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Just then two men in security uniforms showed up. Derek gave a small nod and they grabbed Richard, forcing him to let her arm go.
Erika immediately ran from behind the counter and put an arm around her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Actually, I’m better than I’ve been in a while.” She resisted the urge to rub her arm as she turned to face Richard.
“Richard, you are a lying, scheming cheater,” she nearly spit out. “I’m having my books looked into because if you cheated on me with that woman, I wouldn’t put it past you to steal money from me, either. You used me! In so many ways. But that’s over with. We’re over with. Oh, and you can forget your fifteen percent, too, Richard! You get nothing from me anymore. Nothing now and nothing ever again!”
“Why, you little whore!” Richard yelled.
The security team, Derek and Moses all grabbed Richard as he tried to lunge at her, and she turned and ran out the door, her heart beating wildly. He was scary when he was mad! She knew Derek and his team would take care of things, get him off the property, but the moment he’d called her that terrible name, the tears that she’d kept under control had tried to come bursting from her throat and she had to go.
She ran toward the stable, hoping to find Starling, jump on her back and take off into the hills to clear her head. As she neared the paddock she saw Starling there, wearing a halter. Kyra ran into the barn, quickly found the tack room, and even as tears clouded her vision she grabbed a lead line and took it out to the paddock, where Starling trotted right up to her with a small whinny.
Kyra wrapped her arms around Starling’s head, hugging her close, the tears beginning to fall.
“Take me for a ride, okay, girl? I need to get out of here.”
Starling gave a soft snort and let Kyra clip the lead to her halter. She led her back toward the barn, but she knew she couldn’t saddle the horse herself. Instead, she led her to some stacked hay bales, got up on the hay and leapt onto Starling’s back. She’d ridden bareback a few times, but she held on to the lead with one hand, using it as a rein while her other hand was fisted in Starling’s mane, and she used her legs to hang on to the horse’s body.
Kyra clicked to her, and Starling clopped down the center aisle of the barn and outside. She gave Starling a kick in the sides, and the horse moved into a trot, then a gentle canter as Kyra aimed her toward the tree-studded hills. Starling found a trail and Kyra let her have her head as she really started to cry.
How could Richard have been so awful to her? He’d gotten a lot of money out of her career, never mind that she’d given herself to him, when he hadn’t deserved it. How had he convinced her he was the best thing for her? How had she not seen it sooner? From the very beginning?
Oh, he was a heck of a manipulator, and she was so mad and disappointed in her own lack of judgment! She gave Starling another sharp kick, and the horse moved into a fast gallop.
Too fast.
She had to slow down. She wasn’t sure she could hang on given the rough trail, and she was crying so hard she could barely see as they dashed uphill between trees with branches that scratched her bare legs. She grabbed the horse’s mane, gripping as tight as she could while she pulled on the single rein, trying not to scream.
“Starling, please slow down. Please!”
Just then the horse reared up. Somehow Kyra hung on to her, her heart beating like mad. And that’s when she saw the yellowjacket nest lying on the ground. It must have fallen from one of the trees. Starling kicked the nest as she ran over it, and when the yellowjackets swarmed around them, Kyra couldn’t hold back the scream.
“Oh no! Help!”
Starling was bucking and kicking, trying to outrun the stinging insects while Kyra clung to her back, yelling when one of them stung her on the leg.
“Ouch!”
Starling whinnied in fear, rose up on her back legs and Kyra felt herself slipping.
And somehow, strong arms wrapped her up and pulled her from the horse.
She knew before she saw him that it was Brock.
“Brock!”
“Hang on, babygirl. I’ve got you,” he told her as he transferred her from Starling’s back and onto Jett’s. He grabbed Starling’s lead and quickly got them down the trail, away from the swarming yellowjackets.
He stopped under a tree in a clearing near the bottom of the hill, dismounted and pulled Kyra down where he cradled her in his arms.
“Hell, Ky. Are you okay?” he asked, running his hands over her head, her shoulders, her arms, then her legs. “You’ve got some scratches and only one sting that I can find, but I think you’re in one piece otherwise. Do you feel okay?”
“I do now,” she said, meaning it, despite the stinging cuts and scrapes on her legs and the yellowjacket sting. She meant it because she knew he really did have her. He always had, and that sense of safety meant everything to her right now.
“Good. Now that I know you’re all right, I’ve gotta tell you, Kyra Marie, if you ever run off like that again I am gonna tan your hide so hard you won’t be able to sit down for a week.”
She looked up at him, into his brown eyes, and saw the fear and worry there.
