“What heart?” he spat.
“Obviously the one Daddy bought me as my sweet-sixteen present. It was black, to match my truck.” Her stomach pitched and rolled like a dinghy on a violent sea. She’d never lorded money over anyone. Ever. But she couldn’t turn back now without losing the ground she’d gained. This had become as much an issue of defending her pride as covering her lies.
When she’d been in college and struggled with a senior-level business class, her dad had sat her down and explained that negotiations were much like poker. There was a little shuffling, a lot of bluffing and even more posturing. If you sat at a table where you were unsure about the other players, the most important thing to do was salvage the hand you were dealt. That meant playing it smart, hard and close to the chest. It made your opponent wonder what you held, and it bought you time to convince him that, even with a total crap hand, you were bound to win. The point, he’d said, was to hold until you were forced to fold.
Kenzie stared up at Ty and narrowed her eyes as he did the same.
She. Wasn’t. Folding. Not on this. Not ever.
She took a large step backward and crossed her arms. “You don’t get to choose in this, Ty. Not when you left me with both personal and financial responsibility for Gizmo’s care. You left me alone!” she shouted. “You left me to decide whether to euthanize that magnificent animal and put him out of his misery, or walk the road to recovery with himbecause you wouldn’t.” She looked at Gizmo’s stunning gray-and-black coloring, those ice-blue eyes watching her with a shrewd awareness that always unnerved her a bit. “You want to settle this?” she asked so quietly Ty instinctively leaned toward her.
“You know I do,” he said through gritted teeth.
She faced Ty then and let the hammer fall. “I’ll accept short-term breeding rights to Gizmo as full satisfaction of all monies owed.”
“Like. Hell,” he said again. He pulled his cowboy hat off and tunneled his fingers through his hair. “He’s off-limits, Malone.”
“I’ve invested more than twenty thousand dollars in your medical bills. I’ve also sunk more than eighty thousand dollars in your horse’s bills. Where he’s concerned, I’ll see anothertwenty-three thousand dollars in the pool installation and ten thousand dollars in miscellaneous physical therapy costs.”
All color drained from Ty’s face. “I didn’t realize...” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’ll repay you. With interest. We’ll set something up. Just leave Gizmo alone.” He swallowed hard enough for her to hear it, and then he dropped his own hammer. “Please.”
She ground her teeth together, ashamed of herself and furious with him for pushing her into this.Save Gizmo, he’d pleaded with her after she’d thought she’d lost him, the man she’d begun to care for despite her best efforts to remain detached. She’d gone further than he’d likely ever expected her to go, and despite it all, he wouldn’t give her an inch in return. He still considered her genetics so inferior to his that he refused to allow Gizmo to be part of her breeding program.
She sucked in a sharp breath, the dry, icy air burning her lungs even as it froze them. No. He couldn’t use her like this. She wouldn’t be some bottomless ATM that spewed cash on demand and never had a single deposit in return. If she didn’t set this boundary, she’d never be more than this to him. She opened her mouth to say just that, but Eli pulled up in the Mule.
Ty began his shuffling turn toward the barn door and his best—only—means of escape.
“Everything okay?” Eli called, all good cheer and hopefulness.
“As okay as it can be when you have a rabid fox in the henhouse and find your shotgun’s out of ammo,” Ty answered.
Eli shot Kenzie a glance. When she didn’t respond, his eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
“Nothing.” She managed to issue the single word without her voice wavering. Chest tight, she forced herself to continue. “Your brother wasn’t aware I’d expect repayment for both his and his horse’s medical bills.”
Eli’s eyes tightened at the corners before he offered a shallow nod. “We’ll manage as a family.”
“No, we won’t.” Ty stumbled, but he righted himself before either she or Eli could grab him. “I’ll work it out. I have a few horses I can sell.”
Kenzie’s heart constricted as Eli erupted in a veritable tirade. She knew it would kill Ty to sell part of his breeding stock. Yes, he’d retain the heart—Gizmo—but the body would be weakened. Could she be responsible for that?
That wasn’t the part that ate at her, though. She’d never acted the part of a spoiled diva, not like this, and she was beyond mortified.
Eli helped Ty into the backseat of the Mule and Cade appeared as if summoned, sat next to his younger brother and shot Kenzie a glare that, in theory, should have turned her to stone. He’d obviously heard enough of the exchange with Ty to draw his own conclusions.
Freaking fabulous.
The brothers pulled away, Ty’s entire focus on Gizmo. The man she’d given up her dream of nationals for never once looked at her as the Mule rounded the bend and headed for the main house.
Kenzie retrieved her cell and called home.
9
JACKMALONEANSWEREDon the third ring. “Hey, baby. What’s new? Everything going okay at the Covington place?”
“I need to talk to you about that, Dad,” she replied softly as she moved toward Gizmo’s stall. The stud horse watched her, anxious for the treats she carried. He nosed her pockets, lipping loose fabric eagerly and huffing at her. Determined not to add his disappointment in her to everyone else’s running tally, she pulled out a couple worse-for-wear sugar cubes and, pinning the cell phone between her ear and shoulder, offered the sweets to the horse one at a time.
“You’re there, aren’t you?” The elder Malone’s voice had a faint echo thanks to crappy cell service. That connection didn’t disguise his concern, though.