Madison's Choice

by Skye Michaels

  One Friday afternoon near the end of August, Maddie and Ross were sitting on the blanket under the live oak tree near the edge of the pond eating chocolate chip cookies Maddie had baked while Nickie splashed in the water. “Mom, why can’t we live here with Dad? Then I could ride Meatball every day and play with the dogs and stuff. It would really be so much better,” he said craftily, seeming to carefully gauge her reaction. He really was as clever as his dad.

  Ross laughed. “Yeah, Mom. That would really be so much better.”

  Maddie knew when she was being double teamed. “That subject is not open for discussion at this time.” Oh God! She secretly had to admit that she thought it would be so much better, too.

  Ross said softly, “You’ve been on your own for a long time, Maddie. You need to learn that you can rely on me now, on all of us, and so can Nickie.”

  “Well, if you don’t have any plans for tonight, I have an overnight bag for Nickie in the car, and if you like, he can spend the night. You can bring him home tomorrow afternoon. I don’t think we should try for a whole weekend yet. Overnight should be a good test.”

  * * * *

  “What do you think, son? Do you want to stay overnight?” Ross had set up a bedroom for Nickie weeks ago. He had bought Angry Birds sheets, toys, and all kinds of things he thought his son would like. He had been anxiously waiting for Maddie to suggest that Nickie spend the night. He had not wanted to push her on that, just as he hadn’t wanted to push her to resume their old relationship. He was getting more anxious and frustrated by the day. Maybe it was time to advance his agenda. He was beginning to realize that what he wanted more than anything was a steady, settled relationship and family life with Maddie and Nickie. He wanted his woman and his son in his house permanently. He loved his son with a depth of emotion he had not ever experienced before or known he was capable of, and he was beginning to think he loved Madison with the same intensity.

  Nickie jumped up and down and yelled, “Yes, I want to stay! Can Mom stay, too?”

  Ross grinned to himself. He thought he just might have a powerful ally right here. He’d let Nickie help in this campaign. That was what allies were for!

  “Not this time, honey. I think you and your dad should have a boys’ night out. Wouldn’t that be fun? Maybe you can have pizza for dinner.”

  Ross thought that sounded like a great idea. Aside from grilling, he wasn’t much of a cook. He tossed a towel from his saddle bags to his naked son and told him to dry off and get dressed while he got the horses ready for the trail ride back to the barn.

  Maddie left Nickie and Ross with a list of instructions and admonitions to behave and go to bed at a reasonable time. Ross knew that was a futile hope as he remembered his own sleepovers at that age. He couldn’t wait to snuggle up with his son, watch movies, and do “dad and son” things. He had missed so much already. He was anxious to catch up on all the father and son activities they had not yet been able to experience.

  After Madison left, Nickie trailed after Ross as he finished up the few things he needed to take care of. He made sure the security alarm for the gates and barns was engaged, and he let the dogs and geese loose for the night. With five hundred acres, it was impossible to secure all the fences. The dogs were formidable watch dogs, but the geese were ferocious attack animals, especially when they had eggs or goslings in their nest. Fred and Ethel had a brood in the nest currently and could be counted on to repel all invaders.

  Ross and Nickie went back to his house. Several years ago when Ross’s mother had wanted to downsize, she had turned the huge old farmhouse over to Robbie and Mike. They had renovated the main house, and it was the showplace of Eden Creek Farm. Ross and his mom had each built new homes on the farm. Ross’s house was a long, one-story contemporary residence with high cathedral ceilings, open beams, huge rock fireplaces, and enormous stretches of glass set on a small, wooded rise overlooking the beautiful green pastures, white fences, and white barns with red trim of Eden Creek Farm. It was stunning. The master suite was huge, and the house boasted four other bedrooms, a game room, office for Ross, open-plan family room, and huge kitchen as well as formal living and dining rooms. The house had been the topic of a spread in Ocala Country Life magazine. Still, in all, it was a bachelor’s pad, and he looked forward to it becoming a family home. He had chosen the bedroom closest to the master suite for Nickie.

  While Nickie was taking a shower, he threw a pizza in the oven. After Nickie was in his pajamas, they settled in front of the huge plasma television with a couple of Harry Potter movies and prepared to pig out on a large pepperoni pizza and soda. Nickie was delighted! His mother rarely let him have soda. After watching the movies and eating more pizza than was good for either of them, Ross carried Nickie to his room and tucked him in. He looked down at his sleeping son and a feeling of such extreme love blossomed in his chest that he was unable to catch his breath. He went back to the kitchen, grabbed a beer, and stretched out on the couch in the family room.

  He ran the day of the accident through his mind again, as well as that whole summer spent with Madison. They had a ball until that fateful day. He had realized by the time he had come home for Christmas that year that he had been harsh and unfair to Madison. He had blamed her for something that was certainly not entirely her fault. She had some responsibility as she knew she was not allowed in Flash’s stall, but he knew her intentions had been good. She had been a sweet and very responsible girl at the time. He tried to remember just how careful he had actually been about birth control. He had to admit that he had probably been a lot less careful than he should have been. He shook his head. Kids always thought it couldn’t happen to them. The result was an eight-year-old son he had not known he had and now desperately wanted to know, just as he desperately wanted the child’s mother back in his life.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ross’s mind was wandering between thoughts of Nickie and Maddie when he heard a ruckus out in the yard. The dogs were barking, and the geese were making such a racket he barely heard the beeping of the security system from his laptop computer on the kitchen counter. He went to the laptop and determined that the alert was from the stallion barn which was closest to his house.

  As he ran out the front door, he grabbed his cell phone and called the farmhouse. He asked Mickie to come down and get Nickie and take him back to the main house. He didn’t want to leave Nickie alone. He then told Mike to meet him at the stallion barn. Something was up, and it did not sound good. He knew Mike would have the .45 pistol with him, so he didn’t waste time getting a gun himself.

  They both arrived at the stallion barn at the same time, and being extremely quiet and careful, they moved to the double hung doors at the north side of the building nearest the tack and feed rooms. They quietly slid the doors open just enough to slip through and moved stealthily toward the main aisle of the barn. There was a small light shining from one of the stalls. They approached the stall, and Mike flicked the safety off the gun while Ross prepared to throw the stall door open.

  When the door was open, two men looked up in surprise and fright. They apparently had not expected to be interrupted. Mike and Ross took in the sight that greeted them. They were amazed to see the equipment necessary for AI, or artificial insemination, a process for harvesting semen from a stallion to later be inserted into a mare in season for the purpose of impregnating the mare. Spread out on a blanket at the side of the stall was a temperature-controlled sleeve used for collecting the stallion’s semen and a warming apparatus used to bring the temperature of the device to the temperature of a natural mare’s vagina. There were coolers filled with containers of liquid nitrogen for freezing the fresh semen specimen and other collection and storage equipment.

  The stallion, Midnight Passion, one of their top breeding stallions, was tied to a rail on the side of the stall. He appeared to be agitated although he wasn’t panicked. His face was covered with a mask to which was attached a hand towel that had apparently been saturated wit
h fluids containing the teaser hormones produced by a mare in season to arouse the stallion. Ross and Mike could see that the stallion was aroused by the scent of the mare and ready to breed. Apparently these two were attempting to hijack Midnight’s semen to be used to artificially inseminate some unknown mare or mares without paying the $45,000 per pop stud fee. Although this looked like a less than clinical procedure, it was possible that they could collect enough semen to impregnate several mares from just one ejaculation if properly frozen and thawed. The equipment looked to be professional and what would be used by a veterinarian or breeding assistant in collecting fresh semen to be frozen and used in AI and embryo transfer procedures.

  Mike raised the gun, and the two men dropped the collection equipment they held in their hands. They raised their hands, and the older one said, “Hey, man! Don’t get excited here. We haven’t hurt your stallion. We were just going to borrow a little semen.”

  “That’s a $45,000 cup of sugar there, buddy, and we’re not inclined to lend it out,” Mike said, keeping the gun on the two men.

  Ross was confused. What did these two hope to gain? Artificial insemination was strictly against the rules for breeding Thoroughbreds to be used in racing. Foals had to be registered with The Jockey Club within a year of their birth and had to be DNA typed to prove parentage. In addition, both parents had to be DNA and blood typed. Unless breeding by the natural live-cover method, and not by artificial insemination or embryo transplant, could be certified, the foal could not be registered with The Jockey Club and could not be raced on any race course in the United States. Of course, someone somewhere always thought they could make a killing on someone else’s dime. With the advent of DNA profiling for horses, it would be almost impossible to slip something like this past The Jockey Club authorities. But someone always had a new foolproof, or so they thought, plan to beat the system.

  “What’s the plan, and who’s involved in it with you?” Ross asked, moving into the stall to remove the mask from Midnight’s face and calm the animal. “Surely you know you couldn’t sell this semen or use it in any way.”

  The two men refused to talk, and Mike and Ross were at a loss of what to do next.

  Ross said in a hushed voice, “If we call the sheriff now, we will lose the opportunity to get any further information on who was involved in this scheme. They’ll have public defenders before you can spit. Since nothing has actually been stolen yet, it’s not likely that anything more than breaking and entering and attempted theft can be proven.” Ross collected the equipment and put it into a box.

  “There wouldn’t be much in the way of consequences for these two,” Mike agreed quietly. Then he said more loudly, “I think we should lock them in the pen with Fred and Ethel and see how they feel about talking in the morning. I’m really tired. How about you? I don’t feel like dealing with this tonight. What do you think?”

  “Fred and Ethel have a new brood in their pen. They’re not likely to be in a very hospitable mood. I sure wouldn’t want to spend the night locked in a pen with a couple of pissed off attack geese. They can be really nasty. You guys could lose your own breeding equipment if Ethel gets her honker on you, and she always goes for the balls,” Ross said with a malicious grin. Fred and Ethel could be heard flapping their wings madly and honking wildly outside the barn while Harley and Davidson barked nonstop. “I’d much rather face the pissed off dogs than the pissed off geese myself. But then, I’m not the one breaking and entering and attempting a felony level theft. The potential value of that semen puts this way past the misdemeanor range.”

  Ross could see that the two men were starting to look scared and a lot less sure of themselves than they had been a few minutes ago. It was well known around town that the Hamilton brothers had the reputation of being a couple of hard-asses when crossed. It was also well known that Mike had beaten the feed truck driver until he was unconscious when the jerk had left the farm gate open the day Flashfire was killed. It had been the talk of the town, although he had never even been charged with assault. The feed company had been lucky not to be sued for the value of Flashfire—a very valuable champion open jumper. The Hamilton family wielded a lot of clout in Ocala and the Thoroughbred breeding community. As a past president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeder’s & Owner’s Association, Mike had a lot of contacts. Their annual Stallion Show in early December was well attended and one of the top social events of the year in Ocala.

  “Wait a minute, man! You can’t keep us here,” the older one said belligerently.

  “Really? Who’s to know you didn’t bumble into the goose pen in the dark or how long you were there. Do you think anyone is going to believe you broke into this barn to borrow a cup of sugar?” Mike asked sarcastically. Ross could see that Mike was as pissed as he was. Not only were they attempting to steal very valuable biological specimens, but they could have injured one of their best stallions and muddied the waters as to his breeding record as well. The value of his get could be severely impacted by something of this nature.

  The two men were starting to sweat, and it wasn’t just the muggy summer night. They looked at each other, as though trying to communicate without words. The older one said, “I think we should tell them what they want to know. It’s no skin off my ass. We didn’t get paid to be goose food.”

  The younger one looked skeptical but still scared. “I don’t know, man. If we give them up, it’s likely to be our asses.”

  Ross said unsympathetically, “It’s your ass here and now, or it’s possibly your ass later. Make up your mind.”

  “Okay. Okay. My nephew, who is a vet tech and knows how to do the AI stuff, and me were paid by a couple of guys with a small racing stable to steal some of Midnight Passion’s semen,” the older one said.

  “They wanted me to freeze and transport the semen and then do the AI procedure on several of their mares,” the younger one said. “They have a stallion that looks a lot like Midnight Passion, but he hasn’t done much on the track. They wanted to improve their stock. I don’t know how they planned to get the foals registered or monkey up the DNA requirements. They didn’t tell us that part.”

  “What are the names of the guys who hired you?” Mike asked, not looking like he was in the mood for any more bullshit.

  After finding out the name of the small stable and the two men involved, Ross and Mike looked at each other in amazement. Idiots abound. Retribution for this escapade was for another day, but it would surely come about, Ross thought. They collected the men’s identification and car keys. They had no intention of returning the AI equipment either. They allowed the angry geese and the dogs to escort the two up to the front gate where they each threw them a few good solid punches in the gut and threw them out on to the road to make their way back to town as best they could.

  “Don’t even think about coming back here. If we see you again, you’ll get more than a couple of punches. We might let the geese have your balls,” Mike said, actually meaning every word.

  Ross grinned. His brother was a force to be reckoned with. Those guys had better not show their faces around Eden Creek again. He also knew Mike would be on the phone and e-mail with every breeder he knew tomorrow to alert the entire breeding community to the scam. It would be almost impossible for them to try that again at another farm if everyone was on the lookout.

  Ross threw his arm around his brother as they walked back down the long, winding driveway to the main house. Ross went inside and quietly picked up his son in his arms and walked back to his house. Nickie never woke up until the following morning when he found himself back in his bed.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Of course, the happenings of the previous night were all anyone at the farm was talking about Saturday morning, and Nickie was disappointed to have missed the excitement. It was clear he thought his daddy was the coolest dad ever. Ross had to smile. It was really something to be his son’s hero. He was not looking forward to taking him home and having to explain this to Madison thoug
h. She might think it was not safe for Nickie to stay over at the farm in the future. He hoped he could play the incident down, but with Nickie’s level of excitement, that was not very likely. He wasn’t about to tell his son to keep the story from his mother and risk the “Wrath of Madison” when it inevitably came out despite his best efforts. He was hopeful that Nickie wouldn’t make too much of it.

  That was not to be. No sooner had Nickie stormed in the front door and hugged his mother than he was spilling the beans about the crooks who snuck into Midnight’s stall last night and tried to steal his “cement”—Nickie’s term. Ross was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

  “Really, Maddie, it wasn’t quite as exciting as Nickie thinks it was. The alarm went off, and we caught some guys red-handed trying to hijack a semen sample from Midnight. We escorted them off the property and advised them not to come back. No big deal.”

  She looked skeptical but didn’t make an issue of the incident, although Ross could see she wanted to question him when they were alone. “And everyone was okay, right? No injuries to persons or horses?”

  “We’re all fine. They might not be so fine this morning, but they’ll survive. Fred and Ethel got a few good pieces of them as well.”

  “Nickie, why don’t you put your things away in your bedroom, and then you and your dad can play ball while I get lunch ready.” When he had gone to his room, she said, “Are you sure everything is okay? Did you leave Nickie alone?” The unasked question about whether he had been in any danger hung in the air.