The Black Sheep and the Hidden Beauty (34 page)

She wished she had the nerve to do something daring, like swerve the truck, leap from the side door, but too many things could go wrong with that plan. Most of them deadly.

Another fifteen minutes passed without a word. She had no idea how to gauge where he was mentally. He hadn't badgered her about Springer or the baby, or questioned where they were headed. Maybe their sparring had sent him in a different direction mentally, though whether more or less sane and rational, she had no idea. The way he was just sitting there, brooding, she'd bet on less.

She was just trying to come up with another conversational gambit to get him talking, to try and get a better read on him, when she heard a distant sort of thumping sound. It took her a few seconds to place the noise, then it hit her. Helicopter!

They'd gotten Finn to come back. Or something. It had to be. She knew there was enough wealth around, and that Dalton Downs wasn't the only spread with a helipad, but she had to hope that they'd spotted her. Only…had they? Would they know she was in the truck? She knew it was a Charlotte Oaks truck, but there was no obvious marking. Gene didn't go for that, claimed it was tacky and crass. But he had had the entire fleet painted a specific shade of tan that wasn't available through regular purchase. She knew it. And anyone who worked at Oaks would know it—but would Rafe or Finn know that?

The sun was well up now, and the skies were clear, but as she tried to scan the sky surreptitiously, she saw nothing. The sound faded and she wondered if she'd imagined it. Maybe she was finally losing it. She'd been through enough at this point that it wouldn't surprise her. But she knew what she'd heard.

She tried to keep from telegraphing her sudden renewed alertness, staying semi-slouched at the wheel, keeping her hands as relaxed as possible. She did her best to scan her rearview mirror, not chancing a look over at the one outside the passenger door.

JuanCarlo was still deep in thought, so she maintained the status quo while trying to figure out what she'd do if there was a helicopter, to signal them. Swerve? Flash her lights? Would they see that? Maybe they'd just been flying over behind her on their way to Kenny's, it being a more direct route by air than by land. Or maybe it was nothing at all.

Then she heard it again, fainter this time, and tried to strain to hear it without being obvious. Then she saw it! A flash of black in her rearview, there in the far distance, then suddenly gone again. It was black, and small, just like the ones she'd seen them use in the past. They were staying well back, she supposed to keep from triggering a reaction from JuanCarlo.

Or maybe it wasn't a Dalton Downs chopper. What if it belonged to someone else involved in this? The Vondervans, maybe? Maybe it was Gene, tracking down JuanCarlo.

And then they passed the sign for Kenny's county and, of course, that he noticed.

“Where are you headed?” he demanded, suddenly alert, and very angry.

“You said to drive, and so I just started driving.”

“Where?” He swung the gun up and pressed it directly against her temple, making her jump and swerve a little at the swiftness in his change of mood.

She righted the steering wheel, surprised her heart hadn't leapt right out of her chest. “I—I thought we should go to Kenny's, see if we could find any clues to where he took Springer.”

“You are planning something. Tell me!”

She was trying to come up with a plausible story when, very abruptly, a black helicopter lowered and hovered about two hundred yards dead ahead of them.

He jammed the gun harder against her temple. “What have you done?” he screamed.

“Nothing—I haven't done anything,” she yelled back, slamming on the brakes.

“No, no!” he continued screaming, waving the gun now. “Go around, go around!”

“I can't—there isn't enough room.” She was shaking so hard she could hardly grip the wheel. So much adrenaline had pumped into her system over the last hour or so, she was sick to the point she honestly thought she might throw up right there in the truck.

“I said go around!” he barked as she continued to slow down. “They will move—they will not chance hurting you.”

She didn't know what to do—then she drew close enough to see that Rafe was in the passenger seat. If she was close enough to see him, he was close enough to see her. She had no idea what he thought was going on, but hopefully the gun being waved around at her had given him a good clue as to which side she was on.

She knew what side she was on. And vowed to make sure he never doubted it. If she lived long enough.

JuanCarlo was still screaming threats and obscenities, and it was like everything was happening in slow motion. She kept her gaze locked on Rafe.

He pressed his hands in a downward motion. He wanted her to stop.

So she did.

Hard.

R
afe lost another lifetime when he saw the gun pointed at Elena's head. He never wanted to relive the emotions he'd experienced in the past few hours, but he most definitely would choose them over this.

He knew who was in the passenger seat. He'd figured it out when he'd contacted Charlotte Oaks a little over an hour ago and asked to speak to him, only to be told that JuanCarlo had disappeared three days ago and nobody knew where he'd gone.

JuanCarlo had fielded Kate's initial call, and heard about Rafe's recent follow-ups when the trainer he'd spoken with had mentioned it to him and speculated about what Elena could have done to warrant such interest. JuanCarlo had done some checking on Trinity, and decided to look into it. He was crazy, but his instincts were solid. He'd been the one to hire Johansson. As Rafe had speculated once he'd uncovered Johansson's other line of work, he hadn't been working in his capacity as an insurance investigator—that had been his cover story to get close. He'd apparently called first, using a made-up name, as a prospective client for Trinity, but Mac had filtered him out as someone looking for a handout. Then he'd contacted Kate, with a different name, acting as a parent needing help for his child, and she'd invited him to bring his child to see the camp and talk with her about his needs. He'd shown up without his supposed special-needs child, claiming he wanted to see for himself before bringing his son. It was hard to say how he'd have learned about the pregnancy, but with no one knowing what was going on, it likely had been revealed innocently enough by one of the barn helpers.

Kate said she didn't recognize Johansson when he stormed her office the day before, but he'd been wearing aviator sunglasses and was waving an insurance card around, so she hadn't put the two together.

What Rafe didn't know was why he'd been killed, or what had made him turn tail and race off the day before. He prayed he'd have the chance to find out.

He pushed his hands down, signaling Elena to stop, and braced himself for what was to come next.

Each second of the next twenty seemed to stretch beyond infinity and back, even as it was happening so fast, he hardly had time to think. Only react. He'd already radioed Mac and sent up a silent prayer that his partner got there in time for backup. The pilot gave him a thumbs-up and shifted the chopper so the open door on Rafe's side faced the swerving front end of Elena's pickup truck…and the waving muzzle of JuanCarlo's gun.

The pilot had to make dipping adjustments as the truck's brakes locked up, and it slid almost sideways directly at them. Rafe motioned for Elena, who was fighting the wheel with all she had, to exit out of the driver-side door, which was presently aimed right at him.

He could hear the squealing tires even over the chopper noise, and smelled the burnt rubber as the truck completed a spin, putting JuanCarlo facing him. He prayed JuanCarlo would change targets, trading Elena for him…but he was too smart for that.

The truck finally stopped when the tires hit the soft sand on the side of the road, rocking dangerously onto two wheels before settling right-side up.

Rafe signaled the pilot to land and was out the door, gun drawn, before JuanCarlo could get his door open.

“Put the gun down,” he shouted.

JuanCarlo just laughed, then dragged Elena across his lap by her hair and shoved her out the door in front of him, keeping one arm around her throat, the other holding the gun to her head.

I'll kill him
, Rafe decided. Just for that.

“It's over, JuanCarlo,” he told him. “You're stuck. Deal with me now, before everybody I've radioed shows up, and you'll do a lot better. Once you're outnumbered with guns, I can't make any promises. We know about Johansson. We found Aaron. There's a lot of trigger-happy people out there just dying to talk to you.”

“Then die they will. I'm no idiot.”

Rafe opted not to comment on that. He tried not to look at Elena, to keep his focus exclusively on JuanCarlo. It was his only chance at getting through this without losing his edge.

“You tell me where Springer is, and we'll cut a deal on the baby. We don't want him. He's already caused way more trouble than he's worth to us. Everybody wins.”

“No!” JuanCarlo shouted. “Everybody has already lost.”

“Why'd you torch the stables?”

“Revenge,” he spat out, surprising Rafe that he'd responded.

So he pushed some more. “You wanted something you couldn't have. What wouldn't Gene give you?”

Elena mouthed the word
Kami
, despite having her windpipe all but crushed under JuanCarlo's forearm.

Rafe hadn't seen that one coming.
Shit
. JuanCarlo and Kami Vondervan? Oh yeah, this had gone way south. This was no rational assault for the intent of getting rich that had somehow gotten out of hand. This was obsession. And JuanCarlo had killed for her now, so there would be no bargaining.

“You killed Geronimo to get back at Gene? What did he do to you?”

“He didn't care about that goddamned horse. It was a token for him, a token!” JuanCarlo shouted. “Something to keep her happy, to keep her quiet.”

To keep her from you
, Rafe thought. So Gene had given Geronimo to Kami as a present. Now JuanCarlo wanted to give her his only heir as a way to woo her back. Christ.

“You can keep her happy with the baby, isn't that right, JuanCarlo? I can help you with that. All I want is what is mine. And that is the woman you're holding. Anything else is yours. I can make that happen.”

He jammed the gun harder against her head and JuanCarlo's finger twitched on the trigger.

“You must think I have lost everything if I would take such an offer.”

“You don't have much at the moment,” he told him. “I'm the only one who knows where her horse is.” A lie, and he hated giving her that hope, but there was no other way. “You take her out, and I have nothing left. Then I won't care. I'll just start shooting and we'll see where that ends up. Either way, you'll never get that horse. You can only get the baby going through me.”

“Or me.”

At the sound of Mac's voice, behind and above Rafe, coming from what could only be a perch atop the chopper, JuanCarlo looked up.

And his hand holding the gun dropped.

That split second was all the time Rafe needed.

I
t all happened so fast, they had to explain to her later what had happened.

Mac had taken out JuanCarlo's knee.

Rafe had blown off his elbow.

All she knew was that JuanCarlo had dropped to the ground howling, taking her with him, and she'd scrambled from his suddenly lax grasp and half stumbled, half crawled across the pavement and into Rafe's arms.

That had been three days ago. At some point, she figured she'd stop shaking every time she thought about it.

Rafe must have felt the tremor, because he squeezed her hand.

She was sitting next to him in the helicopter as they headed south to North Carolina. He didn't much like her being beyond arm's length these days. As it turned out, she was perfectly fine with that.

“I hope we get there in time,” she said, hating the waver in her voice. The past three days had been like three centuries.

After surgery on his arm and leg, JuanCarlo was presently sitting in a jail cell, but the story was all over the media and likely would be for weeks to come. And again, later, much later, when he went to trial.

She was just happy being high above the earth, temporarily away from cell phones, reporters, and a replay of the nightmare of media attention after Geronimo died. Only this time the focus was on her.

Rafe had already lined up an attorney. They'd already spoken to Gene and Kami, and he'd been so thankful to find out that Geronimo had an heir, he'd very willingly worked out a deal with her. Turned out the horse had been far more than a token to him. It had been something special he'd always wanted, and a gift to his wife as a promise to be a better husband.

Given the way the Vondervans had been clutching each other's hands when they'd all met face-to-face, she hadn't doubted he'd turned over a new leaf. She'd hardly recognized him, in fact. Apparently it had taken almost losing a second wife to make him realize what was important.

Now they'd have the baby…and Elena would get her freedom. All they had to do was get to Kenny's cousin's farm in North Carolina in time to see the baby being born.

“I still can't believe what Kenny did, to keep her safe.”

Johansson had tracked Springer to Kenny's but Kenny had turned him away. Which was why he'd stormed Dalton Downs a few hours later. In that time, Kenny had trailered his horses to a neighboring farm a few minutes down the road, then loaded up Springer and taken her out of state until he figured out what was what.

It turned out that Johansson was the one who'd gotten greedy. Once he'd figured out the paternity of the baby, he'd tried to stick it to JuanCarlo, playing middleman for a fee. A much higher fee than they'd originally agreed on. Only Kate hadn't let him talk to Elena, and Kenny hadn't let him near the horse. So he'd left Dalton Downs, apparently heading back to Kenny's, with some plan in mind. Only he'd seen JuanCarlo in the Charlotte Oaks truck, heading the opposite way on the one-lane road, and pulled a one-eighty, apparently deciding to beat him back to Dalton Downs. Only JuanCarlo had put an end to that plan with a bullet in Johansson's head.

Then he'd staked out Dalton Downs until he could get Elena alone…and the rest had happened from there.

It was the media story of JuanCarlo's shootings and arrest that had finally brought Kenny out of hiding. After a very relieved reunion over the phone, they'd told him to stay put. Springer had been having some continued problems, which all the traveling had only exacerbated, plus they hadn't talked things out with the Vondervans at that point.

Now things looked like they would be settled amicably…and, other than the media, the worst was over…and then Springer had gone into early labor.

Now they were flying south, with Elena squeezing the life out of Rafe's hand, willing the damn bird to fly faster.

“Almost there.”

“What if—”

“Don't. Positive thoughts only.”

She nodded, then squeezed her eyes shut as the pilot dipped down suddenly, heading toward a big square marked with hay bales in the back of what appeared to be a pretty decent spread.

“I'll never get used to this thing. It's just not natural,” she told him, still queasy at being this high in the air. A first for her.

Then they were landing, and Rafe let her go, right on her heels as she sprinted to a waiting farm hand and he directed her to the barn where Springer was trying to give birth.

She entered the darker interior on a skid, willing her eyes to adjust faster so she could find Kenny. It was the sounds of her horse in distress that pointed her in the right direction.

Ten seconds later, she was pulling on shoulder-long rubber gloves and after a loud, smacking kiss on the top of a crouched Kenny's head, got right in next to him and helped her horse give birth forty-five sweat-drenched minutes later to what turned out to be a very beautiful little colt. Not that she was biased or anything.

Once the event was safely over, Rafe pulled her back against his chest, wrapping his arms around her as she stood, tears streaming down her cheeks, watching while Kenny helped Springer with the afterbirth and got her cleaned up. “She's going to be okay,” she said, for what was probably the dozenth time.

“I know,” Rafe said, awe and wonder clear in his tone. “You might not like flying, but what you just did…” He trailed off and pressed a kiss to the side of her temple.

She winced automatically. She was still sporting a pretty good bruise there from JuanCarlo's gun muzzle, but at the moment there was no pain in her world.

“Sorry,” he said, immediately soothing the tender spot.

“Right now, life is perfect. There is absolutely nothing to be sorry about.” She turned into his arms. “Except what I just realized I am doing to your very expensive shirt.”

“I'll live,” he said, not flinching in the least when she pressed her birthing-covered overalls against his chest and plastered a kiss on his mouth. When he lifted his head, he looked down into her eyes, and said, “I'm pretty much only interested in seeing you smile at me the way you are right now for as long as humanly possible.”

She kissed him back, then they both turned to look at the baby, who was trying hard to stand on very wobbly legs. She laughed and cried at the same time.

“What are you going to name him?”

“Not my job. That's up to Gene.”

“Oh, I don't know about that,” came Gene's booming voice from the aisle just outside the stall.

She looked up, trepidation filling her as she looked at her former boss. “You just missed it.” The Vondervans had flown their own helicopter down. “I'm so sorry.”

“She healthy?” he asked, motioning to Springer.

“Yes, she'll be fine.”

“And he's okay?” he said, pointing to the baby.

Elena nodded, her throat closing over as the emotion of the day caught up with her. She couldn't stop the tears from continuing to leak out.

“Then it's all good,” he said, tugging Kami into view for the first time. “Look at him, honey. Just look at him. That's our future right there.”

And the gruffer note in his always gruff tone told Elena just how moved he truly was. Then he shocked her by looking up at her…and offering her the entire world on a platter.

“I have a name already waiting to be registered, but there is something else I'd like you to consider,” he said.

She swiped at her face with the shoulder of her t-shirt, but it did little to clean up the now tear-streaked muck. “I'm just happy he's okay,” she told him. “I'm so sorry about everything, I—”

“I believe we've covered all that.” He'd already made it clear he wasn't much for overt emotion, so she did her best to get herself under control.

“What was it you wanted me to consider?”

“Coming back down to Charlotte Oaks and helping out with his training. See what he's got.”

Elena knew she couldn't have heard him correctly. She felt Rafe's arm tighten reflexively around her shoulder, but he said nothing. She looked from him, back to Gene, but she wasn't dreaming this.

“I—I don't know what to say. After what I did—”

“What you did was give me a dream. Don't much care how it happened. All things happen as they do for a reason.” He looked at Kami then, and there was no mistaking the emotion on his face, or hers. He looked back at Elena, his voice a little rougher when he continued. “Don't mistake this offer. The world is going crazy with this, and me making you this offer sums up as nothing else could where I stand on this issue. I want peace and quiet as soon as possible. I know of no better way to end the speculation than making a very public show of putting this all to rest.” He drew Kami closer. “The only time I want that little fellow to garner global attention is when he's winning the triple crown.”

“Mr. Vondervan—Gene,” she corrected, as he'd demanded early on. “I—I'm not sure, I—”

Rafe pulled her aside then, and spoke over her. “It's been a long couple of days. Can you give her a little time to consider this?”

Not surprisingly, Gene seemed rather taken aback by that, and Elena started to step in to smooth things over. Then Gene looked between the two of them, and said, “Take all the time you need. We're staying local at least for the next few days. You?”

“We're staying here,” she said, “but I won't need that long to give you an answer.” She looked up at Rafe, and knew without question what her response was going to be. But she needed to talk to him about it first. If she was going to make this big a life-altering decision, then he had a right to know what it was she wanted before she did it.

 

It was much later that evening, but she finally had time alone with him. They were standing at the stall door, watching mother and baby. Elena was showered and presentable this time. Rafe was effortlessly perfect as always.

“Elena, we have to talk about this.”

“I know. That's why I brought you out here.” She turned to face him, but he spoke before she could start her little speech.

“This is a huge thing, what he's offering you. Regardless of his motives, given what you've told me about the racing world, you won't likely have this big an opportunity again.”

“Never, actually, given that what I've done is now being very publicly analyzed and dissected. I'm the most reviled person in horseracing.”

“Ah, you're being harsh.” He smiled a little. “It's about fifty-fifty, the love and the revilement.”

She smiled, too. “Well, then, maybe by the next millennium, someone will trust me around their plow horse.”

He laughed, and brushed the hair from her face. She'd left it down on purpose, knowing he liked it that way. It felt good, actually. Her scalp was still sore and the braid she'd put it in this morning, in anticipation of the birth, hadn't helped matters.

He traced his fingers across her cheek, then down along her nose, and across her lips. It made her sigh and tingle all at the same time.

“You should do this, Elena. Show the world what you're made of.”

“The only person I'm wanting to show that to is you.”

His eyes went darker as his pupils expanded in a physical response to her declaration, but he kept his touch light, and his voice steady. “I already know.”

The look in his eyes made what she had to say even harder. He wanted her, but she could see the noble gesture, just waiting to be made. Stupid man. She took a little breath to get steady before she told him what she wanted to say, needed to say.

“Elena—”

“Rafe—” They spoke at the same time, but she went on first. “Hear me out. I've made my decision, but I want to explain it to you first, before telling Gene, aka the entire world.”

“I wouldn't be surprised if he holds a press conference outside the stall here.” At her alarmed look, he tugged her closer into his arms. “I'm kidding. And I'll also make sure we let him know that's not going to happen. Just in case he is planning such a thing.”

“I don't think he'll need to make an announcement.”

Rafe's smile faded. “Elena, if you're deciding against this, and I have anything to do with that decision—”

“I am turning him down.”

“It's not an either/or decision, you know. If that matters.”

That stopped her. “What did you just say?”

He cupped her cheeks, tilted her face to his, and looked into her eyes. “I said, you don't have to choose me over the horse, or vice versa. If that's what you're doing.”

“Not entirely, but—”

“If you want both, we'll make it work. I don't have to be in Dalton Downs. And for that matter, the baby doesn't have to be at Charlotte Oaks.”

“Gene would never—”

“You don't know that. Until we try. Either way, we'll figure something out. That is, if you want both.”