Shay stepped forward and held his hand out to the horse, and gently took his halter and led him over to where they bathed the horses. As he was being cleaned by the two vets, who used the water to disguise them taking blood samples, and checking for any broken or cracked bones, the horse seemed to pick his head up higher.
Pedro and Myrna watched, and when they were done with Chocolate, Shay led him away, and brought Sally out. They did the same with her, andAnn had gone in to make sure they had plenty of hay, feed, and water. Once Sally was back in her own pen, the two vets turned to the owners. Lorissa held up the blood samples they had taken. “We’ll get these to the lab, and make sure there’s nothing wrong. If the tests come back clean, we’ll still keep them in these separate pens for two weeks before we can release them in with the others.” She looked at Myrna. “I’ll be back tomorrow to inspect their feet. I checked out the one Pedro removed the stone from, and she is still limping, but I didn’t see anything drastically wrong. I’ll trim her hooves, and check all their feet tomorrow. Let’s allow them to get some rest and settle in.” She cleaned up their supplies, and then she and Tom left.
Shay, Faith, and Ann tended to the horses, rubbing the water off them, brushed them out, and got the knots out of their manes and tails.
Sheriff Jim turned to Erin with raised brows. “You got someplace where I can talk with Myrna?”
“Not without us,” Clark said from the open doorway. He had swung his gun, so it hung off his back. He walked over and put his arm around Naomi. “Sheriff, you know me.” He turned to the two new arrivals. “I’m Clark Riceman, Erin’s brother, and Naomi’s boyfriend. This might be our land and buildings, but these horses are Naomi’s. I’m not saying you brought trouble with you. From what I heard, Myrna, you did everything you could do inorder to keep yourself and Sally safe. Now it’s our turn to keep you safe while you are here. I want to know what we’re up against, and how much protection we need to plan for.” He turned to look at his sister with a raised brow.
“Are you going to offer her a job?”
“Yes, and I’ll have Duane and Jake put a rush on the background check.” She turned and explained what she meant by that. “How well do you know horses?”
“Nothing about racehorses, but I know Sally.”
“Good, once you’re healed, you can start working here.”
“But, I don’t have anything.” She sighed in defeat. “I’m sorry, I was so focused on getting the ownership papers of Sally, my own important papers, and my money, that I didn’t even bring my own clothes. I’ve been in these for a week.” She shook her head. “I would wash my undergarments during the day, when we waited for the sun to go down.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Erin said as she pulled her phone, and looked between her brother and Sheriff Jim. “Take everyone to the holiday meeting room at Erin’s Way. Jason and Ilsa’s office.”
“Got it,” Clark said as he kissed the side of Naomi’s head, and walked away, pulling his own phone as he left. Erin did the same as she turned away, and dialed her own phone. She turned back and called out.
“One hour!” Clark waved as he continued to walk away.
Pedro looked at everyone with raised brows, and Cole snapped to attention. “Okay, when you came in, did you see the line of trailers?”
“Yes.”
“Go park yours at the end, then we’ll be right there.”
Shay jumped in the front seat to go with him while Faith walked over to Myrna.
“Everything will be okay. We’re family here, and we’ll take care of you. Come with me.” She paused and looked at Myrna head on. “You can trust us.”
“What do I have to lose?” she shook his head and looked at her cousin.
“She’s right. You can trust everyone that works for the Ricemans.”
“Okay.”
CHAPTER 3
Myrna followedFaith through the barn, out the front, and to a pick-up truck. They both climbed in, and instead of heading the way Pedro and Myrna had entered, Faith drove further into the ranch, and she pulled into a space before a cabin.
“This cabin is empty,” Faith said as she turned off her truck. “Hop out.” They did and met at the front of the truck, and Faith pointed to the cabin further down. “Shay and I live there, across the road is where Tony and Staci live.”
“What about the other cabins?”
“All empty, waiting for new employees to arrive.” Faith looked at Myrna with a smirk. “You’ll learn, but Erin’s properties are huge. Let me give you a brief rundown. There is Erin’s Way, that’s where we’ll be going in a minute or twenty. She raises prize stallions that she studs out. Oh, and she also has prize broodmares. Those she either breeds herself, and sells the foals, or some ranchers use her mares with their stallions, and they get the foal when it’s ready to leave its Mama.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, that ranch was the original one, and has been operating like that since Erin and Clark’s ancestors started this ranch almost two hundred years ago. Don’t quote me, but I believe it was sometime in the eighteen thirties when Erin’s Way was started.” Faith laughed as she leaned in to whisper, “By their grandmother, no less. But, it gets better. She has Tom and Lorissa you just met, they extract sperm from her stallions, freeze it, and sell it online to whomever wants to purchase it. Think IVF for horses.”
“Like for breeders?”
“Yes, that’s an on-line business. Her next business is the Broken Wheel Ranch. The people there work with horses that are in the condition of Cocoa, or they were, but they’re better now and thriving. That’s what I call Pedro’s horse. Broken Wheel had horses that came from abused cases that the police and SPCA asked Erin if she could foster them until after the court case. Erin ended up keeping them, and later purchased horses from the auction houses to save them. The employees over there have been working with them, and themselves on healing. I don’t know what they, the workers, all went through, but I do know they are former military. The BrokenWheel is now a horse rehabilitation center for humans.”
