Page 16 of Her Three Rangers

Grace snorted and Jenny laughed, then shook her head. “I don’t even understand why he stopped by,” Jenny said, turning her attention to Grace. “We’re not good enough to treat his horses regularly, but he just happened to be driving by when his mare needed stitches?”

“That’s the thing,” Grace said, looking off in the distance as Garrick’s trailer disappeared from view. “He doesn’t ever come here unless he wants something.”

“What do you think he wanted this time?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me again.

I didn’t want to seem too eager for information. Ty and Jaeger would kick my ass if I blew our cover. But even though I needed to know what he was up to, I was also genuinely curious. Grace didn’t seem like the kind of person who would associate with a guy like Garrick Windram unless she had to, and the troubled look on her face only reaffirmed that thought.

“Probably the same thing he wants every time,” she said, sighing. “He either wants to get in my bank account or my pants, depending on the day. You came along before he could drop any hints about which one it would be this time, thank God.”

“What would he even do with the clinic?” Jenny asked. “I don’t even think he likes his own animals, let alone anyone else’s.”

“He’d probably just paint the place bright red and soak up the attention,” I said, grinning as both ladies laughed. “But seriously, that guy seems like an ass.”

“He is an ass,” Grace nodded. “And he doesn’t want the clinic—not to run it, anyway. He’s said he would keep me on for the day-to-day stuff and he’d just be a silent partner.”

Jenny made a face like she was going to be ill. “I can’t think of many things that I would hate more than having to work for him.”

“He would just be in it for the control. The power,” I said.

“Exactly,” Grace drew a heavy breath and then turned back toward the building. “And that’s only one of the reasons why I’ll never let it happen.” She nodded toward Jenny. “Another reason is because of what you said. He doesn’t care about animals. Not even his own. He said his horse got cut on a nail or something while he was traveling with her, but I don’t buy it.”

“Why not?” Jenny and I asked at the same time.

This was the kind of insight into the guy’s character that I was hoping for. He was obviously a scumbag. I could tell that much just by looking at him and from the way I witnessed him speak to Grace.

But the more I could find out about Mr. Garrick Windram, the better.

“I looked around the stall while I was in there with the horse. If there was a nail sticking out somewhere in there, I certainly didn’t see it.” She shook her head. “That’s not proof of anything in and of itself, though, since the cut could have happened somewhere else—even though that wasn’t how I took it when he said it happened while traveling. But the thing that really got to me was the cut itself. A nail would rip the flesh. The cut would be jagged, especially since the horse’s instinct would have been to jerk its leg away, right?”

Jenny and I nodded. I didn’t know a damn thing about horses—or any other animal, for that matter—but everything Grace had said so far made sense.

“That cut wasn’t jagged, though,” Grace continued. “There was no sign that the horse’s leg had been caught on anything. It was a clean cut, and it wasn’t a deep one.”

Now I was more intrigued than ever, but I couldn’t really see what she was getting at. “What do you think happened?” I asked. “If it wasn’t the kind of accident he described, what was it?”

“I don’t think it was an accident at all,” Grace said, flatly. “I think that cut was made by a knife. I think Garrick cut his own horse.”

My eyes went wide as Jenny’s audible gasp punctuated Grace’s words. “You think he cut his own horse?” she asked.

“But… why?” I added, not because I doubted Grace, necessarily, but because I couldn’t understand what would make a person do something like that—especially given the amount of money that man clearly spent on those horses.

“I don’t know why,” Grace confessed, shrugging. “Other than wanting an excuse to stop by here and check things out.” She nodded toward the pasture. “Maybe he thought I was turning the place into a biker bar and got worried about his potential future investment.”

I had to laugh in spite of the serious conversation we’d been having. And then, as if to emphasize her point, the rumble of motorcycle engines drew our attention to the gravel drive that ran from the clinic to Grace’s house—the same driveway we used to access our camp in the pasture.

For a moment, all talk of Windram and his horses was paused as Ty and Jaeger rode into the parking lot of the clinic.

“I figured we’d find you here,” Jaeger said, nodding in my direction once they had turned off their engines and were climbing off their bikes.

“We thought maybe you had gotten lost on your trip to town,” Ty added, grinning as he looked from me to Jenny before finally setting his eyes on Grace. “But I can see now that you just made a little detour. Not that I can blame you.”

Everyone turned to look at Grace. Her normally reserved manner cracked just a little at the attention, and I was pretty sure the slight flush in her cheeks wasn’t just from the Texas heat.

“We were, um,” she paused and absently pushed back a strand of hair that had fallen from the bun on top of her head. “Just… speculating about a few things.”

“Oh?” Ty asked. “Anything interesting?”

“Plenty,” I said, cutting in on what was starting to feel like a conversation that was just between the two of them. “But not enough to warrant a search party.” I gestured toward the two of them. “So, what’s up?”