AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He held up the page where he’d written the figures. “So?”
“One hundred million is how much money is bet on the Kentucky Derby. Two hundred million is how much is bet on the Breeders Cup.”
“And I wrote them down why?”
Remi shook her head and turned to the Winner’s Circle. Her mother and father stood next to Shenanigans while the assembled press frantically took pictures.
“You wrote them down because I want you to see how much money there is in horse-racing.”
“Fine. I’ll buy a goddamn pony.”
“You shouldn’t buy a goldfish, Merrick. That’s not my point,” Remi said.
“What’s your point then?”
She exhaled hard and shook her head. She’d been dreading this question because she’d been dreading the answer to it. Still, Merrick was the one person in her life she trusted right now, so she might as well tell him.
“My parents bought a new farm a couple months ago,” she said. “Satellite farm—five hundred acres.”
“So?”
“They paid cash for it. Ten million dollars. We shouldn’t have ten million dollars in cash lying around.”
“And?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But we shouldn’t have that much money lying around. Capital Hills seems to have had a windfall too. The auctions were this week—they dropped ten million the first three days.”
“Damn.”
“That’s kind of a coincidence, isn’t it? They suddenly have ten million dollars? We suddenly have ten million dollars?”
“A slightly suspicious coincidence,” Merrick said, narrowing his eyes at her parents.
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Rivalries always make for money and headlines. But Merrick, I don’t know. Something doesn’t smell right about this. And trust me, my family and the Capital Hills family aren’t in anything together. They hate each other.”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“But still, I think someone at Arden and someone at Capital Hill might be stoking this rivalry in the press for a reason.”
“What reason?” Merrick asked. “Money?”
“Is there any other reason?” Remi asked, feeling sick to her stomach even saying that much. “Tyson Balt was at our house last night.”
“He owns Verona Downs, right? VD for short? He really should have rethought that name. What about him?”
“Balt’s been promoting the hell out of the Verona Stakes race. Shenanigans and Hijinks are the two favorites already.”
“You think your family is getting the money from Balt?”
“Something’s not right,” was all she would say.
Merrick pursed his lips and whistled.
“I don’t have the evidence yet. It’s only a hunch,” Remi said.
“You really want to dig this hole? You might end up falling into it, Boss.”
