Her Guarded Hero (Black Dawn Book 5)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “I might have talked to Granddad.”

  “Lindy, you need to stay out of this,” Aurora cried. “I’m serious. This is not your business.”

  “It is too. This is family business. Granddad knows that you would not follow your heart because you’re worried about him. You need to know he’s all right. Hell, there’s Uncle Tate, and my mom and dad are on the ranch right next to his.”

  “Yeah, but they’re not living with him, that’s a big difference. He’d get lonely.” Aurora couldn’t stand the idea of Gunnar roaming around in his house all alone.

  “You know my mom would pop in for a visit every day. She loves Gunnar. They’d play scrabble.”

  “He hates scrabble.” Aurora crossed her arms over her stomach. She felt her baby flutter. “Grandpa does like gin rummy,” she admitted.

  “Mom could learn,” Lindy said sparing a glance over at Aurora.

  “You’re talking like it’s a done deal that I’m moving. Hell, he hasn’t even asked me to move in, let alone get married.”

  “You already said you were planning on asking him. The man’s besotted, he’s not going to say no. Should we pick up some flowers and a man’s ring after we’re done talking to the Lyle’s? What size does he where?”

  Aurora laughed. “Hmmm. What kind of flowers do you think he would like?”

  “You can never go wrong with roses,” Lindy answered.

  “It looks like something out of ‘Gone with the Wind’,” Lindy said.

  “Nah,” Aurora laughed. “Think J.R. Ewing and Dallas.”

  They drove past the long line of low white fencing and the field of cut green grass.

  “Well I can’t miss the sign,” Lindy said as she turned under the towering crest above the drive that proclaimed the Lyle Olympic Equestrian Center. “How big is this operation anyway?” Lindy asked.

  “They’ve had sold plenty of gold medal horses. I’d say they have probably close to one hundred horses on-site at any given time.” Aurora answered as the drove up the long-paved drive.

  “How much do they go for?”

  “The best of the lot won’t go as high as a racing thoroughbred.” Aurora sat forward in her seat to look at the big house and office.

  “Yeah, but how much?” Lindy asked.

  “I’ve heard as much as a half a million, maybe more.”

  Lindy whistled, as they parked the car near a bunch of others. Aurora took note of a Bentley amongst a bunch of BMWs’ and a Mercedes. “Your Dodge is kind of out-of-place.”

  “Yeah, but a notice a lot of good old-fashioned work trucks,” Lindy smiled. “Let’s go mingle with the rich and famous.”

  The woman at the front desk didn’t seem all that impressed to begin with when she saw the two of them, but things soon changed when she got Dennis Lyle on the phone.

  “Mrs. Chance, I didn’t realize you were such a long-time friend of the Mr. Lyle. Please take a seat in the drawing room while I get Chuck Zimmerman to give you a tour while Mr. Lyle finishes up with his meeting.”

  It wasn’t long before Lindy and Aurora were checking out the expensive indoor training arena.

  “You could eat off the floors in the stables,” Aurora teased Chuck.

  “We set very high standards here at L.O.E.C.,” he said stiffly.

  He’d been like that the entire tour. Aurora was intent on getting him to loosen up.

  “There you are!” Aurora and Lindy turned at the same time to face Dennis Lyle. Aurora lit up. She really liked this man. She held out her hand.

  “Ah come on, none of that,” he almost leaned in for a hug, but then took her two hands. “I didn’t know you were expecting. When did you get married?”

  “I didn’t,” Aurora answered.

  “Are you and the stallion on speaking terms? Are you thinking of getting hitched?” Dennis asked jovially. Aurora had forgotten his penchant for speaking in horsing terms. God love the man, he meant that in the nicest way possible, so Aurora smiled. “Yes, we’re going to get married.”

  Aurora saw Lindy roll her eyes. “Who’s this pretty filly?” Dennis asked as he turned to Lindy.

  “I’m Officer Melinda Dressler of the LAPD,” she said gruffly. Aurora could read her cousin’s mind. She was asking if Dennis Lyle was for real.

  “You must be either Tate or Zeb’s little girl,” Dennis said.

  “What, no handshake?” he asked.

  Lindy gave him a reluctant handshake. “This is quite the operation you have here, but I noticed that Chuck was reluctant to give us a tour of some of the out buildings,” Lindy noted.

  Dennis waved his arm expansively. “Those are Elsa’s projects. She thinks that she can eventually get even more horses trained with a new method she’s working on perfecting. For now, I’m leaving that to her and Chuck. She’s very protective of her system.” He turned to whisper conspiratorially with Aurora. “You know she’s an Olympic champion. She won gold at Atlanta and Sydney.”

  It was a familiar story. Aurora nodded and smiled.

  “Perhaps Elsa will show us.” Lindy said doggedly.

  “No, that’s not possible. I already told you this,” Chuck said emphatically.

  “Well, there you go,” Dennis smiled. He looked up and his smile got brighter. “And here’s my beautiful wife. Elsa, look who’s come to visit; Aurora Chance and her cousin Melinda Dressler. Melinda works for the LAPD.”

  Elsa tripped on the cement but quickly righted herself. She gave a quick smile to Aurora and then held out her hand to Lindy. “What brings you here?”

  “My dad buys horses along with my uncle Tate,” Lindy smiled as she let go of Elsa’s hand. “Aurora told me about the great training facility you have here.”

  “You compete?” Elsa asked.

  Aurora watched the two women together. It was an odd conversation, Lindy was definitely suspicious of something.

  Dennis put his arm around Aurora and walked her over to the entrance of the arena. “Those two seem to be hitting it off,” he said. “Look, I’m late meeting a new client, so I’ll leave you in Elsa and Chuck’s capable hands.” He bent over and kissed Aurora’s cheek. “Tell your grandfather I expect to see him at the next horseshow in Reno.”

  “Will do, Dennis,” Aurora smiled.

  She turned to see Chuck, Lindy and Elsa all talking. She went back to them.

  “Just in time,” Elsa said with a sunny smile. “Chuck told me that you’re interested in seeing my new training facilities. I would love to show you. You just have to promise not to tell anyone about it,” she said coyly.

  Ick. Elsa being coy was not attractive. Judging by the look on Lindy’s face she was thinking the same thing. Aurora stole a glance at Chuck and saw the man looking happy for the first time. Apparently, he liked coy.

  Ick again.

  “Let’s take one of the SUV’s,” Elsa said as they exited the training arena. “I hurt my hip doing a jump a couple of days ago. What with you being pregnant, and me needing to take it easy, it makes sense,” Elsa said. “Mort!” she called out to a ranch hand that was walking from the office to the arena. “We need a driver.”

  “Coming, Mizz Lyle.” The man looked like a linebacker.

  “Come sit in the back with me Aurora. I want to hear what’s been going on at Valhalla.” Aurora kept Elsa entertained the half mile to the outlying buildings. It was the friendliest Elsa had ever been. Maybe flirting with Chuck was giving her a new lease on life.

  “What’s the new training program you’re doing with the horses?” Aurora asked.

  “It’s when the horses fail using regular methods. We just use a little more attention and tender loving care. I know you would approve of that Aurora.”

  “What do you do specifically?” Aurora asked.

  “Some of the horses have done marvelously well. You know Sutter? He took Gold at Rio,” Elsa said proudly.

  Aurora remembered Sutter. He had done really well. “What’s he doing now? I haven’t heard of him competing in any oth
er events since Rio.” Mort opened the door for Aurora to get out of the vehicle and Chuck got Elsa’s door. Aurora noted that Lindy was on her own.

  “We put him out to stud.”

  They walked toward the corrugated building with Chuck in front, then Lindy and Mort behind her. Chuck unlocked the door.

  Aurora turned to Elsa, “Why did you put Sutter out to stud? He was at the top of his game, I would have thought that he would do more events and compete in the next Olympics.”

  “What the fuck?” Lindy yelled.

  Aurora whirled around in time to see Mort shoving her cousin through the doorway of the darkened building. Then she heard a sickening thump.

  “What happened? Lindy!”

  “Shut up and get in there.” Elsa pushed Aurora. She didn’t need to, she had to get to Lindy. When she got through the door she saw that the far back corner of the building was illuminated. She heard the sound of horses whinnying, but for once she didn’t care. Instead she was focused on Lindy. Oh God, please say she wasn’t dead.

  Aurora slammed down to her knees and felt for a pulse and sobbed with relief when she felt one in Lindy’s neck.

  “We need to get rid of them,” Elsa said. “And this time don’t fuck it up. I need you to make it look like an accident.”

  Aurora stared up at a woman she’d known for years. Things became pathetically clear. “You’ve been abusing these horses to get the results you wanted.”

  “Not all of them,” Elsa said. “A lot of them didn’t need extra incentives. But some of them, like Sutter, needed a firmer hand.”

  “You whipped him.”

  Elsa nodded in agreement. “Used sharper nosebands and Rollkur too. But in the end Sutter was a champion. Of course, I also ended up with some rejects,” she said dismissively.

  Chuck snorted. “Yeah, and somehow they kept ending up at your place.” He glared at Aurora as if it was her fault.

  “That’s because you hired stupid people to sell the horses. The brokers needed to sell the damn horses to Arizona and New Mexico, not to our own backyard,” Elsa practically yelled. “Look at this mess. I told you she was going to find us out. Now she’s here. Dennis saw her!”

  Aurora clutched her stomach. This crazy woman wanted her dead. She was going to try and kill her.

  Kill her son.

  No.

  No!

  That was not going to happen. Not on her watch.

  “Grandpa knows we’re here, Elsa. Do Uncle Tate and Zeb.”

  Lindy groaned.

  “Why is the cop really here?” Elsa demanded.

  “Why do you think? She wanted to look around. She was suspicious. I told her she was imagining things, you and Dennis couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the things that had been happening to me. But she said I was too trusting,” Aurora spat.

  “She’s a smart girl.” Elsa nudged Lindy with the toe of her riding boot. Her cousin didn’t move. Elsa looked up at the two men who were waiting for her orders. “I need them disposed of. Far away from the property, and I need it to look like an accident. Do you understand? Do better than that worthless Ned Little did.”

  “We need to wait until it’s dark,” Chuck said.

  Aurora considered screaming, but knew it wouldn’t be any use, since horses had probably screamed in here and nobody had come to their rescue.

  “Fine, wait until dark. Do whatever you need to. Just get rid of them.” Elsa spun around on her boots, slammed open the door, then yanked it shut behind her. Aurora stared up at her two executioners.

  “We can’t tie them up, people will notice the rope burn around their wrists,” Mort said as he looked down at her.

  “We can tie her up around her ankles, over her boots,” Chuck said. “Go find some rope. Also get a blanket, we can wrap that around them, then tie the rope around that.”

  Mort shrugged. “That’ll work.” He headed to the corner with the horses.

  This was her chance. Aurora gathered herself to pounce.

  “You make one fucking move, and I’ll kick you in the stomach.” Chuck said it with no emotion whatsoever.

  Aurora shivered. She believed every word.

  Mort came back with a rope. “Have you checked the cop for a gun?”

  Chuck looked at Mort with a blank expression, and Aurora felt just as stupid. Mort shoved Aurora away and yanked up Lindy’s shirt. There at her waist was a gun in a holster. He pulled it out. “You’re useless,” he glared at Chuck. He checked Lindy’s pocket and grabbed the car keys from her too.

  Aurora wanted to cry. Why hadn’t she known that Lindy was carrying a gun? It’s time to start thinking. She had a phone, didn’t she?

  “Wrap ‘em up.” Mort threw a blanket at Chuck. “I’ll take the live one, since you can’t seem to handle the simplest of tasks.”

  After what Chuck had said about kicking her son, Aurora was happy that Mort was tying her up. That was until he yanked her hands behind her back.

  “Please, that hurts too much, can’t I put them around my stomach? It’s too awkward that way when I’m pregnant.”

  Mort gave her a considering look. “Fine,” he said.

  Aurora placed her hands around her stomach and he swaddled the blanket around her, then he wound the rope on top of that. Aurora kept her arms away from her body as best she could so that she had a little bit of play, it was difficult because Mort was intent on tying the rope tight, but in the end, the rope was a little loose around her arms, but it wasn’t around her legs.

  “We’ll be back.”

  “Please come back in an hour. Pregnant women have to pee often.”

  “You should have thought of that before you went all Nancy Drew,” Chuck said dismissively. He turned to Mort. “Are you going to move their car?”

  “Of course. Why else would I have taken their keys?”

  Aurora watched the door close behind the two men.

  So much for the pity vote.

  She looked over at Lindy then down at herself. Great there they were mummy and the mummy mommy.

  She wanted to cry.

  16

  “That’s the third time she hasn’t answered. And she hasn’t replied to my text. Are you satisfied now?” he asked Dex.

  “Okay, you gave it fifteen minutes,” his friend said slowly.

  “You would have only given it ten minutes if it was Kenna,” Hunter said to Dex.

  “What are you boys talking about?” Gunnar asked as he pushed back from the restaurant table.

  “Aurora isn’t answering her phone and hasn’t been for fifteen minutes.”

  Zebadiah frowned and pulled out his cell phone and made a call. He looked at everyone. “Lindy’s went straight to voicemail.”

  “Anybody know Crystal’s number?” Dalton asked, looking mainly at Gunnar. The old man fumbled for his phone and took a hell of a long time to go through his contacts, at least in Dalton’s opinion.

  “Got it,” Dex said. “Dialing now. It’s ringing.” He pushed his phone over at Dalton.

  “Crystal?” he asked as soon as he heard her voice. “This is Dalton.”

  “Why are you calling me? Why isn’t Aurora? Is something wrong?”

  “I can’t get ahold of Aurora or Lindy, are you all still together? Can you put Aurora on the phone?”

  “They left hours ago,” Crystal answered.

  Dalton’s blood turned to ice water.

  “What do you mean they left hours ago? Where did they go?” He got up from the table, Hunter and Dex on his heels.

  “Lindy and Aurora were going to go check out a stable near Yuba City to see if they might be responsible for all the abused horses.” They were just outside the restaurant. Dalton put the phone on speaker. Dex and Hunter leaned in close. Gunnar and the two Dressler’s crowded in the best they could. “Aurora was convinced it couldn’t be the owners at someplace called the Lyle Olympic something-or-other.”

  “Lyle Olympic Equestrian Center,” Gunnar whispered.

  “
She and Lindy were going to go check it out.”

  “They shouldn’t have gone anywhere,” Dalton all but yelled.

  “Calm your ass down, Baby Daddy.” There was a pause. “Oh shit, now you’ve done it. Now I’m scared. You couldn’t get ahold of either one of them?”

  “They’re not answering,” Gunnar called over Dalton’s shoulder.

  “Do you know when they left Crystal?”

  “Three and a half hours ago,” she said worriedly. “You don’t think something bad has happened to them, do you?”

  “Yes,” Gunnar growled. “Where’s your common sense?”

  Dalton put his hand on the older man’s arm. “Crystal, when exactly did they leave? What car did they take? I’m handing you over to Dex to talk to him while I drive, okay?”

  Dalton pushed the phone to Dexter who had already handed his keys to Hunter. The SEALs moved like a well-oiled machine. Hunter pulled Gunnar with him to Dexter’s truck and the Dressler’s were already running to their vehicle. Dalton got into his truck with Dex and skidded out of the parking lot. Hunter had Gunnar with him and was driving right on his ass. He listened as Dexter finished up the call with Crystal.

  “How fast can we get to Yuba City?” Dalton asked Dexter.

  “Let me just pull up a map,” he said as he plugged his phone into the charger. “You know that Lindy will keep her safe, right?”

  “Really? Then why isn’t she answering her phone?” Dalton asked sarcastically. Thank God for the super charger in his truck, but he couldn’t press the pedal to the metal until Dex told him exactly what fucking highway to take.

  “Hurry up with the directions.”

  “We’re going to take Latrobe Road, that way we can avoid Sacramento. It’s a two-lane road.” Dex explained.

  “Sounds good to me, just point me in the right direction. What does your phone say the ETA is?”

  “An hour and forty-six minutes,” Dex answered grimly.

  “Okay, call Hunter. The plan is to be there in less than an hour.”

  “Don’t cry,” Lindy mumbled.

  “I’m not crying,” Aurora cried. She wiped her snot filled nose against the blanket and wiggled and squirmed.