“Fine. Exhausted.”
“Exhausted, happy exhausted, sexy exhausted, Hmmmm?”
“Well, most of the time happy exhausted but not so much this week. I’ve been trying to decide to whom I’ll sell my practice and I’ve been talking to potential buyers. Let me tell you, it’s damned humbling, mortifying, and tiring. I’m over it and still have three more people to talk with next week. Okay, hey, I’m on my way to a call for a colicky pony. So, how about next weekend up at the cabin? Vicente has to go to Delaware on Friday and won’t be back until Sunday afternoon. We could go Friday night, ride on Saturday and Sunday and come back in time for dinner on Sunday. And, as a special treat, I’ll ask Vicente to tell me what I need to make one of his tapas plates for us before he leaves. We can have that for dinner Friday night, while we catch up, drink wine, and have a relaxing evening. What do you think?”
With a teasing tone in her voice, Freddie said, “So now I don’t get to see you until Vicente goes out of town? Ha!”
“Now Freddie, cut me some slack. Vicente and I are just beginning our relationship. You know what it’s like. We can’t get enough of each other—on anything. Talking, sex, more talking. A lot more sex. Anyway, I’ll fill you in on the salacious details when we’re at the cabin. Let me know later in the week. Gotta go. I’m at my emergency call. Bye.”
After taking care of the sick little pony, Georgie returned her equipment and medical bag back to the truck. Georgie shifted her thoughts to Teegan and Bonnie. Georgie decided that she didn’t want to sell Bonnie just yet but did want Teegan to ride her in competition. She had devised a lease arrangement whereby Teegan would pay a fee monthly, be responsible for her care, and so on. Georgie called Teegan to tell her of her decision. As they spoke, she detected a hint of annoyance in Teegan’s voice, but she bit her tongue and didn’t comment. She knew that Teegan knew that it was more important to have Bonnie to be her primary horse for competition than to own her. Plus, she figured Teegan believed that eventually she could convince Georgie to sell her and that was okay, for now. They made the agreement.
“I’ll have Osvaldo make the arrangements to ship Bonnie to you. It’ll take a couple of days to get that organized, but I expect that you’ll be riding her late next week.”
“Thank you so much, Georgie. This will be so wonderful. I know that Bonnie is the horse that will take me to the medals stand. Thank you, thank you.”
It seemed to Georgie that Teegan had settled into the idea of a lease. She was pleased.
Chapter 14:
When it Rains in Spain, it Pours
Vicente was back in the tulip garden, laying out the locations for some of the bulbs for Georgie’s surprise garden. As he was emptying another box of bulbs, his cell phone rang. He looked at the number and noticed that it was an international one. “Hola. Vicente.” As he listened, he felt his jaw tense and, a scowl formed on his face. Vicente nodded as he listened to the person on the phone.
“Si. Yes. Yes, Claudia. I will come home. Si. As soon as I can. I will call you when I have details.” He disconnected and slowly began to pick up the bulbs scattered on the ground. He collected them all, putting them carefully back in the box.
In the barn, he placed the box on the table and went to go find Osvaldo. His mind was ablaze with images of his brother as a happy young boy, as a teenager and as a young man. He clearly saw his angry, twisted face on the day he divorced Angelica and walked away, leaving him behind to ruin the family and their good name. That was the last time he had seen his brother. And now he was dead, “under mysterious circumstances.”
Vicente thought about his mother and his sister and knew that he needed to be there to help them through this. His heart was conflicted—wanting and needing Georgie to help him make sense of this situation. Mostly he needed her touch to heal him and make him feel whole. And he knew in his heart that his duty now as the oldest son meant that he needed to be in Spain, to help his family make sense of it all.
He dialed Georgie’s number, but his call went to voice mail. “Georgiana, something terrible has happened to my family in Spain. I must go as soon as I possibly can. Please come to the house. I need you near me. I need your strength.”
Vicente was sitting in the living room, with a glass of scotch in his hand. When Georgie arrived, it was apparent to her that he had been crying. She went to him, wrapping him in the comfort of her arms.
“I’m sorry for your pain, my love. How can I help you? Just tell me and I’ll do whatever it takes to help make this easier for you.”
She held him tighter. Eventually, Vicente told her all he knew, including details of his flight to Spain the next day. As Vicente packed his bag, he told Georgie what he expected to find when he got to the family home.
“My sister Claudia and my mother will be distraught, despite the fact that they knew in their hearts that this would eventually happen. I will have to be the strong one, making the arrangements and taking care of everyone. I also know that Angelica will make an appearance as she lives close by and still thinks she is part of the family, despite the divorce and the business dissolution. Please understand, Georgiana. I will do my best to stay far away from her deceit and her manipulation but know she will be there. I want you to understand that I will keep you in my heart and my mind constantly, despite whatever happens there.”
Georgie said, “I’ll be here, waiting for you. We can talk or Skype every day. If you need me to come to you, I will. Whatever it takes to help you get through this and bring you safely back here.”
* * * *
What Georgie did not say was that she feared that Angelica would do something horrible to deliberately hurt Vicente. Despite never having met her, Georgie felt intense dislike and anger toward Angelica. She envisioned a beautiful woman with wickedness in her eyes, a manipulator who would go to any lengths to get what she wanted.
As the evening wore on, Georgie and Vicente sat in front of the fire, quietly being together. Their mood was somber, but they still felt happiness and contentment in each other’s company. Vicente’s plane was leaving from Dulles International Airport at five.
“Do you want me to take you to the airport?”
“Yes, my love. I do. I cannot bear to be away from you—I want you near me for as long as possible.”
Georgie slept fitfully that night – she had grown used to having Vicente next to her. She awoke, un-refreshed and tired and walked zombie-like through the day after Vicente left. She knew that she would not likely hear from him until later that week. She felt the absence of Vicente acutely. In such a short time, she had grown used to and needful of his naked body next to hers each night. She craved his touch and felt empty without him. The second night he was gone, Georgie, restless in their bed, tried to send powerful messages across the world to her love. She fell into a restless sleep. Suddenly, her cell phone rang, waking her up immediately.
“Doctor Faris.”
“Georgiana, it is Vicente. I am sorry to have woken you, my love, but I needed to hear your voice.”
“Oh, Vicente, I miss you. I don’t like sleeping without you. Are you all right? Is everything under control now that you are there?”
“Yes. It is as I expected. Claudia and my mother are distraught. I had the doctor come and give them some medicine to calm them. It seems to be helping.”
“How are you doing? Are you taking care of yourself?”
“I am fine but lonely and sad, lonely for you and sad for my brother. Our family members will begin arriving tomorrow, so there will some distraction for me. I will finalize the arrangements, so I will be busy. But that does not alleviate my missing you.”
“Oh, Vicente. I’m so sorry that you have to go through this. But I know that you’ll be strong and support the whole family. I miss you so very much. Our bed is terribly empty without you.”
“Our bed. I have not heard you say that before. Our bed. It is important, isn’t it? When we are together, we are home, in our bed. I do not know what go
ds smiled on me, but it is a miracle that I found you and now we are together. You make my life complete.”
“I love you, Vicente. Yes, when we are together, we are home.”
They talked for a few more minutes, before trying to hang up.
“You need to go back to sleep, my love. We must hang up.”
“I can’t bear to hang up—I won’t have your voice in my ear. But yes, I know you have much to do and I should sleep. I have more meetings tomorrow, and I’m on call tomorrow night.”
“Good night, my love. We shall talk tomorrow.” Vicente disconnected the call.
Georgie went through the next two days on autopilot. She met with potential buyers for the practice, rode Tanner, and made barn wellness visits.. She and Vicente talked every day and texted several times each day as well. She refrained from asking about Angelica, though every time they talked, she was tempted. Georgie, You have a plan for every imaginable scenario. It is the ones you can’t imagine that bite you in the ass. She fell, exhausted into bed each night, alone and lonely, feeling disconnected and empty, needing Vicente to make her whole.
The next morning, Georgie’s phone rang, dragging her out of her fitful, dreamless sleep.
“Doctor Faris.”
“Georgie, it’s Teegan. Something terrible has happened. I cannot believe it. I am so sorry.”
“Settle, Teegan. Slow down. Tell me what happened.”
“I was in the barn, going to check on Bonnie in the quarantine stalls and she was gone. Yesterday, I had gone to see her, and I found a person in her stall getting ready to give her a shot. I asked him who he was, and he said he was the barn vet, but I told him that I knew he wasn’t and stopped him and started yelling. He grabbed his bag and ran out. This morning, I went into the barn very early because she was coming out of quarantine, and I really wanted to ride her as soon as I could. I went in to get her, but she was gone. Her stall was empty. We called the police, and they checked the cameras. The cameras only caught the backs of two men with hoodies and Bonnie’s back end as she was removed from the stall and loaded onto a van. It was a big van, and other horses were already loaded. The cameras got a partial license plate—from Florida—and a Miami International Airport Restricted Parking sticker.” By the time she got done she was sobbing. “I am so sorry, Georgie. The police are here. I don’t know what to do.”
Georgie was speechless. Finally, she could muster up words. “Fuck. You cannot be telling me this. Jesus H., Teegan. What the fuck?” Georgie’s anger was palpable. She could not breathe, and she could not cry. She wanted to jump thought the phone and strangle Teegan until she was blue in the face. She switched her brain into crisis management mode. “What have the police said? What are they doing? What do I need to do?”
“According to the police, we can’t do anything just yet. They’re following up on the camera feeds and are investigating the airport sticker. There are police scouring the roads and barns all over Florida looking for the truck. I am so sorry, Georgie. I don’t even know what to say.”
“Fine. I want to talk to the police officer or detective or whoever is in charge. What’s his name and number?” Teegan gave Georgie the information, and with a terse, “I will let you know what I decide to do,” Georgie hung up.
“Fuck. Fuck. I cannot believe this. Think, Georgie. Think. Who owns the barn? Those people Teegan hooked up with? Why did they not have security? More cameras? Did the person who took Bonnie know what level horses were there? I need to talk to the police in Florida.”
Georgie called the detective that Teegan had indicated was the lead. Peppering her with all the questions she had, the conversation went on for more than forty-five minutes. Georgie learned a few things that Teegan had omitted. Apparently, there had been several very expensive horses removed from their stables across Florida, all of them relatively well known, or, like Bonnie, a younger horse just gaining status in the ranks. All had competition experience at the international level. This had been going on for about two weeks. It was a major crime in Florida that was unfolding across the world. The detective posited that the horses were stolen in order to be shipped to Europe and then to Asia for sale to wealthy people who wanted horses with great training and significant pedigree and provenance, who would pay lots of money for an easy way to build a competitive string or give a privileged child a guarantee to the winners’ circle.
After her conversation with the detective in Florida, Georgie got on the phone and called a number of her friends in the horse world who filled her in on even more details. After many tense conversations, she determined that she could only monitor the situation and—and be furious at Teegan. She was speechless and so angry that she could not even form words about Teegan and the people she had hooked up with.
She knew that she had to call Vicente and Freddie. But first, she would go talk to Osvaldo and see if he could pump his connections for information.
* * * *
Vicente sat in a large wing-backed chair in the library of his family’s ancient estate. Many people were in the salon on the other side of the door, but he needed a break from the constant crying and reminiscing about a person whom he loved but ultimately did not trust or respect. Vicente was conflicted. His brother was dead, but he had done so many terrible things, to Vicente directly, to his mother, his sister and the reputation of his family and their business. His anger outweighed his sadness regarding his brother. Plus, he missed Georgie terribly and needed her in order to feel centered. Just as he was pulling out his phone to call her, the door opened and in waltzed Angelica, silk flowing around her as if she were walking through a cloud. The familiar sweetish, powdery scent of her perfume, as usual, too heavily applied, created an envelope around her rail-thin body. She was beautiful, lithe, and tall. Long wavy blonde hair cascaded around her face in soft curls. Small wrinkles had begun to appear around her mouth and blue eyes, and Vicente noticed hardness in them, a tension that made her look older than she was. Her mouth was painted scarlet, much too dark for her light coloring, Vicente thought. He realized that he felt no attraction to her at all. His thoughts quickly shifted to seeing Georgie, small in height, bobbed hair, brilliant smile, and gleaming happy hazel eyes. His thought was interrupted.
“Ah, Vicente, my husband. I knew I would find you in here hiding. You look tired, my dearest one. Let me help you feel better.”
She strode across the room and held out her arms to hold him. Vicente raised his hands as if to push her away. “Angelica. I see you have returned from your travels.” He stood and quickly moved away from her to the other side of the room. He waited for her to offer condolences but was not surprised when she did not and instead, started talking about her trip.
“Yes, a fabulous trip. I found lovely horses, and they will be arriving tomorrow to my farm. Very exciting. We have buyers for all of them. Many will be going to Asia and the Middle East. Did you know that those sheiks love American Thoroughbreds, American Gaited Horses, and those jumping French ones? Who would think that given they have their little hot Arabians? And certainly not my style of horse for dressage. I need an elegant horse. All of these seem rather, oh, I don’t know, pedestrian, boring to me. But Andrew says that they are in demand and he should know! Anyway, I will stand to make a significant amount of money on all of these transactions. You would be proud of me, Vicente. I have learned to run a good business.”
“Good for you, Angelica. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get back to honoring my brother’s memory and caring for my guests and my family.” He moved rapidly toward the door of the library.
Angelica strode across the room and blocked his exit. “Don’t leave, my husband. You and I have not seen each other in quite a while, and I am anxious to hear about your adventures in the States. Besides, you look very handsome. I would love to get very reacquainted with you.”
She drew out the word very, and it was impossible for Vicente not to catch her meaning. She put her hands on his chest. Vicente reached up and pulled her hands
away. “Angelica, I am not your husband and have not been for a very long time. And most importantly, I am not at all interested in getting reacquainted with you to any degree whatsoever. I have done that before, and it all but ruined my life. Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to my mother and sister.”
He took a step to the right, moving out of her way, turned, opened the door, and left Angelica standing in the library, her mouth a tight, thin red line, her blue eyes deepened with anger.
Vicente managed to avoid Angelica for the rest of the evening. He did notice that she was seemingly accompanied by a blond man with whom she consistently was whispering. Both were constantly checking their phones. Finally, most of the family and friends left. Angelica and her friend came over to say goodnight to Vicente’s mother and Sister.
“Vicente, I would like you to meet my fiancé and business partner, Andrew Saint Romaine. He and I have been developing our business together, buying and selling horses around the world. You both should talk this week. You have so much horse life in common, not to mention me!” She laughed too loudly, though Andrew seemed to find this particularly amusing.
“Good night, Claudia. Good night Mamma Asturias. I am so sorry about Ricardo. We will see you at the cathedral tomorrow. Vicente, remember what I said.” She turned and flitted away.
Claudia and Mrs. Asturias hugged Vicente and went to bed, claiming sadness and exhaustion. Tomorrow would be very difficult, with a High Mass at the Cathedral, interment in the family plot and the large, traditional Spanish luncheon in honor of the deceased. The food and alcohol would flow late into the night. None of this did Vicente expect to make him feel any better about anything.
As he got into his own bed, Vicente felt overwhelmed with a need for release and to talk with Georgie. He began to envision her naked, seeing her lying open and waiting before him and was about to call her and give her a long-distance orgasm, when his cell phone rang.
Through the Red Gate [Honor Creek Farm] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 11