I chuckle. “Well, either they kept their horses at that farm without the trainer or they had to come to mine and pay my fees.”
“That would do it,” Tessa notes. “Okay, so you get the trainer to come here, igniting anger with owners of the horses and the facility, then what?”
“We forged a pretty straightforward and lucrative team. I allowed him a lot of free rein—he had contacts in this industry that I didn’t.”
She nods. “Makes sense.”
“This place was never really meant for any of this. I bought the ranch for a family member, and it grew into something more. I became even more passionate about horse racing and thought this would be a great side gig. I figured I’d have some fun, be around the animals I love again. It was truly never meant to grow into something.”
“So how did it?” she asks.
I laugh, remembering how we went from being a sort of unknown to much bigger. “I got lucky.”
Tessa leans back on the couch, draping her right leg over her left. Her long lashes sweep across her cheek and then lift again. For a moment, my breath catches, and her beauty absolutely floors me.
As though she can sense my desire starting to mount, she clears her throat and tucks her hair behind her ear. “By getting your trainer?”
I shake my head. “No, by my horse winning a major race. I have six personal horses and my one thoroughbred just…dominated. He won and won and won and then won a major derby. He’s been incredible and he’s built all wrong according to everyone. My jockey said he couldn’t explain it, but that horse justwantedto win. You can’t train that, you know?”
“If you say so,” she says with a smile.
“I do. It’s inside of them, a desire to succeed. It made me a fuckload of money, and I knew I couldn’t reproduce a season like that, but I knew I could breed him. People would pay a lot of money to have a foal from him and the right mare. Which is where I feel like things changed for me.
“I brought Travis, my trainer, in to help me create a breeding program where we figured out some markers that, when crossed, started to produce winning racers. We had, in two years, produced multiple winners and it put us on the map.Our mares and studs, when paired correctly, started to prove we were a great breeding facility. Then, we knew we could make even more money because he would train them, study their habits and tendencies, correct what he could, and sell them. Most of the buyers wanted Travis to train them, so then they boarded them here. We became a one-stop shop for quality prospective racehorses that you could buy, keep here, have trained, and cared for.”
Tessa sighs. “I’m not seeing anything illegal or that would cause a PR crisis yet.”
No, she wouldn’t.
“Well, that’s because there isn’t anything in that sense. We aren’t doing anything illegal. However, Travis is gone. He took off a few days ago, and I didn’t think anything of it. Maybe he wanted to see another horse to buy. Maybe he had an emergency. Who knows, but it’s been a week. Nothing. His phone is now off. He lives in the guesthouse back there, it’s empty. Completely empty. As though he never lived here.”
“I see. Okay, so he’s gone, and you said something about the buyers?”
I nod. “So we have buyers lined up for the next year, but at least half are now pulling out of their contracts. Horses that we had in the program that were ready to sell in the next few weeks, they cancelled the sales and the promise to board and train. No warning, no explanation—nothing. I spend about half my time between here and my home in Boston. Travis runs everything, and when I’m here, I check in and help out. Most of the day-to-day running is by him and the staff, but he’s gone. I wasn’t overly concerned until two days ago—I found this.”
I push off the desk and walk around to the safe that looks like it’s a part of the bookcase. I open it and pull the note out, coming over to where she’s sitting. Our fingers brush as I hand it to herand pull back, opening and closing my fist as I try to ignore the tingle.
However, I notice the tremble that runs through her.
Good. At least I’m not the only one who felt that.
Tessa focuses her attention to the note and lifts her eyes to meet mine. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
The note reads:
Get your house in order before the story breaks and you lose it all.
“Okay, so there’s a story coming and we need to find out what it is. How much does each of your horses go for?”
“It depends. A horse from a proven winner or combination foal can go for anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000. The other stud we have, who has never won, his foals go for less since he doesn’t have the same winning record. Most of the time Travis can make a good arrangement with the buyers he knows.”
“And how many sales backed out?” Tessa asks, writing more notes down.
“Six.”
“That’s a lot of money.”
