Chapter Seven #5
“Fuck, Jas,” Forrest muttered beside me. “Enough. It’s a bloody photo shoot. She’s jumping for a damn picture, not competing.” His voice was hard. Good. He was pissed at me too. That’d be three this morning alone.
Leon, who had been on the other side of the arena, came over. He was scowling at me. He’d clearly heard everything too. “Take a walk, Jasper,” he said.
One thing was for sure, I was the owner of this stud farm and the CEO of Golden Oaks, but the training arenas were Leon’s. And right now, I was fucking over his most promising rider. The fact he was like another cousin to me was the only reason he could speak to me like this on the land I owned.
I could feel the heat of anger pulsing off Hallie as I stayed rooted to the spot for a few more seconds. When I turned to her, her face was flushed, and her breathing was heavy. I hated myself. And I was pretty sure Hallie Oakley now hated me too.
Good. That was what had to happen. When Alexis sniffed around now, all she would hear is how much of a dick I was to Hallie. Zero romantic interest.
“Fix it,” I snapped at Hallie, and turned away.
Even Forrest didn’t follow me this time.
I practically ran to my home study, slamming the door behind me and immediately pouring myself a large whisky.
I slumped down to my chair and tossed my hat on the desk, knocking the whisky back in one.
I stared at the oak top of the desk, my eyes blurring as I became lost to my thoughts.
Who the fuck have I become?
It was amazing how fear and pain could curdle a soul. I wanted my old life back. I wanted morning hacks with my cousins and chasing wins at the Grand Prix. I wanted family dinners and traveling with family. I wanted Lord Henry being in center spotlight where he belonged.
I wanted my sister to be okay.
I wanted my dad to be alive.
Blinking, I wiped away the tear that slipped from my eye. I clenched my jaw and chased my self-pity away. But when I pictured Hallie’s hurt, her angry face, I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up when all this shit was done.
But I had to protect her, and being close to me, in any way, shape, or form, only brought people bad luck.
Opening the desk drawer I always kept locked, I brought out today’s offering. Unfolding the letter that had arrived in this morning’s post, I read the typed words:
All you love will be destroyed.
Everything you built will be torn down.
You will have no one left, and no empire to rule.
I will destroy you, like your father did me.
Taking out a file from the same drawer, I placed the newest letter inside. The file was getting full. Flipping to the back of the pile, I found the letters my father had kept hidden in the same place. Threats just like this, but more personal. Ones against his life, Genevieve, and me.
My cousins knew about my father’s letters.
But they didn’t know they had never stopped after he had died or that they were now coming to me.
I didn’t want them to worry more than they already were.
And Genevieve, I’d kept everything from her.
She had the kindest, purest heart I knew, and I didn’t want anything to change that.
But then the threat against her had come true, and it had been all my fault.
She didn’t know her big brother had kept things from her, didn’t know she had to be vigilant for people trying to hurt her.
She didn’t know I’d failed to stop her getting injured.
Her and her precious horse, who was so spooked she now had to be housed alone and away from a herd.
The guilt that wrapped around my heart over that was so stifling, most days I didn’t even know how I breathed.
What the fuck had Dad done to inspire such a vendetta against our family?
He was my dad, so I had a view of him no one else did, but he was a nice, kind man.
He hadn’t ever hurt anyone to my knowledge.
When our mother died, Dad took the helm without a thought.
He didn’t foist us off on nannies or send us to a boarding school.
He was there for us. So what could he possibly have done to make someone want to kill him?
To hurt me and Genny and anyone who has any affiliation with us?
The letters addressed to him made out as though he was almost evil.
What they said about him was a far cry from the man I knew and loved.
But I refused to believe my view of him was incorrect.
I knew him, damn it.
I knew him.
I wanted to be like him. Even though my attitude of late was anything but. Hallie’s hurt expression sprang to my mind, making my heart feel like lead. Forrest wanted me to be happy. He thought I liked Hallie—and he wasn’t wrong.
But it was best that she hated me.
I refused to be an albatross to anyone else.
It was better this way, with her despising the ground that I walked on. I’d admire her from afar and watch her soar on the tour. Because despite everything I said today, she was the best natural rider I’d ever seen.
She was incredible.
And she deserved to be kept safe.