Want & Need (21 page)

Chapter Forty-Four

Tuesday morning came around bright and hopeful. It was Mum’s cremation tomorrow but that seemed like a million miles away from the mess I was currently wading my way through. I was nothing but determined to get a confession from Tim—I knew for a fact the women before Mum hadn’t died accidentally, and neither had she.

Paul had yet to meet Tim and I was eager to see how he would react to Paul’s presence. I still hadn’t spoken to Ash, so he knew nothing of what Paul revealed to me in the diner.

I slept like a baby last night, coated in Paul’s body as he hugged me and reassured me no one would be touching me during the night, not even him. I felt a million times better after a good night’s sleep, and began to realise despite his parents’ business and the lifestyle he was involved in, I didn’t care. I ached for him like the earth ached for the promise of spring after a harsh winter. I needed him in my life, I wanted him in my life. He was the part of me that had always been missing and I couldn’t ignore that anymore.

As we drove up to the main house, my stomach began flipping over in knots at the impending day ahead.

We walked through the wooden door and sat down at the big, solid wooden table. Ash and Ben were already eating but there was no sign of Tim.

“Where is he?” I asked Ash.

“Bathroom.”

Tim emerged a minute later and did not do well to hide the shock on his face at seeing Paul next to me. Paul stood up and did a marvellous impression of a fake greeting as the pair shook hands. Tim shot me a dirty look, and I smirked at him proudly. We ate in silence before I took everyone by surprise.

“Take me to the barn,” I said, staring at Tim.

“What?”

“I want to see where Mum died. Take me to the barn.”

Paul gave me a reassuring squeeze on my leg as I caught Ben’s puzzled gaze and Ash’s suspicious look. Tim cleared his throat, faltering for words. Aware of everyone watching him, he gave in. The guys stood up to come with me but I told them to stay put. I needed to do this alone.

I kept my distance from Tim as he led us down to the red and white painted barn. Most of the horses were out, only a handful in to stay cosy and warm.

A concrete aisle split the barn in half, each side lined with a dozen stables. A cool silence coated the atmosphere, save for the rhythmic chewing of the horses on their hay. Just gazing around at the picturesque indoor barn had me dreaming wistful dreams. I just knew Mum would have loved this.

We reached the very last stable on the left, a big black face with a white stripe pinging over the stable door. Bright, alert eyes stared back at me as he nodded his head with an eager gesture. He stretched towards me as far as the constraints of his door would allow.

“This is Nelson,” Tim said.

I suddenly felt very alone, and very vulnerable with this man who had towered over me in my bed a mere two days ago. I took a deep breath, ignoring my spiking heart rate coursing adrenaline through my body.

I held my hand out, letting him snuffle across my palm. “Hey, boy.”

He squealed and pinned his ears back, biting at the air next to me where Tim stood. I jumped to the side and watched, fascinated, as the impressive animal made his feelings towards Tim rather clear.

“Is he always like this?” I asked, curious about the stallion’s behaviour.

“He liked your mum.”

“I thought you said he was yours.”

“Your mum bought him for me but he didn’t take to me. He only responded to her.”

The sourness lacing his voice was evident combined with the hatred seeping from his eyes. His jaw was clenched, his top lip almost curling back as if he’d just swallowed a bitter pill.

Something settled uneasy with me about Nelson though. Why would he keep a horse with such high energy in?

“Does he not go out?” I asked.

He snorted and motioned a hand towards me. When he spoke, his words were dripping with sarcasm. “Feel free to go in there.”

Upon moving his hand towards me, Nelson squealed again before making a move to bite Tim’s arm. With the chilling snap of Nelson’s jaw, I realised this horse was not playing, he meant it—if he got hold of Tim’s flesh, he would take a chunk without hesitation.

“So he never went out unless Mum put him out?”

“Yep.”

I scowled at his cowardice and began to wonder how Nelson could have killed Mum if she was the only one he liked. It just wouldn’t happen, unless it was just a freak accident, but something told me this wasn’t the case.

“So how did it happen?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve told you.”

“Tell me again.”

“We heard the horses making a racket. She came out to see what the problem was. I found her here.” He pointed to the floor in front of Nelson’s door. “She had blood on her head and he was roaming around inside, sniffing all the mares.”

“But if he only liked her, why would he kick her?”

“We have some mares in season. The only thing I can think of is he was after one, your mum went to get him, and he took a fly kick at her to keep her away.”

I frowned as something really didn’t make sense to me. For a start, if you had a stallion, you didn’t keep them near mares who were in season. Mum wasn’t that daft. For seconds, if for whatever reason, the stallion managed to get near a mare who was in season, you definitely didn’t approach him in the dark with a thunderstorm banging away outside. Again, she wasn’t that daft.

I looked at the width of the walkway we were in. It was plenty wide enough for a person to walk around the back of a horse without being kicked. It was easily thirty feet wide, if not more.

“Can I have a minute, please?” I asked.

He nodded and walked off, disappearing back outside.

I breathed a sigh of relief as he vanished. I was glad he hadn’t tried anything, although with Nelson trying to mutilate him from behind me, he wouldn’t have gotten very far anyway.

I lifted a hand to the big stallion, watching with delight as he pricked his ears and sniffed my hand with a soft nicker. Feeling confident he didn’t want a taste of me, I took a step forwards and reached up to pat his neck. He had a big crest, and from what I could see, was well muscled too. Mum had obviously worked with him a lot, which made me think about their bond again. It just didn’t seem right that he would kick her. Stallions had been known to become protective over their female owners, and knowing how my mum was with her horses, I would bet my last penny that this was how their relationship would have been.

I looked down for the bolt, wanting to go into his stable with him. I frowned as I noticed both the top bolt and the kick bolt had been moved. The wooden frame harboured splinters, as if it had been forced open. Regardless, I entered his stable. He stepped backwards politely and sniffed at my coat pockets.

I stroked his neck as he busied himself smelling me, mildly wondering if he could smell Mum somewhere or had somehow connected we were related. Pushing the boundaries step by step, I ran my hands over his strong muscled back and down his tough, sturdy legs.

I clucked to him as I asked him to pick his feet up for me. He obliged without a fuss, revealing to me that as I suspected, he was barefoot. Mum hated shoes with a passion, and from the looks of his hoof walls, he hadn’t had shoes on for months as there were no tell-tale holes for the nails. His feet were perfectly trimmed and smooth.

I knew for a horse kick to kill someone outright, it would have to be really close, and if not, they would definitely have to be shod to achieve maximum damage. Considering I was a stranger, Nelson was perfectly fine with me in his personal space.

I began to wonder if his behaviour towards Tim was something deeper than Tim made out.

I grabbed his head-collar, which hung up outside his stable. He thrust his head into it before giving me a gentle shove towards the door. This horse wanted out, and after glancing round his stable, I couldn’t blame him. The rancid smell of ammonia had already crawled up my nose, making my eyes water. Dried piles of manure heaped up on top of one another left me in no doubt Tim hadn’t even been in here to clean him out. His water bucket was also nearly empty and his food bowl had been licked clean.

Despite this, he remained with perfect manners as I led him down the aisle, not rushing or barging into me once. As we broke out into the fresh air, Ash, Ben, and Paul were just making their way towards us. Tim was up near the house, rummaging around in his truck. Nelson held his head up high and took in a deep breath before he sighed and then visibly relaxed. I led him over to the nearest patch of grass lining one of the paddocks and let him eat. His head was down before he’d even approached the grass, his neck stuck out in eagerness. He snatched at the lush grass with vigorous shakes of his head, cramming his mouth as full as possible. In less than a minute, a mushy green froth had formed around his lips. The poor chap was starving.

“What are you doing?” Ash said.

“This is the horse that supposedly killed Mum.”

“So you’re handling it because…?”

“Touch him.”

“What?”

“Touch the horse, Ash.”

Ash stared back at me as if I’d just announced I was an alien or something. Thankfully, Paul took the lead and strode forwards, walking around Nelson’s back end with a wide berth. He approached his other side and started stroking his neck. Nelson never battered an eyelid.

Eyeing me curiously, Ash followed Paul’s footsteps and tickled Nelson’s withers. He flicked his ears back and forth, acknowledging their presence, but otherwise continued munching on his grass, ignoring the men fussing over him.

Ben followed suit, his nerves all but clear as he stood at arm’s length, his fingertips just brushing Nelson’s back.

Just in time, Tim shut his truck door and turned around, a look of shock and terror spreading over his face.

“Careful,” I said to the trio around me. “You might want to move.”

Tim strode down the gravelly hill towards me, his whole face darkening and his eyes gleaming with fury. The men quickly evacuated themselves from Nelson, leaning back against the wooden fencing a few feet away.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Tim shouted, still a good hundred yards away.

I kept my eyes on Nelson, watching as his ears flicked towards the approaching person.

“He needs fresh air, and his stable is disgusting,” I said. “I thought you could muck him out whilst I keep him amused with some grass.”

As Tim closed in the last twenty feet, Nelson grunted, and launched himself forwards at the horrid man. He spun himself around in a full on attack—ears pinned back, teeth bared, and heels kicking.

The lead rope snapped to its full length, nearly snatching me straight off my feet as he lunged at his target. Tim jumped back with inches to spare, fear leaking across his features. Nelson’s feet had barely touched the ground again before he took another aim, this time coming dangerously close to Tim’s head. Tim scuttled backwards a good few feet, enough to keep Nelson relatively calm.

I took the length of the lead rope, closing the gap between us and patted his neck, soothing him with my voice at the same time. He snorted and pawed at the ground, his shoulder muscles quivering with excitement. He was pumped with adrenaline, ready to go, and part of me was tempted to let him loose.

“What the hell was that?” Ash said, walking up behind me. “What’s your point, Ky? That the horse can kick and that’s how he killed Mum?”

I turned to Ash, shooting him a withering look. “No, you idiot. This is my point.”

I marched back towards Tim. As expected, within a matter of feet, Nelson hurled himself at Tim again. The noise that left him was nothing short of animalistic—a screeching cry of something that wanted its death match. I’d only ever heard something like this between two fighting stallions in the wild.

Trying to hide my smirk, I let the lead rope go, delight taking over as Tim literally ran for his life. He hooked a sharp left and dove for the paddock fence, desperate to escape Nelson’s bared teeth.

Unfortunately for Tim, he wasn’t too nimble getting over the fence, and Nelson managed to sink a flesh piercing bite in his upper thigh as he straddled the top of the post and rails. He screamed in pain before he fell off on the other side of the fence. Nelson snorted and pawed at the ground as he kept a watchful eye on the howling man rolling around on the grass.

I didn’t doubt for a second that Nelson would jump the fence if he wanted to but he didn’t, he just stood there, keeping a watchful eye on the spiteful man. He snorted and continued to stomp the ground, nodding his head with impatience.

I walked to him, talking softly as I took hold of his dangling lead rope. He calmed almost immediately as I led him back to the three gobsmacked men who were leaned up against the fence.

“Have I made my point?” I asked Ash.

He was so white, he looked like he’d just seen a ghost. “Yes,” he said. “A point well made.”