Page 27 of Brother In Arms

Chapter 8

Bailey

I knew my brother was an asshole but this? I stood to one side and watched Boaz struggle to breathe, Doc Sanders, the vet for this farm since before I was born, was kneeling at his side; his son had come to assist, following in his father’s footsteps when it came to veterinary care. He knelt back and the first tears I struggled not to let show slid down my face.

“I’m sorry, Bailey, there’s nothing I can do. He’s too far gone, it’s best to end it here.”

A hand closed on my shoulder and I shook it off. I pressed my lips together and said the hardest thing I’d ever had to say… “Do it.”

I spun on my heel and pushed past Rush. I couldn’t watch my best friend die. I’d had Boaz for almost four years. He’d been a college graduation gift from my father because I’d had Arabella since I was twelve and she was just plain getting old. She’d lived out the rest of her days well loved and cared for, passing of old age just last year. This? This was just a waste. Boaz didn’t do anything to anybody and he was such a young horse, too. This had nothing to do with the operation of the farm, nothing to do with taking the farm down. This was to punish me for being so stubborn. For ignoring Philip’s calls, for deleting the emails without reading them. This was personal… and I couldn’t do a fucking thing about it without proof.

“I want a full necropsy,” I called back over my shoulder and I couldn’t bring myself to look back. I went all the way out to the driveway in front of my house in the early morning light and braced my hands on my knees, taking deep breaths of the cool morning air in an attempt to quell my rage.

“Bailey!” Rush called and I shook my head.

“Not now!” I barked back, “Just get to work.”

“Shit, as you wish,” he muttered darkly and I pulled my phone out of my back pocket.

I dialed through a haze and put it to my ear, he picked up on the fourth ring, “Bailey, to what do I owe this –“

I cut him off, “Boaz, really Philip? You killed Boaz. Why? Why goddammit?”

“Slow down, Bailey. What? What now? Boaz? Now wait just a minute, do you really think I would kill your horse? What would that serve?”

“Oh, shut up! You had Renaldo beaten and now this? What kind of a monster are you?”

“You need to watch what you say, little sister. I don’t appreciate baseless accusations, now I know you’re upset…”

“Upset?” I shouted into the phone, staring at one of the oak trees in my yard, “Oh we are way past upset, Philip. This is rage, pure incendiary rage. You need to stop. I’m not selling this farm. Not to you, not to anyone, so you just need to knock it off. We aren’t kids anymore and I won’t be bullied!”

“First of all, I didn’t do anything to Renaldo, the police said that he owed those men money. Second of all, for you to accuse me of harming one of your animals? You obviously don’t know me at all Bales. I would never –“

“Save it, Philip. You would. We both know you would. Your bullshit lies may have worked on Dad, and they may work on Caleb or in the board room, but we’re family and you don’t have either me, or Mom, fooled.”

I stabbed my finger against the red button on the screen and stood there chest heaving and fought with everything I was not to scream and cry at the injustice of it. It wasn’t fair, I couldn’t prove anything but I knew, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it was Philip and that his time was running out to close this deal with the developer before they moved on to something else. They couldn’t make me sell. There wasn’t any cause for eminent domain. They could just go fuck themselves and Philip could just go fuck himself right along with them.

“Come on,” Rush said tersely, grabbing me by the elbow and towing me along.

“Hey! Let me go!”

“Suck it up, buttercup. We’re going. You don’t need to be here when they take that horse out.”

“Where are we going?” I demanded.

“For that ride, on a different sort of horse,” he grated and I felt my resolve weaken in the face of my want to experience the thrill of the ride at that speed again.

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