Page 56 of Deadly Revenge

“So you’ve been riding most of your life?”

“Yep.” Thank goodness they were back on a comfortable plane. “You know girls and their horses.”

The sign for Bryan Bishop’s Red Oak Stables came into view. “We’re here. Pull through that gate and park anywhere.”

He did as she said and parked near the red barn. “Do you see your horse?”

Jenna anxiously scanned the fenced paddocks for Ace. “Over there.” She pointed to the middle paddock. “See the boy with a bucket in hand?”

“The one the horse is ignoring?”

“Ace doesn’t want to go in his stall. He needs to work some of his energy off.”

“You’re not going to—”

She shot him a warning glare.

“Never mind.”

“Thank you,” she said and removed her service gun. “Since there are usually kids around, I don’t normally wear my gun when I’m at the barn.”

He nodded and removed his and locked them both in the gun safe under his seat while Jenna climbed out of the truck.

“Nice place,” Max said as he joined her. “I grew up on a farm like this.”

She shot him a skeptical look. “You don’t seem the farm boy type.”

It was strange she didn’t know that about him, but then most of their conversations had been work related.

“Well, I am. Wouldn’t mind having a spread like this someday.”

Jenna glanced around the property. Eagle Ridge rose up to the west, a beautiful backdrop for the two-story house, barns, and workout arenas. On the other side of the barn, horses grazed in two lush pasturelands carved out of the dense woods bordering the property.

“It’s a nice place.” She pointed to the main barn. “Ace’s stall is there. I’ll grab his halter.”

Max inhaled a deep breath through his nose as they walked to the main barn.

“I never get tired of smelling the scent of hay.” Then he laughed. “Unless it was halfway through a hot August day out in the fields when I was throwing those square bales on the trailer behind the hay baler.”

She groaned. “I know what you mean.”

Her uncle had conscripted her to work in the hay fields every summer, and it was hot, itchy work.

He followed her inside out of the sun.

“I’ll be right back.”

She hurried to Ace’s stall and grabbed his halter. “Be right back.”

“You want me to help?”

She dropped her gaze to the ground. “You’ll mess up your shoes.”

Kirk turned when she entered the paddock. “Miss Jenna, I’m sorry. He got out when I put hay in his stall. When I tried to catch him, he ran in here.”

“It’s okay.”

Ace nickered when he heard her voice. She took the grain bucket from Kirk and rattled it. The horse tossed his head and trotted in the opposite direction.

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