“Ten days.”
“How’s Selah?”
“Making a lot of money. As if he doesn’t have enough.” Waqas laughed. “He has three children now. The last two were twins. Girls. He was disappointed. Three girls.”
“His third wife, yes?”
“Yes, and you not even with one.”
“I had a wife and she died.”
“Find another. There are many who’d like to marry you.”
“Maybe I’ll meet the right person one day.”
“Hmm.”
“I need to shower,” Jasim said. “Do you want to go for a swim? We can play water polo with the boys.”
“All right.”
“You can change in my room.”And have a look around, you’ll find nothing.
Ru gritted his teeth against the pain in his ribs as he looked after Joni. His shirt was damp where he’d been bleeding, but it would only be a graze. The mallet hadn’t hit him hard enough to break a rib. His face was stinging too from the strike with the crop. The boy was a little shit. Just because Ru had beaten him to the ball. Ru was more upset about Joni than himself. He looked in the medicine chest for something to put at the edge of her mouth, found a product that had the right ingredients, even considered using it on himself but decided not to. He used cotton wool to smear it onto the sore part on Joni’s mouth and hugged her neck.
“He won’t ride you again.”
Ru spent longer than he normally would have looking after her, carefully combing out her mane and tail. She wasn’t showing signs of discomfort but having the side of your mouth ripped at so viciously had to hurt. Her gum was red and swollen.
But he couldn’t stay with her forever. He had Rodrigo’s horses to take care of as well. Most of the others had finished their work and gone while he was still dealing with the last pony. When he heard someone coming, he flinched.Please don’t be Mike.
Paolo looked over the door of the stall. “Not finished?”
“Almost, boss.” Ru reached to take the head collar off Spark and bit his lip against the pain.
“You need to change your shirt. You’re wet.”
“Yes. I will.”
“Do you have any more jobs to do?”
“Collecting the poop out of the stick and ball field.”
“Are you in pain?”
Ru shrugged and wished he hadn’t as agony flared in his chest. As he came out of the stall and replaced the grooming items in Spark’s box, Paolo frowned. “Is that where he hit your face?”
“Just a scratch.”
Paolo touched Ru’s polo shirt and looked at his finger.
“Christ, Ru. Blood? Lift up your shirt.”
Ru gingerly pulled it up and groaned when he saw the dark-red mark on his ribs. He was no longer bleeding but the graze was extensive.
“That little shit,” Paolo hissed. “It was deliberate. Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“I’m okay. Don’t say anything, please. I don’t want to make things difficult.”
