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“Tell me what?” Her heart was racing in double time.
“Senor Formosa didn’t want to worry you.” Massive fail, Rose thought. “There’s a situation in Ireland that requires the Blood and Thunder team’s immediate attention.”
“In Ireland? Here? The team’s coming here?”
“They’re about an hour behind us.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” Rose pressed.
“I’m not sure myself,” the cabin attendant admitted, “but I do know Senor Formosa has a contact in the Irish police who’s been informed of your arrival, so you should be safe.”
Should be? Was that his terminology, or Dante’s?
Don’t shoot the messenger. It was clear he knew nothing more. She had back-up from the Garda, the Irish police, and the sooner she could get on the road, the better, Rose determined as she got up from her seat.
She was shocked to discover a handgun in the glove compartment of the horse transporter. No kidding the Blood and Thunder team was on its way! But what the hell was going on? The gun laws in Ireland were extremely tight. The cabin attendant had mentioned Dante’s friend in high places, and she could handle a gun. She had fired a double barreled shotgun on the farm many times, and this was a lightweight weapon, she reflected as she weighed it in her hand.
And whatever was waiting for her at home, she could handle that too, Rose determined, as she turned her attention to starting up the engine of the horse transporter. Quickly familiarizing herself with the controls, she released the brake and set off.
~~o0o~~
Where is everyone?
Chills ran up and down Rose’s spine as she approached her father’s isolated farmhouse. Nothing felt right. There was no one working in the fields, no horses, and no sign of the Garda. After turning off the narrow lane, she parked the transporter in the yard. She jumped down from the cab, then ran up the path. Her sense of unease heightened as she approached the front door. The farmhouse had a deserted air too. It was a relief to find the spare key in its usual place beneath the mat.
Opening the door cautiously, she called out. The house echoed, mocking her with its silence. She pulled out her phone. Flat! Why hadn’t she thought to charge it on the flight? She turned full circle, looking for clues in the house, but there were none. There wasn’t even a hastily scribbled note, and the keys to all the ancient farm vehicles were still hanging on their hooks behind the door.
Rushing out again, she searched the stables and then the tack room. Where were the animals? As she ran across the yard, she scanned the fields. She could only see the old donkey she’d rescued years ago. Was she too late? Where was Stargazer? Where were all the other horses? Where was her father?
She raced back to the kitchen and snatched up the keys to the transporter. After she climbed in, she fumbled the starting mechanism in her hurry to get underway.
Thundering her fists on the wheel, she squeezed back tears of fear and desperation at the thought that there was no one to help her and she was on her own.
Ten seconds of self-pity was more than enough. Sucking in a deep, steadying breath, she started the engine, but now she had another problem. Where was she heading?
Town. The slaughterhouse! Rose concluded, grimacing. Worst-case scenario, the horses were there, and if the horses were there, her pa was too.
Slamming the vehicle into Drive, she hammered her foot on the accelerator and bounced out of the yard.
~~o0o~~
Dante’s face was grim as he lifted his gun and indicated that his men should cover him. The Blood and Thunder team had been called on to assist the Irish government in rounding up a vicious gang of horse thieves. Likely the same one that had been striking farms around Europe, the gang was holed up in a remote farm deep in the Irish countryside and had proved more than a match for the Garda. If he’d had even an inkling of this before Rose set off, he wouldn’t have allowed her to leave Isla Celeste.
The ability to compartmentalize his life had always been a vital survival tactic in the past, but it was strained to the limit today, Dante accepted as he attached a detonator to a door. Rose was at the forefront of his mind—and Rose was a capable woman, he reassured himself as he took cover behind a wall to wait for the blast.
His jet, carrying all the equipment and support vehicles his team would need, had landed not long after Rose. He’d tried to call her to warn that the man threatening her father was a savage killer and that she mustn’t get involved. Time was short, and he’d failed to raise her on the phone. His call to her pilot had been necessarily brief. The lack of contact between him and Rose was hugely unsatisfactory. There were too many similarities between the gang of thugs threatening her father and the killer from Dante’s past for him to rest easy.
When his charge exploded, confusion reigned inside the house. Random gunfire burst from several windows. His surprise tactic had worked. No one knew what they were shooting at. Grim pleasure consumed him as he vaulted the wall. This was what he lived for. His stepmother’s lover had been a merciless thug who had taken everything from Dante, including his capacity to feel anything but the basest of human instincts. When hatred took hold of a heart, there was no place for anything else.
Except Rose, who seemed to have taken up permanent residence in his thoughts. The only shred of comfort he could cling to where Rose was concerned was that she was under the protection of the Garda.
He and the team moved systematically from one outbuilding to the next. The cleanup took longer than expected. Instructing his team to wait for the Irish police, he mounted the Harley that had come with him in the jet, and roared off in search of Rose.
Chapter Six
“Daddy!” Braking hard, Rose put the vehicle in Park and catapulted out of the cab. She’d always tried to avoid coming to this part of town. Shop fronts were boarded up, and the only viable business seemed to be the darkly depressing slaughterhouse, which was quite literally the end of the road. Seeing her father slumped on the pavement crying his heart out was a terrible sight.
“What is it, Pa?” Hunkering down at his side, she put her arms around him and hugged him tight. “Am I too late? The horses?” She glanced toward the sinister gates.
