Ten Year Grudge

Chapter 1

“I’m sorry Niki,” Drake said to my turned back. “I was so wrong. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I’ll never do it again, I swear.” Drake went to his knees. “I beg you sweetheart. Please forgive me. I was so stupid and wrong and you had every right to be upset…”
I knew instantly I was dreaming. Because for one, Drake would NEVER apologize, let along beg. He was convinced he was perfect. And he blamed our break-up on me. Even thought it was all his fault. The lying low-life bastard.
“Please Niki,” Drake begged again.
As he begged, he started singing. Only, he wasn't. It was like a Japanese cartoon where his mouth was saying something, but entirely different words were spouting out. The song was the one I recognized as my sister’s favorite. That made me wonder. Had he been cheating with my sister?
I suddenly became aware that the song was coming from my phone on my bed stand, and it was playing my sister’s ring tone.
I managed to get my hand to lift to the table and move it around until it found my brick of a smartphone. I nearly hit the ignore button, but then I would catch hell for that later, so green button it was.
“Someone had better be dead,” I mumbled sleepily.
“Oh sorry. Did I wake you up?”
“What time is it?” I mumbled again, totally useless until I got at least a cup and a half of strong black coffee.
“A little after five.”
“Then yes, you woke me up.”
“Oh. When do you feed the horses?”
“Six thirty. Goodbye…”
“No wait! I need a favor.”
“That’s sounds dangerous. The last time you asked me for a favor I winded up with your crazy stallion and couldn't get rid of him.”
Me and both of my sister had been into horses since we were young. I had gone to college specfically for an equine business degree and horses were the way I made a living. The sister I was on the phone with, Leah, still rode when she wasn't rounding up her twin daughters, but she wasn't as into it as she was when we were younger. A month ago, she had gotten wind that a horse that was related to her late, much loved thoroughbred was going to be destroyed up at Pimlico racetrack because he wasn't fast enough. Even though she couldn't ride with her being pregnant with her third child, she had to save him. And I had had an empty stall, so I'd been charged with the task of finding the horse a new home.
“Yeah. How’s he doing anyway?”
“I have no idea. He’s out on the range somewhere.”
“I thought you were going to put him in a stall."
"I tried. He wasn't happy." And that was a tame way to put it. The horse had nearly broken down one of my stalls, to get to the other horses. So I'd turned him loose.
"And you haven't seen him in three weeks?"
"The range is two hundred acres filled with a lot of nooks and crannies for a horse to hide in."
"Aren't you worried about your other horses?"
“Not with Trial out there," I said, referring to one of my mustang stallions.
"Are you sure he'll be okay-"
“He's got grass and running water and shelter if he's smart enough to get into the woods when it rains. Now what is this new favor you want?”
“Well I was talking to Dad the other day…”
“Stop. Done talking. Good night…”
“Come on Nik. Just give me a minuet please?”
“You have sixty seconds. Talk fast.”
“Okay. So I talked to Dad and Ace is in a little trouble…”
“Drug trouble?”
“Shut up. He’s not like that.”
“His stepdaddy is.”
“Well Ace isn't Dad. Would you just shut up and listen?”
“Fifty seconds.”
“Okay. So Ace’s boss was laying off people and Ace got caught in the pink slips. He needs a job. He’s already been kicked out of his apartment and has to live with Dad and Christina…”
I sighed. Ten years ago, my life had fallen apart before my eyes. My Dad had cheated and left my mom, me and my two sisters with no money and the threat of foreclosure hanging over our heads because of his drug debts. I'd grown up real quick. I’d had to get a job and work every night after school and weekends, giving me no free time. I’d been seeing a therapist about my parent’s separation and a social disorder I’d developed from my dad being so harsh on me. I’d been making progress but had quickly gone under again.
I became even more of a loner than I already was. I’d lost a lot of weight and started a battle with major depression and anxiety. I hadn't even been able to find solstice in my romance novels that I adored so much. My friends and family were worried, especially when I’d gone through a bought of depression that was so bad I couldn't eat or sleep.
I’d work myself to the bone trying to save enough money each week so that somewhere in my schedule I’d be able to take a horse back riding lesson. That was the only thing that kept me sane. Then things got worse and I'd had to stop taking riding lessons and put all my money towards helping with the bills at home.
I’d had a breakdown then, passing out from dehydration and lack of sleep and was in the hospital for a week.
My mom had insisted that I quit my job but I refused, knowing that if I quit then we’d loose the house.
I’d suffered through high school and most of college in a depressed state. Until I’d met my now best friend, Carrie. Her dad had owned a large horse ranch and was having problems getting his quarter horses to perform. In one visit, I’d had one of his most unhandleable fillies walking with a halter over her nose, docile as a lamb.
Carrie’s father had paid me to train his horses. I’d been given a decent salary and paid my own way through college so long as I lived frugally.
That’s where I’d first met Tribute.
Carrie’s father had gotten in a few horses from an auction, seeing if any of them could become good children’s horses since his grandkids were starting to show interest in riding. We never truly figured out how the black horse had ended up in the mix. Even watching him in the field it was obvious that he was not a children's mount.
It was apparent that the horse had once been wild because of the brand on his neck, indicating the year he was born and in what state. He steered clear of everything human, not even being bribed with treats or food. It had been obvious that the horse had been mistreated with the scar tissue on his nose and lash marks all over his body.
“He's no riding horse," I'd remarked as we stood next to the corral watching a couple of the farm hands trying to round up the stallion.
“Naw. He don’t act too good either. Wouldn’t be a good kid’s mount.”
“He’s a mustang.”
He’d rubbed his jaw. “Thought so. Well it looks like I’ll be sending this one back…”
“Wait,” I’d said, not sure why. “I’ll buy him for what you paid for him at auction.”
He’d given me a look like he thought I was going mad. “What you know about breakin’ a wild mustang stud girl?”
I really didn’t. But I’d broken plenty of stubborn colts and fillies and retrained a lot of thoroughbreds from the track. So I hadn’t answered, just asked, “how much?”
After that everything had started to go in my favor. My old riding instructor was selling her barn dirt-cheap. I’d managed to buy it and bring the stallion I’d named Tribute to my little piece of land. For the first few weeks I let Tribute stay in the riding ring at the top of the property, slowly earning his trust by feeding him Andes mints, and Snickers bars, my two favorite candies.
It had taken me months to win his trust and get a halter on him and over a year for me to approach him with a saddle. But two years later, the unwanted, scraggly, stick thin mustang, had transformed into a magnificent ebony-colored stallion that was known around North America for his loyalty to his master.
The stallion was my main source of income even now. I’d pieced together an act over the years of just how much a horse could change with some decent training. I had used a my own method, one that combined some natural horsemanship with some classical dressage and techniques from a lot of other people. In the act I rode him without a saddle, bridle, or helmet and preformed a series of stunts.
But I was also known as "The Mustang Tamer" because sometimes I broke one of my young mustangs at an expo or gathering. The training took place over a series of days and the horse was nowhere near done with it's education at the end of the time, but it made large steps towards getting there. Come to think of it I had another event where I was taking just Tribute to the World Horse Expo in Maryland...
“…please?”
My mind came snapping back to reality. “Sorry. I’m still asleep.”
“That had better not have cut in to my fifty seconds.”
I waited.
“Okay anyway. Like I was saying, Ace has to stay with Dad and Christina and Christina’s already in a bitchy mood because-”
“That’s how she always is,” I finished for her.
"Basically. But you know how good he is with horses and-”
“Stop there and listen closely. You listening?”
Silence.
“There is no way in hell I would hire that little homewrecker’s son. Not even to wipe my horses'-”
“Oh come on Nik you’re being unreasonable! He’s really good with the horses even you know that. "And he works cheap too.”
“Don’t they all?”
“Quit the crap Niki. You need more help around that place."
“Vic and I manage just fine. And I want someone who speaks English. The last thing I need is someone giving some client's horse the wrong medicine and it dying on me and then I have to call the owner and give them their money back and try to avoid a lawsuit-”
"For God's sake Niki would you listen to yourself? Ace probably speaks English better than he speaks Spanish you know that. And Vic doesn't live on-site. He could do morning feed and you could sleep in in the morning if you gave him that little apartment above the barn-"
“Have you been sniffing Sharpies again? I just told you I don’t want him near my horses. Now you suggest the idea of him living with me?”
“Well not with you. And the apartment would be a little bit of a fixer-upper since Drake lived in the main house with you…” she seemed to realize belatedly what she was saying. “Oh, sorry Nik.”
“Ten seconds,” I warned.
“Okay, okay. So just think it over please? He has references you know. He worked up at Laurel and did a brief stint at Pimlico…”
“Has he ever been around wild horses?”
“Thoroughbreds.”
“Don’t count. Time’s up. Goodnight…”
I heard her still trying to talk as I hung up the phone and turned it off.