Backlash by Lisa Jackson

Author:Lisa Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

Tender Trap

Chapter One

“Damn it all to hell!” Colton McLean growled, kicking at the straw and slamming the stall gate so hard the timbers of the old stable rumbled. Several horses snorted nervously. “Where’s Black Magic?” Colton whirled to face Curtis Kramer, the ranch foreman.

“Gone.”

“I can see that.”

Curtis rubbed his silver-stubbled chin. “I already checked the paddocks and the south pasture.”

“What about the other barns? Maybe someone put him in the wrong place.”

Squinting at the younger man, Curtis slowly shook his head. “Nope. Len searched all the buildings and the paddocks. Black Magic’s nowhere in the yard.”

“He couldn’t disappear without a trace!” Colton strode out of the stallion barn, ignoring the restless grunts of the other horses. Black Magic was the single most valuable asset of the McLean Ranch. And he’d vanished into thin air. “I knew I should never have agreed to stay here,” he muttered, thinking unkind thoughts of his older brother, Denver, who, with his wife, Tessa, had left Montana three weeks before in order to “tie up some loose ends” of the engineering firm he was moving from L.A. to the nearby town of Three Falls. This ranch was Denver’s business as well; Colton didn’t want any part of it.

Outside, the night was as dark as Colton’s black mood. Rain from the vast Montana sky fell relentlessly, bending the grass in the surrounding fields and turning the ground to muck.

Curtis had to run to keep up with Colton’s long strides. “If ya ask me,” he said, catching his breath, “this is all the doin’ of Ivan Aldridge.”

Jolted at the mention of a sworn enemy, Colton turned on the older man. “Aldridge? What’s he got to do with this?”

“He’s stolen Black Magic, sure as I’m standin’ here!”

“Bah!”

Curtis lifted his chin. “As sure as he stole that horse last spring, he’s taken him again.”

“Last spring? What the devil are you talking about?”

“Didn’t anyone tell you?”

Colton’s patience snapped. He was cold and wet, and the last thing he wanted to do was stand in the driving rain and discuss Ivan Aldridge. “No one knew where I was last year,” he reminded the older man.

“Well, while you were getting shot up in Northern Ireland, Black Magic disappeared for nearly two weeks.”

Colton didn’t want to think about the bar in Northern Ireland where, six months before, someone—Colton didn’t know who—had witnessed him snapping pictures, taken offense and turned his gun on him. Colton was lucky to have gotten away with his life. “The horse escaped last spring?”

“I think he had help. No one could prove it, of course, but the way I figure it, Ivan Aldridge stole the horse, used him to service some of his mares, then let him go before anyone was the wiser.”

“That’s crazy,”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone told me last year. And then when the horse showed up, everyone got busy again and conveniently forgot that he’d been gone. No one dug very deep. The insurance company and the rest of us were relieved.”

“So what’s this got to do with Aldridge?”

“Old Ivan always swore to get even.

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