Page 124 of Dragon Her Heels

TWENTY-NINE

I’d dubbed him Pipsqueak.

Time passed as it did, bringing with it the good and the bad. Yuless, in a power move that did an excellent job of revving my engine, made me wait for the full two weeks to confirm my health before he indicated he was prepared to be conquered.

It was well enough he forced us to wait; I proved to be the primary instigator, ready and willing to drag my new partner off at the first hint of interest. In good news for Yuless, I had patience and a willingness to use it when I managed to wear him out, which happened with pleasing frequency.

When I wasn’t working for my boss, who showed up at least once per business day to earn a punting across the lake, I trained my horses, worked Elegance in Moonlight in the hope he would be ready to run in his big race, and enjoyed everything life had to offer.

As planned, I took Alligator Bait to the races. We did not win the second, third, or fourth race we participated in, although Alligator Bait put on a good showing, squeaking a close second for two of the races and a third for the other. Fortunately for my sanity, her third place was for the least number of points. While I already owned the stallion I’d wanted to rescue from a poor fate, the need to win took hold.

It wasn’t about the money. I understood Alligator Bait’s frustration and need to triumph after my mistakes had cost her the first place spot. The second race, we’d been beaten by a few inches. I’d hesitated before setting her loose.

In the other races, I’d made rookie mistakes, costing us victory.

That we still placed in the top three amazed me, as did the value of the purses.

We won our fifth race, and neither of us looked back for the remainder of the preliminary races.

That Alligator Bait had brought home well over half a million dollars in winnings astounded me, and I would have spent every single penny on upgrading my barns if the Devil hadn’t stolen my thunder and done all the work for me without allowing me to pay him back even a cent. Some days, I thought about stealing his wife and holding her hostage until he allowed me to pay my share for the new buildings and the replacement of everything destroyed in the barn collapse.

Instead of kidnapping Darlene or working on my barn, I trolled the world for horses in need of rescue, plucking animals from owners who’d met misfortune, couldn’t handle their beast, or had encountered fiscal misfortune. Most of my acquisitions spent a few weeks in paradise before Lucifer and his family placed them with appropriate homes.

Rather than pluck horses from slaughter markets, I began the tedious work of shutting the operations down, especially the ones that permitted the kill sales of abused and neglected horses. I made use of the Devil’s offer of representation, setting him loose on the industry so I could become the change I wanted to see in my world.

I had no intention of stopping people from eating horses or any other type of animal, but I did intend to see the practice appropriately regulated for the comfort and safety of horse and human alike.

The stallion I’d fought to save recovered in my pastures, and despite my misgivings, I opted to enter him into the Breeder’s Cup race of the year, as it was the only race with any slots left available when I’d made the decision. In a typical year, the Breeder’s Cup was closer to the middle of the qualifying races for the Kentucky Derby. For whatever reason, they’d decided to amp the prestige of the qualifying races through hosting the Breeder’s Cup as the final race of the preliminary season.

The entry fee had staggered me, which explained why there’d been one slot left for the premier race.

If he won any purse money, I’d save all the funds to buy imperiled horses and get them set up with a new and better life.

When I wasn’t training and racing Alligator Bait, I worked to keep the peace in my home, which had become overrun with dragons, their keepers, and their ancient companions. At night, they flocked to the Destroyer of Georgia’s castle, at least the ones who weren’t living in my manor.

The dragons demonstrated they could all, when needed, become giants capable of devouring entire cities to ferry their guests over.

I refused to build a bridge until my boss begged me to do so. He opted to maintain his current mode of transportation, which involved my foot and his rump.

Only three dragons lived in my home, with the third one being a runt the other dragons tended to step on because he defined what it was to be meek. As he was too shy to give me his name, I’d dubbed him Pipsqueak.

It was bad enough the Destroyer of Georgia had gotten involved, beating up the other dragons for picking on the little guy. The last time the dragons had squabbled over Pipsqueak, there had been six of them involved in the fight, they’d kept it to over the lake, and they’d drawn a huge audience of spectators, who had crowded along my wall for a better view of the festivities.

Pipsqueak had a room on the second floor on the other end of the building from Ashley and her trio of amorous males.

Every rare now and then, I caught a glimpse of a ridiculously handsome younger man with blond hair and blue eyes puttering around the second floor, armed with everything needed to make pie. Unlike the other dragons, who insisted on attempting to bake in their scaled form, Pipsqueak acknowledged the usefulness of having hands, and he even referenced baking recipes in his effort to learn.

Once, I’d caught Pipsqueak and Yuless watching a video together, attempting to unravel the secrets of baking.

No matter how hard the entire lot of them tried, they couldn’t bake a pie to save their lives.

While I refused to bake often, every time I did, the results were worth fighting over, and I’d learned to make enough for everyone to have two slices, else they all cried. Yuless got three slices, as I enjoyed putting the rest of the people in my home in their place, which was not in my bed most nights.

The most nights issue irritated me, as it involved his secrets, which I left to his keeping—and the keeping of the other people who knew but kept their mouths shut.

I respected their staunch dedication to his privacy.

If Yuless wanted to tell me his secrets, he would. Until then, I’d keep the peace, accept I could live without knowing, and carry on with my life. In good news for me, I had ways of taking out my general frustrations, and it involved the removal of clothes, luring Yuless into my domain, and doing whatever I wanted with him.