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Liam nodded. “I left him with Caleb.” He’d taken him straight to our resident equine vet. I wanted Caleb to do a thorough checkup to make sure he hadn’t gotten injured in any way.
I caught Liam’s gaze, and he nodded. He’d gotten to his horse in time. I let out a deep breath and marched into the stall. I wanted to find out what had happened, and the best way to do that was to see the starting point. Hopefully, there would be clues to tell us what had gone wrong.
I’d just stepped into the stall when I froze. There was a blackened patch of hay where the fire was and written above it on the wall in a jagged, angry scrawl were the words:
She’s mine. I want her back.
Gavin peered around me and muttered under his breath. I stepped farther into the stall, letting more people in.
“Who isshe?” Matt asked.
“A horse? A rider? There are a lot of possibilities.” Declan came around the outside of the stall with a few others.
“Do we think the fire could have been an accident?” Kyle, the most optimistic of the group, asked.
“No. I think this was done intentionally. Look at this.” Gavin bent over and picked up a half-burned pack of cigarettes.
“No one here smokes.” Matt’s forehead creased.
“How did that get in here? And how did no one smell it?” Thomas growled through clenched teeth. “It’s the late afternoon, people. How did we not see this?”
“Someone must have snuck in, lit the cigarettes, and set it aside. It was like a ticking time-bomb. It doesn’t take long for hot ashes to light hay on fire.” I rubbed the back of my neck. While it wasn’t difficult to set a fire this way, we needed to know if it was deliberate or an accident.
Hunter jogged to us as I finished talking. “I think it was deliberate. I was walking the perimeter and found the hose cut straight through. Someone made sure it would be harder for us to put out the fire.” Hunter came around to stand next to Declan.
Declan slammed a fist on the edge of a stall. “Who would fucking do this?”
“Duke, can you grab the video surveillance for this area and let us know if you find something?” Thomas asked before turning to Hunter. “How are all the horses?”
“Caleb just finished an initial once over. Everyone looks okay for now, except for a cut on Atlas’ leg, but he doesn’t think Atlas will need stitches.” The tension in the stall seemed to dissipate slightly.
“It was a good thing half the horses are turned out right now. It could have been worse,” Kyle said, a relieved look on his face.
“Let’s get this place aired out. Any fans lying around, bring them in here. Duke, do what you need to do with Zeus’ stall so we can get it cleaned and freshened up for him,” Thomas ordered.
“Do you want us to keep this from the girls?” Gavin rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yes. Especially because of the note. I don’t want to worry any of them.” Thomas pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I have a theory.” Hunter stepped forward. “Do you think it could be about Grace?”
“Grace?” Gavin’s fists clenched and unclenched at his side. The mention of his sister-in-law being in trouble had him tensing.
“Just think about it. Her old trainer was a jerk. He left Grace only to have her sign on with us. She immediately soared to the top and won Olympic gold. She said he had a temper. Maybe this is a twisted way of scaring her into coming back and training with him. He seems like a glory hog and would do just about anything to see his name in the spotlight.”
Liam nodded at Hunter’s logic, while Gavin ran a hand down his face. It made sense.
“Why start a fire?” I paced the small space, trying to wrap my head around the situation.
“It was in Liam’s stall. You think he wanted to take out her competition? Liam did go with her and won medals too,” Matt pipped in.
“Those are good theories,” I said. “I’ll gather what I can and bring it in. I’ll see how quickly I can get people out here?—”
“No. I don’t want anyone out here. I need you to figure out what you can without anything getting out, Duke. I can’t have the ranch under investigation or have a bunch of people disturbing our day to day. We just landed a new sponsor and news of this could have them pulling out.” Thomas’ hand sliced through the air.
Declan stepped up next to his brother. “I agree. Do what you can, Duke. I’ll have Mikel look into Grace’s old trainer and see if we can get his whereabouts over the last few weeks. Let us know when you’ve combed through the camera footage from this week and see if you catch anything suspicious. Come straight to us if you do.”
I nodded. It went against all my training not to report this, but Thomas and Declan were my bosses, and I followed their orders. I didn’t want this getting out either, but I knew it would turn serious if we didn’t do something fast. Two weeks ago, Declan lost two of his breeders, and today we could have lost competing horses. Now we knew someone was after one of the girls. Hunter had a reasonable explanation for it being Grace, but my gut said we were missing something.
