Her Father's Secret by Sara Blaedel

Author:Sara Blaedel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2019-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

It took less than twenty minutes for her to drive from the hospital to Fletcher’s ranch. On the way she tanked up and bought a sandwich with some of the money Amber had given her, without feeling the slightest bit guilty. She still had four hundred dollars rolled up in her pocket, a nice little security blanket.

Ilka knew the road from the first time she’d been here, and she slowed down at the series of curves where she’d met the truck carrying the horses. The big pastures were on her right. Amber had told her to go past the ranch house entrance to the next curve; the driveway there ended behind the stables.

Tall trees on both sides of the road cast shadows onto the car when she turned in. According to Amber, the southern stable stood next to the pasture. Two cars were parked there, but Ilka drove by them and stopped beside a truck with the Fletcher and Davidson Race team logo on the door. She took the path around the building and immediately spotted Amber’s stable. Expanses of grass stretched out beyond it.

There was no one around, but she hurried around the corner of the stable and stopped at the sight of a small tractor parked at the next stable, where someone was mucking out the stalls. Quickly she opened the double Dutch door, and when she ducked inside she was surrounded by the familiar pleasant odor of horses. And silence. No sound of jaws munching on hay, muzzles sweeping the floor for food, tails flicking at flies. No sounds at all.

Ilka walked farther in. Was the stable really empty? The stalls were. She would have guessed the horses had been turned out to pasture, but Amber had explained they were never all outside at the same time. Too many injuries occurred when they ran around together, and these trotting horses were much too valuable to risk that.

She entered a stall and noted that it had been swept out. There was food in the trough, and the water bowl was clean but empty. She checked the stall on the other side; it looked the same. She closed her eyes and leaned against the stall bars, thinking of how to break the news to her half sister, how to explain it. The horses could have been moved to another stable. They could be under special surveillance. At worst they might be stabled at a vet clinic, in which case no one could blame Fletcher for not wanting to add to his granddaughter’s worries. She decided to try to find Tom.

Suddenly someone grabbed her shoulder and brutally jerked her around. Pain shot down her arm, and it took her a moment to recognize Jeff’s bitter face. She nearly stumbled in her struggle to keep up as he pulled her over to the stall door.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled in her ear. “Who sent you?”

She wrenched her arm free, shoved him back, and yelled, “What’s wrong with you?” She rubbed her shoulder.

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