Chapter 3
Myrna followed Faith through the barn, out the front, and to a pick-up truck. They both climbed in, and instead of heading the way Pedro and Myrna had entered, Faith drove further into the ranch, and she pulled into a space before a cabin.
“This cabin is empty,” Faith said as she turned off her truck. “Hop out.” They did and met at the front of the truck, and Faith pointed to the cabin further down. “Shay and I live there, across the road is where Tony and Staci live.”
“What about the other cabins?”
“All empty, waiting for new employees to arrive.” Faith looked at Myrna with a smirk.
“You’ll learn, but Erin’s properties are huge.
Let me give you a brief rundown. There is Erin’s Way, that’s where we’ll be going in a minute or twenty.
She raises prize stallions that she studs out.
Oh, and she also has prize brood mares. Those she either breeds herself, and sells the foals, or some ranchers use her mares with their stallions, and they get the foal when it’s ready to leave its Mama. ”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, that ranch was the original one, and has been operating like that since Erin and Clark’s ancestors started this ranch almost two hundred years ago.
Don’t quote me, but I believe it was sometime in the eighteen thirties when Erin’s Way was started.
” Faith laughed as she leaned in to whisper, “By their grandmother, no less. But, it gets better. She has Tom and Lorissa you just met, they extract sperm from her stallions, freeze it, and sell it online to whomever wants to purchase it. Think IVF for horses.”
“Like for breeders?”
“Yes, that’s an on-line business. Her next business is the Broken Wheel Ranch.
The people there work with horses that are in the condition of Cocoa, or they were, but they’re better now and thriving.
That’s what I call Pedro’s horse. Broken Wheel had horses that came from abused cases that the police and SPCA asked Erin if she could foster them until after the court case.
Erin ended up keeping them, and later purchased horses from the auction houses to save them.
The employees over there have been working with them, and themselves on healing.
I don’t know what they, the workers, all went through, but I do know they are former military.
The Broken Wheel is now a horse rehabilitation center for humans. ”
“Wow, I’ve heard of them. This is New Double, and they do racehorses.” She made it a statement and not a question.
“Yes,” Faith said, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when an SUV pulled in beside Faith’s truck. “Easy, that’s Laurie, she’s a friend,” Faith stated, when Myrna looked like she was going to bolt, but she waited until Laurie joined them, then brought them both into the empty cabin.
“I had Naomi call Laurie. She works for Erin, and I’ll let her explain why she’s here.”
“Hi, like Faith said, I work for Erin. I’m her, oh my, I don’t know what to call myself.”
“What do you do for her?” Myrna asked quietly.
“I make sure all the cabins being built are stocked with linens, small appliances, furniture. I do that for all cabins and bunktels. The only thing I don’t stock is groceries.
” She shrugged, but then lifted two of the bags she’d brought with her onto the kitchen table.
“I do stock the bunktels with spare clothes. Some of the clients that come to Broken Wheel need clothes. Not the clients, but their family members spend all their time taking care of the disabled, and neglect themselves.”
“Okay, but what does that mean for me?”
“Oh, sorry,” Laurie said as she started taking clothes from the bag. Still sealed packages of panties, socks, and she brought out several different sizes of shirts and jeans. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any spare bras.”
“That’s okay,” Myrna said with a grin. “I can double up on the shirts.” She walked forward hesitantly and touched the plain clothes. “I can have some of this?”
“Yes, pick out what you want, and go take a shower. We have to be over at Erin’s Way soon. Would you like some coffee?”
“Please.” She turned in a circle and looked around in confusion. “Where’s the shower?”
Faith laughed and led her down the hall, describing the cabin as she went. “All the cabins are the same. Two bedrooms, and each bedroom has their own bathroom. There aren’t any bathrooms in the hall. They were designed the same, not thinking people would double up.”
“Double up?”
“Living together. I had this cabin for all of one day before I started living with Shay over at his, now our cabin.”
“Oh.”
“It’s a long story, but go get cleaned up, and we’ll meet the others.”
Myrna nodded and went into one of the bedrooms. She looked at the bed longingly, but knew it would be some time before she could lie down and sleep soundly.
What she’d heard and seen so far was making her feel safe.
It was a funny feeling, one she hadn’t had for several days lately.
She had tried to sleep while on the run, but it was spotty at best. The most she had gotten was two hours at a time, otherwise, she was awake the entire time, freaking out whenever a car had driven by.
Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic on the route she had taken.
As soon as she stepped beneath the hot water, she closed her eyes, and let it wash over her.
The water took her dirt and tiredness away, washing it all down the drain.
She stayed there for a good ten minutes, then opened her eyes and saw the soap, shampoo and conditioner sitting on one of the shower shelves.
With a grin, she grabbed the bottle and washed her hair.
It had been well over two weeks since she’d showered, and she was taking advantage of the hot water, and soap.
After washing her hair twice, as well as her body, she finally rinsed off and shut off the water.
Once she dried herself off, she dressed in the clothes the woman named Laurie had brought.
She looked at herself in the mirror, and sighed when she saw all the healing bruises on her face.
Since she didn’t have any make-up with her, she would have to endure all the stares from the people she would meet.
The only upside of her meeting everyone at one time was that she would only have to tell her story once.
If things got too intense for her, she would turn to her cousin and tell her story directly to him.
She wondered if the man named Pedro would be there, then shook her head when she realized the woman everyone called Erin would make sure he was.
She opened the bedroom door and went out to the kitchen and cleared her throat. There were three women there now, and Faith quickly jumped to her feet and introduced the newcomer.
“This is Staci Hardt. She’s a doctor.”
“Well, I have a PhD, and I am called Dr. Hardt, but I’m not a medical doctor, at least not technically.”
“What’s that mean?” Myrna asked in confusion. She was under the impression that if someone called you doctor, then you were a medical doctor.
“I have my PhD in bio-engineering, and bio-mechanics. I make prosthetic limbs for people who need them. I’m currently working on a government grant to help veterans with their prosthetic limbs.”
“You can do that here at New Double?”
“Actually, there are several veterans over at Broken Wheel, I’m working on them right now.”
“Oh.”
“However, Tony, my boyfriend called to see if I could look at your bruises. Do you think anything is broken?”
“No, I was worse than this, that’s why I spent six days in the hospital, and when I got out, my ex hit me again, but not enough to put me back in the hospital.
When I was in, I lost consciousness for two days, but the doctors told me that nothing was broken, and there wasn’t anything cracked, just severely bruised.
Oh, and the unconsciousness was due to the head trauma,” she said with a shake of her head.
“According to the doctors and nurses, it was because of a concussion. I don’t remember any of it, but they reassured me that I answered their questions when they were able to get me awake long enough to ask them. ”
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Yeah, and the bitch of all of this?”
“What’s that?”
“We broke up over eighteen months ago.”
“Damn,” the three women said with a shake of their heads, and Staci looked at her face intently.
“I’m not going to poke or prod, I can see that you’re healing nicely. You’ll probably take a few more days before they all fade.”
“Thank god for small favors.” She shook her head and stepped back. She took the cup of coffee handed to her, closed her eyes as she sipped and looked at the three of them.
“What now?”
“Now we head over to Erin’s Way, it takes about twenty minutes to arrive there. You can ride with me,” Faith said.
“I’ll ride with Laurie, then come back with Tony,” Staci said as they all made their way out of the cabin, and Myrna made sure she took the coffee mug with her, making a mental note to return it after the meeting.
Now that she was clean, and had something in her stomach, even though it was only liquid, she realized it had been days since she’d eaten.
On the way past all the buildings, Faith told her which one was for which set of horses, the equipment shed, the community pantry, and the main house.
They continued down the drive, then out onto the highway.
Faith explained about all the ranches again, and that they couldn’t access any of them from New Double.
“Why is that?”
“No clue.” Faith looked at her with a grin. “I’ve only been here for a little over two weeks, and I’ve told you what I know from what Tony and Staci have told me.” They continued on in a comfortable silence until they slowed down to pull beneath the sign that said they had arrived at Erin’s Way.
“Holy Moly,” Myrna whispered when they came slowly into the parking area and she caught sight of the barns ahead of them.
Faith looked at her with a grin. “Yeah, this is Erin’s Way, the current Erin’s many times removed Grandmother Erin, started this when her husband left her and their son back in the eighteen thirties.”
“Wow, that’s some family history to have.”
“Yeah.” They exited the truck, and as they stood there, a man slowly approached them.
“Faith?”
“Yes, oh crap, I know you, but I can’t remember your name.”
“That’s fine, I’m Duane.”
“That’s right, you’re dating Laurie, and you’re head of security.”
“Correct,” he answered with a smile. He turned to Myrna and held out his hand. “Duane Manchester, like Faith just said, I’m head of security. I know you’ll be telling your story to everyone, but could I have some information so I can start the background check on you?”
“What do you need?”
“Name, date of birth, social security number.” He pulled a small notebook from his pocket along with a pen, and held it poised above the pad.
Faith backed away quietly to give them privacy, and went over to wait for them to finish.
Duane walked away with a word that he would get things started, but for the ladies to head over to the meeting barn.
“Where is that exactly?” Faith asked. They paused when several pick-up trucks arrived one after another. Duane didn’t seem fazed, so Myrna tried not to freak out. When someone walked up behind her, she jerked, spun around, then let out a gigantic sigh.
“Pedro.” She hadn’t realized that she had been looking for him until he appeared behind her. For some reason, and she would reflect on it later, being in his presence was calming to her.
“How are you holding up?”
“I was fine until all these people started showing up.”
“They work for Erin,” Shay said as he stood beside Faith. He frowned and stepped closer to her when several more trucks pulled in. “I have no clue who these people are.”
“They’re friendly,” Erin said as she came toward them from the back of the house. “The one opening the back door of his truck is Jake Cogburn.”
“From Brotherhood Protectors?” Shay asked in shock.
“Yeah,” Erin said, and walked forward to talk to him.
“Damn,” he said.
“Who’s that?” Pedro asked.
“A security professional.” They rushed forward when Jake backed out of his truck with his arms loaded with pizza boxes.
Erin ended up leading the way, and by the time everyone entered there were dozens of people and at least twenty pizzas and as many wing boxes.
Erin told everyone to help themselves, and they would get started as soon as everyone got themselves some food and drink.