Page 57 of Silks

I slipped around the stable door and left, not even bothering to give him a last glance.

For threatening my girl, he doesn’t deserve shit.

Then when I had blended back into the crowds, I triggered a call to security. They’d check around the grounds and hopefully catch Dad’s associates red-handed with the body. Then I checked my phone for Ophelia’s location and headed over to where she was.

As usual, she was causing a scene.

With a ring of bystanders around her, she was beating the shit out of Ezekiel McCluskey with his own riding crop.

“Feel like moving any faster now?” she snapped at him, and the crop went crack.

She had a lovely swing and an excellent follow-through, and I felt my cock harden as I walked toward her, the blood of our father drying invisibly on my suit jacket.

The excitable half-Welshman was jumping around and trying to avoid her, but she had a hand on his collar.

Fuck, I loved her so much. A psycho goddess in the flesh.

I brushed past a woman with a huge replica of Buckingham Palace on her fascinator, and wrapped my hand around the back of Ophelia’s neck.

“Amazing job, sweetheart,” I said. “I could watch you do that all day. But I don’t want you to get tired. Come with me. Let’s go check on Mintmaker.”

That was the one thing calculated to get her away and with a last curse, she let Ezekiel go, clutching the crop in her hand as she stalked away.

“You’re fired,” I said over my shoulder as I followed her.

The Barrington Stables crew were all whispering in hushed, panicky voices as they rubbed Mintmaker down after the race.

“The vials were switched,” Dr. Dent said angrily, a vein in his juiced-up head throbbing. “You don’t know anything about that, do you?”

“I know you should get the fuck out of my face,” I said.

Just then we were surrounded by a squad of officers, hauling a wildly protesting Chet between them.

“Mr. Barrington, have you seen your father? We want to ask him a few questions about this employee caught trying to bribe a Kentucky Derby racehorse tester.”

“Former employee,” I said. “And no, I haven’t seen my father.”

Dr. Dent looked relieved for a few last seconds, then one of the officers tapped him on the shoulder.

“Sir, we found a banned substance among your veterinarian bags,” he said sternly. “You have a few things to explain, too.”

He was also put into cuffs and taken away.

“Sorry, sir,” one of the cops said.

I put out my hand to shake his. “Please don’t apologize, officer. If there was any wrongdoing I appreciate you getting to the bottom of it. Barrington Stables is 100% committed to clean, safe horseracing.”

I’m not a moron. I know the effect I have on people and the cop preens. He tips his hat and follows the others away. Harvey isn’t among them. After a judicious donation to Harvey’s boss, Harvey is now a pencil-pusher who can’t be trusted with active duty.

“Strange how that vial ended up in Dr. Dent’s things,” Ophelia says reflectively. “What a careless mistake on his part.”

I look down at her. Even though she’s wearing tall heels that accentuate that phenomenal ass and round thighs, I still tower over her.

“It’s a mistake for anyone but me to piss you off,” I said. “I don’t recommend it.”

She grinned at me then.

“What do you think, Teddy? Should Mintmaker be the first thoroughbred at your Greener Acres?”