“Okay, we all have our marching orders, right?” Dalton asked.
Everyone nodded.
15
“Chocolate icing. Graham crackers. Gold medal ribbon ice cream from Baskin and Robbins. I’m going to go into a sugar coma. Did I tell you I love you Lindy Dressler?” Aurora looked at the bounty in front of her. If she threw up after eating this, who cared? At least for once the puking will have been worth it.
“I’ve missed you little cousin,” Lindy said as she pulled Aurora’s pony tail.
“Ouch, too hard.”
“You big baby,” Lindy said as she plunked bowls, spoons and knives down on the table.
“You got it wrong, L, she’s big with a baby,” Crystal laughed. “Why do we need knives?”
“To spread the icing on the graham crackers, of course,” Lindy answered.
Aurora already had her first graham cracker and chocolate icing sandwich made. “You two are slow on the draw. Dish me up some ice cream and fire up the laptop,” she said right before taking a big bite of gooey goodness.
“What exactly are you two working on?” Lindy asked after she scooped out the ice cream. Aurora eyed her cousin. She was braiding her long black hair.
“What’s with the braid?” she asked.
“Don’t want the hair in my ice cream,” Lindy grinned.
“You need to cut it,” Crystal fluffed her blonde bob. She turned the laptop, so everyone could see it. “Here’s the deal. Horse after horse has been coming here to Valhalla for Aurora heal. They’ve come in physically and mentally abused. Now they’ve supposedly been purchased from all over Oregon, Nevada and Northern California, but Aurora’s seen too many of the same things done to these horses to believe they’re coming from different places. They’ve been abused by the same handlers.”
“That’s true?” Lindy asked Aurora.
Aurora nodded as she dug in for another scoop of ice cream. She was going to have to stop soon, but Junior was really liking the sweet dairy product. They’d have to get rid of all the evidence before Gunnar came home.
“Aladdin was treated the worst. I’m in love with him, I’m in the process of buying him from the Beaumonts.”
“Of course, you are,” Lindy smiled.
“So back to me,” Crystal said. “Me, myself and I have narrowed down where the abuse is happening.”
Aurora’s spoon clattered to the table. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before?” she screeched.
“Well it’s not to an actual ranch or anything, it’s just an area,” Crystal admitted.
“I don’t understand. I think I might have a brain freeze,” Aurora put the heel of her hand to her temple.
Crystal had a map up on her computer and it had a circle around a small area near Yuba City.
“What are we looking at?” Lindy asked.
“You can’t tell anyone, okay?” Crystal asked nervously.
Aurora got excited, and she laughed when she saw her cousin get all cop-ish and frowny. “What did you do Crystal?” Lindy asked.
“Remember Rex from high school?”
“Rex Roberson, the guy who was in the drama club and chess club. The one who followed you around everywhere?” Aurora laughed. She hadn’t thought of Rex in forever. Lindy frowned even more.
“Tell us what the hell you did.”
“Mindy from the beauty parlor mentioned a couple of years ago that he was a spy or something. I looked up his brother on social media and tracked him down.”
“Oh God, so who’s the spy?” Aurora asked.
“Anyway, he’s really nice, and he’s divorced. Believe it or not, he has a daughter who plays soccer. So, I went to one of her games.”
“Does he live around here?” Lindy asked.
“No, over in Sacramento.”
“You went all the way over to Sacramento to flirt with some guy who’s a spy?” Aurora asked incredulously.
“He’s not a spy. Well not exactly. He works for DHS. Anyway, I brought orange slices for his daughter’s team. Then I asked him for a favor.”
“Oh God.” Lindy hit her head on the kitchen table. “Orange slices. You traded orange slices for information.”
“I told him what it was for. And I wore a push up bra.”
“Just tell me exactly what happened,” Lindy said.
“This is a Tahoe Trio, pinky swear,” Crystal said nervously. “We can’t get him in trouble. His little girl is counting on him. What’s more, he wants to help horses.”
“And he likes boobs,” Aurora said helpfully. She needed more ice cream.
“Apparently there’s something to do with I.P. addresses and cell towers that he was able to access with things like the conversations that the Beaumont’s had with the broker that they did business buying Aladdin. I went and got the same kind of information on the Anderson’s buying Lucky, and remember way back when Zeus and Candy came in over two years ago?”
“Oh my God. Just how high up is Rex?” Lindy asked. “Didn’t he check you out and find out your married to Danny?”
Crystal opened her mouth. Then Lindy held up her hand. “I don’t want to know,” Lindy said. “Let me guess, he was able to narrow down where the calls and internet sites originated?”
Crystal nodded guiltily.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Aurora said as she stared at the circle and her heart sank.
“You ate too fast,” Crystal said knowingly.
Aurora shook her head and pointed to the circle. “That’s why I’m sick.”
“What?” Lindy and Crystal asked simultaneously.
“I have to be wrong,” Aurora said. “It can’t be right.”
“For God’s sake, tell us,” Crystal demanded.
Aurora shook her head, her ponytail flying.
“Aurora Dawn, fess up,” Lindy commanded.
“The Lyle’s are right there.”
“Huh?” Crystal looked confused.
“Elsa and Dennis Lyle. It’s the Lyle Olympic Equestrian Center. They’ve been training horses for twenty years. Their horses are Olympic champions. They can’t be abusing horses. They can’t be. I know them. I’ve been to their center. I’ve seen their horses. It’s amazing.” It wasn’t possible.
“Crystal, how reliable is this information,” Lindy asked briskly.
“It was a Frederick’s of Hollywood push-up bra. It’s gold.”
“Aurora is there any place else within this area?”
“I’m sure there is, probably somebody’s farm or little ranch,” she said shakily.
“Okay. Let’s do a google map search.” Lindy smiled kindly.
“What are you doing?” Lindy asked.
Aurora was once again wrapped in Gunnar’s shearling coat in the barn. She was staring at Aladdin.
“I’m an idiot.” She looked into Lindy’s curious brown eyes, they were so like her own.
“Why do you say that?”
“Come into Aladdin’s stall. Stay near the door, I don’t want two of us crowding him, but I want you to be able to see what I’m going to show you.”
“Okay.”
“I never thought about the significance of the scarring on the backs of his legs.” Aurora opened the stall door, and they both walked in. Aladdin nickered and ambled over to Aurora, not even caring that Lindy was in the stall with her.
“You are doing so well,” Aurora praised the horse. She reached up and stroked the stallion’s neck. “You’re not afraid at all, anymore, are you? Soon I’ll get to ride you and everything.”
Lindy snorted. “Maybe in a year.”
“Can you turn just a little Big Boy?” Aurora positioned the horse so that Lindy could see the back of Aladdin’s legs. “He came to me bloodied because he had fought against the horse trailer. He was out of control. He was tranquilized, and the vet found fresh whip marks on him and focused on those. I was the one who noticed these thin scars on the back of his legs, but I didn’t put it together with abusive dressage training.”
/>
“What do you mean? You surely saw the marks, I know you,” Lindy protested.
“Of course, I did. The vet missed them entirely. Even Doc Barnes did when he examined Aladdin.”
“You’re kidding,” Lindy said.
“Nope. Like I said, he was a mess, so these thin scars were missed by them, they are probably three or four years old.” When Aurora touched them, Aladdin pranced back.
“Shhh,” she soothed. He calmed immediately.
“So, what made them?” Lindy asked.
“A thin whip that is often used for dressage training. They use them on the back of the legs to get them to do their high step. But never in my life have I ever seen somebody whip a horse to a point to leave scars when training them for dressage. Never. Like I said, I’m an idiot.”
Aurora was queasy, and it wasn’t the food or anything to do with the pregnancy.
“I guess you’re thinking it could be the Lyle’s after all, aren’t you?” Lindy surmised.
Aurora nodded. “I want to check a couple of more things.”
He’d never taken to a bridle or a bit. It was just too much for him. He panicked and fought when she even brought them in the stall. Aurora wasn’t even sure she could do anything to check to see if he had been subjected to Rollkur, not without actually pulling on his head, but even that wouldn’t tell her anything. Then she did the next best thing.
Aurora stroked the big stallion along his neck, again and again she continued with the soothing petting. She knew that if Rollkur had been used on the horse while training him, it would have forced a deep flexion of the horse’s neck through aggressive force to get them to perform well during dressage competitions. She’d seen one video where the pain had brought a horse to its knees.
She looked at Aladdin. “Can you be a Good Boy? Can you?” She kept talking to the horse, petting him and stroking him. Finally, she pushed in a bit along the tendon where the flexion would have occurred. She knew that over the ten months Aladdin had been with her the tendon would have healed, but he might still be sensitive to any kind of pressure in that area. Like it would be a phantom wound.
Aladdin swung his big head in protest and whinnied loudly. His teeth snapped.
Lindy pulled her away. “What the hell?”
“He’s fine. Aren’t you a big boy?”
“Don’t go near him.” Lindy commanded.
Aurora shrugged off her cousins’ hands. “I just need to check one more thing.” It took her another ten minutes of talking and crooning to soothe Aladdin. “I’m sorry Baby, I need you to be patient just a little more. Can you let me do that?”
Aurora could swear she saw him give a look of acquiescence. She went closer to his mouth and muzzle. She carefully looked into his nostrils, and gently touched inside. Aladdin snorted his displeasure.
“Okay, Boy, I’m done with that.”
Aurora stepped backwards. “Let’s go,” she said to Lindy.
When they were out of the stall, Lindy turned to her. “What was that all about?”
“Aladdin has a hell of a lot of scar tissue inside his nose. There is no way that it should be there, somebody was really abusing him with his noseband. Also, he’s really sensitive around his neck. As far as I’m concerned it definitely confirms that he was abused while being trained for dressage.”
“Help me out here Cuz, it’s been awhile since I’ve worked with horses. Explain the noseband thing,” Lindy asked.
Aurora pulled out her hand sanitizer and washed her hands as they walked out of the barn. “I’m thinking the PTSD, the scarring on the legs, and the overuse of the noseband would have all been done if someone was using cruel methods to train Aladdin for either jumping or dressage.”
Lindy didn’t say anything as they passed the corral.
Aurora was lost in thought. She had to be wrong. Or if she was right, it couldn’t be Elsa and Dennis, they couldn’t know about it. She came to an abrupt halt.
“What’s wrong?” Lindy asked. “Is it the baby?”
“No. We’re going to Yuba City.”
“Hell no. You’re going back in the house, having ice cream, and then we’re going to hide it deep in the freezer under the peas and carrots, so you can get to it in the middle of the night.”
“Nope, I want to talk to Elsa and Dennis. They have someone on staff who’s hurting horses. They need to be told.”
“Fine, we’ll call them.”
“No this is something I have to do in person. I owe it to them. I know them. I consider them friends. I’ve actually seen some of their horses compete.”
“We’ll wait until the men come back,” Lindy said stubbornly.
“Oh, for goodness sake, you’re an elite member of the SWAT team. Do we really need to wait for them?”
Lindy laughed. “Okay, not really. But if one thing looks the slightest bit suspicious, I’m going to pull in the Yuba City sheriff, got it?”
“Fine by me.”
“That was sure a waste of time,” Hunter groused in the front seat of Dalton’s truck.
“It was nice to see how just how tenacious and competent my future in-laws are.” Dalton had been really impressed by Zebadiah. For a man who had spent his entire life on a ranch, he was almost as hard-core has his brother Tate.
“So, you’re getting married, huh? You know Aliana will want to make it a double wedding.”
“She can want forever and a day. Aurora and I are getting married before our son is born.”
“Congratulations. A son.”
Dalton glanced over at his friend and saw the genuine happiness on his face. Then Dalton went back to looking at the freeway. “I’m surprised Dex wasn’t the one to tell me. I would have figured he had hacked her medical records, including the sonogram.”
“Don’t be to sure he didn’t,” Hunter said sardonically.
Dalton shook his head in wonder.
“A son. The boy is going to be lucky to have you.”
Dalton’s hands clenched on the wheel of the truck, he could feel sweat forming on the leather. He wished he was as confident as Hunter.
“I worry,” Dalton said softly.
“I hope when the time comes, I’m half the father you were with Reagan Elizabeth. There was never a happier little girl.”
For the first time, for the very first time, his eyes didn’t feel gritty and his jaw didn’t clench.
“You’re right she was a happy little girl. Remember her second birthday party when she ran around the yard trying to catch her shadow? I thought beer was going to snort through Gray’s nose.” Dalton smiled at the memory.
“Where in the hell did you find a pink plush seal?” Hunter asked. “I thought she was going to squeeze the stuffing out of that thing.”
“That was her favorite toy,” Dalton remembered. It had been worth all the trouble tracking the damn thing down.
Hunter’s cell phone rang. “Yo Dex.” He answered, then put it on speaker for Dalton.
“Gunnar says there’s a good place for lunch up ahead, wanna stop?” Dex asked.
“Sounds good,” Dalton said.
“Take exit after this one. I’m going to call Tate and Zebadiah,” Dex said.
“Okay.”
Hunter disconnected the phone.
“A son,” Hunter said again. “I can’t wait for the day that Aliana and I start a family.”
“I am so mad that you two get to go and I don’t,” Crystal hissed as she got into her SUV. “I don’t get to do anything fun anymore. I’m such a soccer mom.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Miss Fredericks of Hollywood?” Lindy demanded. “Or should we call you Mata Hari? You’re lucky we don’t tell on you to Danny.”
“As long as I wear the bra with Danny, I’m golden.”
“I’m going to tell Danny about Rex,” Lindy said.
Crystal paled. “Now that’s not funny Melinda Sue Dressler. You take that back.”
“Go home already, we’ve got to get to Yuba City,
you know Lindy is just yanking your chain. I expect to see you, Taylor and Mark the day after tomorrow for their riding lessons. Got it?” Aurora said.
“Got it,” Crystal saluted. “I’m saluting so you can get used to your new life as a Navy wife,” Crystal smirked.
“Get the hell out of here. Go. You’ve worn out your welcome.” Aurora was still laughing as Crystal’s SUV was halfway down the drive.
“You ready?” Lindy asked Aurora.
“Yep, I’ve already gone to the bathroom. I’m raring to go.”
“We’re taking my car,” Lindy said pointing to her Dodge charger.
Aurora rubbed her hands together. “Can I drive?” she asked as they walked toward the electric blue car.
“Not on your life. You flunked driver’s ed.”
“Just the written,” Aurora pouted. “I passed the second time. It wasn’t my fault that Tony Lawler sat in front of me. How was I supposed to pay attention?”
“You have a point, but still, you don’t get to drive.” Lindy opened the passenger door for her.
“Again, only pregnant, not an invalid.”
“Just be happy I’m not going to make sure your head doesn’t hit the roof of the car,” Lindy grinned.
It sure was good to spend time with her cousin again. They ended up giggling almost the entire trip, just like they had when they were in high school together.
“Are you and Dalton going to make it permanent?” Lindy asked as they were closing in on the Lyle’s place.
“He hasn’t asked me to marry him, but if he doesn’t ask me, I’m asking him.”
“Thatta girl. So where will you live?”
Leave it to Lindy to get to the heart of the matter. “Valhalla’s in my blood.”
“Is it? Or is it Granddad and the horses?”
“Valhalla’s beautiful.” Aurora insisted.
“Look around, it’s awfully pretty around here. You told me that the ranch you go to at Torrey Pines is gorgeous. And as I remember, it’s not that far away from the Naval Base in San Diego.”
“And how do you know about Torrey Pines?” Aurora asked suspiciously.
Her Guarded Hero (Black Dawn Book 5) Page 19