He patted her hand. “It’s gonna be just fine, honey. I promise.”
She kept her gaze straight ahead. “No, Daddy. It won’t.”
The wedding march boomed out from the huge organ. She looked down the middle aisle and spotted Will in a nice suit and tie, looking just about as miserable as she felt. His friends were all lined up alongside him.
She swallowed hard. “Don’t make me,” she whispered. Her father sighed. They started walking.
***
The rehearsal dinner was held at The Grove, a lovely old mansion transformed into an expensive bed and breakfast and banquet hall. It was about a thirty-minute drive there, which was spent in complete silence in the car she shared with her brothers. At one point, Frank passed her the nearly empty flask, which she polished off in two quick sips.
“What happened to them, to … Tony and Lorenzo?” The alcohol gave her the nerve to ask. JR glared at her while he waited at a stoplight.
“They’re to be gone by tomorrow at four p.m.”
Four p.m. The exact moment of her wedding. She closed her eyes and slumped against the car door. She almost fell onto the pavement when Frank opened the door. Steeling herself, she walked through the gracious foyer, accepting congratulations from the staff and keeping an eye out for Will. She didn’t see him until they sat at their appointed places, in the middle of a long table that faced out onto a room set with eight round ones. Their parents sat on either side of them. Friends and others invited to this pre-game warm-up, as she kept referring to it in her head, filled the rest of the room. Waiters poured wine. Food materialized. She stared at her plate while sucking down two glasses of wine.
At one point, Will leaned into her ear. “You think getting drunk is gonna make this better?”
She turned and studied him. He looked unhappy as he downed his glass and raised it for more. But his expression morphed into something different while he waited, staring at her—something with a hard edge to it that made her nervous.
“Eat, Lindsay,” he said, turning to stare out at the crowd. “You’re gonna need your strength.”
She tried, and managed a few bites of the filet mignon and delicate scalloped potatoes, plus a few green beans. Will kept glancing at her, but didn’t say anything else. Finally, the toasts were given and the dessert plates cleared. She stood to go to the ladies’ room and nearly fell over her shoes in the process.
Will eyed her, but didn’t comment. Her mother glared. Her father kept drinking his own booze. She hid out in the restroom, crying a little, cursing a lot, and wondering how in the hell she might escape.
When she emerged, Will had left, presumably for the bachelor party ritual. She sighed and let Frank and JR guide her to the car and drive her home again in total silence. When he pulled up to the front door, she got out and without a word or a backward glance, started down the hill to the barns.
“Hey!” JR yelled. She heard Frank say something to him she couldn’t hear, but assumed was about leaving her alone. It wouldn’t have mattered. She was not about to go into that house now.
Stumbling and weaving, she made her way into the common area between the barns, and shoved open the door to reveal bright lights and a couple of men she didn’t recognize at first standing at Daisy’s stall. When she didn’t immediately see the tall, gray horse, her heart sank. She kicked off her shoes, runs in her stockings be damned, and dashed over.
Someone stepped in front of her right before she reached them, grabbing her arms and forcing her to stop. “Get off me,” she demanded, struggling to break free. But he didn’t let go. She glared into Anton’s deep brown eyes. “Let go of me. I need to check on my horse.”
“No, Lindsay. You don’t.” His deep voice sounded serious.
“Damn you,” she let herself relax. When he did the same, she wrenched herself away and ducked under his arm. Shoving the strange men aside, she glared into the empty stall, ears ringing. “What have you done with my prize horse?” she screamed at the men. “Daisy.” She pointed to the empty hay. “Where is she?”
She knew where Daisy was, of course. Anton tried to pull her away, but she lashed out at him, punching, kicking, and yelling. The barn seemed to dim. He kept pulling until she was in the circle of his arms, sobbing into his neck, clutching his shirt.
While she’d spent the last two weeks whining and pouting and breaking things, her horse, her Daisy, her champion, had been suffering. She stepped away, hugging herself. “Why … why … didn’t anyone tell me?”
Anton dropped his arms to his sides. “I told them to,” he said. “But I guess it didn’t make it past your mother.”
They stood staring at each other for a solid minute. The booze sloshing around in Lindsay’s system made itself known in a quick gush of nausea. “My … mother.”
He nodded, crossing his arms. He was not wearing a Halloran Farms labeled shirt tonight. “I want to see her, Daisy. Where did they take her?”
“She’s gone, Lindsay. You don’t need to see her.”
“I’ll be the one to decide what I need. She’s my horse.”
“She’s dead. She’s gone. Drop it and go up to the house.”
Chapter Nine
Lindsay opened her mouth with a retort when Zelda’s loud neigh cut her off at the same second a bright blue flash of lightning lit the interior of the barn. The thunderclap came an instant later, and so loud Lindsay felt as if it had exploded from her chest.
Anton’s face was fully visible again in the second flash of light. He looked devastated, yet resolved. She shoved her way past him and grabbed Zelda’s tack. The horse had calmed the second she caught sight of Lindsay, letting the girl prepare her for a seeming ride into the storm.
“Stop,” Anton called out above the thunderclap, which was quickly followed by the rain pounding on the barn roof. She jumped into the saddle while they were still in the barn, knowing better, but no longer caring.
Anton stepped in front of her, making Zelda rear up in alarm.
Lindsay held on tight, her mind blanking out the danger she was creating.
“God damn it.” Anton tried to grab for Zelda’s bridle, but Lindsay jerked Zelda’s head to the side, another thing she should never do to a horse with as sensitive a mouth as this one had.
“Lindsay!”
She heard him calling her name, but Zelda bucked then, protesting her mistress’s rough handling, and it took Lindsay a few seconds to calm her. She stroked her warm neck, staring out into the deluge.
“Let’s go,” she whispered. Zelda bobbed her head, excited but reluctant. “Go,” she said, digging her heels in. The horse pounded through the puddles and out toward the open field.
“Lindsay, stop!” Anton’s voice filled her ears, but she no longer listened to anyone. She was through being manipulated by people who claimed they cared about her. The sound of the hoofbeats, thunderclaps, and the rain hitting her skin combined to trigger the sort of exhilaration she’d not experienced in years, maybe ever. She laughed out loud and leaned in closer to Zelda’s neck, urging her on, fast, faster. But the fearless horse required zero encouragement.
They hit the open pasture and flew across the wet grass. Lightning flashed non-stop. The very air was saturated with electricity and noise and violence. It made her laugh even louder. But she sobbed even as she acknowledged how completely insane she must be. Weeping for herself, for what she’d have to face when she returned to her life, wet, muddy, and sure to be torn to shreds by her mama’s vicious tongue. And for her horse, Daisy, who’d suffered all alone.
Anton.
Anton would be gone.