Chapter 10
“Do you know Jake Cogburn?”
“From Brotherhood Protectors? Yes, why?”
“The night I arrived, I stopped into Gunny’s bar to use the bathroom, and get a cup of coffee.”
“Okay.”
“While I was there, a gentleman came in asking for you.”
“Shit,” she whispered, but Clark heard her. Because the roads were clear of snow and traffic, he reached over and took her hand in his. It gave him a shock when their skin touched, but he held on tighter. “Who?” she demanded of him.
“A man by the name of Patrick Clemmons.”
“Oh, hell no. What did you or Jake say? Was anyone else in the bar?”
“Only Rucker, Jake’s wife. I knew her from way back. I mean, back before I left for the Navy. Her father, Gunny, sent her to us for a couple of summers for her to apprentice with us.”
“Apprentice how?”
“To get to know how to work with horses.”
“Ah, okay. Did she tell Clem where I was?”
The shortened version of the man’s name gave Clark pause, and he looked at her funny.
“Patrick Clemmons was my grandfather’s horse trainer for years, possibly twenty to twenty-five years. He was the one that taught me how to barrel race.”
“Okay, if you don’t mind my asking, how long ago was your accident?”
“Six years.”
“Can you talk about it?” he asked quietly, and started rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. She had such smooth hands on the back, but he also felt the callouses on her palms. He didn’t know if that was from working, or using her chair, which didn’t matter, but they were both strong, and soft at the same time, something he thought she was. He shook his head to concentrate on his driving. When she continued to remain silent, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
“I haven’t told anyone the fine details before. I just assumed they had all seen what happened on the internet or TV.”
“Why would your accident be on the TV? I’ll tell you right now that when I was home after Operation Gold Rush, and Rin told me about her plans to start Broken, she showed me a video that went viral. I’m sorry you were hurt.”
“Thank you, and I know this isn’t anything, or at least it hasn’t amounted to anything, but I have my own investigation into what happened. I don’t believe what my father told me.”
“Please, explain.” As much as Clark wanted to bark out orders, he knew he couldn’t do that with Naomi. Something told him that if he did, she would shut down and he would never get answers. “Maybe if you tell me, we can go to Jake and tell him. That’s what he does, isn’t it? Investigate things?”
“Damn, I never thought of that. Yeah, it’s been long enough, maybe it’s time for me to bring someone else into this. You did investigations for your job in the SEALs, right?”
“Sort of, we were given information, and we went with it. Nine times out of ten, we had to rely on the information given, but if my gut screamed, I’d do my own investigation, which wasn’t often, but I did do them.”
“Okay, well here’s my story.” Naomi took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tightened her grip on his hand. “I grew up on a ranch in Wyoming. It wasn’t as big as yours, but big enough. About eight hundred acres. I learned to ride a horse before I could walk.”
“Same as Rin and me.” Clark turned to smile at her, but realized she was back in the past, not paying any attention to him, so he stayed silent.
“It was Clem, Patrick Clemmons, and my grandfather that bought me Dolly. I think I was six. No, I was ten, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. The ranch was Grandpa’s and Dad would do as little work as possible. He liked the glory of being a rancher rather than doing the actual work. Grandpa had some pretty good horse flesh on the ranch. One year, when I was six, we went to a county fair. They had a contest for small kids to ride sheep.”
“I remember those days,” Clark said, and felt better when she looked at him with a smile.
“Yeah, they were fun. Clem encouraged me to try it out. I won the first time I ever rode one of those. I guess you could say my rodeo career took off from there. Grandpa would enter me in whatever class I qualified for, being so young, it was sheep and pigs. When I wasn’t in the contests, Clem was training me to ride.” She shook her head with a small smile.
“One year, Grandpa took me to the final rodeo in Las Vegas. He told me to watch every event carefully and tell him afterward what I liked the most and why. I sat there in my seat during every event. By the end of it, I fell in love with barrel racing. Over the next couple of years, that’s what Clem trained me for. For my tenth birthday, Grandpa bought me Dolly. Together the three of us trained not only me, but also Dolly. Grandpa left Dad and the foreman in charge of the ranch, and once Clem said I was good enough to compete, off we went. The three of us and Dolly went to every rodeo event across the country that I could participate in.” She shook her head in remembrance. The look of pure joy on her face was priceless, and caused Clark to suck in his breath at it.
“I lost, well, not lost, I came in third my first five events. After watching the other competitors, I got serious about my riding. When that happened, I began to win. I didn’t know it at the time, but Grandpa took my winnings and put them away for me. From that point on, I was the winner of every event I entered. As I grew older, more events opened. Again, I won, and Grandpa put the money away for me. All the time we traveled, he would foot the bill. I didn’t learn until later that the money he used for my rodeo career was Grandma’s life insurance policy. Before he died, he told me that he wanted me to spend it on what I loved. While he was still alive, he wanted to see me enjoy it and not have my father lay claim to it.” Naomi turned her head to the side and looked at him sadly. “On his death bed, he told me he didn’t want to leave anything to his son, because he knew that I wouldn’t ever see any of the money. When he died, Dad told me he got the ranch, and with the foreman’s vast years of experience, they were able to keep their heads above water. But I digress.”
“How?”
“When I was thirteen, Grandpa sat me down and we went over the books to the ranch and it took six months, but he taught me how to run it. That’s why I think I’m so good at running Broken.”
“Did you ever run your own ranch?”
“Sort of. When Dad was off whoring around, I worked with the foreman and we ran the ranch together. We weren’t near as big as Erin’s Way or Broken, but we were comfortable.” She paused and reached for her purse to pull out a bottle of water she had there. After taking several sips, she offered it to him, but he declined. She set it on the seat beside her.
“What happened next?”
“After getting Dolly, we didn’t run her in any events until she was properly trained. That was what Clem was for. Not only did he train me and Dolly, but Grandpa had a few other horses that were trained for racing. That’s the glory Dad reveled in, at the race track.”
“Where was your mother?”
“I have no clue,” Naomi said sadly as she turned to look at him again. “She left when I was about three months old, saying she thought that Dad was a rich rancher and didn’t have to work. She couldn’t stand living in the boonies and becoming a hick. Grandma told me those where her words. Grandpa and Grandma raised me even though Dad still lived under their roof.”
“Got it.”
“One thing I need to tell you before I fast forward to the actual accident.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“When I purchased Princess with my winnings Grandpa had put aside for me, he waited until I was ready to race her when he told me to get insurance on her.”
“Ah, I can understand that.”
“Yes, with his advice, because he had never steered me wrong yet, and that of Clem’s, who hadn’t steer me wrong either, I took out a five-million-dollar life insurance policy on my horse.”
Clark looked at her with raised brows, and whistled, but then he remembered the insurance policies he’d just recently read on all the horses on his own ranch and nodded in understanding.
“Okay.”
“I’m telling you this because Princess died as the result of my accident, and I received nothing. Not one penny. That’s why I have a secret investigation going, but I didn’t know who I could reach out to. Between you and me, I think Clem had something to do with it.”
“Why would he be looking for you now?”
“I have no clue. For years he was right there in the back of the rodeo with me and Grandpa. Grandpa died when I was twenty, I was twenty-four when the accident happened.”
“Can I play devil’s advocate here?”
“You can try.”
“First, I’m not saying Clem is good or bad, but why the sudden change after your grandfather passed? Does a leopard change its spots that quickly?” Clark scowled, then shook his head. “Sorry, I did the math, it was four years from your grandfather’s death to your accident. Did anything seem different during that time? Did this Clem fellow change in any way, treat you any differently?”
“Not really, that’s why I’m doing this investigation, and nothing changed with Clem. My father, on the other hand, was a totally different story.”
“What do you mean?”
“He started coming to the rodeo events, which he had never attended before when
Grandpa was alive. I don’t know whether Gramps warned him away, or if it was something different. There were rumors that he was making bets behind the scenes. The ranch was suffering a little, but not a lot, at least when I had the time to look over the books. From the life insurance from Grandpa, I was able to put money into the accounts to keep our heads above water.”
The two of them remained silent for several miles, then Clark squeezed her hand that he still held. “What actually happened?”
Naomi drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, before she continued, “We were on the last event of a nine-event streak, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Yes, how much time was between each event? Did Princess have time to calm down and rest?”
“Yes, we raced on both Friday and Saturday, then traveled to the next event Sunday to Wednesday, sometimes we’d arrive on Tuesday, but she always had at least two days of rest in a stall before the event.”
“Okay, I’m not accusing you of anything, but you took care of Princess and didn’t run her into the ground.”
“Correct. Anyway, at this last event, it was the semi-finals before going to Las Vegas for the finals. I was ahead of everyone in points, I was the one to beat. I was a shoo-in to advance to the finals.”
Clark continued to drive and rub his thumb across the back of her hand. He knew when to remain silent, and this was one of those times. As he continued to drive, he liked that Naomi was able to calm herself down with her breathing.
“I had to race three time. The first two were like a blur. I won both times, increasing my lead, as well as my overall totals. Even if I lost the final run, I was still going to the finals.”
“Had you been there before?”
“Yes, for each year prior for three years. See, I vowed to Grandpa on his death bed that I would go to finals and win. The first year I went, I didn’t win, but I came in third. The second and third year, I won. I have the buckle at home to prove it.”
Clark nodded and continued to drive. He saw the sign on the side of the road that they still had at least twenty miles to go. He encouraged her to continue with a squeeze of his hand. She didn’t disappoint.
“The first two events were wonderful, I won, as I said, and when I was in the back taking care of Princess, Dad showed up with his latest piece, someone I had never seen before.”
“Had he been in the back with you and Princess before?”
“Once or twice. I need to tell you that man was never a father or even a dad to me. Though I don’t have a lot of interaction with them outside the ranch, Wendel, Floyd, and Virgil are better fathers to me than my own ever was. Dad acted like I was a pesky little sister. There was never any love between us. If I had to testify under oath, I wouldn’t be lying if I said that Grandpa and Grandma were my parents. Dad was just…” She let the sentence trail off because she didn’t know how to explain the man that had sired her.
“Okay, I understand. How long after your father was in the back with you did you go out for your last and final race?”
“Fifteen, twenty minutes.”
“Where was Clem?”
Naomi whipped her head around and stared at him in shock. She closed her eyes to try to remember back to that traumatic time in her life. It took several moments for her to recall what had transpired. “I don’t know. I do remember that Dad’s side piece was petting Princess. At one point, when Princess jerked away from her, I had to ask them to leave.” She shook her head and stared out the side window. Clark could tell she was getting upset.
“That’s okay, you don’t have to say anymore.”
“No, let me get this out. I think after they left, I was called out to get ready. I believe about ten minutes had passed. When the gate opened and I ran full tilt toward that first barrel, I felt Princess become sluggish. By the time I reached the barrel, she stumbled, went to her knees, and I went over her head. I was on the ground when she fell, and she fell on top of me. The rest is still foggy. I remember being loaded on a stretcher and Dad was screaming, not yelling, actually screaming in my face that I was worthless and cost him a good horse. Then I woke in the hospital days later.”
“What’s wrong?” Clark could tell that something was wrong with her by her expression, or she’d remembered something.
“I was so out of it for weeks, being told I was paralyzed, told I would never walk again, and that my horse was dead. When I got home, it was Clem that picked me up, not once did Dad even come to visit me, but Clem was there every day. Anyway, it wasn’t until I was at Broken that I remembered that what Dad said was wrong. That’s why I started my investigation.”
“What did he say that was wrong?” Clark asked, and jerked the wheel when she answered quietly.
“Dad said that I killed his good horse, or that I cost him a horse, and I owed him for killing his prize horse.”
“What about it?”
“The horse was mine. I bought it with my own money, I paid the premium every year on her life insurance. I bought her feed, I paid the entrance fees to the rodeo events. Dad had nothing to do with Princess in any way.”
“Do you think he collected the insurance money?”
“I do, that’s why I have an investigation started, but I don’t know who to contact without him finding out.” They remained silent for the rest of the drive, until she gave him directions to the hospital, Before they got out, she took her hand from his and laid it on his forearm. “I have to tell you something before we go inside.”