Page 42 of Love Me Back
“You think the horse is still on the ranch?” Cash asked.
“I do. I think someone was able to get Thunder out of the paddock, but they won’t be able to ride him. And once he gets out in the open, they’ll never fucking catch him. I have thousands of acres that need to be searched, and I can’t do it myself. At least not on a horse, which limits where I can go. I also have a visitor coming this weekend.” My eyes focused on King. “Armando Garcia wants to buy a couple of horses from me.”
Nav’s head snapped up, and he looked at King. The man had been so quiet I’d forgotten he was still here.
“Son of a bitch,” King cursed.
“King,” Nav warned.
“I know,” he said to Nav.
“Will that be a problem?” I asked, wondering what King knew that I didn’t. When the Silver Shadows started their chapter here, King swore they were no longer a one-percenter club. He told the town that they had moved here to get away from allthat.
And they had for a few years.
But given that my brother had just killed a man in cold blood, I had to wonder if they really had given it all up.
“No, it isn’t a problem. As of yet, Armando Garcia hasn’t done anything. However, he’s taken over from Vasquez, so it’s only a matter of time.” King stood from his seat. “I’ll send some guys over to help you search and protect the women. Jessie is one of ours because of Ellie. Let me know the dates Garcia will be here, and I’ll send the whole fucking club just to make sure he doesn’t try anything.”
“Thank you.”
“No thanks needed. Though with this new development, I’m thinking maybe your accident had nothing to do with our shit.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m thinking whoever shot at you probably thought the horse would run off, and they’d be able to wrangle him up. You said the first shot was close. Either they were a really bad shot, or they were a really good one and they weren’t trying to kill you. Just wanted you to get thrown. Might want to start looking closer to home. Someone knew about that horse.”
“Nav, if I gave you a list of employees, could you do a background check? We did one when they were hired, but you can probably dig deeper.”
“Not a problem.”
Tyson walked over to the file cabinet. I hadn’t let Jessie in here yet. There was a lot I couldn’t reach, like the top two drawers of the file cabinet Tyson was digging through now. He pulled out a file and went to the copier in the corner. That was also something that would be too high to use while in this chair. Maybe I should look into one of those standing chairs. That would save a lot of hassle as far as moving everything around was concerned.
Tyson put the copies into a folder and handed it to Nav, who then stuffed it into the bag he brought with him.
“You got anything on the security system?” I asked the techwizard.
“Yeah, Sypher has this shit locked up tight. No one but me is getting into it. However, a few of the cameras were moved, though I can’t see who moved them.”
“Let me guess, wearing a hoodie or a hat pulled low?” Cash asked.
“No, I can’t see anyone at all. They knew where they were and how to access them to move them without being on camera. And most of them are on the barn. I can see when the horse got out, but the camera that should be focused on the paddock points to the sky. That was done last night.”
“What about the day after I got home? Can you look back through the recordings?” I hadn’t asked Danny about the system; he was monitoring it for us in trade for staying on the ranch. He asked about buying a few acres to build a house for him, Dante, and their daughter. I’d added many acres over the years, so selling off a few wouldn’t affect the ranch’s history.
“Jessie stormed off and walked to the barn the day I came home. The next day was when she brought the horse a treat, and someone was in the barn who yelled at her and told her to get out. By her description, it wasn’t one of my workers.”
“She fed the demon?” Tyson asked, his voice laced with shock.
“He’s not a fucking demon,” I argued. “But no, she laid them on the stall so he could grab them.” I could just picture her trying to line them up and wait for the horse to come get them.
“Okay, here we are. I can see Jessie moving into the barn. And there she is, coming back out. I can go through this closer when I get back to the clubhouse, but I am not seeing anyone else come out of the barn behind her. And the cameras outside are all still in place.”
“What about the cameras inside?” King asked, and I groaned.
“There aren’t any. Yet.”
Chapter Sixteen
