the field and cutting away. As the blades on her combine knocked down row after row of wheat, Brielle knew there was no way the men could say she didn’t know what she was doing anymore.
Sure, her rows might not be as smooth or straight as the men’s, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was out here working. She was being productive, and she was learning something new.
Halfway through the field, Brielle grew concerned. She couldn’t quite put a name to the odor, but it was certainly a burnt smell. But it had to be that the machine was working so hard. Not that big a deal. She continued on for a few more minutes, until smoke began drifting inside her cab.
Panic filled her when the smoke became overwhelming. When she looked back and saw flames, she reached a whole new level of terror. She opened the door and looked down at the moving ground.
Not knowing what else to do, she jumped out and found herself rolling in the field as the combine continued moving forward with smoke billowing from the undercarriage and cabin.
Fear driving her on, she leapt to her feet and began running, looking back over her shoulder to see the combine light up on fire, and the wheat field go up like a torch. The flames reached out toward her like demonic fingers, moving closer and closer. What if she ended up burned to a crisp in this giant wheat field?
That would be the perfect ending to her perfect life, she thought as she tried to run as fast as she could through the field, disoriented as the smoke swirled all around her. Not taking the time to look back over her shoulder again, she ran as fast as she could, the smell of the smoke making her cough and causing her lungs to burn.
Then she tripped and went skidding face first into a cut row. It was the end. Struggling to her feet again, she glanced around — the wrong move.
The fire was right on top of her, flames only a few feet away. Screaming, she began running again. Was it too late already?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Do you smell something?”
Colt looked over at Tony as the two men walked from the barn. He had his own fields to harvest today, but instead of hopping into a combine and blaring his favorite country tunes, he found himself once again at the Ponderosa Pines Ranch.
Colt was bowled over by the transformation he’d seen in Brielle. Sure, he knew that much of the way she’d behaved when she’d first arrived had been an act, but she still hadn’t known a thing about running a ranch. This last month, though, she’d soaked up everything he was telling her, and she’d learned eagerly and efficiently. When Tony told him she’d decided to take out one of the combines and harvest a wheat field, he’d laughed. Not at her, but with delight.
She was doing an excellent job of learning how to run the ranch, and she wasn’t happy just sitting idly by on the couch anymore. She was getting her hands dirty and she was earning the respect of her employees.
Wait. Yeah, Colt did smell something. “What is that?”
“It smells like burning rubber.”
The two men picked up the pace and looked over the ranch. One of the combines seemed to be smoking.
“What the hell?” Tony exclaimed.
The two men stood in shock for a few seconds, neither of them moving as one of the wheat fields slowly began smoldering. Next, they saw flames shoot from the bottom of the combine, setting the smolder to a full-fledged blaze, and then the door to the combine opened and out rolled Brielle.
“Is she trying to get herself killed?” Tony took out his cell phone to call out an SOS to all local ranchers.
Colt watched the combine go up in a fiery ball while still moving in slow circles in the dry wheat field. It wouldn’t take long for this blaze to get out of control.
It took him a moment to find his voice again. “Call the fire department,” he shouted to one of the men outside the barn, and then he was sprinting toward the field as fast as he could, because even though Brielle was running away from the fire, she wasn’t going fast enough. The blaze was in a hurry to catch her, and there was no way Colt was going to let that happen.
Leaping over a ditch, he made it to the field just in time to see Brielle face-plant, then get back up off the ground and scream. By now the field was ruined, and in the distance Colt could hear the sounds of the engines as several ranchers bringing their fire tenders in — huge diesel trucks with mammoth containers filled with water in the beds, basically private fire trucks.