The Damaged Heroes Collection [Box Set #1: The Damaged Heroes Collection] (BookStrand Publishing Mainstream)

by James, Sandy

  By the time Seth completed his two miles, Katie stood waiting for him by the exit chute. “How’d he do?”

  “He’s smooth as glass. I really hope the rain holds off. It’s been so dry this summer, I’ve got no idea how he’ll do on a sloppy track. I’d rather not find out the hard way.”

  Katie nodded and led Gold away after Seth removed the jog cart. “I’ll see you when they call his race. Good luck in the next one.”

  “Thanks,” Seth said over his shoulder as tucked his whip under his arm and ran to his next drive.

  The thunder continued to announce the approaching storm, but the rain bided its time. As her race was called to the track, Katie proudly led her colt to the entrance chute. Seth met her at the paddock entrance and deftly slid onto the sulky. She listened to the announcer’s voice droning through the post parade information and realized that she still cringed whenever she heard the name “Crash Reynolds.”

  She had never been able to say it even once without making a mistake. Seth was a Remington, a fact she had never been able to ignore.

  Waiting by the fence, she watched him jogging Gold as he waited for the starter to call the horses. He passed close enough to the fence to give Katie a cocky smile before the car rolled around to urge the drivers to prepare for the start. Katie said her usual prayer to keep Seth safe and took her customary white-knuckle stance against the fence rail. She didn’t think she would ever become accustomed to seeing Seth that vulnerable as he straddled the powerful animal. She marveled again at Sam’s inner strength.

  Seth guided Spun Gold through a textbook example of harness racing strategy. Getting away sixth at the start, Seth eased his horse out into the outer flow for a perfect second-over trip. By the time the horses reached the stretch, Seth took the colt outside of traffic and never looked back.

  The win was officially recorded as five lengths.

  * * * *

  Just as the photographer took the winning picture, rain began to fall in big, lazy drops. Fans ran for the grandstand as horsemen began to change into rain gear and add their mud fenders to their race bikes.

  Seth was glad he was done for the night so his colors wouldn’t be soiled by the mud. He figured he’d have to get around to ordering rain gear sometime soon. Maybe Katie and I could get a new race bike, something fast. And maybe Katie and I could...

  It never ceased to amaze him how carried away he could get in planning for a future that could never be.

  As the clouds unleashed their fury and the rain drenched the track in sheets, Seth watched Katie jog alongside Gold as they headed toward the test barn. He ran for the paddock to change in the drivers’ lounge. Rachel intercepted him at the door the instant he exited in street clothes.

  “Crash, I’m so glad to see you. I really need your help,” she pleaded. “There are some papers my lawyer sent over, but I don’t understand them. Could you look at them? Maybe tell me what they mean?”

  Just being around Rachel made him uneasy. She was too predatory, too sordid. “Rachel, I’m not a lawyer. Can’t you—”

  She interrupted him. “I know, but people around here are so... so... hick. You’re smart. Please?”

  “Fine. Can you bring them back here in a couple of minutes?” Seth glanced at his watch to let her know he’d be watching the time very carefully.

  She gave him a coy smile. “They’re in my truck. How ‘bout we run out there together?”

  Seth hesitated. Gold would be done in the test barn soon. That horse always pees like a... racehorse. He figured that he and Katie would leave for the farm right away. He knew she still didn’t feel as well as she should, and he wanted her to get some rest. A visit to a doctor might be wise in the near future. Seth looked at his watch again. “I’m not sure I’ve got enough time.”

  “Please? If I screw this up, I might have to do some time in jail. I didn’t do anything wrong. She came after me. It’ll only take a minute. I’m parked right by Katie. Please?”

  Casting a wary glance toward the test barn, Seth couldn’t see Katie on her way back, so he acquiesced. “Let’s make it quick.”

  Rachel grabbed his hand and pulled him out into the pouring rain. He jerked his hand back, but followed her as they sprinted toward the far parking lot. Her truck was parked very close to Katie’s truck and trailer, so at least he’d know when Katie was ready to head for the farm.

  Rachel unlocked the driver side door. “Get in!” she yelled, and Seth dove out of the driving rain into the truck cab before scooting over to the passenger’s side as she slid in beside him.

  “Where are the papers?”

  “In the glove compartment. Hang on, I’ll get them.” Rachel leaned over and placed her right hand on his lap. She fiddled with the latch to the glove compartment with her left. “Stupid thing. It always sticks.” She let her hand slide slowly over his thigh.

  Having experienced many better attempts at seduction by women much more skilled than Rachel, Seth knew exactly what she was doing. Her touch made his skin crawl. “If you don’t have the papers...”

  The glove compartment magically opened and Rachel grabbed a thick white envelope. “Here they are.” She handed the papers to Seth. Rachel draped her right arm across the back of the bench seat as she leaned in to read over his shoulder.

  Glancing at the legal papers, Seth couldn’t see anything at all confusing. They seemed to be a simple explanation of a plea agreement that would give Rachel nothing more than a small probation period for her disorderly conduct. “What don’t you get, Rachel? These seem pretty straightforward.”

  Rachel was busy staring out the rear window. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” She looked back at the papers.

  “What don’t you understand?” Then he noticed she was sliding closer and closer to him. “Rachel, I’m not—” He stopped talking when he realized she wasn’t even listening to him again because she was peering through the back window.

  “Come on. Over here. Look over here,” Rachel whispered as she leaned even closer to Seth.

  “What are you talking about?” Seth asked before turning around to look out the window at whatever drew Rachel’s attention.

  A flash of lightning illuminated the scene. Katie stood as still as a statue in the middle of the parking lot, staring directly at him. The rain washed over her in sheets, but she simply remained there unflinching.

  “Shit, Rachel! What in the hell are you trying to do?” Seth fumbled for the door handle.

  “Oh, come on, Crash. It’s just a little joke between old friends. Why don’t we go get a drink or something?” Rachel ran the hand that had been on the back of the seat across his shoulders and up through his hair.

  Seth finally forced the door open. He jumped out of the truck and ran for Katie as she sprinted for her truck. By the time Seth reached the passenger side of the pickup, Katie had locked all the doors.

  Pounding on the window, Seth yelled, “Come on, Katie! Let me in! It’s not what you think!”

  “Go to hell!” she screamed back as she started up the truck.

  “Boss, please! Open the door!”

  “Go back to your whore!” Katie jammed the truck in gear and punched the gas pedal. Seth had to jump back to keep from having his feet run over by her wheels.

  “Goddamn it, Katie!” He chased after the truck, hoping to catch her when she stopped at the guard shack. Unfortunately, Rachel had come out of her pickup and threw herself directly in his path. “Get out of my way!” Seth yelled as he tried to push Rachel to one side.

  She grabbed at his arm, dragging at him like an anchor. “Come on. Stay here. Get back in my truck. You’re soaking wet.”

  Katie’s truck had already started moving again. There was no way to catch her now. He turned on Rachel. “You bitch! You did that on purpose!”

  Rachel stood in the rain and laughed aloud. She looked a bit crazed, and he was almost afraid of her. “Of course I did, you idiot. I hate Katie Murphy.”

  The rain continued to pour ov
er Seth as he considered what he next move should be. He thought about walking to the farm, but the storm was intensifying. It would be dangerous walking the winding back roads on the dark, rainy night. “Stay the hell away from me. And stay the hell away from Katie.”

  Rachel stood her ground and continued to laugh—an evil and menacing sound that was followed by streak of lightning and a loud clap of thunder. Seth finally ran back toward the paddock to see if he could catch a ride to Katie’s farm.

  Rachel crawled back into her truck and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Flipping it open, she searched through her list of saved numbers to find the most important one of all. Punching the correct buttons, Rachel put the phone to her ear to listen for an answer as she pushed her dripping hair away from her face.

  “Thank you for calling the twenty-four hour tip line for The Tattler. We’re the number one entertainment news show on cable television. Do you have a news tip for our show?” a cheery feminine voice asked.

  “Do I ever! How would you like to know where Seth Remington is right now?”

  Chapter 27

  Seth finally returned to his dorm room soaked to the bone and angry beyond rational thought. There was no way to get out to the farm. He’d tried to call Katie’s cell, but she wouldn’t answer.

  As he stripped his wet clothes off and threw them on the floor, he railed at himself for being stupid enough to fall so easily into Rachel’s trap. Then he damned Rachel for being a narcissistic bitch who had obviously plagued Katie for years. And finally, he cursed Katie for not waiting long enough for him to even have a chance to offer her an explanation.

  Seth flopped on his bed and punched his pillow. When that didn’t help, he threw it across the small room. Explanation or not, Katie would never believe him. After the story Jacob had told him about Rachel and Mike Knight, she must have been experiencing a horrible case of déjà vu when she witnessed Seth and Rachel together in that truck. What had he been thinking trying to help her?

  Seth figured that he would give just about anything, including the Remington fortune, to be able to pluck those sickening moments out of Katie’s memory. To undo the pain that he knew she must be feeling.

  No, his Katie was smart and sensible. After she cooled down, she would calmly and carefully listen to his explanation.

  And then she would toss him out on his ear.

  * * * *

  Somehow, Katie managed to get back to the farm and mechanically tended to the needs of her horses. She praised Gold for his performance and produced several carrots as his reward. As long as she kept busy, she didn’t need to think too much. Unfortunately, there wasn’t nearly enough to do to keep her occupied for very long.

  Despite her best efforts, the horrible thoughts swirled in her mind. The nightmare played over and over again as she saw Seth in Rachel’s truck with that heinous bitch touching him as if he belonged to her. She’d never forget the look of triumph in Rachel’s eyes because she’d seen it once before. The only saving grace was that at least Katie hadn’t witnessed Rachel and Seth locked in an intimate embrace as she had when she discovered Rachel and Mike together.

  Rachel Schaeffer. Katie shook her head in frustration. What had she ever done to deserve such contempt? She had always stayed as much out of Rachel’s way as she could manage whenever she’d been at the Schaeffer farm. She didn’t borrow her clothes, use her make-up, or steal her boyfriends. Those activities had all been Rachel’s style, not Katie’s.

  Seth Remington floated through her thoughts. Men could be such morons, always thinking with the wrong head. He can’t want Rachel. He can’t.

  There had never been any warning, no reason whatsoever to believe he was unhappy or dissatisfied. Seth had given Katie absolutely no sign that he wanted another woman. Then she reminded herself that Mike had given no suggestion of his desire to fool around either. Things had seemed to be going along just fine when she’d stumbled across him with Rachel sitting firmly on his naked lap.

  No. Seth wouldn’t do this to me. It was all a mistake, just a huge, horrible misunderstanding.

  If it was a mistake, then why had Seth been in Rachel’s truck? And why did Rachel have her hands all over him?

  Katie was quickly losing the argument with herself.

  She hadn’t cried. She’d been too angry at first. The entire trip home, she had screamed at the top of her lungs, calling Seth every terrible name she could think of as she pounded the steering wheel with her fists hard enough she was surprised the airbag hadn’t exploded in her face. None of her shouted words seemed entirely bad enough to fit him. She’d had to invent a couple of new ones. Her throat was raw and hoarse by the time she reached the farm.

  Once the anger subsided, numbness set in and lasted until Katie had Gold ensconced in his stall with a large bucket of grain and his beloved carrots.

  When she shivered from being cold, wet, and angry, Katie finally dragged her exhausted body and battered heart to her room. The intense storm brought an unusual summer cool down that made her air-conditioned room feel like the inside of a refrigerator. She walked to the wall unit and flipped the power switch off. The noisy machine groaned in protest before sputtering to a halt. Picking up her cell phone, she wanted to check for any messages from Seth, but she realized she’d let the battery run out. She jammed it into the desktop charger.

  Katie wrapped a towel around her wet hair like a turban. She stripped out of her sodden clothes and threw them in the hamper. Pulling on dry underwear, she donned one of the flannel shirts Seth had left behind. His scent still clung to it. Katie buried her nose in the sleeve to breathe in the comforting essence. After rubbing as much moisture as she could out of her hair, she threw the towel over the chair and promptly ran out of things to do. She no longer had a means of avoiding thinking about everything that had happened.

  Pain washed over her in mammoth waves the minute she finally sat down on the bed. Tears quickly turned to ragged sobs that spasmed through her body. Katie lay down on the bed and pulled her knees to her chest as she wailed her anguish.

  Oh, Seth. Why? What did I do wrong?

  With her grief finally spent through tears, Katie latched onto one rational thought. Seth would never hurt me like this. There was absolutely no way he could be that duplicitous; it just wasn’t in his nature. While she might have viewed Mike Knight through younger and more naïve eyes that had missed his over-inflated ego, Katie believed she could clearly see Seth’s true character. She knew him well enough to know the truth. The more she thought about the whole sordid situation, the more she recognized that it smacked of a Rachel Schaeffer custom maneuver. Rachel had been doing all the touching, hadn’t she?

  Katie suddenly realized that she had been set up.

  “Damn her!” she shouted as pain rapidly turned to anger. “That bitch!”

  She wished for a moment that she had as much courage as the blonde who had taken a chunk out of Rachel in the paddock. If Katie found herself within arm’s length of Rachel, the woman would be sporting a nice black eye and a fat lip.

  She thought about getting dressed to hurry back to the track dorms and fetch Seth. But the hour was late, and Katie was physically and emotionally exhausted. The rain came down in torrents and thunder rumbled at regular intervals. With a yawn, she decided to wait until morning. She and the baby needed some rest and a few more hours to calm down.

  Besides, he deserved to wait. Since Seth had been stupid enough to fall for one of Rachel’s tricks, she figured it would serve him right if he had to sit and stew in his own foolishness for the night. Maybe he’d learn a lesson. Having him stay away might also bring a halt to some of the track gossip that constantly swirled around them.

  The patter of the rain on the metal roof lulled Katie into a troubled sleep. She dreamed of a swollen, raging river that separated her from Seth. No matter how hard she searched, she couldn’t find a way to cross the water. As she stood on the bank, wringing her hands, Seth simply turned around and walked away. He neve
r even looked back to offer a farewell.

  She knew why. Like he’d told her when they’d lost Monterey Jack, Seth hated goodbyes.

  * * * *

  The unusual noises woke her.

  Katie was used to hearing the customary morning sounds of the crickets chirping a busy tune, the birds whistling their melodies, and the gentle movement of the horses as they milled about in their stalls. She wasn’t, however, accustomed to the sound of vehicles traveling down the gravel road at such an early hour.

  Katie stretched and yawned. I suppose I should get up and see what’s causing the commotion. Maybe there was a hay delivery she’d forgotten, or perhaps the man who owned the farm was working the deep ruts left by the rain out of the gravel drive with some noisy equipment.

  Still clad in Seth’s green flannel shirt, she pulled a pair of old jeans out of a pile of clean laundry and lazily donned them before walking barefoot out of the office to the large barn door. She knew she looked a sight. The sleeves of the shirt hung past her hands, the flannel shirt fell below her knees, and the jeans had more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese. Of course, it wasn’t like she was expecting company.

  Calling a morning greeting to her horses, she threw the latch and yanked the door open. She was immediately assaulted with a multitude of bright lights and the flashes of many cameras.

  “Miss Murphy, is Seth Remington here with you now?” the first reporter shouted, pushing a microphone at Katie’s face.

  Once the feeding frenzy started, several other reporters joined in a chorus of questions. There were so many people talking at once and flashes popping every few seconds that Katie quickly became dizzy and disoriented.

  “Katie, how long have you been involved with Seth Remington?”

  “Did Seth Remington run away to be with you?”

  “Miss Murphy! My show is offering a substantial reward for any news—”