Page 15 of Love Me Back (Diamond Creek #2)

Grayson

Someone stole my fucking horse!

How the fuck did someone get close enough to the damn thing to steal him? He wouldn’t even let my brothers near him, but apparently Jessie was able to get close. It didn’t surprise me. Thunder wasn’t stupid. He might be a horse, but he clearly knew a beautiful woman when he saw one.

I sat in my office waiting for King to arrive with reinforcements.

He’d told me in the hospital that if I needed anything, all I had to do was ask.

Well, I needed men. Mine ran the ranch. I couldn’t spare hands to patrol and protect the place; my men were already spread too thin working and searching for Thunder.

God, I hated this fucking chair! I should be on another horse out there searching. Of course, if I weren’t in this fucking chair, he would have been with me instead of stuck in the barn.

I slammed my hand on the desk, which caused my knee to bounce. I sat frozen in my chair. Maybe I imagined it. That or it was from the force of the hit. My whole body had moved, so it was only natural my legs would too.

I tried to move my toes, my foot, anything, but nothing happened. It had been my imagination.

There was a knock on the door before Jessie stuck her head in. “King is here.”

“Thanks, Jessie. Send him in.” She held the door as King, Cash, and Nav walked in with Tyson.

“I’ll be around if you need me.” I nodded and waited for her to close the door before I looked at King. His smirk told me everything I needed to know about what he was thinking .

“Didn’t expect to see Jessie here,” Cash said.

“She’s helping me learn to adjust.”

“Adjust your dick?” Nav asked, a knowing smile on his face.

“No.” My tone must have given something away because the three men turned serious, and King asked, “What’s going on?”

“Someone stole my horse.”

“Thunder?” Tyson asked, and I nodded. “How the fuck did anyone get close enough to steal the demon horse?”

“That’s what I’m hoping Nav can tell us.” I slid a piece of paper across the desk. “This is the information for the security system. I need you to go through it. Find the holes, fix them, and hopefully tell me who has my goddamn horse.”

Nav took the paper and opened his laptop. “I thought Sypher went through everything when he moved on to the ranch?”

“He did, but clearly he fucked up, or he missed something.”

Nav looked up at me. “Sypher doesn’t fuck up.”

“Someone stole my fucking horse!” I slammed my hand on my desk, and my knee bounced again. I closed my eyes and tried to rein in my temper while simultaneously avoiding the fact that my leg moved a second time.

“Go through everything, Nav,” King ordered.

“What would someone want with a horse they can’t get near?” Cash asked.

Tyson and I shared a look. He might not be working on the ranch with us, but he was still part of this family, and he knew everything that went on here.

“Gray’s horse is worth millions,” Tyson shared.

“What?” King asked. “I know you make damn good money with what you do. But why is this particular horse worth so much?”

“Thunder was born the night my parents died in a car accident. He was the last horse my mother bred. She had been slowly turning everything over to me, and Thunder was the product of two of the fastest racehorses in the world. He had a difficult birth, and his mother didn’t make it.

His father had died months before. He’d stumbled during a race and broken his leg; there was no other choice than to put him down.

“I bottle-fed that horse, slept in the barn for months, determined not to let him die. I almost lost him on the day of my parents’ funeral.

It was the only day I didn’t spend with him.

When he was old enough to leave, his owners decided they didn’t want him.

He wasn’t docile like his parents were. They didn’t think he could be trained to race, so they wrote him off.

There was an insurance payout on Thunder’s parents, and then I purchased him from them. They made more than he was worth.”

“And now?” Cash asked.

“Now, his semen is still worth millions. He is still a direct descendant of those two horses. If you can get close enough to him to harvest his semen, you have a chance of furthering the legacy his parents created.”

“But won’t his demeanor count against any children he might produce?” King asked.

Tyson snorted beside me, and I glared up at him. He looked down at me and grinned. “Tell them.”

“Tell us what?”

“Thunder was trained to be mean. Gray didn’t want to share his horse, so he trained him to only allow himself to ride the beast.”

“I didn’t train him that way,” I argued. With a loud exhale, I turned to King. “I didn’t take it well when my parents died. Thunder was the only thing keeping me in check. He was kind of like my therapy.”

“Like Diesel is for Aspen.” He nodded.

“Similar, yes, only I didn’t let anyone help. I was everything to Thunder, the way he was everything to me. We bonded, and he isn’t tolerant of anyone else. Except apparently Jessie.”

“What?” Tyson asked. His disbelief was evident on his face.

“She’s been visiting him in the barn every day. I had no idea, or I would have warned her to stay away. But apparently, she brings him treats.”

“Maybe Jessie is behind his disappearance,” Tyson grumbled .

“Why the fuck would you say that?” What the hell was he thinking? “Why would Jessie steal my horse?”

“You’ve been after her for months, and she has made it clear she isn’t interested. Then suddenly she’s here because you’re hurt? Acting all concerned? I don’t fucking buy it.”

“You didn’t see her face the day of the accident, when she found out Grayson had been hurt and was unconscious,” King told my brother. He turned to me and added, “I don’t know why she is holding you off, but that woman loves you.”

“It doesn’t matter. It would never work.”

“You’re an asshole if you are pushing her away because of that chair. She is here to help you learn to adjust. You think she cares whether your legs work? Is your dick broken?”

I glared at King. “My dick works just fine.”

“Then what’s the fucking problem?”

“We are not here to discuss my sex life,” I growled. “Can we get back to the point? I need some men to patrol the ranch. My guys are stretched thin between work and searching for my horse. I need a few guys to protect Jessie and my sister.”

“You think the horse is still on the ranch?” Cash asked.

“I do. I think someone was able to get Thunder out of the paddock, but they won’t be able to ride him.

And once he gets out in the open, they’ll never fucking catch him.

I have thousands of acres that need to be searched, and I can’t do it myself.

At least not on a horse, which limits where I can go.

I also have a visitor coming this weekend.

” My eyes focused on King. “Armando Garcia wants to buy a couple of horses from me.”

Nav’s head snapped up, and he looked at King. The man had been so quiet I’d forgotten he was still here.

“Son of a bitch,” King cursed.

“King,” Nav warned.

“I know,” he said to Nav.

“Will that be a problem?” I asked, wondering what King knew that I didn’t. When the Silver Shadows started their chapter here, King swore they were no longer a one-percenter club. He told the town that they had moved here to get away from all that.

And they had for a few years.

But given that my brother had just killed a man in cold blood, I had to wonder if they really had given it all up.

“No, it isn’t a problem. As of yet, Armando Garcia hasn’t done anything.

However, he’s taken over from Vasquez, so it’s only a matter of time.

” King stood from his seat. “I’ll send some guys over to help you search and protect the women.

Jessie is one of ours because of Ellie. Let me know the dates Garcia will be here, and I’ll send the whole fucking club just to make sure he doesn’t try anything. ”

“Thank you.”

“No thanks needed. Though with this new development, I’m thinking maybe your accident had nothing to do with our shit.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m thinking whoever shot at you probably thought the horse would run off, and they’d be able to wrangle him up.

You said the first shot was close. Either they were a really bad shot, or they were a really good one and they weren’t trying to kill you.

Just wanted you to get thrown. Might want to start looking closer to home. Someone knew about that horse.”

“Nav, if I gave you a list of employees, could you do a background check? We did one when they were hired, but you can probably dig deeper.”

“Not a problem.”

Tyson walked over to the file cabinet. I hadn’t let Jessie in here yet.

There was a lot I couldn’t reach, like the top two drawers of the file cabinet Tyson was digging through now.

He pulled out a file and went to the copier in the corner.

That was also something that would be too high to use while in this chair.

Maybe I should look into one of those standing chairs.

That would save a lot of hassle as far as moving everything around was concerned.

Tyson put the copies into a folder and handed it to Nav, who then stuffed it into the bag he brought with him.

“You got anything on the security system?” I asked the tech wizard.

“Yeah, Sypher has this shit locked up tight. No one but me is getting into it. However, a few of the cameras were moved, though I can’t see who moved them.”

“Let me guess, wearing a hoodie or a hat pulled low?” Cash asked.

“No, I can’t see anyone at all. They knew where they were and how to access them to move them without being on camera. And most of them are on the barn. I can see when the horse got out, but the camera that should be focused on the paddock points to the sky. That was done last night.”

“What about the day after I got home? Can you look back through the recordings?” I hadn’t asked Danny about the system; he was monitoring it for us in trade for staying on the ranch.

He asked about buying a few acres to build a house for him, Dante, and their daughter.

I’d added many acres over the years, so selling off a few wouldn’t affect the ranch’s history.

“Jessie stormed off and walked to the barn the day I came home. The next day was when she brought the horse a treat, and someone was in the barn who yelled at her and told her to get out. By her description, it wasn’t one of my workers.”

“She fed the demon?” Tyson asked, his voice laced with shock.

“He’s not a fucking demon,” I argued. “But no, she laid them on the stall so he could grab them.” I could just picture her trying to line them up and wait for the horse to come get them.

“Okay, here we are. I can see Jessie moving into the barn. And there she is, coming back out. I can go through this closer when I get back to the clubhouse, but I am not seeing anyone else come out of the barn behind her. And the cameras outside are all still in place.”

“What about the cameras inside?” King asked, and I groaned.

“There aren’t any. Yet.”