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“Above board?” I was confused. I had only ever known the Killarny Estate horses to be absolutely clean thoroughbreds. I couldn’t imagine the family being involved in something unsavory. “What are they doing? Are they colluding with someone? Fixing a race?” It was the only thing I could think of, but it seemed very far off base. Anything else though…would be nearly criminal to consider.

“I think they are doping their horses.” He said the words matter of factly and waited for me to respond.

“You’re kidding, right? Jesus, Dad, you’ve known Sean Killarny forever. The last thing they would do is dope their horses.”

“People do it all the time. You know that. When the testing isn’t as rigorous, it’s especially bad! And I’ve been noticing a few things over the years that have left me very suspicious of them. I also think that they’ve been using this relationship for a long time now and think that they can get away with it. Well, I’ve got news for Sean Killarny—it’s done. I don’t mess with dopers, and I won’t have them giving my derby a bad name. Imagine if the word got out that this was going on. People would bring this relationship up in the discussion for sure and then you would have folks looking at our derby. Think about all the sponsorship we could lose, not to mention our license.” He took a deep breath. “No, I cannot allow it to continue. They can’t keep coming here if they are going to operate that way.”

My mind was whirling, trying to put all the pieces together. I couldn’t believe that my father really thought the Killarnys were drugging their horses, but he was right—some people did, and if we were accused of having any connection to them it could look very bad for us.

“Evidence…I’m going to need to see something. I can’t just call them up and tell them without—”

“Sara.” He cut me off and held up his hand to silence me. “Trust me. I know what is going on over there. We can have no connection to it. I can make the call if you would rather not take care of this yourself, but since you are in charge of day to day operations, I thought it would be best if you took care of this yourself. If you can’t though…” he reached for his phone.

I shook my head. “No, I’ll take care of it. But I don’t think this is something I can do over the phone. I mean…Dad, they already paid the registration fee. We’re going to have to give that back to them if you don’t want any trouble out of this. They could sue you.”

He laughed. “There’s no way they are suing me. I know what they are up to and they sure as hell know what’s going on underneath the roof of their stables. Neither Sean nor his boys have the balls to take me to court because they know they are the ones who will end up in hot water if they do that.” My father opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a checkbook. He picked up his pen and began making out the check, complete with the required number of zeroes. He signed his name and thrust the check at me. “Here, take it. Put it in the mail.”

I sighed. “Unfortunately, I think this is the sort of thing that has to be done in person. You know, we want to finesse this and treat it as sensitively as possible. They were our friends for a long time, and no matter what they are up to now, it would be inappropriate to put an end to a decade long relationship over the phone. I’ll take tomorrow off and drive up there to deliver this myself. Then maybe there won’t be much animosity.”

I got up and headed back to my office, trying to think how I could possibly smooth this over with the Killarnys. If my father was right then, we did need to end the relationship, b

ut I definitely didn’t want to call them out on doping their horses without any evidence. No, I was going to have to cancel their registration and chalk it up as some kind of a mistake on our end. I would deal with it next year when it rolled around. Maybe their registration could get lost in the mail or something, but I would deal with that when it happened. Right now I needed to focus on how I was going to get them to believe whatever I said. And I needed to do it in a way that didn’t look completely suspicious.

Picking up my phone I looked up the number for Killarny Estate and dialed. A woman picked up, and I gave her my name.

“Mr. Killarny isn’t in right now. Could I take a message?”

Of course, a message. But what on earth would Sean Killarny believe?

“Could you tell him it’s Sara Waters and I’m just checking on some derby business? I’ll be by tomorrow afternoon if that’s okay. I wanted a chance to speak to him in person.”

“Okay then…it looks like he’s got an open afternoon. If you ring the bell at the main house when you get here, then we’ll find him for you. See you tomorrow, Miss Waters.”

I left the next morning and made the three hour drive to the Killarny Estate. It was nestled in an area with rolling green hills and was the most picturesque kind of horse ranch you could imagine. I knew I was getting close when I saw the pristine white fencing, but I was still several miles from the main entrance to the ranch. As soon as I pulled up to the stone arch, memories came flooding back of the time I spent here when I was a child. On occasion when my father purchased a horse from the Killarnys or had some derby business with them we would come up for a day visit, and I spent most of the time tormenting Pete Killarny, the oldest of the brothers who was the closest to my age. And to my ten year old eyes, he was the cutest. Back then he had sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and a few freckles dappled across his nose. I wasn’t quite as cute at the time. A little on the chubby side, my hair was frizzy, and I was just about to get braces. Soon after the glasses followed and it didn’t surprise me that when I had made Pete Killarny my first kiss he had been very reluctant.

I cringed at that particular memory and hoped that I wouldn’t run into him here. Of course, it had been years since that had happened and we had seen each other several times since then, but it didn’t change the fact that it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life. Pete had looked at me incredulously and somewhat shocked, then turned around and left the old barn where the kiss had occurred. It was while they had been visiting Tennessee for our derby and now that I thought about it, it must have been exactly twenty years prior. So much time had passed. I eventually grew up and out of my braces, glasses, and baby fat, and Pete had grown into a very attractive young man. The last time I saw him, he was dating a new girl, and I remember how she had clung to him like a leech from a pond on a hot summer day.

It surprised me to remember how jealous I had been at that moment. The girl was unknown to me, but I hated seeing Pete with another girl, no matter how ga-ga they appeared to be over each other. She had been drop dead gorgeous, and there was no way I could hold a candle to her black hair and blue eyes. She had been thin as a rail and just looked the part of a girl who would end up marrying the heir to a massive horse ranch.

“God, maybe I’ll run into her again, too,” I said as I pulled into the circle drive in front of the main house. It was a gorgeous white colonial with massive pillars and a lamp that hung down in front of the front door. The place was positively palatial, and I was sure there had to have been many renovations since the last time I had stepped foot in the house.

I hopped out of my SUV and made my way to the front door where I rang the bell that let out the longest chime in the history of doorbells, and I waited for someone to answer. A middle-aged woman came to the door with a smile on her face.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

I smiled back at her. “I’m here for a meeting with Mr. Killarny. I called and spoke with his secretary yesterday.”

She nodded. “Come right in. I’ll show you to his office.”

The woman led me from the main foyer with it’s wide staircase that was appropriate for a royal presentation, down a hallway that led to an even smaller hallway. She opened the first door and ushered me inside.

“I’ll see that Pete knows you’re here,” she said as she closed the door behind her and before I could say anything she was gone.

I looked around in surprise. The nameplate on the desk said it plain as day. Pete Killarny. Where was Sean? Maybe the man didn’t have time for me, and he was letting one of his sons take care of the business today. Thoughts ran through my mind, and I tried to calm myself down. It wasn’t a big deal that I had to deal with Pete. He was probably just as knowledgeable about the ranch business as his father was. After all, what was I doing here? Taking care of things for my father.

And it wasn’t as if Pete and I had a history beyond me kissing him once when I was a child. There was some kind of electric tension in the air though at the thought of seeing him again. It was a little like when I had gone back to my ten year high school reunion. Of course, that had been a bust because of social media and the fact that I still lived in the same town where I had graduated from, but this meeting held the same kind of nervousness for me.

I wondered what he looked like and I glanced around the office to see if there was any sign of a photo. The walls were covered with bookshelves which were filled with hardback, leather-bound volumes. It looked like mostly classics or the sort of thing you could get an interior decorator to put together for you. I wasn’t sure if Pete was much of a reader, but he had never struck me as one. When we were young, he had been the jock, the kind of guy other guys wanted to be, and all the girls wanted to be with. He was less obvious about it than some guys were though and really seemed to have a sweet and genuine side if you could get past the hard exterior.

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