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Shane whirled on her in disbelief. “They already know. They allowed it to happen and covered it up.”
Reba stood up. “We don’t know who is involved or why. But I have to report it and get eyes on the whole testing procedure. All of the athletes are at risk, human and animal. We can’t just assume that you’re the only breeder being targeted.”
“What if they don’t believe that I’m not involved? What if they try to make my ranch a scapegoat for this? I can’t be blacklisted in this industry for something I didn’t do. No one will touch us. No one will care if we’re innocent or not.”
“I’m sorry, Shane,” she said. “I’ll do my best to keep it discreet.”
A bark of a laugh bubbled up from his roiling gut. “There’s no way this is going to be kept a secret. If you report this, I’m finished.”
This was worse than Abigail leaving him after his wreck. At least he had his family business to fall back on. If word got out that Sverre had been on steroids, he was ruined. Shane had survived no longer being able to ride a bull. How was his family going to survive not being able to breed bulls?
“Reba, please. I need to investigate who is behind this.” Shane’s thoughts were whirling. “It could be Keith trying to ruin me because of jealousy. Or one of the bull riders because they’re pissed that they can’t go eight seconds on Sverre. Or another breeder looking to knock out the competition. But anyone who hears that Sverre was tampered with is going to automatically assume we did it to keep him from being rideable. The Viking Ranch can’t take that hit to our reputation.”
She gripped his upper arm and all he wanted to do was pull her in for a hug. But he couldn’t. “Trust me, if there was another way, I’d take it. I…” She turned her back on him. “I have a hard time with whistleblowing. It happened one other time and no one believed me.”
“About doping?” He scowled. How prevalent was this shit?
“No,” she said. “It was more personal. About Dr. Kilgore.”
Shane was momentarily distracted. “What about him?”
Reba’s eyes filled with tears. “Now is not the time to get into it.”
“Now is exactly the time.” And this time he hugged her.
She groaned, but cuddled into him. “Can’t this wait?”
“No. Tell me now.” For a moment, he didn’t think she would.
Then she broke away from his embrace and started to pace around the small porch. “It was three years ago. After he threw the vase at me?” She looked at him and he nodded to let her know he remembered that she’d told him about the incident. “He immediately tried to make things better. He grabbed me and kissed me.”
Shane thought he was angry before. A red haze closed over his vision.
“I reported him to the veterinarian board, but they closed the case. They said it was my word against his. Then Dr. Kilgore said if I pursued it, he would ruin my reputation. And then things got ugly. So I cut and ran. I’m terrified that I’m not going to be believed again.” Reba folded her arms over her chest. “I never reported Vidar’s injuries because I didn’t want to be flagged as a troublemaker in case there wasn’t enough proof. That’s on me. Maybe if I had, it would have been more difficult to get to Sverre.”
“I trusted you to do that.” Shane sagged against the porch railing. “It never occurred to me that you wouldn’t follow up.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He clasped his palms over his face. What if she was right and filing that report could have stopped Sverre from being drugged? Ronnie died because Sverre had been injected with poison. He couldn’t blame Reba for that. She obviously didn’t do that. And if someone in her office had been covering up for it, maybe it wouldn’t have made a damned bit of difference. But Shane would never know.
“It’s going to be all right, Shane. We’re going to get to the bottom of this, but we need to let the officials know so someone else doesn’t die.”
A part of Shane knew that was a reasonable request. Hell, if he was still riding, he would want to know if he had a drug-maddened bull waiting to toss him on his ass. “I just need a few days. Give me until Thursday night before reporting it. I know you’re worried about your sister. Sverre will never be alone. No one will have the chance to tamper with him. I don’t trust your department with this.”
“Do you trust me?”
Did he? Thankfully, she didn’t wait for an answer.
“What if it’s not just Sverre?” Reba said. “There were too many people who had access to the bulls to assume it’s just your ranch.”
He closed his eyes. She was right. And yet, he wished she could stand by him and give him the few days. “I’m not asking you to cover this up. I never would do that. All I’m asking for is three days so I can find out who is behind this so my family name doesn’t get dragged through the mud. You didn’t report Vidar being hurt. Don’t report this yet.”
“I’m sorry, Shane,” she said, her voice breaking. “I can’t do that. If we want to catch who is doing this, the UPRC need time to figure out how to stop this. I swear to you, though, that this news won’t be released to the public.”
“And if Jackson Blevins shit-cans the Viking Ranch anyways? People in this industry talk. The suspicion alone could kill our chances of being a supplier to any other major rodeo. I need you to trust me to handle this.”
“I do trust you. I know you didn’t drug Sverre. But someone did. Someone could be doing this to other bulls, too. I need to report this and be part of the solution for stopping this from happening again, and clearing your name.”
