Page 32 of Knight Life In Vegas

We’ve got your back

Thank goodness for that, because if fate was going to be an unruly bitch, I was going to need all the backup I could get.

“Who’s the most beautiful girl in the world?” I kissed Applesauce’s velvety muzzle. “It’s you!”

She lipped my face, trying to eat my hair.

“Girl, have some self-control.” I laughed and scratched along the underside of her long face. “Hair is not food.”

“She’s a brat because you spoil her,” Eduardo commented, walking in with his own horse, a gorgeous buckskin named Scout.

“Don’t even pretend that Scout’s an angel.” The gelding loved Eduardo but was as much a prissy prince as Applesauce was a princess.

We had nearly twenty other horses that we took care of along with a few more of the staff, but most of the performers had their own horse they were in charge of. It took a lot of time to make sure every single one of them was fully trained, exercised, well fed, and loved on, but I adored every second of it. I’d worked here since I was a teen as a stable hand, where I had met Chico when his grandpa was still in charge. Eduardo had joined us about a decade ago after retiring from a traveling show. Horses were basically my life, and I was damn lucky to have a pack that let me immerse in it as often as I did.

“Do you think Charlotte likes horses?” I asked Eduardo as he was hopping onto Scout.

“It doesn’t matter if she does. She very obviously doesn’t want to see us again.”

I pouted. Sure, disappearing in the middle of the night sent a pretty clear message, but how was I supposed to just give up on someone that sweet and beautiful? Okay, so I didn’t have her full name or literallyanyinformation about her, but I could still make it happen. I rolled over the idea in my head of her being a scent match, the one that Chico had met, but she’d purposely obscured her scent, so I couldn’t tell for certain. He’d kept that secret for all of a day before his symptoms got the better of him and he’d confessed that the omega who disappeared on him was a scent match. After comparing details, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that she was the same woman we’d slept with.

With a sigh, I climbed into Applesauce’s saddle and we took the two horses for an easy couple of laps to get them limbered up.

“Good girl, Saucy.” I led her in some tight loops so she could stretch out each side. “Up.”

She reared up perfectly, balancing on her back feet. The audience loved this move.

“Show off!” Eduardo yelled across the arena.

“Don’t be jealous just because you fall off Scout when he does this.”

Eduardo flipped me off and focused on leading Scout through some drills. We all knew the routine front and back, but it was good to do a refresher every now and then. Less than a dozen of the horses in our stables performed, the rest all in training to fill in as needed or as some of our older horses retired. Where possible, those retirees were sent to ranches further afield from the city and we paid for their care.

Some of the younger horses still spooked too easily to be allowed to joust, but we kept working with them. One day they would be grand tournament horses, but for now they were my thousand-pound babies.

Once I was finished with Applesauce, I got one of our newbies out for some desensitization training. I waved some palm fronds in front of Morty’s face, relieved when he didn’t try to snap them. They were a good substitute for the hands of small children who wanted to pat the horses at the end of a performance.

“Good boy, Morty.” I bopped him on the forehead with the fronds, holding him steady when he tried to back up. “You’re okay, sweet boy. See, no grievous injuries. Just leaves.”

Morty flattened his ears back and I brought the fronds back to my side.

“I know, I know. Okay, no more face.” I switched to moving them down his back and patting his butt. He looked annoyed, but he didn’t try to kick, which was fabulous progress.

Eduardo raced by on another of our horses to get some exercise since they wouldn’t be performing tonight. Morty danced in place.

“We’ll run soon,” I promised. After a few more minutes of harmless irritants to show him nothing bad was going to happen, I took him to get saddled up and let him canter in wide circles until he tired himself out.

By the time we finished, Chico had emerged from administrative hell to join us.

“He lives!” I laughed. “I was worried the paperwork was going to bury you.”

“I wish. At least that would put me out of my misery.” He reached out and gave Morty a pat on the flank, the feisty gelding blessedly accepting the affection.

Chico looked fuckingrough. The poor guy had been sleeping like shit, his body freaking out over finding a scent match and being immediately separated. I’d thought the effect was only this strong when freshly bonded mates weren’t together, but apparently his instincts were taking it hard that she’d slipped through his grasp.

“Any word on the investors?” It was a terrible distraction, but one that needed to be asked considering all our livelihoods were on the line.

“No. It sounds like they think it would be better for our company to just die out and let one of the franchises move in.”

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