“Did you see that?” Bella was bouncing excitedly up and down in her saddle as she pointed emphatically at the barrels in Aria’s riding ring. “Smokey and I ran that barrel pattern like a boss!”
Aria couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “Where on earth did you hear that phrase?” she asked. “You sound a little bit silly. How about just saying you guys did a great job?”
“Doesn’t sound as amazing,” Bella pointed out. “Boss is like the best ever!”
Aria shook her head. “I must be hopelessly out of it.”
They were just finishing up with their lesson that wasn’t a lesson. Jaeger and Darren were inside untacking Charlie, and Aria could see her next class just starting to wander out of the barn and head toward the ring as they got ready to mount and start their hour-long group lesson. It was a beautiful late spring day on the front range. The sun was shining. A light breeze was blowing. And the temperature was neither too hot nor too cold.
Aria had just opened her mouth to suggest that Bella get down from Smokey’s back and take her back to the barn to remove her saddle when she spotted a truck barreling up the driveway. The huge cloud of gravel behind it was consuming. In fact, it was so large and thick that it was difficult to tell who was actually in the vehicle. Then the thing turned, and Aria spotted the Flying W logo on the side of the truck.
“Bella,” Aria said quickly. “Go inside the barn. Now.” Aria reached up and tugged the girl out of the saddle. “Hurry up, sweetie, okay?”
“Why?” Bella was staring at the big truck hurtling toward them. “Is that my dad? Is that why you’re so nervous?”
“No, sweetie. Your dad’s truck is all crunched on the front. Remember? That’s a really nasty man who hates your dad and me and pretty much everyone else on the planet. I need you to take Smokey inside and stay with Uncle Darren until I tell you otherwise. Now.”
Bella finally shrugged. “Okay.”
Aria would not let Paul Weatherby try his intimidation tactics on a tiny little girl who had never done anything but be born a Hernandez. So, as soon as Smokey’s slow-trotting grey booty disappeared behind Bella into the barn, Aria felt a two-ton weight lift off her chest. Darren would keep the kids inside. Hopefully. And that would leave Aria to deal with the snake.
Weatherby’s big truck skidded to a stop in her farmyard and, as he had before, sprayed the barn with gravel. Aria felt some of the tiny pea-sized rocks against her boots and the blue jean covered surface of her calves. The man was a menace. It was incredible to think that he was actually a police officer!
“Standing there like you think you’re going to throw me off your property, eh?” Paul jumped down from the driver’s side of his truck and thrust a piece of folded paper into her hand. “Well, then, I’ll just give you this and you can go be smug and sure of yourself somewhere else. Like court.”
“A summons?” Aria stared at the piece of paper. “I feel like this isn’t exactly legal.”
“I’m a police captain,” Weatherby boasted. “It’s perfectly legal for me to serve you with a subpoena for court.”
“You’re a party in the case,” Aria pointed out. “You want to explain to me how you think you can serve me with a subpoena when you’re the one I’m supposed to be testifying against?”
“Not against. For.”
“I would rather rot than help you.” Aria didn’t even bother to pretend that she didn’t hate him.
“Oh. I forgot this one.” Weatherby tossed her another folded piece of paper. “It’s an injunction that legally prevents you from teaching any lessons.”
“Excuse me?” She was sure she’d heard wrong. How was that even possible? “I have to teach. That’s how I make a living. Why would you even bother to legally make me stop teaching? It’s not like I’m a threat to you.”
Weatherby’s smirk made her blood boil. “You and everyone else need to know what happens when you take up with the Hernandez bunch against me. People need to leave the Hernandez family alone. They’re bad news. Now, maybe you’ll figure that out.” Weatherby cocked his head. “Or I could put in a good word with the judge and have the injunction lifted if you just remove every Hernandez horse from your property and refuse all members of that family any sort of services.”
“You’re out of your damn mind!” Aria fumed. “You can’t use the court system as your own personal hit squad! You are literally making trouble for people just to further your own business interests! That’s a serious misuse of your police power. You’re going to lose your job, Weatherby. You just wait and see!”
He was already laughing to himself as he climbed back into his truck and let the gravel fly on his way out of her farmyard. She was left to stand there staring at him with an injunction in her hand that told her she could not turn around, walk to her riding ring, and do her damn job.
“Are you all right?”
Aria turned to see Darren, Bella, and Jaeger standing behind her with very curious expressions on their faces.
“Ms. Aria!” Little Emily was waving frantically from her saddle. “We’re ready to go. Should we just walk around on the rail until you get here?”
Aria held her breath and shut her eyes. She felt as though the entire world was trying to pound her into the ground. Laredo wanted her to be his alcoholics anonymous accountabilibuddy. She was now legally prevented from teaching, which made her pretty sure that she was going to be having some serious financial issues in a few weeks. She now had to choose whether or not she wanted to give the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company and all of their family members, horses, and pretty much anything else associated with them the finger, or she could give Weatherby the finger. And all of this was because she was stuck in the freaking middle.
“Aria?” Darren sounded concerned.
“It’s fine.” Aria managed to get the words out between gritted teeth. “It’s all fine. It’ll be fine.”
Suddenly, she looked down and found Bella tugging on her arm. “I don’t know what’s happening to make you sad, but I want you to know that you’ve made me the happiest I’ve been my whole life. Thank you.”
Aria exhaled in a rush. She knelt down and gave the little girl a hug. “Thank you, Bella. I needed that.”
Okay. With that cleared up, Aria turned and marched toward her riding ring. That arrogant piece of Weatherby crap could try and run her life as much as he wanted to, but she knew that somewhere, somehow, he was misusing the law for his own personal gains. They all knew that. And that only made Aria more determined to make sure she did not give in.
She was going to teach her class this evening. And she would continue to operate her business in the same way that she had been since she took over from her parents, because it was her right to do so. There had been no complaints from customers. There had been no safety violations and no wrongdoing on her part. She wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.
“All right, kids!” Aria called out. “Let’s start trotting. You guys all know how to do this!” Thankfully, this was a slightly more advanced class, so it was true. At the moment, she really didn’t have enough brainpower left over to deal with super-green beginners.
Aria could feel Darren watching her. She knew that she had to explain to him what was going on. But for right now, she couldn’t do it. She didn’t even know how to begin. And then halfway through the lesson, when she had the kids doing a very simple steering exercise at a trot, she spotted Jesse Collins driving up the road. It was no stretch of the imagination to wonder why Jesse was here. If Weatherby was targeting people who were associated with the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company, then it was a pretty sure bet that Jesse had gotten a visit from the bastard too.
“Let’s do some cantering on the rail!” Aria shouted to the kids. “I want three laps from everyone, and then you can walk out and head back in to unsaddle your horses.”
It felt as though the final part of the lesson took an eternity. Aria corrected her students automatically more than anything else, and there was probably a lot of stuff that they got away with and shouldn’t have. Aria’s brain was just done. She couldn’t process any more. And when it was finally over and she walked over to the gate to let herself out of the riding ring, she could hear Jesse fuming to Darren in the parking lot.
“How can he do that? How is it even legal?” Jesse demanded of Darren.
Darren was shaking his head. Then he looked over at Aria. “Is that why Weatherby came out here?”
Jesse’s eyes opened wide. “Whoa. That jerk came out here himself? That’s got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! Wait. Is that even legal? Isn’t he a party in these stupid lawsuits?”
“I think it changes things when it’s his business doing the suing and injunction requests and not him personally,” Darren muttered. “But you could certainly make the case that he’s being inappropriate. In fact, I think Aria should file a personal complaint against him.”
“What do you mean?” Aria really didn’t want to get any more involved than she already was. Look what it had gotten her so far. “If I do that, I might as well paint a bull’s-eye on myself.”
“I don’t think he’s going to try anything like that,” Darren mused. “He’s just trying to scare everyone.”
Jesse and Aria were both looking at Darren as though he was the most naive idiot on the planet. But Aria was the one to say it out loud. “Are you stupid? That man has threatened me both implicitly and explicitly. He is actively trying to ruin my business and prevent me from paying my bills. I’m not going to let him put me under. I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, but that’s it. I’m not going to file a personal complaint for harassment or something. That’ll just make him want to put me permanently out of the way!”
Jesse sucked in a quick breath and swung around to stare wide-eyed at Aria. “Do you really believe it would come to that?”
“Yes.” Aria didn’t even have to think about it. “I really do.”
Jesse pointed at Darren. “You have to get your family together and do something about this. The man is trying to ruin my ranch. He’s trying to prevent Aria and me from doing business with not only you, but pretty much everyone else too. You have to find a way to stop it. The Hernandez Land & Cattle Company has a huge legal team at their disposal. I suggest they stop worrying about making sure old Joe doesn’t screw things up for everyone and start concentrating on the things that really count! Do you get my drift?”
Darren looked grim. “Completely.”
“What about Laredo?” Aria asked suddenly. “Does he know what’s going on? Is anyone actually going to tell him? Isn’t he technically the one who needs to know what’s going on? Isn’t he the one who runs that corporate office?”
Darren glanced over at Bella and Jaeger. The two kids were playing underneath a tree near the riding ring. Bella was pretending to be a wild pony, and Jaeger was pretending to swing a rope to catch her.
“Yes,” Darren said heavily. “Maybe it’s time we bring Laredo into everything and see if he can pull some strings in the right places.”
Despite everything, Aria knew a profound sense of relief. No more lies. She was done with that sort of thing. It never worked out the way you thought that it would, and the repercussions were impossible to predict.