Page 29 of The Rancher

He clenched his jaw, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened so much his knuckles were white. The rain made the road muddy and slick. The truck slid into the pasture more than once. “I know you don’t know my history, but I didn’t always have money. I come from a ranching family. We all worked to make it run. My parents couldn’t afford more than a few ranch hands, so my brothers and sister took up the slack.”

Lyris widened her gaze. “But you’re a billionaire. How can that be?”

“Didn’t you read up on me before you came here?”

A frisson of guilt traveled her spine as she realized she should have been more interested in his background. “Only about your racing stables. They’re one of the best in the country. That’s why I wanted to work here.”

Ray chuckled again. “You should make it a point to do more research. My family is gifted when it comes to designing computer games. Our company, Kincaid Holdings, runs the computer company and acquires other companies. It’s a multi-billion-dollar company and has made my siblings and myself all billionaires. Francie and I didn’t start the racing and stud services, this ranch, until about fourteen-years ago, after my first one-hundred-million from the game apps we design. Maddy was just about a year old.”

“What kind of games do you design?”

“Everything from games like Halo and Fortnight to Dungeon and Dragon type games. They are all warriors of one kind or another. That seems to be what teenage boys like, and they’re the ones who buy most of the games.”

“But how can you make billions of dollars off of games?”

He shrugged. “We have a lot of different video games and game apps, and we sella lotand I meana lotof them…worldwide.”

Lyris kept scanning the landscape for signs of Stormchaser. “Go right. I see him.” She slapped her left hand to Ray’s right shoulder and kept it there.

Ray turned the truck and drove across the pasture toward the horse. The terrain was flat, but still slick from the torrential rain. His tires slid sideways before they gripped the dirt again.

Stormchaser wasn’t moving, but he was whinnying and throwing his head around. He looked like he was caught in something.

Stopping far enough away that he didn’t scare the horse, Ray hopped out of the vehicle and grabbed a halter from the back seat.

Lyris followed, not caring about the rain. Her hat kept it from her eyes, and that was all she cared about.

When she got to the horse, she easily saw why he stopped. His right front hoof was caught in a bear trap.

“What in the—” Ray frowned and cussed a blue-streak.

Lyris’s heart hurt at the thought that Stormchaser might be severely injured. She headed his direction. “Somebody is trying to hurt your horses. How many of these are there over all the pasture? There could be hundreds. It’s a lot of land to cover.”

Ray’s hands were clenched into fists.

She was sure that if the perpetrator was around, Ray would kill them.

“Can you calm him while I get him out of the trap?”

Lyris hurried over to the horse and laid her hands on his neck. “Yes. Let me have that halter.”

Stormchaser let her put on the halter.

“You’ll be okay, boy. Just hang on a bit.” She petted his neck and scratched around his ears.

Ray stood on the release to open the trap. The jaws were much too strong to do it by hand.

Once it was open, Lyris helped the horse pull his leg from the contraption.

Ray stepped off the release, and the jaws snapped shut with a clang of metal on metal.

Stormchaser startled, but Lyris kept hold of the halter and spoke softly. “You’re okay. You’re free now, and I’m going to take care of you.” She bent, pulled up Stormchaser’s leg and examined it. The injury was severe, but it could have been much worse. The teeth could have buried themselves all the way to the bone but, luckily, hadn’t. “He won’t be walking far on this. You need to get a trailer out here. Do you have any first aid supplies in your truck?”

He nodded. “I always carry a first aid kit. One made for horses. I’ll get it.” Ray returned in a few minutes with a black suitcase. He zipped it open.

Inside were packets of antiseptic wipes to clean wounds, gauze, tape, antibiotic gel, even two syringes of Ketamine to ease the pain.

“This is quite the set up. I’m very glad you have it. The sooner we can take care of this wound the better the chance for him to heal completely.” She looked up at Ray. She softened her voice. “He’ll be out for the rest of the racing season. I’m sorry but the wound is severe, and he’ll need a lot of time to heal.”