Page 73 of Trickster King

“That does look rather like gold,” my wife conceded. “Weren’t you ranch buying?”

“Yep. It’s the ranch in pretty bad shape. Until all the tunnels are collapsed and filled, it’s unsuitable to be used as a ranch.”

“We’ll open it up to the RPS for training exercises, gold mining, and general entertainment once the animals are cleared out. How was the look over?”

“I sent Geoff to euthanize a cow with a severely broken leg. Otherwise, I only saw the injured mare. Geoff is handling checking if the cow can be butchered and using whatever can be used.”

“I’m sorry. I know you prefer to handle it yourself.”

“The mare might survive. The cow wouldn’t. I couldn’t be two places at once, so I sent the second best person for the job. And Geoff has no scruples about shooting downed cattle.”

“He really doesn’t. And how is Eddie handling everything?”

“I’ll one up you on that. Eddie can tell you himself.” I whistled to catch the boy’s attention, waved him over, and handed him the phone. “Your mom wants to talk to you.”

With the boy contained for a few minutes, I mouthed a thanks to the agents before trudging back over to Randy, who spoke with one of the vets I’d seen at the barn, an older man who’d witnessed more about ranch life than most of us combined.

“Hey, Clark,” I greeted.

“Your Majesty. Ready for your blow dry?”

Ah. I hadn’t known he was a flameweaver. “Beats catching my death and scaring a few decades off the lives of my RPS agents.”

The vet laughed, took hold of my hand, and within moments, my clothes began to steam.

Within five minutes, I was toasty warm and dry. “Thanks, Clark. I appreciate that.”

“I bet you do. I’ve been recruited to give you an update on your mare.”

“Is it a good update or a bad one?”

“It’s an odd one.”

Odd? Puzzled, I tilted my head and raised a brow. “Pardon?”

“Our policy is to check brands in the area. That horse was stolen from her ranch three years back.”

For fuck’s sake. Why me? Something about the vet’s tone warned me the problem was more complicated than just figuring out who would be paying the bill and retaining ownership. “All right. Reach out to the owner. If she isn’t willing to pay for her care, she forfeits her right to have the mare back. If she pays for her care, she’s free to come as soon as you clear her. If she presses charges, she does so against the previous owner of the property. If you know all the ranch brands, I’ll hire you to go over the animals we’re bringing in as soon as we can round them up.”

“We charge ten dollars a head for brand identification, which includes checking the registries for stolen animals.”

“That’s more than fair. The law’s pretty clear on this one; if anyone rescues the animal, the owner is on the hook for the vetting bills assuming they can prove ownership.” Dealing with stolen horses would test my nerves, but it beat worrying about the rescues. “I’ll get a hold of our attorneys to make sure the process goes smoothly.”

“She’ll dance with you. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. The cost of care is probably more than she can afford, but I remember when she lost her horse.”

Uh oh. I recognized the problem, and the vet had opinions—opinions involving the mare going back to the rancher. “The rancher’s heart horse?”

“Yeah. She bottle fed her from a little filly when her dam died.”

That would do it. “Dance with her, and if she can’t afford the bill, we just don’t tell her we’ll be dropping by with the mare having a bow on her brand new tack.” My wife might kill me, but heart horses were serious business even if there wasn’t an empathy bond involved. “I’d want someone to return my horse if stolen, so I’m just paying it forward.”

“If more were like you, Your Majesty, the world would be a different place.”

“It’d be horse crazed, everyone would be in the poor house due to stabling bills, but the horses would be among the luckiest animals alive, with cows, cats, dogs, and goats in their wake.”

“I suspect she’ll pass on getting her horse back because of the financials, especially since you’re the one who has her. No horse in the royal barn has ever been abused, so she knows her mare will have a good life,” Clark warned.

“How long until the mare is fit to be trailered and given back to her owner?”

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