The Black Sheep and the Hidden Beauty (29 page)

“Which is why you left the racing world altogether.”

“In part. I didn't want to have that conversation with anyone there.”

Good at avoiding, he thought again, but bad at lying.

“But it was also time for me to go.”

“Which is what you told Kate when you took the job here.”

“Yes. I also told her Springer was pregnant, but I didn't want to spook her by mentioning her problems right off. I knew Kenny would be there for me, so it wasn't going to adversely affect anything here.”

“And you weren't worried she'd mention it when she called your references?”

“No, not really. Why would that come up? But even if it had, it had been a while since I'd left and I wasn't too concerned that anyone would put it together. I hadn't mentioned exactly how far along she was.” Her eyes widened. “Maybe she did mention it though, maybe that's how—”

Rafe shook his head. “No, she didn't—she mentioned that early on when this whole thing started. And I didn't mention it, either, if that's your next question. That wasn't on my radar at that point.”

She sat back in her seat, shoulders slumping a little. “I just can't figure out the connection. Why me? Why now? I mean, even you calling and doing some additional background checking shouldn't warrant all this. And I can even maybe, understand the insurance guy, but not this thing with Kenny.” She hugged her middle. “I can't stand this. I really can't.”

“I know. I'm not liking it much, either. What do you plan to do after the foal is born?”

“I don't know,” she whispered. “Legally—”

“It's Gene's. If I'd paid the stud fee, the baby would be mine.”

“Which is how much?”

“More than I'd earn in a lifetime. Even if I won the lottery and Geronimo were still sitting pretty in his stall, I don't know what would have happened if I'd come forward and told the whole story. I have no problem giving the baby up—it's Gene's, by all rights. But with the way things turned out, the entire world is mourning him, and with suspicion running rampant, while I have a horse carrying his only offspring—I have no idea what would happen if I came clean. To me. Or to Springer.”

“Elena—”

“Don't say it. Okay? Just drive. I don't want to think about it right now. My only concern is to find Springer and make sure she's okay. Is there someone you can call about your guy? I'm really scared that something has happened to Kenny. Would he be there by now?” She rocked in her seat a little, hugging herself tighter. “Everything is falling apart. I thought I had it under control, and now it's all unraveling, and people I care about might be getting hurt. I'll never forgive myself—I just wanted to make sure Springer got through this okay.”

“I know.” He tugged her elbow until he loosened the death grip she had on her middle, and pulled her hand into his, weaving their fingers together, holding on so she could feel the strength of his conviction in his touch and in his words. “We're going to find her. And we're going to figure this out. I'll find out what your legal standing is. We have all kinds of contacts—”

She looked instantly panicked. “No one else can know—not until she's foaled, not until—”

“No one is going to know. The nature of our business means we only work with people who know how to be discreet about their work. And, trust me, they want to work with us.”

“I know, but this is pretty high-profile stuff. The temptation to leak it would be huge. I just—I'd rather not involve anyone else.”

“Who said anything about mentioning Geronimo by name? Listen, you've trusted me this far, trust that I know what I'm doing in this, too. It's not just something I want to do, it
is
what I do. And I'm damn good at it.”

“I'm not trying to insult you—really, I'm not. It's just I've spent so long protecting her, protecting…all of this. It's hard enough to bring you in. Hell, I didn't even bring Kenny in, and look what's happened to him.”

“Mac is due back tomorrow and we'll sit down and talk about it, all three of us. Kate, too, if you'd like. After this little road trip today, I hope we'll come out of this with more information.” He tightened his grip on her hand when she went to pull away. “It's my decision, not yours, to put myself in the middle of this. Mac and Kate, too. No guilt trips. You're carrying a big enough load as it is.”

“There's no one else at fault here but me—of course I feel guilty.”

“You can save it, where I'm concerned.”

She started to say something, then stopped. Eventually she relaxed a little in her seat. He had no idea what was going on inside her head. What he did know was that she still had her fingers entwined with his. For now, that was enough.

Silence grew between them, more from necessity than strain. It was broken a few minutes later when his phone chirped. He'd let go of her hand to retrieve the phone from his pocket, when brake lights suddenly blared ahead of them.

“Shit.” He slowed and glanced down at the incoming message at the same time.

“Is it your guy? About Kenny?”

“Hold on,” he said, looking up again, frowning. “There's no turnoff here. What is he doing?”

A split second later he got his answer. Johansson had abruptly put his big truck into a swerving one-eighty and shot off in the direction they'd just come from. Rafe didn't even get a good look at the guy. His side windows were tinted. Which meant he didn't know if the guy got a good look at them, either. Could be why he'd pulled the stunt in the first place, but the way he'd taken off like a bat out of hell told Rafe otherwise.

“Are you going to follow him?”

“It's a bit trickier now. If I turn right now, the jig is up that he's being followed and we lose whatever leverage we had.”

“Or? You can't just let him take off like that.”

“Or, we continue on until another car passes in the opposite direction, then turn around.”

“What if we can't catch up? It's not exactly a superhighway out here, in case you hadn't noticed. One slow car and we're screwed now that he's running.”

“Which works in our favor. As I recall, there isn't another crossroad going that direction for a good ten miles. Plenty of time to catch up.”

She folded her arms and tucked herself back into her seat, some of her defenses sliding automatically into place. “You'd better pray this as-yet-unseen car we're waiting for is also being driven like a bat out of hell.”

“We'll catch up to him.” He grinned at her. “Trust me.”

“W
here is he? I don't see him. Did we lose him?” She grabbed his arm. “What happens if we lose him?”

“We've only been backtracking for about ten minutes. It's a one-lane road with no turnoffs for miles. He's up there, okay?”

“Feels like ten years,” she muttered, trying mightily to keep the panic at bay, but this sudden turnabout made that pretty much impossible.

“I had myself half convinced the insurance guy wasn't going to amount to anything. Now this. I feel like we should be heading to Kenny's, but now I want to know why he made that sudden turn. Have you tried to return the call yet?”

“Yes. No reply.”

“Why would everything be gone? I don't get that part. Why would anyone want all of it gone? Who would do that? Who would want to do that? If they just wanted Springer, why take everything? It's not like electronics you can just throw in the back of your stolen van, you know? This required serious planning. Long-range planning.” She shifted in her seat so she faced him. “Springer has only been there for one day. How could anyone have planned a full-scale abduction of Kenny and every horse on his farm in a single day?”

“How many are there?”

“No, no. You're supposed to say something comforting, like, ‘maybe they're all safe in their stalls and we just can't see them.' Even though I know he has more horses on the premises than he has stalls. Or you could say ‘maybe he moved them for a different reason. Maybe there was some kind of wild virus at a nearby farm that required immediate quarantine, so he moved them all to be safe.' Why can't you say something like that instead of asking how many horses he has, because you think someone really did come in and steal them, and abduct Kenny, and you're trying to figure out what they needed to pull off a job that size.”

“Elena—”

“I know I'm hysterical, okay? I know! Just—just find that damn pickup truck, then pull him the hell over and let me talk to him. I can find out what he knows. He wants to talk to me, remember? We can make this work in our favor. I know we can. We just have to find him, dammit!”

“We will, and I know you're at the end of your rope here, but you have to hang in a bit longer. When we get her back, Springer is going to need you, and you won't be any good to her this way.”

He was right. Of course. He was always right. She willed her racing heart to slow, but, in the end, she found her strength in the steady, tight grip of his hand on hers.

They trailed behind the slow truck in front of them for a few more miles, with Elena trying in vain to peer around the side to see who was on the road in front of the truck. By this time, Johansson could be forty miles ahead of them.

“I know we can't see around this truck, but if he'd turned off at any point, we'd have seen him.”

“Not if he'd gotten far enough ahead, we wouldn't. Do you know most of the farm properties around here? Are there any with any kind of race interests?” she asked.

“Finn grew up here, I didn't. He'd be the one to know.”

“I know he's out on some job, but is there any way to send him a message? I mean, if we can't track Johansson down, then that means he's somewhere out here, most likely.”

He glanced at her as if something new had just occurred to him. “Have you had any contact with neighboring farms in any way? Have you ridden with anyone from another farm? Talked to anyone? Anyone else know you or that you have a pregnant horse?”

She immediately shook her head. “I've deliberately kept a low profile. Even with Kate's own students and their families. I work with the horses and the barn help, that's it.” She paused as a thought struck her, then swallowed hard. “But the barn helpers know I have a pregnant horse. So does the farrier and the vet.”

“Would they mention it to anyone? Even in passing? Have you talked with anyone about the problems she's had, something that would make talking about her interesting?”

She looked over at him, her heart creeping toward her throat once again. “The horse community is always small, whatever area you're in, so…yes, it's possible. But, no, no one other than Kate knows she's had a bad birth history, and without that piece of info, just having a pregnant horse isn't really gossip-worthy.”

“What about the fact that you used to work for Charlotte Oaks? Any of the barn helpers, students, families, or Kate's instructors ever pay attention to that? I can see where it would be something that could stir some interest.”

“No, I made a point not to talk about that, or where I worked before coming here. They all know I have experience, but I let my work speak for itself. Unless Kate mentioned it to someone, but you said she didn't even know about Geronimo, so I doubt it.”

“You have any other ties to this area besides Kenny? You said your dad was a trainer—”

“North Carolina mostly, and that was a very long time ago—and a completely different field of expertise as well. He and Kenny are from the old days. My parents have been gone for some time now, and my dad had already retired from training a while before the accident due to some health issues. Kenny moved up to this area about ten years ago.” She fell silent. “Do you think someone from around here somehow pieced things together? It just doesn't make any sense. Where would Johansson fit in, then? Where did you say his agency was based?” A dozen different scenarios tried to form in her mind at the same time.

Rafe wove his fingers through hers, keeping them trapped against his thigh. “I know you're not going to like this, but I have to ask—and you have to push sentimentality aside and try very hard to focus on any real possibility. Do you think there is any way that Kenny is involved?”

“Of course he's involved, I involve—” She broke off as his meaning sank in. Her mouth dropped open, then snapped shut. Her immediate response was to vehemently deny that there was any possibility that her father's old friend was in any way associated with Johansson or anything that happened on his farm.

“Push past the emotional part,” Rafe said quietly. “I know it's not something you even want to consider, but, like you said, why would someone uproot Kenny's entire operation if all they were after was Springer?” He rubbed his thumb along the side of her hand. “Is it possible that he figured out whose baby Springer was carrying and, perhaps, got a little greedy?”

She shook her head, adamantly denying it, even as the rationale of Rafe's argument took root and stubbornly refused to be ignored. “He couldn't. He wouldn't have.”
Not to me
, she thought.
Not to me
.

“He knew you worked at Charlotte Oaks. He knew about Geronimo. Maybe he figured out the timeline and counted back to the conception date, then put two and two together. He could have run some tests, couldn't he? If he had any idea about the conception situation…he'd know that baby would be worth a whole lot of money.”

“He wouldn't do that.”

“How much do you know about his situation? About him? Could he be having some kind of problem? Be desperate for cash?”

She let her chin drop to her chest as everything inside of her rebelled at the very notion that she could have been betrayed by the only person she'd known, without a doubt, she could trust. She just couldn't see it; even when she tried to be objective, she couldn't see him doing it. Then another thought occurred to her and her head shot back up. “Maybe Johansson found out where Springer was before coming to Dalton Downs. Maybe he went sniffing around Kenny's place and got him worried. Maybe Kenny packed up and got out because he'd been threatened in some way.”

“And not told you about it?”

That stopped her, but only for a second. “Not if he thought communicating with me would put me in any kind of immediate danger. I'm sure he'll let me know where he is when he can.” There. That was more like it. That was an explanation she could live with, an explanation that made real sense.

Rafe kept rubbing the side of her hand with his thumb. When the question came, it came gently. “What kind of danger would make him pack up his entire operation and skip town?” He squeezed her hand to keep her from replying until he was done. “Why not contact you and let you know the situation and tell you that Springer was in danger and needed to be moved right away? It doesn't make sense that he'd pack up everything.”

“What if whatever it was, was sudden and there was no time? I'm hours away. And the reason he packed them all up is because he couldn't leave any of them behind to an uncertain fate. It's the reason people run into burning buildings to save the family dog. No way would he just abandon all of them to save one of mine.”

Rafe seemed to ponder that for a moment, his attention on the road ahead.

“Or!” Her mind was spinning now, and she needed a second to let the scenarios in her mind play out. “What if his whole operation was threatened? Not just Springer?”

“What do you mean?”

“Whoever killed Geronimo did it by burning down the entire barn. Maybe that same someone threatened to burn down Kenny's barns unless he turned Springer over to them. It would make sense, then, that he'd move all his horses. He couldn't protect the buildings, but he could protect what he put in them.”

Rafe nodded. “Makes sense.”

She took enormous relief from those two words. She knew it was a plausible scenario and had to believe in it, but she also knew she was incapable of being objective at this point. Not just because a betrayal of that magnitude would be too hard to take, but if she was right, it meant that there was a better chance that both Kenny and Springer were somewhere safe and unharmed.

“I still come back to why he hasn't contacted you in some way. He has to know you'll be terrified.”

“He doesn't know I know he's gone, just that he hasn't been answering his phone. I wasn't supposed to go back down there until tomorrow or Thursday. And yes, he'll know that my not being able to get him on the phone will worry me, but—”

“Enough to know you'd drive out there yourself, and then what?”

“He'll contact me. I know he will. Unless—” A sick ball of dread formed in the pit of her stomach. She turned to Rafe. “Unless it's not just me he's worried about putting in danger by making contact. Rafe…what if Dalton Downs has been threatened in some way?”

“If you're right and someone is coming after him, they already know about you. It's the only way they could make the connection and track Springer to Kenny.”

“Do you think that's why Johansson was at the farm today? Do you think he's the one who tracked her? Then he gets there and she's gone and he's furious. It would explain why he came hell-bent for leather onto Dalton Downs property.”

“Except, what would have tipped Kenny off? If Johansson hadn't been there yet, how would he know to move?”

Just then the truck in front of them braked abruptly, red lights glaring. Rafe braked hard, too, causing Elena to grab at the dashboard.

“Great,” she said, as they came to a complete stop. “We'll never catch up to him now. We should have just taken off after him the second he made that one-eighty.”

“Actually,” Rafe began, as traffic began to move slowly forward, shifting to the oncoming lane as directed by a line of road flares, “maybe it's a good thing we didn't.”

“What's going on?” Elena craned her neck, trying in vain to see around the truck in front of them, but as they shifted lanes, she got a glimpse of what had snarled the rural highway. In the distance there were flashing emergency lights and a cluster of vehicles on the side of the road. “Looks like an accident up ahead. Maybe, if we're lucky, Johansson is caught in the backup, too.”

Rafe didn't say anything, and something about his silence drew her attention.

“What did you mean when you said it was a good thing we didn't turn around right away? Because we might have been the ones in that accident?”

Rafe split his attention between the road ahead as they continued to crawl forward, and the scene of the accident as it drew closer. They were almost abreast of it when Rafe abruptly pulled off on the opposite side of the road and put the truck in park.

“What are you doing? Stopping to help? They have a half-dozen emergency vehicles here already—why are we—?”

“Stay here,” he said, his tone brooking no argument, then got out of the truck.

She immediately popped her door open, but he swung back, as if expecting her not to listen to him.

“Let me check this out first. I need you to stay here. Keep the truck running. I'll answer your questions when I get back.”

“Rafe, what in the world are you—” She stopped and slowly panned her attention across the road, peeking in between the passing cars and trucks, trying to see through the emergency vehicles to the accident itself. “Oh my God.” She spun back around toward Rafe. “That's not—”

“I'm afraid it might be. We have no idea what's going on, and I need to find out. You stay here. For a bunch of reasons. We're clear on that much, right?”