Page 61

He heard nothing. Not the murmur of voices or the rattling of pots and pans from the kitchen. Nothing to indicate anyone was inside, except for the lights shining through a couple of windows. Still, he’d expected more. With a place this big, he assumed there must be a cook somewhere inside, making breakfast.

Along with who knew how many other staff members were employed there. A place this size was far outside his realm of experience.

Swallowing a wave of apprehension, he carefully opened the screen door. Bracing his hip against it, he reached with his left hand to open the main door.

He wasn’t surprised to find it wasn’t locked. Fiona had gotten inside without using a key. He figured her father assumed that having security cameras at the gate would be more than enough of a deterrent to keep people out.

He’d be wrong.

Doc paused again to listen, half expecting a butler or some other staff member to notice his uninvited arrival. Hearing nothing, he silently opened the door and stepped across the threshold, gently closing the screen door behind him. He left the main door hanging ajar to avoid making noise and took a moment to look around.

The foyer was large. A shiny terrazzo covered the floor, and a huge chandelier hung over his head. To his left, a wide sweeping staircase led to a second floor where he assumed most of the bedrooms were located. Listening intently, he still didn’t hear any sounds, including the murmur of voices.

Had her father invested in building sound barriers within the walls?

On the same left side as the staircase, he noticed an arched doorway leading into what appeared to be a spacious living room. Plenty of too-fancy-for-his-taste furniture faced a fireplace. There was also a huge wide-screen television hanging above the fireplace as if added well after the house had been built. From his position a few steps inside the foyer, he could see the living room was empty.

To his right was a closed door. Straight ahead across the wide foyer was another set of double doors, which were also closed.

He didn’t think the double doors would lead to the kitchen, but then again, he’d never been inside a house like this. For all he knew, there was a kitchen and full dining room beyond them.

Glancing again toward the second-floor balcony, he tried to imagine where Fiona had gone. Upstairs or down? The lack of voices seemed to indicate they were upstairs, but he didn’t want to make the wrong choice.

Better to treat this like a military op. He’d clear the first floor, before heading up to the bedrooms. At least then he’d know if there were any hostiles down here that might sneak up behind him, catching him off guard.

The door to his right was closest. Moving swiftly toward it, he paused at the closed door to press his ear against the crack between the door and the frame. He still couldn’t hear any voices, but he could make out the sound of something sizzling and thought he smelled bacon. Keeping his weapon in his right hand, he opened the door a crack, just wide enough to peer through.

The space beyond was indeed the kitchen, and he froze when his gaze landed on an older woman wearing a dress covered with an apron, her feet encased in sturdy shoes—something his grandmother might have worn—as she stood at the sink with her back to him. She had gray hair pulled back in a bun. She was washing dishes, even while strips of bacon sizzled in a skillet beside her. She didn’t seem to hear him, but she wasn’t alarmed either. She acted as if she had no idea that Fiona had come through earlier.

Then he realized she was wearing wireless earbud headphones. No wonder she was clueless as to what was going down.

Shaking his head, he eased back and closed the door. He didn’t think Fiona was inside the kitchen, or the two women would be talking.

Just as he started crossing the foyer he heard a shrill scream partially muffled by the wide double doors.

Fiona!

15

Upon reaching the house, Fiona had gone straight to her father’s study, fully expecting to find him there since the lights were on upstairs, and it was the place her father typically enjoyed his first cup of coffee. The room was empty, but when she was about to head up stairs to his bedroom, she spied a document on the desk. With a frown, she moved closer, surprised to see it was a contract.

As Teddy had mentioned, it was a breeding contract between Fiona’s Folly and a mare known as Cupid’s Bow that had been signed by both her father and John Gable, the owner of a large horse farm in southwest Tennessee. It wasn’t the terms of the contract itself that gave her pause, but the signature along the bottom.

The handwriting did not look like her father’s. Frowning, she leaned over the desk for a closer look. Maybe she was wrong. Her father could have signed the document in a hurry. And the fact that the contract was sitting right out in the open made her think her father must have been on board with the transaction. If for some reason Seamus had done this without her father’s knowledge, he wouldn’t be so foolish as to leave the contract on top of the desk where anyone could see it.

She was about to turn away, then stopped. The day this nightmare had started she’d overheard Seamus and Patrick conspiring to eliminate Savior’s Journey from the Keeneland Fall race. And that was exactly what had happened. Even though Milestone Mario had almost knocked Fiona’s Folly out of the winner’s circle, the way Savior’s Journey had been scratched, had increased the odds of Fiona’s Folly to win.

Maybe that was only the first step in their nefarious plot to make money. Glancing at the closed double doors, she quickly bent and rummaged through the desk drawers.

After several minutes of searching, she found another document from six months ago that contained her father’s signature. Setting one signed form next to the other confirmed her suspicions.

Her father hadn’t signed this contract. Even if he had signed it in a hurry, there were some differences. It was close, but not a match. A sick realization dawned. It was her uncle Seamus who had made the arrangement to breed Fiona’s Folly.

Heart pounding in her chest, she snatched up both documents, folding and tucking them into the back pocket of her jeans. The first thing she needed to do was to show the evidence to her father. Then they’d call the police.

The side door of the study, the one connecting to the kitchen, opened and her father stepped into the room. Seeing her, he stopped abruptly. The man looked like her father. It wasn’t always easy to tell the twins apart, especially when Seamus insisted on wearing similar clothing as her father. There had been a day not too long ago where Seamus had worn the exact same shirt as her father. Almost as if he’d purposefully wanted to look like Liam.

“Fiona, welcome back! It’s good to see you.” Oddly, the enthusiasm in his tone made her wary. Especially when he didn’t cross the room to hug her. Then she was struck by the fact that he wasn’t carrying his usual cup of coffee. The hour was still early, and normally her father downed several cups of his favorite blend.