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“I told him that you wouldn’t agree, that he should give up. He’s stubborn.”

“He’s more than that,” I whispered. Malicious. Manipulative. Evil.

I reached the front of the line, paid the entry fees, and received Phantom’s stall number for the night and the numbered paper armband for our class in the morning. I whirled away from the desk, striding long to avoid Keith, but he jogged alongside me.

“Can’t we just talk, Eva? We used to talk all the time.”

I turned around, stepping out of the wide doorway that was visible to the parking lot and Warren. I didn’t want to create a scene.

“Do you want to explain why your father’s associates came and threatened me and my client? Why they broke through the east gate and trespassed? They chased me and hit my car in the middle of the night.”

His jaw fell open. “I had no idea.”

“I know you’re not your father,” I said, my voice cracking. I wanted to believe such things were true. That I wouldn’t and couldn’t be held to the sins of my own parents. While I had been a child when my parents committed their crimes, Keith was now a grown man. He couldn’t be so oblivious. “If this doesn’t stop, there’s going to be blood on his hands.”

“He’d never hurt—”

“Really?” I moved in closer. “How many times has he hit you, Keith? You don’t think he’s capable of violence?”

Keith shook his head and turned away. He might have known my darkest secret, but I also knew his. I doubted that Victor still beat him like he had when Keith was a child, but I saw the depth of fear in Keith’s eyes.

“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “Things are tight around the farm, and he keeps talking about his legacy in life. He feels desperate.”

“I know the feeling.” I released a laugh and started to walk away. “I need to go unload Phantom.”

“Hey, Eva,” he called out.

I froze in the towering doorway of the arena and turned to look at him.

He smiled that boyish grin I’d known most of my life. “Good luck tomorrow. I’m glad you’ll be in the arena again.”

“Me too.” I smiled, my heart softening ever so slightly. “See you there.”

Warren

I sensed the shift in Eva’s mood right away, but she quickly set about unloading Phantom and getting him to his stall for the night. After she closed the stall door, she darted a look at Annie, who wandered the long row of stalls in the barn adjacent to the larger covered arena and looked at all the horses.

“Keith’s here,” she said. “I don’t think Victor is.”

“No doubt his men are watching you and waiting for their opportunity.”

“I know.” She looked at Phantom nervously.

“Mason will be here soon, and we can trust him to keep a sharp eye.” I knew so from our times on the front lines. Mason Phillips had arrived a few days ago and brought his Bible and cowboy church services out to the pasture. He was the one who’d guided my faith back during the war after a childhood of rebellion and an adulthood in a fog.

She rubbed her forehead. “I’m just so tired of looking around every corner.”

I sensed she meant more than just the past month of Victor’s threats.

I fought back the urge to take her in my arms and reassure her. I couldn’t cross that line, especially not while so many others wandered nearby.

Annie skipped up and smiled into the stall. “They look happy,” she said about Phantom and Patches.

And they did. Phantom’s head was low, relaxed, and his ears twitched from side to side. This was a far cry from the horse I’d brought to Birkstrom only a month ago.

“Well,” I said, “no matter what happens tomorrow, we should discuss that longer-term training contract. You’ve worked some magic.”

Eva’s eyes lit up. “Really?”