Page 47 of Nothing Breaks Like A Heart

He took my phone and sat down in the chair next to the couch, while I stretched out once more. It was easier to lie on my side than to sit upright.

He watched the video several times in silence.

"Well, what do you think?" I asked impatiently. "Do you see something heading toward my horse right before she bolts?"

He nodded as his gaze moved from the phone to me. "I do. It looks like a rock. The only people visible in this video who would have been able to throw that rock are your husband, his best man, your bridesmaid, and your boss's son."

"I know. There are no good choices in that group."

"Is there anyone else who was there who isn't in the frame?"

"Only Kyle, who was the stable hand leading the ride. He was on a horse not far from me. The influencers were in front of me taking photos. And Reece, the other stable hand was actually trying to get Kat to come down from a precarious perch as she was taking a photo."

"Then it had to be one of the four behind you."

"They don't look like they're doing anything."

He glanced down at the phone. "Andrew and Colin are talking to each other. Bennett is looking at his phone, and Harper is off to the side."

"She's only a few feet from the others. She couldn't have thrown a rock without anyone seeing her do that."

Ethan nodded, his gaze meeting mine. "The story Bennett told was that you were a very nervous rider, and they believe your horse might have gotten stung by a bee and reared up. You yanked on the reins too hard, which escalated the situation, and the horse bolted. At the end of the ride, you fell off."

"I don't know why everyone keeps making a distinction between falling off the horse and being thrown off," I grumbled. "Either way, I ended up on the ground, and it wasn't my fault. I did nothing to make that horse freak out like she did. Once Sally was running, there was nothing I could do except try to hang on, which by some miracle I did, until the very end when she reared up again. I think she was as tired of me as I was of her."

"Well, I'm sure Bennett was eager to downplay what happened to you with the grand opening only days away. He doesn't want anyone to think the trail ride is dangerous or the horses are unreliable."

"I understand why he'd downplay it, why no one else would ever think something more malicious occurred than a random bee sting, but after what happened to the bridal suite, and the threat written on the wall, I'm not so sure it was an accident at all." I paused, not quite able to believe what I was about to ask, but this man, this needling investigator, seemed like the only person who might tell me the truth. "What do you think, Ethan?"

He met my gaze. "Someone deliberately spooked your horse."

I felt both relieved that he understood where I was coming from and upset to think someone had thrown a rock at me. "Do you think they were trying to scare me or hurt me?"

"Maybe both. The message scrawled on the wall of the suite saidyou'll be sorry.This seems like the next step. So we get back to the central question. Who would want you to be sorry?"

"I know you want me to say Allison McGuire, and she's the first one who comes to my mind, too. She's definitely jealous of me and Andrew. Her conversation with Colin last night implied she had some sort of plan for being here. Andrew claims her plan is to get business from Victor and has nothing to do with him. He can't believe that I'm turning her into some sort of supervillain, but it's not just me. Paula told me she was concerned about Allison's efforts to get into business with her husband, so I'm not the only one who isn't thrilled that the woman is here. But all that aside, Allison wasn't with us. She wasn't on the trail ride."

"I wonder where she was."

"Harper had told me that Allison was going to go up to the model villa on the hillside, the one that's almost finished with construction, so she could pin down her design ideas. Apparently, she's planning to show them to Victor this week in the hopes that he'll let her design those villas. He wants each one to be unique, so having a different designer than the ones who did the other buildings is something he's interested in."

"Those villas are near the stables," Ethan commented.

"They are, and we passed them on our ride. I didn't see anyone around that area, though. It was quiet. If she was there, she was inside."

"She might have seen you all ride by."

"She probably didn't even have to see us. She knew we were going on the trail ride. But we were at the vista point, which was probably a mile or two from the stables, when my horse spooked. I don't know how easy it would have been for her to follow us and stay out of sight."

"Those hills are dense with trees and brush. You might have felt like you were farther away than you were."

"Possibly. When Andrew rode back with me on his horse, it didn't feel as long as the trip out." I winced as I shifted my weight.

"You need something?" he asked.

"I've already iced and taken ibuprofen. I just have to live through this."

"Hell of a honeymoon, huh?"

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