Purebred (17 page)

Once inside the room, Aidan clasped his brother to him. “Thank you for coming to the rescue, Tiernan. And you, Ella.”

The photographs Tiernan had emailed him didn’t do Ella justice. Half Lakota, she had the best of both worlds in her beautiful face.

“Of course we would do anything to help you,” she said. “After all, Tiernan and I beat the odds to be together. We want to see you happy, as well.”

“After losing Pegeen, I never thought I would be happy again. But being with Cat has given me a new hope for the future. Now I fear losing her, as well.”

“Then why haven’t you told her?” Tiernan asked.

Thinking about how wound up her ex-husband could make Cat, he said, “I don’t think she’s ready for love.”

“You wouldn’t be honest even for her own protection?” Ella asked.

“I told her about Sheelin’s curse. She didn’t believe me.”

“But you did not tell her about your dreams, boyo.”

“She would not believe that, either, Tiernan. Not that it matters. I will not let her fall to the curse. I must protect her, even if it means stealing her away until the murderer is caught.”

He noted the look of understanding that passed between his brother and sister-in-law.

Tiernan said, “Promise you will keep us informed of your whereabouts.”

“Aye. And I will inform you if she agrees to let you oversee the farm while we are gone.”

Though hopefully it would be only a few days, someone had to be in charge, and as far as he was concerned, both Raul and Bernie were suspect. There was no one to be trusted other than his own brother.

His only regret that it wasn’t likely he would see Mac run the stakes race, Aidan left to carry out the second part of his plan. He hoped that Cat would understand, not fight him, but that didn’t seem likely, either.

Then his hope was that she wouldn’t hate him for what he was about to do.

* * *

S
TILL
STUNNED
when she arrived back at the farm, Cat stumbled out of the SUV and looked around. No farm truck. No car belonging to Vincent. No police car.

The place looked deserted.

The sound of a horse screaming split the silence. No thought to her own safety, she ran to the barn. The horses were her life. Her responsibility. She wouldn’t let anyone hurt them.

Once inside, she stopped. Snapped on the overhead lights. Looked around for anything out of place. Listened intently for another indication of trouble. Some of the horses were on edge, moving around their stalls, making low sounds of discontent.

One kicked the stall boards.

Another snorted.

A third squealed.

Her senses came alive as she walked down the main aisle, checking her own horses first. Why were they all so upset?

And then she heard another scream—it came from her stallion.

Dangerous Illusion was more than a little anxious. He kicked the stall boards. Squealed. Kicked again. A rumble set through the barn, the other horses responding to his unease.

She stopped outside his stall. “What’s wrong, boy? What has you going?”

His eyes rolled and he threw back his head and banged his hip into the stall wall hard enough to make it shake.

And Cat knew he’d been drugged. She guessed with some kind of opiate that was making him nervous and aggressive.

“What the hell?”

What could she do to bring him down? She didn’t even have a vet now. If he kept up like this, he could break a leg. Or worse. What if his heart gave out?

She had to get help.

Hurrying down the aisle, sensing an invisible threat, she tripped over her own feet when something sharp plunged into her back. She tried to turn, to see the face of her attacker. But before she could do so, her legs gave out and she fell facedown on the barn floor.

Unable to move…

Wondering if she, too, was about to be euthanized.

Chapter Nineteen

Aidan parked the truck at the barn. Getting out, he called, “Cat, are you in there?”

His only response was a snort and squeal from one of the horses.

“Cat?” He stood in the open doorway. “Raul? Bernie?”

No answer. Where was everyone? Cat’s SUV was parked near the house. Perhaps she’d decided to get some rest. Or some food. He crossed to the back door.

The kitchen was empty. Not even the dogs to great him.

“Cat?” he called, then went straight to her bedroom, but she wasn’t there, either.

Now he was trying not to worry. Undoubtedly she was out on the property with the dogs. And maybe with her workers. They could be doing fencing repairs or bringing bales of hay in from storage, for all he knew.

About to take out the truck to search for her, he hesitated, then decided to check her office and the video feeds from the barn before leaving. The barn lights were off, but there was enough daylight for the cameras to pick up images. Wide shots on the two monitors together allowed him to see the whole interior of the stable area.

For some reason, the horses were restless, unusually so.

He searched for the cause, quickly finding the heart of the disturbance that led him straight to Cat’s stallion. He was moving around his stall, lunging, throwing his head, kicking the boards. Totally agitated, but why?

Then he saw it, the bit of yellow on the stall floor.

The camera angle didn’t allow a clear view, but that didn’t stop his pulse from plunging straight into his throat. An arm—that was an arm wearing a yellow pullover like the one he’d seen before, he was certain of it.

Cat’s arm…

Aidan ran from the house and made straight for the barn, praying he wasn’t too late, that the stallion hadn’t stomped her and hurt her or worse. Cat had to be hurt, or why would she be down? What had the horse done to her?

Bursting through the open barn doors, he ran down the center aisle, his gut in knots, his heart pounding.

“Cat!” he yelled as he ran. “Say something to me!”

Be alive, please!

Reaching the stallion’s stall, Aidan realized Dangerous Illusion had worked himself into a state. The stallion was unnaturally agitated, making Aidan think he was on a drug-induced high. There was no opening the door with him like that, not with Cat lying there directly in his path. The stallion would no doubt charge him to get away, and in the process run over her.

Aidan wished he’d brought Tiernan with him—his brother’s connection with horses was far stronger than his own. There was no helping it. He concentrated on the stallion—his heart rate was too fast, his vision distorted, the inside of his mind frenzied. Hoping he wasn’t too far gone to be reached, Aidan projected calming images of rolling pastures accompanied by soft words.

’Tis all right, lad. Slow down now. Take a breath. Smell the fresh hay. See the beauty of the pasture surrounding you.

His psychic connection might not be as strong as his brother’s, but Aidan could feel the stallion responding to his hypnotic internal voice.

That’s it. Let your mind rest. Take it easy now, lad.

He couldn’t wait any longer to get Cat out of the stall, so he carefully opened the gate.

I’m coming in. Stay where you are. That’s the lad. No one is going to hurt you.

Aidan slipped inside the stall and dropped down next to Cat. He felt for a pulse. She was alive and apparently uninjured. He’d gotten to her in time, before she’d been trampled. Carefully, he scooped her up into his arms. She murmured something and tried to open her eyes.

“’Tis all right, Cat. I have you.” He eased back from the stallion, whose flesh quivered.

That’s the lad. Relax. Let your mind settle and slow.

Cat’s eyes blinked open and, appearing to be shocked, she tried pushing him away. “Don’t.”

“Cat, ’tis Aidan,” he said softly, so as not to agitate the stallion. “You are safe now.”

She stopped pushing, but her expression remained wary, as if she had some reason to distrust him.

“What happened?” she asked.

Once in the aisle, he managed to close the stall gate. “You can’t remember?”

She blinked again and her forehead pulled. “Pain. Sharp. In my back. Then everything went dark.”

As had happened in his dream. He was doing the right thing, then.

“Can you stand?”

“I think so.”

Setting her on her feet, he held on to her.

“O-oh, I’m a little dizzy.”

“Someone drugged you.”

“And my stallion. He was so agitated, I was going for help. And then I felt the pain. I tried to see who…” She shook her head. “Whoever knocked me out must have put me in the stall with Dangerous Illusion. The murderer was trying to kill me, too.”

“I fear so.” Exactly what he’d dreaded. Sheelin’s curse simply wouldn’t stop with one woman he loved. He glanced back at Dangerous Illusion, who was settling down. “Let us walk a bit. It will help clear your head.”

“Bernie. He saw me…”

“Saw what?” He headed her for the open barn doors, planned on taking her straight to the SUV to get her to safety, a location where the villain couldn’t find her.

“I stepped on some glass in the aisle and Bernie saw me pick it up. He had this weird expression. I didn’t want to believe it…”

“Believe what?”

“It was a glass straw, Aidan. A pipette used for artificial insemination.”

“What?”

“I think that’s what has been going on in my barn at night. The reason George and Helen were killed. They found out about it.”

To be registered as a Thoroughbred, the foal had to be a product of a live cover. Owners of most other breeds used artificial insemination with their stock, thinking it was safer with thousand-pound-plus horses, but that didn’t apply to Thoroughbreds. If word got out that AI was being done at Clarke Acres, Cat’s business could be ruined.

“And you think Bernie would help someone with the procedure?”

“I don’t know. He never told me he was Martin Bradley’s nephew, and apparently Martin has been pressuring him to do things he didn’t want to do. And then there is the Jack connection. For whatever reason, my ex-husband has it in for me because I kicked him out and dared divorce him.”

“Bradley has been your client all along. Do you think he would be part of a conspiracy against you?”

“I hope not, but someone used that pipette to inject a stallion’s semen into a mare.”

Halfway to the vehicle, Cat stopped and frowned, her expression so intent that Aidan asked, “Are you all right? Do you need help?”

“In catching a murderer.” She went silent for another moment, then said, “I think I just figured things out. I know what happened and why, Aidan. But we have to prove it. The SUV.” She pulled him the rest of the way. “You drive.”

He’d been planning on it. But he’d also been planning on driving far enough from Woodstock to keep her safe.

“We should notify the authorities. Best to tell Detective Pierce what you think you know. Let him handle this.”

“We’re going to find out if I’m right first. If I am, then we’ll make that call. If you don’t want to come, don’t.”

Her tone had shifted subtly and there was a look of distrust in her beautiful hazel eyes. Knowing she would fight him if he tried to get her away from here now, Aidan nodded. As long as he didn’t let her out of his sight, she would be all right. And if she really had figured it all out, they might be able to stop the villain. Or call Pierce, who would. He helped her into the SUV.

“Are you really up to this after being drugged?” he asked.

“My head is clear enough. I’m up to anything I have to do to catch a murderer.”

And he was up to anything he had to do to stop a curse.

* * *

A
S
HER
SENSE
OF
PURPOSE
GREW
, Cat felt stronger. She watched the sun sink below the horizon, and their surroundings were cast in deep shadow. “We’re going around to the other side of the forest preserve, which is a bit of a ride, since there aren’t many roads that go through.”

Her memory also returned—all of it. Her conversation with Tim Browne about his sister Pegeen’s death. Aidan’s dreams. His fetching his brother from the airport. All the things he hadn’t told her.

As Aidan turned onto the main road as she’d instructed, he cut into her thoughts. “Are you going to tell me where we’re headed?”

“You don’t like being kept in the dark. Then again, neither do I.”

“You sound angry. With me?”

“Why would I be angry with you, Aidan?”

“I would not know.”

“Because you’ve been nothing but truthful with me, isn’t that right?”

Aidan went silent for a moment before asking, “What is your point, Cat?”

So here it came. Her pulse fluttered and her breath caught in her throat. But she was determined to have it all out in the open.

“Raul told me you’d hired Tim Browne to ride Mac, and I couldn’t figure out why you’d hire an inexperienced jockey, so I went to see him myself. He told me he’d been a jockey for years and that he’d come to Woodstock to face you about his sister Pegeen’s death. Why didn’t you tell me all this on your own?”

“I would have told you. Eventually. I simply was not ready.”

“Why not?” Cat choked back the threat of tears. “Because you’re still in love with her? Or because you feel responsible for her death? Or is it both?”

“If you remember, I told you about Sheelin’s curse on the McKennas, Cat. You did not want to believe me.”

“Because I don’t believe in curses. But you do. Did you dream about me, Aidan?”

Again the silence before he said, “Aye. I dreamt about your being attacked in the barn. About the needle. About your being knocked out with a drug.”

“But you didn’t tell me. Just like you didn’t tell me about Pegeen. Or tell me about Cashel coming in from Ireland today.”

“Cashel? No. ’Twas Tiernan who flew in from South Dakota.”

That threw her. “Tiernan? Why?”

“To stand in for me as Mac’s trainer.”

“And where were you planning on being?”

“Gone. With you. I was going to take you somewhere safe until the murderer was caught.”

“What?” Cat didn’t even know how to respond to that. “Without asking me?”

“For your own good.”

Furious with him, she sank into silence until they got to the turnoff. How could she ever trust Aidan again?

“What happened to you is on my shoulders, Cat, and about that I am sorry.”

Not responding to what she considered half an apology, she guided him to a narrow road and took him onto the farm the back way. Fewer eyes to spot them. Dusk had already settled over the farm, which was a good thing. They could be invisible in the shadows. Having only been on this property once before, she had Aidan proceed carefully and park behind a small barn set a good distance away from the other buildings.

“Let’s hope there’s no night staff around.”

“What are we looking for?” he asked.

“You’ll see in a minute.”

She led the way, taking a back entrance into the barn. It was deadly quiet inside. Even so, she made no noise as she crept forward past the stalls, only three of which were occupied. Aidan shadowed her, and she had to fight not to let his nearness distract her. He’d torn her in two with his deception. She had deep feelings for him, but now she couldn’t be with him again, not with so many half-truths between them.

Hearing low voices, she stopped dead in her tracks and nearly yelped when a hand covered her mouth and Aidan pulled her back into the shadows against him.

“Shh.”

He removed his hand, but she was still pressed against his length. She swallowed hard and ignored the emotions being so close to him stirred up inside her. Instead, she concentrated on the voices that seemed to be moving away from them, getting softer and softer until they faded to nothing.

“They’re gone.”

Aidan let go of her, and she felt the separation like a physical loss.

“What are we looking for?” he asked in a whisper.

“You’ll see.”

The back of the barn was an open area the size of four box stalls—a large enough area for stallion sperm collection for artificial insemination. Rubber mats on the floor provided a nonslip surface. There was a door to one side, possibly the entrance to an equipment room.

She tried the handle. “Locked.”

“I wish I could tell you I know how to pick a lock. It’s a pretty flimsy door,” he said, running his hand over it. “Seems to be nothing more than plywood. I would kick it in, but the noise might alert someone.”

“A key would be easier.”

Cat was already feeling above the lintel. Not there. Nor was it under the mat on the floor before the door.

“Some farrier tools.” Stooping over a box, Aidan lifted out a clinch cutter and rot shears.