Brazen by Rosemoor Patricia

Author:Rosemoor, Patricia [Rosemoor, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: suspense
ISBN: 9781426885075
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-02-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“His heart rate is still accelerated—150 beats per minute.” Shaking his graying head, Doc Riddley patted Warrior, who was swaying on his feet and bleeding from the nose.

Clay blew out a breath. That was more than triple what it should be. They’d had to put Warrior in a stall in the barn. He was already hooked up to an intravenous feed of lidocaine that would slow his heartbeat, and Siobhan was preparing a bag of fluids that the vet had brought to flush out the toxins.

“He’s going to be all right, won’t he?” Siobhan asked, her hands shaking as she unwound the tubing.

The vet gave her a kindly smile and an I-hope-so shrug. “We’ve got to be positive.”

“I can’t stand it if they d-don’t all make it!”

The break in Siobhan’s voice got Clay where he lived. Knowing horses were her passion, that this incident was enough to undo her, he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and tell her it would be okay, that all the horses would be fine.

And most of them would be.

Before Doc Riddley drove up, he and Siobhan and Esai and Ben had worked on saving the four affected horses. Induced vomiting and gastric lavage helped reduce the absorption of the toxic compounds in oleander, one of the prettiest and deadliest plants around—not that he’d seen any on the Double JA property itself. The other three horses were still in the corral behind the barn with Esai and Ben seeing to them. Warrior was by far the worst off of the bunch, the only horse that needed extreme measures. Apparently, he’d eaten more of the deadly leaves than had his companions.

“What about getting Warrior to that new hospital outside of Santa Fe?” Clay asked.

Whatever it took to save him.

“If it makes you more comfortable,” the vet said. “But we don’t need to run tests to figure out what’s wrong with him, which would be the main reason to get him there.”

“Luckily I found the oleander leaves in the feed. If we hadn’t come back when we did…” Clay was just glad that they had. “So you think we can handle it?”

He covertly glanced at Siobhan, who still wasn’t herself. For the moment, she didn’t look as though she could handle anything stressful. He was confident she would come around, though, because that was her nature.

“At this point, I’m not sure what the vets at the hospital could do more than the two of you,” Riddley said, “considering your combined knowledge of horses. Plus, you’re Warrior’s person,” he said to Siobhan, “and your being with him goes a long way for his recovery. Besides, you’ve worked with horses all your life, and with that fancy degree, you know nearly as much about equine care as I do.”

“But I’m not a vet.”

“You’re the next-best thing,” Riddley said. “I have every confidence in you. I’ll leave all the meds and supplies you need. You call me if Warrior gets worse and I’ll hightail it back here.

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