Page 85 of Her Guarded Hero

Aladdin swung his big head in protest and whinnied loudly. His teeth snapped.

Lindy pulled her away. “What the hell?”

“He’s fine. Aren’t you a big boy?”

“Don’t go near him.” Lindy commanded.

Aurora shrugged off her cousins’ hands. “I just need to check one more thing.” It took her another ten minutes of talking and crooning to soothe Aladdin. “I’m sorry Baby, I need you to be patient just a little more. Can you let me do that?”

Aurora could swear she saw him give a look of acquiescence. She went closer to his mouth and muzzle. She carefully looked into his nostrils, and gently touched inside. Aladdin snorted his displeasure.

“Okay, Boy, I’m done with that.”

Aurora stepped backwards. “Let’s go,” she said to Lindy.

When they were out of the stall, Lindy turned to her. “What was that all about?”

“Aladdin has a hell of a lot of scar tissue inside his nose. There is no way that it should be there, somebody was really abusing him with his noseband. Also, he’s really sensitive around his neck. As far as I’m concerned it definitely confirms that he was abused while being trained for dressage.”

“Help me out here Cuz, it’s been awhile since I’ve worked with horses. Explain the noseband thing,” Lindy asked.

Aurora pulled out her hand sanitizer and washed her hands as they walked out of the barn. “I’m thinking the PTSD, the scarring on the legs, and the overuse of the noseband would have all been done if someone was using cruel methods to train Aladdin for either jumping or dressage.”

Lindy didn’t say anything as they passed the corral.

Aurora was lost in thought. She had to be wrong. Or if she was right, it couldn’t be Elsa and Dennis, they couldn’t know about it. She came to an abrupt halt.

“What’s wrong?” Lindy asked. “Is it the baby?”

“No. We’re going to Yuba City.”

“Hell no. You’re going back in the house, having ice cream, and then we’re going to hide it deep in the freezer under the peas and carrots, so you can get to it in the middle of the night.”

“Nope, I want to talk to Elsa and Dennis. They have someone on staff who’s hurting horses. They need to be told.”

“Fine, we’ll call them.”

“No this is something I have to do in person. I owe it to them. I know them. I consider them friends. I’ve actually seen some of their horses compete.”

“We’ll wait until the men come back,” Lindy said stubbornly.

“Oh, for goodness sake, you’re an elite member of the SWAT team. Do we really need to wait for them?”

Lindy laughed. “Okay, not really. But if one thing looks the slightest bit suspicious, I’m going to pull in the Yuba City sheriff, got it?”

“Fine by me.”

* * *

“That was sure a waste of time,” Hunter groused in the front seat of Dalton’s truck.

“It was nice to see how just how tenacious and competent my future in-laws are.” Dalton had been really impressed by Zebadiah. For a man who had spent his entire life on a ranch, he was almost as hard-core has his brother Tate.

“So, you’re getting married, huh? You know Aliana will want to make it a double wedding.”

“She can want forever and a day. Aurora and I are getting married before our son is born.”

“Congratulations. A son.”