Page 31 of Taming Mika

“Come on, girl. Let’s go home,” I say encouragingly, keeping my eyes forward and my strides even as I guide her toward the ramp.

From the corner of my eye, I catch Hector and Javier coming up behind her. They cluck softly, trying to encourage her forward. But Fate doesn’t just come to a dramatic halt—she starts backing up, and rather than change her direction, she strikes out at them with her back feet.

“Fate!” I gasp, stunned by the aggressive display. I’ve never seen her kick at someone before.

She’s acting like she’s cornered, with no way to protect herself except to lash out.

“It’s fine, Javi,” I say, putting up a hand in warning to indicate they should step away. “Give her some space. Let her take a moment to get her head back on straight.”

He and Hector back up, leaving me alone with Fate.

She snorts, her neck arching and her nostrils flaring as her eyes roll with fear.

“You’re alright,” I murmur, running my hand along her neck.

She seems willing enough to stand where she is, but her headremains high, her ears trained on the trailer before her. I follow her laser focus back to the transport, baffled by her odd behavior. Icy dread settles in the pit of my stomach.

Something isn’t right.

17

ALFIE

Maybe I’m overreacting, but Nikolai’s threat affected me more viscerally than any danger I’ve faced personally. Risking my safety is one thing.But putting Mika in danger?I can’t stand the thought any more than I could with Nina. It causes me physical pain to think of what Nikolai might do to Mika if he got his hands on her, and he has the motivation to do so. I could see it in his eyes. He intends to hurt her—now that he’s found my weakness to exploit. He’ll hurt Mika to hurt me, which is why I know it’s time to leave.

What happened in the tack room between us was unplanned—and reckless. I shouldn’t have wasted precious time, but as soon as I had her alone, I couldn’t keep my hands off of her. Tension coils in my belly as I get the sinking suspicion that we might be paying for it now.

I might not know as much about horses as Mika, but I’m confident that the filly’s loading behavior isn’t a good sign, and I approach slowly from behind Mika’s left shoulder to check-in.

“What’s wrong?” I ask calmly, watching Mika calm Fate.

“She’s never hard to load like this,” the trainer says, worry creasing her golden brows. “I don’t know. I just have this feeling…”

A dark sense of foreboding knots my stomach as I follow her eyes toward the trailer. Icy fear floods my veins. “Unload the trailer,” I command, raising my voice so the hands can hear me. “Get the horses off. Now!”

Mika jolts, her body tensing as her eyes flash in my direction, then widen with horror. She urgently hauls Fate back toward the filly’s stall as the hands rush up the ramp to follow my command. It’s a flurry of motion as the nervous beasts nearly trot back out onto the pavement one at a time, their hooves clattering against the hard ground. They look like they’re on the brink of being unmanageable now, prancing and wheeling as the men lead them back toward the track stalls.

Mika returns in time to bring the gray filly out last, and the horse’s sharp whinny splits the air as she steps onto solid ground. The anxious call raises the hair on the back of my neck, and relief quickly follows when I see the trailer is empty. Maybe my instincts were off, but I would rather be cautious than regret doing nothing. I just have a gnawing sense that the horses know something we don’t. The hands go for the trailer’s tack room next—likely to unload it—but I don’t want anyone near it now that the animals are safe.

“Leave it,” I warn, my unease growing. I have a sneaking suspicion that something’s coming. I just don’t know what—yet.

Mika stops beside me, her face drawn with tension, and the gray filly dances at her shoulder. “Do you think?—”

An ear-splitting explosion cuts Mika’s words short. Screaming in terror, the gray filly leaves the ground with all four feet. My heart stops momentarily as I picture the filly landing on top of Mika. I reach for her, but Mika pivots instinctually, stepping out of the filly’s way. She simultaneously guides the horse back toward the ground. When the filly’s hooves find the pavement, she is facing the opposite direction she was before, her head and tail raised like peace banners. Her eyes roll in their sockets, the whites showing in a thick rim of fear.

“Easy, Missy. Easy!” Mika calls, somehow managing to hold onto the filly’s lead rope through it all.

The filly snorts, her half-ton mass of muscle and bone shaking like a leaf. It sends a jolt of anxiety through me to see such a massive creature in a state of panic, but not Mika. She stays calm, her voice soothing as she holds the filly’s halter with one hand and runs a reassuring hand over her neck.

Our eyes turn simultaneously toward the source of the fiery burst, and sickening horror twists my gut as flames start to lick out of the truck’s shattered windows, climbing toward the roof of the cab. Something must have detonated right where Mika would have been sitting if I’d let them finish loading the trailer. This was no accident.

Someone planted a bomb with the intention of killing her.

“Get the extinguisher!” one of the hands calls as they scramble to put out the fire before it spreads to the trailer itself.

Beside me, Mika finally has her filly under control, and she gapes at the truck she drove here just this morning—the trailer we just brought in from the parking lot. She slowly turns her head to look at me as she wraps her mind around what just happened. Whatcouldhave happened. “What…?” she breathes, her eyes round with shock. Then she turns deathly pale beneath her tan as her gaze tracks back toward the truck.

Worried she might pass out, I step close to her, looping my arm protectively around her waist. She shivers violently as she leans against me, but her hand never stops stroking Missy’s neck, soothing the horse almost subconsciously—or maybe she’s trying to soothe herself.

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