Jasmine’s stomach clenched. She should have known this was coming. But to hear those words from Simone’s mouth still came as a shock. “You don’t know that,” she said. “And even if it were true, you couldn’t prove it.”
“Oh, couldn’t we?” Simone whipped her phone out of her purse and scrolled down the menu. “Take a look at these.”
The photos couldn’t have been more clear. They showed Jasmine and Sam gazing at each other across the table. The pictures removed any need for an explanation.
Jasmine gasped. “How did you—?”
“Simple.” Simone’s carefully made-up face wore a triumphant grin. “We paid a waitress to take pictures with this phone. You two were so busy making google eyes at each other that you didn’t even notice her.”
Darrin leaned toward her, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial low. “So let’s talk family business, shall we, Sister?”
Cheyenne found Roper with the two stallions. He was standing inside One in a Million’s stall, plying a brush to the big roan’s hindquarters. As Cheyenne spoke his name, he dropped the brush, straightened, and turned toward her. His eyes were bloodshot, his jaw unshaven.
“You look like hell, Brother,” she said. “When did you last sleep?”
“I got a couple of hours in the night. I’ll sleep when this week is over—even if it’s on a jail bunk.”
“Don’t!” She seized his arm. “That kind of talk will only make things worse. You’re innocent—you know it, and I know it. So stop tormenting yourself. The Run for a Million is your dream. You’ve got to be fit to ride on Saturday.”
He took a deep breath and changed the subject. “Sam came by to check up on me earlier. A highway patrolman found that green Peterbilt in a gully off I-15, burned to ashes with the driver inside.”
Cheyenne shuddered, remembering the man she andHayden had met outside that cheap motel. He’d had a gun and could easily have shot them both.
“But why would he be killed?” she asked. “Was it because he didn’t run us off the road?”
Roper shrugged. “That, or he knew too much. Maybe he’d threatened to talk if he didn’t get paid. Sam thinks that Frank’s ex-wife could be behind it. She’s got mob connections, and there’s nothing she’d like better than to get rid of Lila so her kids can get the house and stables back.”
“So that was supposed to be Lila, not me, in your truck?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Could the first Mrs. Culhane have killed Frank? As his ex, she certainly might’ve had reason.”
“Sam looked into that. He says she actually tried, but Frank died before her hit man could get to him.” Roper massaged his back with one hand. “I saw her work the crowd at Frank’s memorial service. The woman was a force of nature. I wouldn’t put anything past her.”
“So, will Lila be coming to watch you ride? I’ve seen her from a distance, but I’ve never met her. What’s she like?”
“Strong. Brave. Smart. And stubborn. Oh, hell, is she ever stubborn. A bit like you, Little Sis.”
“You love her, don’t you?”
“No comment.” Roper picked up the brush and began stroking along the stallion’s back and down his withers. One in a Million exhaled with a long, chuffing breath.
“I was hoping to meet Lila this week. Will she be here to watch you ride?”
“I told her not to come. But, as I said, she’s stubborn.”
“Mother doesn’t like her, or any of the Culhanes—not that she knows them,” Cheyenne said.
“Mother will be your problem. Maybe you can do us all a favor and talk her out of coming.”
“She’ll be fine. She plans to stay in my hotel room until the big event.”
“How are things with Hayden?” he asked. “You seem to be spending a lot of time with him.”
Cheyenne hadn’t forgotten the news she’d come to give Roper. Hesitant to upset him, she had let their conversation become sidetracked. But now that he’d given her an opening, it couldn’t wait any longer.
“Speaking of Hayden, something’s happened, Roper,” she said. “Something awful.”