Chapter Twenty-Five
Wayne haltered Velvet and led the filly to the grooming area. After picking her hooves, he brushed her and then saddled up.
“Ready for your first ride out of the round pen today?” he asked as he stroked her soft copper coat. The day had dawned clear and bright, not a cloud in the sky. He combed his fingers through her mane and the little mare sighed. “You’re a good girl. Probably the last young horse I’ll have. Let’s see how you do on an easy trail ride.”
Wayne led the horse outside and put his left foot in the stirrup and swung up. The filly stayed steady and quiet. He gently pressed his legs on her sides and gave a little cluck, and the horse stepped off into a nice walk.
As they found the trail, Wayne couldn’t help but think about Maya. His granddaughter was headstrong, stubborn, and feisty—just like him. As his wife, Karen, would tell him, “She’s exactly like you, Wayne. You two need to get along because someday I might not be here.”
When he’d found out Maya was drunk in a bar rather than at her grandmother’s funeral, he was livid. Furious. None of that even covered what he felt. Maybe betrayed and deceived? He’d said things he regretted. Maya had said things he could only hope she’d regret.
The mare shifted underneath him picking her way up the mountainside as if she’d done this for a long time. He stroked her neck and soothed her, encouraging her—something he could rarely do with his granddaughter. It seemed like the only time he did soothe Maya was after her nightmares when she was a little girl. Since she’d grown up, he didn’t know what to do with her or how to treat her.
Maybe it was because of Maya’s biological mother. Their only child.
Wayne and Karen had raised their daughter with a firm hand, but she’d been wild from the start. Like a young filly who refused to be caught. Zoey ran away from home at sixteen and they had been unable to find her. Wayne had exhausted all his resources within the sheriff’s department. He even called on friends in other law enforcement agencies for help, but she had disappeared.
He figured that someday he’d get the phone call every parent dreaded. He had steeled himself for the moment he would have to go identify his only daughter in the morgue. How many times in his job had he watched other families do the same thing? He had forced himself to quit feeling anything about her and ignored Karen’s pleas to keep searching.
Then one day, about four years later, Zoey showed up on their doorstep with Maya in tow. Maya had bright auburn hair, large green eyes, freckles across her face and a look that seemed to peer into your soul. Wayne had fallen in love with his granddaughter instantly but was still angry with Zoey for all she’d put them through.
Zoey asked for help. Money. A place to stay.
He thought he should show her some tough love.
So, I turned her away.Karen had been furious.My stubbornness.
Zoey stayed in the area and told her mother she’d cleaned herself up because of Maya. She was going to regular NA meetings to stay off heroin. Maya was her inspiration, and she didn’t want to lose her. Karen had loved being a grandmother and went to see their daughter and granddaughter almost every day. Wayne sometimes went along, admitting he was pretty enamored with his granddaughter.
Then one night, everything changed. During the night shift, a call came in while he was on duty. It was his daughter’s address. The house she lived in was on fire. No one ever knew who made the 911 call.
Wayne had flipped on his lights and driven as fast as he could to the neighborhood where his daughter lived. When he arrived, flames were spilling out of the front windows and Maya was nowhere to be found. Wayne had covered his mouth and rushed in with the firefighters who were yelling at him to let them do their job.
His daughter sat in a kitchen chair.Dead.A needle in her arm with the rubber band still wrapped around her bicep. She’d also been shot in the head.
He thought he could hear Maya crying, but it was tough over the fire. Wayne remembered a secret Maya had shared with him—she was the best at hide-and-seek. Her favorite hiding place was in the hall closet where she could get behind jackets and the vacuum to conceal herself. He’d found her in the closet, scooped her up and got her out of there before the entire house went up in flames. The firefighters gave Maya oxygen and wrapped her in a blanket. Wayne couldn’t leave her side. She’d grabbed his arm, and then snuggled into him, tears streaming down her face. At that moment he knew, he’d do anything for Maya.
They’d adopted Maya and raised her. Wayne’s biggest fear was that Maya would be like her mom—headstrong and independent in a way that would lead to trouble. He suspected that Zoey had been involved in prostitution after she ran away from home. Wayne didn’t know that for sure, but with her drug habit and needing money, it was a good possibility. If that had been the case, that might explain why they never knew who Maya’s father was... Zoey hadn’t put any name on the birth certificate.
They didn’t talk with Maya much about her past or the fire, but the nightmares came with a fury. Over time they seemed to go away. As she grew up, Maya always told him she wanted to be just like him and join the military and then be a law enforcement officer. Wayne did his best to talk her out of it, but Maya did what Maya wanted. That was her mother coming out in her...and maybe a little bit of me too.
He’d been proud of Maya, but he’d never told her that.
Yesterday, he’d held something back too. The reason he didn’t think his wife had killed herself was that the gun ballistics also matched the weapon used in the murder of Maya’s mother. They’d never found the weapon that killed Zoey—until Karen’s suicide. Wayne had discovered the gun was registered to his wife, but he couldn’t believe that his wife had shot their daughter. The case remained open and Wayne kept all the evidence locked up and stored at the sheriff’s department. Every lead into Karen and Zoey’s deaths was a dead end. Wayne did know one thing for sure, though: he needed to protect Maya.
I can’t lose Maya too. She’s all I have.
Wayne had lost track of how far he’d ridden. He saw the turn in the trail where one direction would take you to a small lake formed from glaciers, the other way would take you to waterfalls.
Sweat rolled off the neck of the filly and her breathing came in hard puffs. Wayne pulled her up to give her a break. Then he dismounted and started leading her so she could have an easier time. They trekked for about another quarter mile before reaching his destination. Wayne took the water bottle out of the saddle packs and led Velvet over to the stream. She put her lips down to the cool water, taking a drink.
Wayne was pleased with how good the filly was behaving for her first long ride out of the round pen. This one was a gem and with some time and training he was certain she’d be ready for the mounted patrol by next spring. Maybe even next year’s Fourth of July parade.
He let her catch her breath, then mounted back up, the leather saddle creaking as he sat down. They turned for home.
The filly picked her way on the trail through rocks and navigated turns with the ease of an experienced horse. Wayne shifted his weight to help her out.
All of a sudden, Velvet hunched her back and threw on the brakes. Her head flew up and her nostrils flared. She turned her head to gawk at whatever was spooking her. The whites of Velvet’s eyes showed, and she started backing up.