by T. J. Kline
Valentino pranced away from Sydney to circle the corral before returning to her, nudging her shoulder. “I don’t see anything,” she whispered.
Scott held a finger up, listening. He’d heard a rustling near the barn, but that could have been one of the mares inside. He circled the corral before waving Sydney to follow him to the barn. After checking each of the mares and the tack room, Scott peered into the dark feed room. Nothing seemed amiss, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. He reached for Sydney’s hand and led her from the barn. As she reached back to turn the light off, he stopped her.
“No, let’s leave it on tonight.” Scott hoped the presence of the light would deter anything unwelcome from entering the barn or coming anywhere near the corral illuminated by the fluorescent glow.
“I didn’t see anything, did you?” Sydney asked, her voice wavering.
Scott pulled her into his arms once they had entered the back door. She didn’t seem any more at ease than when they had first heard the noise. “Like I said, a coyote probably went past the corral and Valentino kicked at it. I’ll have to fix that board in the morning.” He brushed a stray hair from her forehead. “Let’s go back to bed.”
Scott followed Sydney back to the bedroom. He knew that his reasoning was only meant to reassure her. There had been no other sounds since the crack of the horse kicking the fence. Had it been due to wildlife, they would have heard its retreat into the pasture as it made its escape. He stopped just before reaching his room and unlocked the gun cabinet under the stairs.
“Scott, are you coming?” Sydney called from the bedroom.
“Just checking the doors again.” His first priority was to protect Sydney with any force necessary. If anyone tried to touch her again, they would pay with their life.
SCOTT WOKE AS the sun turned the clouds along the horizon pink and orange. He’d only had small fits of sleep last night after checking on the horses, mostly lying awake to listen to any sound outside. He’d known that if he rose and stayed on the porch it would only rouse suspicions with Sydney, and he didn’t want to be far from her in case there was any trouble. Maybe he was just being overly cautious, especially considering they hadn’t had any trouble for several weeks, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that seemed to settle in his spine, as if he had overlooked something in his inspection.
He poured a cup of coffee and stepped out the front door, heading toward the feed barn. He couldn’t see if the barn light was still on from his angle, but he would know soon enough. He prepared the mixture of mash, grain, and alfalfa pellets for the mares, grabbing a large flake of alfalfa for Valentino and pushing the wheelbarrow of food toward the barn door. Approaching, he could see the light, faint in the morning sunrise, through the doorway as he heard the mares nicker a breakfast greeting. He poured the mixture into each bucket, relaxing a bit more as he fed each one. The animals seemed fine. Maybe they were all just letting the trouble with Kurt unnerve them.
Scott left the wheelbarrow in the barn and turned off the light. He carried the flake of hay to the corral but dropped it the moment Valentino came into view. The stallion lay flat on the ground, facing away from him. He rushed toward the fence, stopping when he saw the blood pooling beneath the animal. Scott’s hands shook as he reached for the cell phone in his pocket and immediately hit the speed dial for the veterinarian’s emergency number. The machine instructed him to leave a message. Scott made his way into the corral to see Valentino’s empty eyes staring skyward. Feeling for a pulse at his neck, he touched only cold fur.
Valentino was gone, and there was nothing the vet could do now. Scott dialed the sheriff instead, giving them directions to Mike’s house. After hanging up, he stood and dialed Clay’s cell phone. He reached him on the second try.
“I need you to show the police how to get here, Clay.” Scott was devastated. He’d failed Sydney again. This was going to destroy her. Valentino had been the culmination of her life’s work. “Valentino’s been killed.”
“What? How?” Clay stuttered. “Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine.” Scott sighed as he stared down at the lifeless horse. “I’ve got to go tell her. The police should be there shortly. Just bring them here. I don’t want her alone right now.”
“Kurt?”
Scott rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I don’t know. I think so.” He scanned the horizon. There was no trace that anyone had been on the ranch recently other than the two of them. “He could still be here for all I know.”
“I’ll be there as soon as the police get here.”
“Thanks.”
“And Scott,” Clay began. “Hang in there, brother.”
Scott wondered how he could break the news to Sydney. Whatever monster had done this had been right under their noses.
SCOTT HUNG UP the phone as he entered the house through the back door. He turned and dropped the blinds that hung over the doors.
“Scott?” Sydney called from the kitchen. “Do you want some more coffee before we head over to Mike’s?”
Sydney came around the corner, sipping her own coffee. “I can make you a cup if you’d . . .” Her words died in her throat and he could see the worry slip onto her brow. “What is it?”
She must have read it in his face. “I want you to stay inside.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” A slight tremor coursed through her voice as she tried to control her panic. “Scott, you’re scaring me. What happened?”
Scott wasn’t even sure how to break the news gently. He reached for her shoulders. “It’s Valentino.”
“I need to get out there.” She tried to brush his hands away from her, spilling hot coffee on both of them, sucking in air as the liquid scalded her arm. “Ow!”
Scott rushed her to the kitchen sink and turned on the water, letting it cool the angry red coloring her arm. He held her arm under the water while pinning her against the sink, his chest against her back. Sydney hung her head.
“Scott, please. Tell me what’s going on.”
He leaned to her ear. “He’s gone, Sydney.”
“Stolen?” He could hear the hint of hopefulness in her voice. He pressed a kiss to her temple, hating that his next words were going to break her heart.
“No, princess.”
Sydney’s body slumped against him, allowing him to hold her upright. He turned off the water but felt her tears burning his forearms. She sobbed in his arms but said nothing. Scott heard the tires crunching on the gravel driveway, but he wasn’t about to let Sydney see the horse in the corral. He turned her to face him and cupped her jaw in his fingers.
“Wrap your arm while I go meet with the vet and the sheriff. Do not come out there until I come get you.” She nodded but wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I mean it, Sydney.”
She looked at him, the tears still streaming down her cheeks, and he could read the questions she left unasked. He couldn’t give her the answers she sought right now. He couldn’t even offer her a moment of shared grief. “I promise I’ll come back in as soon as I have any answers for you,” he whispered before pressing a kiss to her mouth.
SCOTT HURRIED TO the corral where Clay waited with Dr. Mitchell and one of the local sheriff deputies.
“Scott.” Dr. Mitchell barely acknowledged him as he continued to inspect the lifeless stallion. He knelt by Valentino’s head, running a hand down his neck before rubbing at a spot with his finger. “Right there.” He rose and turned to the officer. “Scott, this is Deputy Barnes.”
The officer held a hand out to Scott. “Sorry to meet you under these circumstances.” Scott shook the man’s hand.
“Any ideas who might have done this?”
“I have my suspicions, but I can’t prove anything.” Scott turned back to Dr. Mitchell. “What was it you were pointing out?”
“A puncture wound. This animal was drugged. Someone planned this out.”
Clay rose from his position, squatting near the horse. “What?”
; “See this?” The vet pointed toward the majority of blood pooled near Valentino’s hindquarters. There was a mangled mass of flesh lying by the horse’s leg. “He was given enough drugs to take him down, but then he was castrated.”
Dr. Mitchell shook his head. “Whoever did this had the tools with him—or her,” he clarified, “and then took them when they left.” He pointed toward the spots of blood on the grass heading toward the barn.
“But there’s no evidence left behind?” Clay asked.
The deputy shook his head. “So far, nothing. A few shoe impressions in blood, but nothing with prints, and some tire marks near the barn. I’ll check the gate on the corral and in the barn for prints, but I’m not hopeful.”
Scott turned to Clay. “You know this has Kurt written all over it. That sadistic bastard.”
“He had no idea where Sydney was staying.”
“Who?” The deputy asked.
“You guys have been searching for the past couple weeks for Kurt Willits. He assaulted Sydney at Mike’s and the only reason he didn’t kill her was because this stallion got out. According to Sydney, the stallion attacked him.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like this place is easy to get to.”
“We grew up together as kids. He was out here almost as much as I was growing up. He even worked with Mike for a while.” Scott explained. “He knows the property like the back of his hand.”
“But he couldn’t have gotten past Mike’s house without someone seeing him.”
Scott frowned. Clay was right. Someone would have seen the truck, at least. Dr. Mitchell reached into the back of his truck and pulled out a tarp.
“I’d like the doc to do an autopsy on the animal.”
Scott nodded. “But not here. Sydney’s in the house.”
“I’ll need to speak to her as well.” Barnes jotted down a couple of notes on his pad while Dr. Mitchell went back and covered Valentino with the tarp. “Anything else you can think of that might help us?”
Scott sighed. “No, I . . . last night we heard the horses making a bit of noise, so I came out and checked on them.” He remembered the broken corral board. He pointed toward the broken board, hanging askew. “We assumed that Valentino had just gotten worked up about an animal when he’d broken that board.”
Barnes moved closer and inspected the broken wood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small manila envelope and some latex gloves. He slipped the envelope under the board and Scott saw him pluck at the wood before dropping something into the yellow package and seal it. He stood and made his way back to his beat-up Chevy.
Clay helped the vet cover the horse with the tarp so that only his head was exposed. “Did you want to get Sydney?” Clay jerked his chin toward the house and the shadow they could see behind the blinds. “At least let her come say goodbye.”
Barnes made his way over to where Scott and Clay stood. “You didn’t see or hear anything last night, did you?” he asked Clay.
“Jen and I were up watching a movie, so we wouldn’t have heard a truck over it, but we would have seen lights and we didn’t see anything at all.”
“Is there any other way to get to this property other than the road?” Barnes asked Scott.
“I’ve been using the west gate. But no one else even remembers it’s there.”
“Are you sure? Have you driven that way since last night?” Scott shook his head. “If you show me where it is, I’ll check for tire tracks. Maybe we can get lucky and get a set other than yours.”
“Sure. The road cuts behind the bar and up over those small hills. It’s pretty rocky but . . .”
“And the other horses?”
“I headed to the barn first this morning. Everything was fine in there. I left the light on last night when we went back into the house and it was still on this morning. Whoever did this was only looking for Valentino. It was personal.” Scott had no doubt that any evidence was going to point to Kurt, and he wasn’t about to wait around for them to find him. They hadn’t found him after Sydney’s attack, and they certainly weren’t going to waste too many man-hours searching for him for killing an animal, no matter how valuable Valentino might be.
“I’m going to get Sydney.” He turned to Barnes. “Can you keep your questions for her until later?”
Barnes gave a curt nod. “But I’ll need to talk with her about it after I check out that hillside.”
“All right.” Scott made his way back to the house and Sydney stepped from the doorway. He’d expected her to be watching, but peeking through the blinds couldn’t prepare her for the sight that would meet her in the corral. He met her on the deck and escorted her down the stairs. She held his hand but didn’t seem to want him for support as she pulled him toward the corral. He tried to hold her back as she hurried, wanting to prolong every moment before the grief he knew she was about to experience.
Sydney stopped at the corral gate, as if the sight of the tarp-covered animal on the ground had stolen the air from her lungs. She dropped Scott’s hand and both of hers flew to cover her mouth, holding in a silent scream of horror. Seeing the reality for herself was far more painful than her imagination could have prepared her for. She slid between the wooden slats of the corral, ignoring the gate altogether, and kneeled down beside Valentino’s head. Scott saw blood near the back of the horse and moved the tarp to cover it, but Sydney simply ignored him.
Tears fell, slipping down her face too quickly for her cheeks to contain them. She stroked his face, her hand slipping over his glassy eyes and closing them eternally. Her fingers caressed the velvety muzzle and Sydney leaned down, pressing a kiss on Valentino’s cheek.
“Goodbye, my friend,” she whispered, her tears flowing unchecked. She laid her cheek against the horse and closed her eyes.
Scott placed his hands on her shoulders. “Come on, princess. Let’s go inside.”
She let Scott lift her from the ground and surveyed the men in the corral as if seeing them for the first time. She spotted the sheriff’s vehicle making its way toward the hillside.
“You know who did this.” She pointed her finger at Scott. He nodded in agreement.
“He’s not going to get away with this.”
“He said he was going to do this, and he did. And they didn’t do anything to stop it.” She aimed her anger at the deputy, out of earshot.
“Sydney, they have a warrant out for him.” Clay argued.
“Hell of a lot of good that did.”
“Now that Kurt knows where she is, you might as well take her back to Mike’s. The more eyes you have around, the safer she’s going to be. This place is just too secluded now,” Clay pointed out. “Sydney, go get your things together and I’ll take you back to Mike’s.”
She looked to Scott and her eyes flashed with fire when he nodded his agreement. She was looking for a fight. Someone would go after Kurt, but it wouldn’t accomplish anything just yet. Kurt was going to pay, but first Scott had to make sure that Sydney was out of his reach and safe, although he wasn’t even sure what that might entail at this point. She stormed from the corral, shoving the gate open, and headed back to the house.
“I don’t want her here when you load up the horse. That’s not something she needs to see.”
SYDNEY THREW HER case onto the bed, wadding up shirts and throwing them inside. She was sick and tired of being treated like a possession, of everyone making decisions for her. She had just walked into the bathroom and reached for her toothbrush when she heard the slight creak of the bedroom door. Scott entered quietly, almost as if he was waiting for an explosion.
“Sydney?”
She stepped through the doorway and threw the toothbrush in the bag, barely glancing his way. “What? Any more instructions, boss?”
“Stop,” Scott said, reaching for her arm, attempting to pull her into his embrace.
“Why?” She jerked her arm from his grasp. “What difference does it make? Valentino is gone, Kurt is still out there somewhere plotting his n
ext revenge, and you are still ordering me around like one of your ranch hands.”
Scott ran his fingers through his hair. “I am trying to keep you safe.”
“I don’t want you to keep me safe.” She threw her jeans into the bag and zipped it up. “I’m not even sure it’s possible.” She hated the defeat she heard in her voice, but she was tired of running.
“Look, I’m sorry I failed you last night. I should have trusted my gut and moved Valentino.” Scott threw up his hands and punched the door.
Sydney was taken aback by his admission. She didn’t blame him for Kurt’s actions. She simply wanted to be with Scott instead of playing this cat-and-mouse game with a lunatic. She placed a hand on the back of his shoulder. “Scott, there was no way you could have known what Kurt was going to do. I don’t think anyone would have guessed that he was this far gone.”
Scott turned and faced her, pulling her into his arms and burying his face in her hair. She felt her hair rustle as he breathed a sigh of relief. “He could have killed you last night,” she whispered.
“He could have killed either of us.” He pulled her close, as if the threat were still near. “Clay is taking you back to the ranch where there will be more people around. More eyes will keep you safer. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“And what about you?”
“I’ll bring the mares back tonight. It’s not me that Kurt is after.”
“Fine.” One of these days, she was going to have to push Scott for a commitment, but Sydney didn’t have the strength to argue with him. Her fight had left her when she saw Valentino’s body in the corral. She shrugged and reached for her bag. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”