Читать книгу The Black Sheep and the Hidden Beauty - Donna Kauffman - Страница 7

“Riding lessons? You?” Donovan MacLeod laughed. Hard. “Don’t start. I’m actually doing this for you and your significant other.”

“Right. So when you get thrown on your ass, it’s all my fault.”

“You learned to ride. How hard can it be?”

“Very funny.” Mac stood at the edge of the patio, staring down the sloping back hill to where the stables were. “But why don’t you just come out and admit that what this is really about is you wanting to get her naked?” He turned and grinned. “Which, when you think about it, is also a form of riding lessons. Just without the crop.” His gray eyes gleamed. “I assume, anyway.”

Rafe didn’t take the bait. “I’m serious about this. I think there is something else going on where she’s concerned. Or I sure as hell wouldn’t be getting on the back of some damn horse.”

“Oh yeah, spending time with her will be a real sacrifice. She might not be your usual fare of perfectly put-together arm candy with a law degree. But she’s got thoroughbred legs and an incredibly fine—”

“Hey,” Kate said, as she stepped out onto the porch. “The only ass you’re allowed to make Neanderthal comments about is mine.” She glanced at Rafe. “Although he’s right. I’ve seen her in riding pants. I’d kill for her ass.”

Mac put his hand proprietarily on Kate’s backside. “Your ass is spectacular.”

She grinned at him. “You just want to get laid.”

“Well, yeah, but I could probably manage that without lying, so you know I mean it.”

“Men and their logic.” When Mac went to take his hand away, she immediately pulled it around her shoulder. “But I’ll take it, I’ll take it.” Tucked under Mac’s arm, she looked at Rafe. “When Elena told me you’d asked for lessons, I almost choked. You hate horses. What’s going on?”

He’d known this was coming since the moment three days ago when he’d apparently lost what was left of his mind and propositioned Elena. In more ways than one. Which hadn’t remotely been his intent when he’d walked out to that barn. He’d been regretting it ever since. Never more so than right this second. “I don’t hate horses. They’re beautiful animals. I just don’t see the need to climb up on the back of one. But that’s not the point here. The point is, I think something else is going on with your new manager. Either she’s in trouble, or running to avoid it. But something’s not right. And I don’t want her troubles becoming your troubles.”

Mac glanced down at Kate. “He’s just jealous because he’s around us too much. Now he’s hot for a barn chick who isn’t his normal glamazon type, so he’s projecting some sort of crisis so he can write it off as a work-induced fascination.”

Kate listened to Mac with an indulgent smile, then turned a quite serious expression to Rafe. “What makes you think she’s hiding something?”

“Hey,” Mac said, obviously put out by being brushed off.

Kate leaned up and kissed him on the jaw. “I love you, but you’re reacting like a guy, and not like a business owner. If something is going on, then I need to know about it. My kids and my camp come first. I like Elena. A lot. In fact, she’s the best thing that’s happened around here in awhile.” She looked back to Rafe. “Almost too good to be true. I’ve been saying that since the start. I’d really hate for there to be something to that.”

Mac rolled his eyes, but accepted defeat and turned to Rafe. “When did this amazing insight take place? You’ve evidently had your eye on her since she got here and that was only a few months ago. I was wondering when you’d finally get over yourself and make a move.”

“I’m not ‘making a move,’” Rafe said, though that was precisely what he’d done. He could tell himself that this was about Kate and protecting her interests, and therefore Dalton Downs’ interests, but that didn’t remotely explain why he couldn’t stop thinking about Elena Caulfield. “Maybe the reason I’ve been noticing her is because my instincts have been telling me something isn’t right. And after what I overheard the other day, I think that’s more important than whatever attraction there might be.”

Now Kate’s eyebrows lifted. “Might be?” She avoided Mac’s elbow nudge, keeping her now openly speculative attention on Rafe. “So, what, you think women who work in barns and muck out stalls aren’t good enough for you?”

“Don’t go all feminist rant on me. I never said that. She actually struck me as a sharp, intelligent woman who handles very large animals like they’re small children. I have a lot of respect for that, but I can’t help it if I’m more attracted to women who dress and act like women.”

Kate’s smile turned knowing, and grew wider. She looked up at Mac. “Okay, maybe you have a point.”

Mac just grinned. “Guys know these things.”

“What?” Rafe demanded. “What’s wrong with being honest about what you like and don’t like?”

“Because what you like is Elena, and it’s making you crazy because you just won’t admit it to yourself,” Mac said.

That much was true, but not for the reasons he meant. Well, mostly not for those reasons. Elena was more earthy than his usual choice in female companions, but something about the way she’d held his gaze, and handled his attention, had definitely gotten to him. In ways he didn’t want to understand, but his body certainly had. Which was the last thing he was going to share with either of the two people presently staring him down. “It doesn’t matter whether I’m attracted to her or not. What is important is that she’s got more going on than simply taking on a job that will let her mare gestate in peace.”

“And you came to this amazing conclusion because her vet came out to see her horse. Her pregnant horse,” Mac said.

He’d started to tell Mac the story before Kate arrived, but hadn’t gotten further than mentioning Kenny’s visit. Rafe turned and picked up several folders he’d stacked on the patio table. “You didn’t see her face when he showed up.” He slid two copies of a report out from the top folder and handed one to each of them. “I did.”

“You’re putting together reports on her?” Kate looked up, alarmed. “Rafe, I’m glad that you want to make sure she’s on the up-and-up. So do I. But I need her, and I don’t want you to go pissing her off by digging into her background and—”

“First off, she has no idea I’m digging. I’m a little better than that.”

Mac spoke up, finally serious. “He’s a lot better than that.” He squeezed Kate’s shoulder, then opened his own report. “What did you find?” He was all business now, and Rafe finally relaxed a little.

“Thank you,” he said, to which Mac just looked up and grinned unrepentantly.

“Oh, I’m far from being done razzing you about this, but if you really think something is up here, then at the very least, I want to hear about it.”

“Good.” Rafe turned to Kate. “How much of a background check did you run on her?”

She frowned. “I did the standard check. Her report came back clean. And her references were all in order. Why?”

“Don’t worry, she doesn’t have a criminal record or anything, but did you make contact with her previous employer?”

She nodded. “I always run references, yes.”

“Who did you talk to at Charlotte Oaks?”

“I don’t recall his name off the top of my head. He was the head trainer there, or one of them. John something-or-other. It’s listed on her application if you want me to check. As I recall, he didn’t gush, but I gathered he wasn’t exactly the chatty type anyway. He gave her a solid recommendation, though. Said she was a hard worker, showed up on time, did what was asked of her. It was enough for me.”

“Did you ask him about her departure? Was it questioned in any way? The timing of it?”

“What do you mean?” Kate asked. “Because of her horse being pregnant? I didn’t ask him about that and he didn’t mention it. I’m sure if he’d had any issues with her leaving, he’d have said something. I didn’t get the impression she left them in the lurch or anything. In fact, she just seemed like another employee. It’s a good-sized operation, from what I could tell.”

“But she left a good-sized operation because her horse was pregnant, when you’d think she’d stay and let them help take care of her. Especially if there were any concerns.”

“Were there?”

“I haven’t been able to track it down, but from what I overheard, her horse had trouble the last time she was pregnant.”

Kate’s brow furrowed. “She didn’t mention that part to me.”

“I know. She didn’t want to jeopardize you taking her on.”

“Well, she has her own vet, as you know, so maybe it wasn’t as big an issue as you think.”

“A vet she was surprised to see show up, and who she wasn’t entirely comfortable having here. She even made a point to say she’d bring her horse over to him in the future.”

“Maybe she’s worried about stepping on toes, using her own vet instead of ours.”

“Maybe. But even the vet was concerned that she’d left Charlotte Oaks, that she should have stayed for her horse’s sake. And then he made some reference to something bad happening there, which might have had something to do with her leaving.”

Kate’s frown deepened. “Nothing that I heard about. Again, I didn’t ask more than the standard questions, but they certainly didn’t have anything negative to say.”

“Maybe they didn’t know.”

Mac opened his file. “It says she left there last October. She’s only been here since early March, barely two months. What did she do in between?”

“She thought she had something lined up working for a friend,” Kate answered, reading over Mac’s arm. “But that didn’t pan out, so she stayed with some other friends, worked for a family friend of hers briefly, but there was nothing available long-term until she heard about the spot here.”

“Which means she left Charlotte Oaks without a solid game plan in place,” Rafe said, “with a pregnant horse who could need special care. Why do that?”

Kate shook her head. “She said she’d known for some time she wasn’t going to progress there, that the good-old-boys club was just too tight for her to break in. When her horse got pregnant, it seemed a good time to leave so she could find a place less hectic for her mare to gestate while trying to figure out what to do next. To be honest, it seemed quite plausible at the time. And nothing surfaced to say otherwise.” Kate looked at Mac, then back at Rafe. “I’m usually a pretty good judge of people. She’s a hard worker, a self-starter, and better with horses than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

“You also think she’s too good to be true. Your instincts are good ones, Kate—don’t ignore them.”

“You know there are a million reasons why she might have wanted to get away from that facility with her horse when she did. As I said, it’s a big operation and she was one of many junior trainers trying to get a leg up and not succeeding as well as she’d hoped. Who knows what else may have added to her decision to leave when she did. Maybe there was harassment, maybe she was involved with someone and it didn’t work out. Or maybe it’s just what she said it was—a dead-end job, and she had a horse who could use some peace and quiet for a while. If a surprised look about her vet showing up unannounced is all you’re going on, then I’d have to say—”

“You don’t think it’s odd she didn’t mention the problem pregnancy when she took the job?”

“Not really. Maybe she didn’t want to hurt her chances by making me worry she was bringing in a potential problem. She’d already missed out on her last job opportunity. Maybe that was why she was surprised to see her vet. She’d told me she had an old family friend who would take care of her horse, but nothing about there being a problem. Maybe that look you intercepted had to do with her worrying that he’d say something to the wrong person about her horse having problems with her last foal before she could let him know what was what.”

“What did she say about that lost job opportunity?”

“She didn’t say specifically, but I gathered it didn’t turn out to be what she was looking for. She turned it down, not the other way around. She gave me a reference, but, to be honest, I didn’t call that one. She’d been with Charlotte Oaks long enough and her employment there was steady, problem free. And, frankly, I really liked her and didn’t want there to be anything to keep me from hiring her.”

Rafe and Mac shared a look.

“What?” Kate asked. “You know I wouldn’t have hired her if there was even an inkling of a problem. My camp kids mean more than—”

“I know,” Rafe said. “Let me ask you this. I’m guessing she intentionally bred her horse. I mean, it’s not like a dog who gets accidentally knocked up by the local mongrel. So, she breeds her horse, even though she’s contemplating leaving. A horse who had problems with the last pregnancy. Does that make sense? Why make such a huge career transition and do something like that with your horse at the same time?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she had a chance to breed her for a good deal and so she went for it. Hard to say. Maybe her mare is hard to breed and she couldn’t afford to pass up the opportunity. I really don’t know.”

“There just seems to be a lot of that with her. Stuff we don’t know.”

Kate sighed, and Mac rubbed her shoulder as he tucked her closer to his side. “Don’t worry. He’ll figure this out without screwing anything up.” He kissed the top of her head. “I promise.” He looked at Rafe. “Don’t screw it up.”

“I still don’t understand why you’re so concerned about her,” Kate grumbled at both of them. “I want to go on record as saying I really hate this.”

“I know,” Rafe said, not exactly loving it, either. “Did she mention how she heard about the job here?”

“Horse community grapevine. You’d be surprised how effective it is.”

“I can see racing circles keeping up with racing circles, and the same with show horses, but you’re not really involved in either.”

“But we’re sitting smack-dab in the middle of show-horse country, which her dad was linked to quite heavily, back in his day. She probably has all kinds of contacts because of her family background, and her vet friend is in the area, too. I didn’t question her specifically. I mean, clearly she heard about it somehow, as she showed up and applied—why does it matter how she heard?” Kate tilted her head up and eyed Mac, who still looked as skeptical as Rafe felt. “I swear, you guys. You know, not everything or everyone is a ‘case file.’ Elena told me this was just the right thing for her and Springer at the right time. She was also the right thing at the right time for me. She has every intention of resuming her career goals at some point. And, frankly, I have every intention of trying to get her to change her mind and stay. So unless you can give me a real concrete reason why I shouldn’t, then I want this over and done with.” She eyed them both. “It’s my business to run.”

“Understood,” Rafe said, looking at Mac, knowing he was probably thinking the same thing he was. That Kate was sharp, and great at her job, but she was human, and sometimes she let her soft heart get in the way. And, much as he’d like to let this whole thing go and never take a single riding lesson, he couldn’t ignore the fact that his gut instincts were still clamoring.

“So what aren’t you telling me?” Kate asked. “There has to be something more going on. How much am I going to hate it?”

“Ever heard of a racehorse named Geronimo?”

Kate looked nonplussed. “Geronimo?”

Mac nodded, still skimming the report. “Sure, he won two legs of the triple crown, then broke everyone’s heart by missing out on taking the third by half a length. Definitely a crowd-pleaser. A damn shame what happened to him, just doesn’t seem right that—” He broke off and looked up. “Oh, shit. Really?”

“Really.”

Kate looked up from her report. “Really what? Why oh shit?” She looked between the two of them. “What happened to Geronimo?”

“He’s the famous racehorse that died in that fire,” Mac said, then went back to skimming the report again.

“He was retired, put to stud, and bought by a new owner,” Rafe filled in while they scanned the info. “Not much there yet on that part, but I was focused on Elena and just started digging on the farm itself. Should have gotten this the first day.”

“Gene Vondervan,” Kate read aloud, then gasped and looked up. “Owner of Charlotte Oaks racing stables. Elena worked for the stables where Geronimo died?”

“Where and when,” Rafe confirmed.

“But, wait a minute,” Kate cut in, “a whole lot of people work for Charlotte Oaks. Surely if there were any concerns, or if she was involved in any way, negligent in any way, there would have been consequences. At the very least, she wouldn’t have gotten the reference she did.”

Rafe shrugged. “From what I overheard, it seemed like her vet thought her leaving might be connected. She didn’t mention it when you hired her?”

“No,” Kate said. “She didn’t.”

“The fire was when?” Mac said, still skimming the report. “Last summer, right? But she didn’t leave until fall. Doesn’t sound like a direct connection there.”

“Maybe.” Rafe honestly didn’t know. Yet. “It just seems odd that she wouldn’t mention it. Like she didn’t mention her horse having potential medical issues. Geronimo’s death has been out of the current news loop for some time, but in the big scope of things, it’s still recent news.”

“In the race world, maybe,” Kate said.

“No,” Mac said, “it was a big story everywhere. He was a pretty special horse who had captured the hearts of a lot of people.”

“Then how did I miss it?”

Mac smiled and tugged her in for a fast, hard kiss. “Because you don’t follow the news unless it’s published in a medical journal.”

She pushed at him and started to argue, then stopped, looking a bit sheepish. “Okay, so you might have a point there. But she couldn’t know that.” She looked to Rafe. “She probably just assumed I knew, that it was old news and not worth mentioning?” But even her tone conveyed her skepticism. “Even so, what does it matter?”

Rafe and Mac looked at each other and Kate made an impatient sound. “Would you two cut that out already? It’s like you’re sending silent smoke signals or something.” She looked pointedly at Rafe. “Was there anything else about this that I should be worried about? I mean…except as gossip or prurient interest?” She looked down at the report. “Did they ever decide how the fire started? I don’t see anything here except that an investigation was launched by both local authorities and insurance investigators for both the farm and the horse. Sounds normal enough, in a situation like that.” She looked up. “Is it all wrapped up now?”

“I’m still digging. But no, not from what I can tell. Not entirely.”

“Anything odd in that?” she asked.

“Not specifically, no. Insurance cases can take a long time when the cause hasn’t been nailed down beyond doubt.”

She looked like she wanted to argue further, but in the end, she just let out a deep sigh. “You’re not going to stop digging, so I might as well not hold my breath. But I want to know everything you find out so I know when to call you two off.”

Mac lifted his hands. “I’m off. This is Rafe’s baby. I have the Peterson case you were so hot for me to take.”

Kate glanced at Rafe, as if waiting for him to comment on her interference, but he said nothing. “Right,” she said at length. “Well, I need to get back to my job. I’ll leave you two to yours.”

“Speaking of being hot for me,” Mac said, as she moved to leave. He snagged her arm and tugged her around, neatly, right into his arms.

She went willingly, with a teasing grin.

“I think you forgot something.” Mac’s voice had taken on an entirely new note.

One that made Rafe wish he was standing anywhere but three feet away. “Get a room, you two.”

Kate went to pull away, but Mac held her more tightly. “Shh, don’t mind him. Jealous, remember?” He planted a quick kiss on Kate’s lips, that was immediately followed by a longer one that had Rafe looking anywhere but at the two of them.

Kate disentangled herself first. Rafe couldn’t tell if the pink in her cheeks was from embarrassment, or desire. Probably a little of both. She shot him a sheepish smile as she waved and started down the flagstone path off the back of the patio. “Still officially hating this,” she called out.

“We know,” Rafe and Mac said at the same time.

When she was gone, Rafe turned to Mac. “You think I’m right to pursue this? We’re agreed?”

Mac nodded. “Too many things are just a bit off. My radar is pinging, too, though I couldn’t tell you what for exactly, but yeah, more information couldn’t hurt. Just…keep Elena’s attention on you. Make sure she doesn’t connect any of this to Kate.”

“I know. I’m in the hot seat, got it.”

Mac grinned then. “Actually, more like a hot saddle.”

“Very funny. Now, if you want my opinion on the Peterson thing, then let’s get to it,” Rafe said, trying to shift things back to business as usual. “I’ve got things to do.”

“Horses to ride. Women to…check up on.”

“Woman. And she’s my riding instructor, and Kate’s employee. End of story.” Rafe’s gaze was briefly drawn down to the paddocks, where Elena was outside working with the abused horse, Bonder. All the camp horses were in, the students done for the day. All but one student, anyway. His first lesson was in a half an hour. Daylight was slowly fading toward twilight, and though the rings were lit, he’d rather his first time on horseback not be after dark.

Rafe caught Mac looking at him from his peripheral vision, and realizing he was staring, shifted the direction of his gaze away as casually as possible.

“Right,” Mac said knowingly. “End of story.”