Purebred (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

“I almost killed Dean Hill,” Aidan told his brother, as he waited to see Cat. She was out of surgery, out of recovery and being settled in her room. He was so grateful she’d survived that he actually felt weak with relief. “It would have been my fault, though. I nearly caused the death of another woman I love.”

“You’re in love.” Tiernan clapped him on the back. “Congratulations, boyo.”

“No congratulations required. She was almost killed. What if I can’t stop it the next time?”

“Perhaps there won’t be a next time,” Ella said. “We’ve been living a peaceful and fruitful life since we got married.”

“Fruitful?”

Tiernan grinned. “Ella’s expecting.”

“Then ’tis you two who need to be congratulated.” Aidan shook his brother’s hand and kissed Ella on the cheek. “But it does not change my mind that I cannot be with her.”

“What about Cat’s mind?” Ella asked. “Doesn’t she have anything to say about it?”

Before Aidan could tell them how Cat wouldn’t want him anyway because he hadn’t told her about the dreams, hadn’t told her about Pegeen, the nurse came out of her room.

“You can go in, now, Mr. McKenna. She’s waiting for you.”

“How is she?”

“She’s doing fine. Go see for yourself.”

Tiernan pushed him forward to the doorway.

Aidan stepped into the room and stopped where he could devour Cat with his gaze. Lying in the hospital bed, she looked so fragile. So vulnerable. He thanked his foresight in alerting Pierce, who had tracked his location through the GPS on his cell phone. Even so, there’d been a moment he’d thought it was too late, that he’d lost her. The dogs, who’d been thrown off farm property, kept off by the electric fence and so had arrived with back-up, hadn’t given up on her. Neither could he.

Cat was alive.

All that mattered to him.

Her eyes fluttered open. “Aidan.”

“Aye.”

“Is it over?”

“All but Hill’s trial. Raul made a deal with the state’s attorney. He agreed to testify against Hill.”

“Good. I’ll testify, too.”

“As will I. I shall return to see the man properly punished.”

“Return?” Suddenly, she sounded anxious. “Where are you going?”

“’Tis not fair for me to take advantage of your good will any longer.”

“Good will? We’re partners.”

“About that. I shall find a way to pay back every penny you put out to bring Mac here.”

“No, you won’t. We have a contract, and I’m holding you to it. You’re not going anywhere without me.”

Which stopped him cold. After their argument, he’d thought she would be relieved to be free of him. His pulse began to thrum.

“I put you in danger.”

“What’s done is done. That’s the past. I’m alive and I intend to stay that way.”

“You want to continue working together after all the half-truths between us? And the danger I brought you? ’Tis too big a risk.”

“You take risks all the time, Aidan McKenna. With your horses. One question. No half-truths here. Are you still in love with Pegeen?”

Couldn’t she see he was in love with
her?

“I will always have room in my heart for memories of Pegeen…but at last I have put her to rest.”

“Then it’s time you took another risk for yourself. Take a risk on loving me.”

Warmth flashed through him at the invitation. “How is it you think I love you?”

“You don’t have a choice. You saved my life. It’s yours.”

* * *

T
HE
DAY
OF
THE
M
C
H
ENRY
S
TAKES
came all too soon. Out of the hospital and nearly healed, Cat held Aidan to his contract. Not that he’d tried getting out of it again, but he’d accepted her decision with a wariness that elevated her anxiety level every time she thought about it.

He hadn’t admitted he loved her.

And she still was sleeping alone.

Now in the box to watch Mac race with Aidan and his brother and sister-in-law, she was both happy and envious. Tiernan’s love for Ella was so obvious in the way he looked at her and touched her.

To her disappointment, Aidan seemed ill at ease, as if he wanted to say something that he couldn’t force through his lips.

A declaration of love? Or was that wishful thinking?

“Mac’s in the starting gate,” Tiernan said.

Seeing the black colt with Tim Browne in green silks on his back, Cat felt a thrill shoot through her. She slipped her hand into Aidan’s, determined to keep it there whether or not he liked it.

“This is it,” she said. “The moment we’ve been waiting for.”

“Aye.”

The starting bell went off, the gates flashed open, the horses charged down the field, and Aidan squeezed her hand tightly.

People around her yelled, bettors and owners alike screaming the names of their horses.

Only Aidan wasn’t yelling. Nor was Tiernan.

She looked from one brother to the other and saw the same intense expression in their rugged features, and she knew they were urging on Mac Finnian silently. Psychically.

After all that had happened, after hearing Tiernan and Ella’s story, she had to believe there was something to the claim.

“C’mon, Mac!” she yelled as the field passed the half-mile post.

Browne was holding Mac back. The colt was in the middle of the field. Waiting for an opening.

And then the field entered the stretch and Mac fairly exploded past the horses on either side of him. Aidan’s grip on her hand tightened even more as Mac passed the horse in front of him, then another and another until he was in second place.

Cat held her breath. The race now seemed suspended; it looked as if Mac couldn’t pass the horse in the lead. And then Browne barely touched the colt’s shoulder with the whip. Mac stretched out, lengthened his stride and pulled ahead. He easily took the race by two lengths.

“He won!” Cat screamed, and Aidan picked her up and twirled her around. “Mac won!”

She kissed Aidan square on the mouth and he kissed her back, hard enough to make her giddy.

When he set her down, he was smiling. “Sure and this was a sign.”

“This might be only the first step, but Mac is headed for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.”

“A sign for us, as well,” Aidan said.

Making Cat’s heart thump. “What does that mean?”

“You’re mine, remember?” He pulled a small box from his pocket and opened it to reveal a ring set with an emerald. “I love you, Cat Clarke. Marry me and make our partnership permanent.”

“Say yes!” Ella said.

Tiernan just grinned.

Her heart soaring, Cat held out her left hand. After Aidan slipped the ring on her finger, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again.

Tiernan broke into their moment. “They’re waiting for you in the winner’s circle.”

Aidan wrapped a possessive arm around her waist. “Let us go congratulate our colt.”

* * * * *

ISBN: 9781459226357

Copyright © 2012 by Patricia Pinianski

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