Chapter Ten

“That’s Eddie,” Dyna called out before she galloped Champagne toward the fence. “Nobody else has long blond hair like that.”

Rico took off after her, hoping she wasn’t riding into a trap. Watching the hills and gullies, he didn’t see movement.

They both dismounted and Rico rushed to where Eddie lay unconscious. Feeling for a pulse, Rico held his own breath.

“Weak, but he’s still alive.”

“I’ll call 911,” Dyna said, her tone firm in spite of the fear in her eyes. “We should have kept searching last night.”

She made the call and reported their location. “It’ll be tough for them to get back here. A chopper probably.”

“He’s still alive,” Rico repeated. “There’s hope.”

Dyna stomped back and forth, her hands tearing through her hair. Rico checked Eddie for wounds and felt a stickiness in his hair. Blood.

“He’s got a knot on the back of his head.”

“They tried to kill him,” she retorted, anger fueling her now. “They left Eddie for dead and took my horse.”

Then she stopped pacing and hurried to the fence line.

“Look, Rico. Somebody cut my fence enough to build a shoddy gate. Probably to escape with Domino.”

Since the day was growing warmer now, Rico took off his denim jacket and draped it over Eddie’s still body then rushed to the fence. To the naked eye and from a distance, the fence looked intact. But up close, it had been sliced with what must have been a pair of heavy-duty steel and metal cutters. Sliced and carefully slid back into place. All they had to do was lift it away, get Domino through and set it back in place and throw some brush over it. Until a rain storm hit and washed it away or someone spotted it. And by then it would have been too late.

It might already be too late.

When they heard a chopper hovering overhead, Rico went back to see about Eddie. The unconscious man had been curled up in a ball but Rico couldn’t find any broken bones. He’d probably tried to get up but with the dark and the late night cold, Eddie must have tried to keep warm until he’d passed out again.

Thinking about the last twenty-four hours, Rico did have a new thought occur. He hadn’t been involved in this mess, but could he have inadvertently been the cause of it?

Had someone taken Domino to keep Rico from finding out the truth?

* * *

“He has a concussion.”

The doctor stared across at Rico and Dyna, too tired to explain further, a dark fatigue clouding his jaded expression.

“Will he wake up soon?” Dyna asked, hoping Eddie could shed some light on who took Domino.

“Depends,” the ER doctor replied. “We don’t see any indication of bleeding or swelling but we’ll keep an eye on him and do a thorough exam when he wakes up, which I believe he will. He’s been exposed to the elements, too, so we’re checking for anything else that could come along. He’s going to have a sore head and he’ll probably be dazed and confused for a while. How long we can’t say. Could be weeks or months.”

“Thank you,” Dyna said, her own body weighed with weariness. “He doesn’t have any family here, so please call me if there are any changes.”

The doctor nodded, probably thinking privacy laws didn’t allow that but Dyna didn’t care. She was listed as Eddie Anderson’s emergency contact.

“Go home,” the doctor said. “You’ll be the first to hear if he wakes up.”

Rico guided her out of the hospital. But Dyna kept looking back. “I should stay but I’ve got too much to do.”

“Sean will want to talk to him when he wakes up,” Rico said. “If he brings the sheriff with him, the doctors should let them ask a few questions. Best if you stay out of that.”

“I need to know.”

“Yes, but this is what they do. Let them do their jobs and report back to you. We’ll come back and visit with Eddie and get our own answers when he’s better.”

Knowing he was right, Dyna reluctantly left the hospital. Back in his big truck, she huddled against the passenger door. “I knew Eddie wouldn’t willingly let Domino come to harm. I wished we’d found him last night.”

“Me, too.”

“I worry that whoever took Domino has already sold him. You know they can hobble a horse to make him look bad and we both know what that means.”

“Stop thinking about the slaughter houses,” Rico said, watching the nearly deserted road back to the ranch. “Domino has very distinctive markings. Anyone would see through hobbling.”

“I pray so.” Dyna continued to watch the countryside flying by, the Vegas skyline off in the distance.

When she felt Rico’s hand on hers, she turned to look over at him and finally spoke. “You’ve been kind of quiet since we found Eddie.”

He checked the road again. “That’s because I think you had a point about me being a part of this.”

“What?” Pulling her hand away, she sat up. “What do you mean?”

“I am not involved in Domino’s disappearance, not in any way. But … I’m wondering if bringing me here to check on him got someone running scared. If one of your hands has been messing with Domino, maybe they were afraid I’d find something to pin it on them. That could be why all of this happened overnight.”

Dyna’s mind raced with potential enemies. “Edwin brought you here. So he couldn’t be involved. He insisted I talk to you.”

“I don’t think he’s in on this,” Rico said. “But yes, I have to admit he is high on the list. He has motives, even if he claims he wants to impress you and your mother. He could have had Domino taken so he can be the hero in finding him.”

“Good point. Sounds exactly like something Edwin would do.”

“So let’s go down the list. We have Edwin, next is James Roy, who seems to also be missing in action.” Making a turn, Rico kept his eyes on the road. “No answer and no one at home at his last know address.”

Nodding, Dyna thought about the always cantankerous trainer. “He hangs with some questionable stock contractors and ranchers. Small time, but wanting to be big time and just desperate enough to try anything.”

“I’ll check with Sean and his brothers on that one. They should be able to ferret out Roy somehow.”

“I haven’t even called Sandie Benton yet. She’s my farrier. She went on vacation to Lake Tahoe. I’ll call her when we get home.”

“Could she be a suspect?”

“Sandie? No. But she needs to know what happened. She has a vested interest in every horse we own. Good at her work and proud of the longstanding tradition her ancestors passed down. I don’t believe she’d suddenly turn into a horse rustler.”

“Anyone else who still works on Mesa Malloy, anyone who seems kind of off lately?”

Jonah Steward flashed through Dyna’s mind. He’d seemed put out yesterday about Rico being here. But then, Jonah had always been moody and quick-tempered. She decided not to mention him to Rico. Jonah was a good foreman, after all. He was loyal and devoted and too busy running things to plan such an elaborate scheme.

“No,” she finally said. “Your cousins should be moving through the list of present and past employees. Maybe they’ll find something.”

“What about your mother?”

Shocked, Dyna almost laughed. “My mother? Seriously? She doesn’t have a clue about anything that happens on the ranch but she does a good job of keeping up with the paper trails and the computer files.”

“Exactly,” Rico replied. “I’m just going down the list so don’t give me that look.”

“You’re talking about my mother,” Dyna said. “I can’t go there. Not yet.”

And yet, she did go there. Surely her own mother wouldn’t go to such lengths to get rid of Domino?

* * *

“Finally, we can all sit down to dinner together.”

Rico glanced across the table at Dyna. She in turn looked from her smiling mother to Edwin Penstone, doubt and confusion clouding her face. “I have to admit, I’m famished.”

“It’s nice of you to invite me to stay,” Rico said, wondering if he’d ever get back to Sean’s place. At least Cella had come by earlier to check on him and bring his overnight bag. And to give Dyna some support, too, he figured. Cella with the expressive hazel eyes and dark brown hair, all aglow and in love with solid, steady Sean.

Rico envied them but he couldn’t help being happy for them, too.

Cella had also reported that Sean had gone by the hospital to see if Eddie was awake yet. “He’s still in a coma, Dyna,” she’d said. “I wish I had better news. But I did see Jonah Stewart there. He was on his way out but he’d been sitting with Eddie for a while.”

After Cella left, Wendy had invited Rico to have dinner with Dyna, Edwin and her. Hungry and tired, he’d agreed. Mainly because he didn’t want to leave Dyna alone.

He’d showered and changed and Sharon (better known as Drill Sergeant Sharon) had immediately taken his dirty clothes to the laundry room. Now he sat at the dinner table and waited with a growling stomach for Edwin to pass the steaks they’d grilled to perfection.

“So you can bunk in the barn apartment,” Wendy said to Rico, not asking but telling.

“Mom, he’s staying with Sean and Cella,” Dyna said, shaking her head.

“He needs to be here,” Wendy replied, again not really asking. “Rico, don’t you agree that since you were here when the action started, you need to hang around until we get things all straightened out?”

So Wendy Malloy wasn’t quite the ditz she pretended to be, Rico thought. Openly implying he was under suspicion and in front of witnesses, too.

“Mother!” Dyna’s mortified stare contradicted her earlier accusations. “Rico didn’t have anything to do with the fire or Domino’s disappearance.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, darlin’.” Wendy shot out a brilliantly innocent smile. “But … Rico can be an asset to us. That’s what I mean.”

“Right,” Rico said. “Look, ladies and gentleman, we are all adults here. And we’re all on the suspect list, I would think. I’m sure my cousins will get to the bottom of this and then … maybe I’ll be let out of house arrest.”

“House arrest!” Edwin snorted. “Son, we’d lock you in the wine cellar if we really suspected you. You’re free to go.”

“Of course he is,” Dyna said, giving Rico an apologetic glance before she branded her mother and Edwin with a daring stare. “Now, can we eat, please? I haven’t had a decent meal in two days and I’m tired. Too tired to speculate anymore. I’m worried about Eddie and Domino and we have people out working hard to bring these rustlers to justice.”

“Amen, let’s eat,” Edwin said, passing steaks with gusto.

Rico almost got up to leave. He should go back to Sean’s house and help with the investigation from there. But … he didn’t want to leave Dyna. And how could he blame any of them for thinking he’d been the one to cause all of this. He’d said as much to Dyna earlier. Right before he’d accused her mother, of course.

“How’s the steak?” Wendy asked Rico after they worked their way through several minutes of awkward small talk, her shrewd hazel eyes reading him like a book.

“Tasty. And not too rare. Just right.”

“We aim to please,” Edwin said, beaming from the head of the table. “Don’t get to have sit-down meals too often.”

Rico was beginning to understand why Dyna didn’t like being around the man. He tried a little too hard. There was something rusty and corroded behind that shiny salesmanship smile. Something Rico couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Dyna barely touched the meal she’d been waiting to eat. She nibbled a few slices of steak and pushed her salad around, her eyes downcast. Rico sat across from her, watching her, wishing she’d look at him. Her mother had embarrassed her, but at least it was all out there now. No one in this room trusted anyone else.

He wondered if she really, truly trusted him even after they’d made a truce to do just that. Did he trust her? He had no reason not to.

“More sour cream for your potato?” Wendy asked, handing Rico the delicate little serving bowl, her expression part motherly and part executioner.

“Thank you.”

Edwin chewed (loudly) and then put down his fork. “So where do we stand? Wendy sent the Knight Investigation Agency the print-out of employees for the last five years or so. Eddie is conked out in the hospital and Jonah’s been with him most of the day. James Roy is mysteriously missing and who knows where Chip Hatfield has landed. But we’ve got a few nibbles on the flyers and posters we’ve put up.”

“Nibbles? We have?” Dyna asked, her attention on Edwin now. “And who told you that?”

Wendy lifted a ring-encrusted hand, her gaze moving between Dyna and Rico. “I got a few calls. I passed them on to your cousin, Sean, right before dinner.” And because Dyna was glaring at her, she added, “I wanted you to have a decent meal before you went barreling out of here again.”

“I’ll call him,” Rico said, his meal done. The steak had been good and the salad and potato filling. But the tension at the table was too tough to slice through. Standing, he turned to Wendy. “Thank you for the dinner. I think I’ll go and check out the apartment over the stable. I appreciate your … uh … offer to let me stay there, Mrs. Malloy.”

“As long as need be,” Wendy replied sweetly.

“I’ll go with you and show you around,” Dyna said, pushing her chair away from the table. “I’d like to be updated on those leads right away.”

Wendy and Edwin stared up at them with wry, knowing smiles. “Of course,” Wendy said. “But we do have dessert. Sharon made her special cheesecake.”

“Maybe later, Mother,” Dyna said, clearly not in the mood for dessert right now.

“Those two are up to no good,” she said once they were outside. “But I intend to find out exactly what they’re hiding.”