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

by James, Sandy

  “Look. It’s Katie,” he said as he pointed at the image of their redheaded friend being mobbed by reporters outside her barn door.

  “Oh, my God.” She leaned over the back of the sofa and gawked at the television. “Oh, Katie.”

  They listened for a few moments as the talking-head reporter droned on about Seth Remington and the woman he’d been living with for the nearly six months since his disappearance. The live report was interplayed with file footage of Seth in some of his early and clearly more entertaining moments. Standing next to some publicity-crazed starlet. Surveying the damage from one of his wrecked sports cars. Bailing a member of the Boys’ Club out of jail.

  Sam was so transfixed on the show that she barely heard Chris come in the kitchen door. “Hey! Where in the hell is everybody?” He jogged into the living room. “Have you guys seen—?”

  “Shh,” Sam scolded as she pointed to the television.

  “I guess you have.” Chris plopped down next to Brian.

  When the story finally ended, Sam looked at her husband. “I’ve gotta get to Katie. She’s all alone out there.”

  Brian nodded. “I’ll go too.” He started to push himself to stand.

  “The hell you will. What are you gonna do, beat them off with your crutch? You’d just get hurt.”

  “I’m fine. I can help. Jesus, Sam. She needs me.”

  “And what exactly do you think you can accomplish except getting your leg busted again? We’re gonna help her. I promise. But you have to take care of that leg.”

  Brian slumped back onto the couch and nodded.

  Her cell phone rang. Sam grabbed it and glanced at the caller ID before she hurried to answer it. “Katie! Oh, my God. Are you all right, Honey?”

  Sam tried to take in everything Katie was saying, but it was hard to hear between the sobs and the hiccups. She finally gleaned enough information to gather that Ross Kennedy had come to Katie’s aid and made most of the reporters give her some space.

  “That’s a good idea, Katie. I’ll be there tomorrow, but call me if you need anything.” She flipped the phone shut.

  “What’s a good idea?” Brian asked.

  “She’s calling her grandfather and Jacob Schaeffer to see if they can help her for a while. Seth is going back home, and she’s screwed without any help.” Then the whole awful, ugly truth of Katie’s situation hit. “Oh, my God. Katie is gonna be devastated.” And all alone and pregnant.

  That son of a bitch.

  Brian hit the arm of the couch with his fist. “I knew this would happen! I should’ve... I don’t know... protected her. I should’ve tried harder to keep that guy away from her. If I hadn’t gotten hurt, he would’ve never been her second.”

  Sam patted his shoulder, wondering just how pissed he’d be when he learned about Katie’s condition. “She’s a big girl, Brian. She had to make her own choices.”

  “How do you think I feel?” Chris asked. “I was her second. I should’ve been there. But you guys needed me. How could I be two places at the same time?”

  “It’s nobody’s fault,” Sam consoled. She sure didn’t need the men going into a mental meltdown. “Brian, you didn’t get hurt on purpose. And we do need you, Chris. You helped save our farm.”

  Brian started to get up. “I’m heading out there.”

  “I’m going too,” Chris piped in.

  Sam put her hands on her hips. “Just stop it. You guys can’t go. She told me to keep everyone away. Ross got a restraining order to keep the reporters off the farm, but they’re camped out on the frontage road. Katie said she didn’t want us to try to get through to see her. It’ll only make things worse.”

  “Fine,” Chris grumbled. “Whatever. I’m going back to work. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

  The slamming of the kitchen door echoed through the house as he left.

  * * * *

  When he arrived at the track, Ross presented his owner’s badge to the track security and was allowed to pass through the gate. Seeing the police cruiser sitting in front of the dormitories, he pulled his car up alongside and parked.

  Two uniformed officers leaned against the black and white sedan. Neither spoke when they saw him, so Ross broached the topic. “Where’s Seth Remington?”

  “You Ross Kennedy?” one of the cops asked. “Got any ID?”

  Ross flipped the owner’s badge hanging from his lapel. “Right there. Couldn’t get in here without it. Now where’s Seth?”

  “Still in his room,” the officer answered as he gestured his thumb toward the dorms.

  “Thanks. We’ll be leaving shortly. I imagine the reporters will hang around awhile, but they’ll get bored quickly. I don’t think they’ll be a problem in a day or two.”

  The second officer smiled. “They’re not a problem now. We haven’t had this much excitement around here since that rock star’s bus overturned on the interstate.”

  “I think the track likes the publicity,” the first officer added. “Oughta be a good crowd tonight.” He elbowed the other officer and they both chuckled.

  Ross walked into the dorm and went to Seth’s room. When he knocked, there was no answer. “Remington?” he called as he knocked again.

  After a few moments, he could hear sounds of movement and the door suddenly jerked open. Without any greeting, Seth demanded, “Take me to Katie.”

  Ross heaved a deep sigh. He felt like he had just gone through this same scene back at the farm. “I can’t.”

  “I don’t give a shit what you think you can or can’t do, Matlock. I want to see Katie. Now.” Seth pushed Ross aside and walked out of the door. Slamming it shut, he headed down the hallway toward the stairs.

  “Wait! You can’t go to Katie!”

  Seth threw him a hard glare and disappeared down the steps. Ross sighed again and shook his head. What a goddamn mess. He chased after Seth.

  By the time he caught up with him, Ross saw him leaning against the Lexus with his arms crossed sternly over his chest, impatiently tapping his foot.

  Ross walked up to an obviously pissed off Seth. “I went round and round with Katie this morning. You two can’t—”

  The look of panic in Seth’s eyes took Ross by surprise. “You saw Katie?” Seth interrupted. “Is she okay? Are the reporters—?”

  “She’s fine. I took care of the media. She’s got security out there protecting her now.”

  “Good, then let’s go. Gold will get sore if I don’t jog him.” Seth turned to open the car door.

  “Wait. Seth, please just wait a minute and listen to me.” Ross pushed the door closed.

  “What? What’s so damn important that we can’t talk about it on the way to the farm?”

  “You can’t see Katie anymore. The second the reporters found you, the clock started ticking. You two can’t have contact for five years or you lose your inheritance,” Ross explained for what he felt was the millionth time that day. The guilt he felt wasn’t as overwhelming when facing Seth instead of Katie, but it still lurked around, prodding and poking at his conscience.

  Seth glared at Ross. The longer Seth stood unflinching, the more uncomfortable it made Ross. He finally tugged at the tie that had suddenly become way too tight around his neck. For a moment, Ross could have sworn that he was looking at Sterling Remington.

  The time had come for Seth to make a decision, unpleasant as it was. “You’ve got two choices. You either go back to Chicago with me and take over Remington Computers, or you have me take you to the farm and you kiss away something like ninety-five million dollars in personal assets. Not to mention the company’s holdings.”

  Seth didn’t even blink.

  Ross leaned against the car next to Seth and waited patiently for the man to make up his mind while he thanked God he would never find himself in such a precarious predicament. Seth Remington was now Solomon, and the day of the dreaded decision had arrived.

  Seth finally glanced over at Ross. The hurt in Seth’s eyes came as a sho
ck. “Katie and I... Well, we kind of had a fight last night. It was a big misunderstanding, and if I don’t talk to her, I can’t straighten it out. Can’t you give me five minutes with her? Just five minutes? Or I can send a message with you? You’d take it to her, wouldn’t you?”

  Ross shook his head. “I want to help. I really do, but the instant you come within a mile of that farm, every reporter will blast your face all over the media. If I broke the no-contact clause, I’d be disbarred for breaching my fiduciary responsibility to your dad’s estate, and you’ll lose your inheritance. I’m sorry, Seth. You contact her at all in the next five years, you forfeit the money.”

  “Did she say anything?”

  Ross nodded. “She said to tell you that you earned your money and... She said to have a nice life.”

  “She’ll need some help if I leave. She’ll have to get a new second, and if I don’t drive—”

  “She knows. I’m already working on it.”

  Seth didn’t appear at all appeased. “Can’t I send her a note or a letter? Something?”

  “If you want to put a ninety-five million dollar stamp on it,” Ross said with a wry chuckle that he quickly squelched when Seth glared at him again with Sterling’s eyes. “Look, Seth. I think there’s something else you need to know.”

  “Then you’d damn well better tell me now.”

  Ross cleared his throat. “If you see Katie, you’re not the only one who’ll lose a shitload of money.”

  Seth arched an eyebrow. Ross now had his client’s full attention.

  “Sterling left her a bonus of a hundred-thousand once the season was over. Since the press found you early, she still gets the bonus. You two see each other in the next five years, the estate will take it back. Do you really want to take that much money away from her?”

  The look on Seth’s face confused Ross. He saw vulnerability, and it surprised the hell out of him. But Seth’s expression rapidly began to change. Next, Ross saw hurt—plain and simple pain. And then anger.

  “She knew about the bonus.” Seth calmly stated the fact. The composure didn’t register on his face. What Ross saw there was nothing short of fury.

  Ross nodded. “She knew. Not the whole time or just how much, but she knew there was a bonus.”

  “Have a nice life.” Seth repeated Katie’s farewell.

  Ross suddenly understood what was causing Seth’s turmoil. “Oh, no. You’re wrong, Remington. You’re wrong. She didn’t choose the money over you. Katie would’ve given it up if you’d just—”

  “Bullshit!” The fierceness of Seth’s voice frightened several birds which had been dissecting a small pile of manure several yards away.

  “You’re not being fair to Katie. She’s not like that, and you damn well know it.”

  “Have a nice life,” Seth repeated again.

  “You know she didn’t—”

  “The hell she didn’t. She knew. You told me she knew. Well, she made her choice, didn’t she? And it sure as shit wasn’t me.”

  Ross shook his head at the man’s stupidity. If Seth didn’t know Katie any better than that, he deserved to lose her.

  He watched Seth stare at the nest of reporters milling about outside the fence aiming their telephoto lenses at them. Seth’s spine suddenly straightened. His face became a mask that hid the softening Ross had always seen whenever Katie was near. The selfish heir to the Remington Computer fortune had returned.

  “We need to get you away from the press. What are you going to do?” Ross asked.

  Seth had no idea why he wasn’t exploding. He wanted to scream. He wanted to hit something. He wanted someone else to hurt as deeply as he did. Perhaps the explosion was contained because he was too numb to deal with what he’d discovered about Katie.

  She was supposed to be different. The Old Man had chosen her because she was different. She wouldn’t have used him for money. Not like everyone else he’d ever known. No one else had every loved him for who he was, for the person he was deep down inside. At least until he came to Indiana, to Dan Patch Raceway. To Katie. And he’d stupidly thought he belonged to her and her world.

  But he was a fool, a damn fool. She didn’t love him. Not like he loved her. Love or money? When faced with Seth’s dilemma, the decision he’d struggled with every hour of every day, Katie Murphy had easily chosen money and thrown away his love.

  “I’m going home. Tell Katie to... to... have a nice life. I hope she enjoys her money. I’m sure as hell going to enjoy mine.” Seth opened the Lexus, slipped inside, and slammed the door.

  Chapter 29

  Katie saw the RV pull up next to the barn and steered her horse off the track to go meet it. The side door of the vehicle opened and Jacob Schaeffer stepped out, put his hands to the small of his back, and stretched. She knew the instant he saw her heading his way because he grinned and walked toward her.

  Jumping off of the jog cart, Katie forced a nervous smile. God, she didn’t feel like smiling ever again. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You, too,” he replied as he grabbed Jack’s bridle and led him into the barn. “You all right, Red?”

  “I’m fine,” she lied. “Thank you so much for coming. I’m trying to get some help, but...”

  “Nonsense. I’m here for as long as you need me,” Jacob insisted as he cross-tied Jack and began to strip the horse’s equipment. “Seems kinda familiar, don’t it?”

  Katie gave him a weak smile. “Sure does. Did you talk to Grandpa? When’s he coming?” She doffed her protective glasses and helmet.

  Jacob nodded toward the barn door. Kevin Murphy was just walking through it. “He’s already here. Came with me.”

  “Grandpa!” She immediately ran to throw herself into his arms. “Oh, Grandpa.” She grabbed the front of his shirt, buried her face in his chest, and finally let her guard down long enough to cry in front of someone else over the whole horrid situation. She needed the security she felt as he hugged her tightly to him.

  “Shh. It’s okay now, Sweetheart. Grandpa is here.” He rubbed her back and stroked her hair. “It’ll be all right, Kathleen. It’ll all be all right.”

  After several long moments, she got herself under control and pulled away. She sniffled a couple of times before drying her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. There was so much she wanted to tell him, but there would be time enough for that later. Right now she had a stable to run. Her stubbornness would allow her to work despite the heartache threatening to paralyze her at any moment.

  Like old times, Katie and Jacob fell into their routine of caring for the horses. They mostly exchanged racing gossip, but when Jacob asked about his daughter, Katie didn’t want to spread tales of Rachel’s exploits. “Don’t you talk to her, Jacob?”

  “Not in the last six months. She ain’t got much use for me, and I don’t like what she does most the time. She causin’ you trouble again? Girl can’t seem to keep her nose clean.”

  Katie couldn’t bring herself to tell Jacob about Rachel’s paddock fistfight or her cruel interference with Seth. She loved Jacob too much to hurt him. “She’s fine. She gets plenty of work.”

  Jacob nodded and thankfully let the touchy subject drop.

  * * * *

  Ready to head to the track with the one horse she had racing that evening, Katie peeked into the RV to tell the men she was leaving. Jacob and her grandfather were relaxing and watching ESPN. “Are you sure you don’t want me to get you guys a motel room?”

  “Why on earth would you wanna do that?” Jacob asked. “Got everythin’ we need right here. Even got a satellite dish on the roof.” He gestured with his thumb at the ceiling.

  “We’re fine,” Kevin reassured. “You sure you don’t need help tonight?”

  “No thanks, Grandpa. I’ve only got one. I just hope they don’t fine me for a late driver’s change when...” Damn, but it hurt to even think about Seth. How was she going to face the people at the track?

  “We need to sit and have a long talk, Kathlee
n,” Kevin said in that voice of his that told her he was demanding, not suggesting.

  “We will,” she lied as she turned and walked out of the RV. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was have a long talk with anyone, but she wasn’t about to share that with her grandfather. It bothered her to keep an important secret like her pregnancy from the man who had raised her, but Katie still wanted to keep the information to herself for the time being.

  There was already plenty of change to deal with for a long time to come.

  * * * *

  Brian, Sam, and Chris came to visit the next day. Katie had just finished jogging the last of the horses and was putting equipment away while Jacob washed the animal in the bath stall.

  Sam ran up to Katie and pulled her into a hug. “How you doing, Honey?”

  Katie didn’t want to cry anymore, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I’m fine.” She scrubbed away the errant tears with the back of her hand.

  “Bullshit. Talk to me, Katie.”

  Brian and Chris stood awkwardly staring at the ground as if to keep from eavesdropping on the women’s conversation. Katie loved them both for being there, but she wasn’t sure she wanted them to hear all she wanted to say to Sam. Ever perceptive, Sam said, “Let’s go in your office.” She was already heading that way before she even finished the sentence. Katie dutifully followed.

  Once inside the small room, Sam plopped down on the bed as Katie took the chair. “How you doing?” Sam asked again.

  Tears began to roll down Katie’s cheeks. “I hurt, Sam. I hurt every second of the day. How could he... how could he... just leave?”

  “I don’t know, Katie. I just don’t know.”

  The more she thought about the whole situation, the angrier Katie got. “For money. For freakin’ money! Can you believe it?”

  “Katie, I think he should’ve—”