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As their supply of frozen semen from the great racehorse Fireflight dwindled, the price was going up. This was a great opportunity to convince her father to invest in something solid so he’d have a nice nest egg no matter what happened with the races.
She was going to talk to him about it right away, before he got the idea to reinvest the money into something risky. He thrived on risk—it was a real worry for her.
She picked up the phone and dialed her father’s extension, but was stopped when Bianca stepped forward and took the receiver from Kate, pushing the off button.
“What about this…” Bianca began, using her persuasive voice again. “How about if you just give dating a try. Go out with a couple of guys, see where it leads. Maybe this whole problem would solve itself, naturally and honestly.”
Kate laughed. “How altruistic of you.”
“Believe it or not, Katie, I do care about you. It would probably do you some good to date a little bit instead of just working all the time.”
Kate scoffed. “I’ve dated every eligible guy in town—all four of them—and, with all due respect, thanks but no thanks.”
“Not every guy,” Bianca persisted. “For example, Ben Devere’s back. You never went out with him, even though,” her voice became conspiratorial, “honestly, I think he’s always had a thing for you.”
Kate bristled at the mention of Ben Devere. Talk about a risk she wasn’t willing to take! She’d bet on that one before and lost.
The black sheep son of the otherwise decent family who owned the property adjoining Gregory Farms, Ben Devere had always been a wild child and more than a little dangerous. When they were children, he used to set off fireworks down on the property border and when Kate cried and begged him to stop, he’d just laughed and lit another one.
When they were in high school he used to take his Jeep four-wheeling all over the pastures, which annoyed both her father and his own to no end, but which amused him enough to keep doing it. He was a wild kid, in stark contrast to her own serious nature, and they had butted heads over their differences repeatedly while growing up. In junior high school, he’d called her “Serious Sally” and she’d privately been a little afraid of his untamed ways.
But Kate could also remember, with crystal clarity, a time when she’d seen him shoot his own dog as it ran in the paddock. She’d watched the whole thing in sheer horror, then run away without looking back, vowing to never go within sixty yards of the Devere Ranch again. It was proof of what she’d already begun to suspect: Ben wasn’t what he seemed at all. Sure, people thought he was charming and smart, and more than one girl—heaven knew!—had fallen for his charisma. But the fact was, Ben Devere wasn’t who he appeared to be.
That conclusion made Kate more comfortable with what he’d done to her.
Ben had been regarded in high school and in town as a hot playboy; the kind of guy girls wouldn’t count on to call them in the morning, but with whom they were willing to take the chance nonetheless. If the stories were true, scores of women had fallen prey to his charms. Even Kate had kissed him once at a party, the summer after their senior year. It had been a hell of a kiss, and for a few weeks afterward, she’d harbored hopes that he would call and that perhaps…well, whatever. Later, she realized it had only been a heat of the moment hormonal rush for Ben.
But perhaps had never come and Kate had learned to regret having admitted to her affection for him. She’d also learned to regret having trusted him. If his friend Lou Parker was to be believed, he’d only been with Kate as a joke, the response to a dare. Lou’s subsequent advances on her had only served to make the insult that much greater.
Shortly after that, Ben Devere had left town and, after the humiliation she’d been through, she was glad to see the back of him. She’d hoped he’d never come back.
But now he had.
And her sister, who should have known better, was actually suggesting she date him.
“No way,” she said to Bianca, and reached down to pet her dog, Sierra, who was lying at her feet. She’d had the retriever for twelve years now, and he was getting old and thin, but he was a member of the family. “I’d rather become a nun. Now let me get back to work, I have to talk to Dad about the finances.”
Bianca perched her hands on her slender hips. “So that’s it? We’re just not talking about my marriage anymore?”
“No, I’d be glad to talk about your marriage. It’s my marriage, or the lack thereof, that I’m not talking about anymore.”
“Fine.” Bianca smirked. “Then I don’t have anything else to say to you at all.” She huffed out of the room and Kate watched her go with mild irritation.
It had always been this way with Bianca. She should have been used to it by now, but somehow she always hoped her sister would rise to the occasion and take the high road.
Oh, well. She didn’t have the time or the emotional cash to spend worrying about it now. She had to balance these books, and while a half million dollars was a nice thing to add to any accounting ledger, she was uncomfortable with keeping it in the regular accounts.
She picked up the phone again to call her father.
Ben Devere drove the muddy side roads from his farm to Gregory Farms slowly, trying to talk himself out of his mission even while he accelerated toward it.
He couldn’t believe he had to ask Kate Gregory—of all people!—for a favor, especially one that amounted to his only hope of saving his late father’s farm for his mother. Kate Gregory hated him.
Growing up, he’d had a little bit of a crush on Kate. Well, maybe crush was too strong a word. But he’d always noticed her. While the rest of the world had fawned over her younger sister’s blond-haired-and-blue-eyed version of Kewpie doll beauty, Ben had been fascinated by Kate’s more subtle—but infinitely more interesting—assets.
The long chestnut hair didn’t look like gold, the way they said Bianca’s did, but it glowed like amber in the sunlight, with hundreds of different variations of brown and auburn painting the strands. Ben could have studied it for hours without getting bored.
And her eyes—they were vivid green and just shy of catlike. They were warm and cool at the same time. Intelligent and alluring, and never lined with the unnatural colors so many of the girls wore.
Ben often thought Kate said a lot more with her eyes than she did with her voice.
Then there was her body. He took a breath just thinking about it. Tight and strong and slender. Ben guessed that while Bianca sat on her cushiony behind and asked the ranch hands to bring her bonbons, Kate did the heavy work around the place.
Privately, Ben suspected it was Kate who had kept Gregory Farms such formidable competition for the Devere Ranch for so many years, which made her an enemy in a sense, but an admirable one. All of which made it doubly hard to have to ask her for her help now, since it was to keep the competition in business.
Ben reminded himself how important this was for his mother’s quality of life.
The last time he’d seen Kate had been one of the worst days of his life. His old dog, Banjo, who had seen him through the loneliest of his childhood years straight through college, had stayed out one night and gotten into a tangle with a rabid raccoon. It hadn’t taken long to figure out what was wrong, and when the vet had advised them to take Banjo out back, Ben wouldn’t let anyone go except for himself. It was a private thing, between him and his old pal.
Pulling that trigger had been the worst moment of his life, and it had felt as though it had taken a year.
No sooner was it over with, and the dog had hit the ground, had Ben heard a gasp and turned to see Kate Gregory running across the lower pasture toward her house. She must have known what was going on; the word had gotten out as a warning to all the local residents of what had happened.
Yet, when she’d seen Ben have to shoot his own dog, she hadn’t even mustered a single word of sympathy. She’d just run off into the sunset, literally and figuratively.
That’s the way Kate had always been—aloof, detached. Like no one could really get close to her or touch her heart.
He pulled his Jeep to a halt outside the main barn and got out. He took a deep breath. He didn’t want to do it. He just had to remind himself that, if he was careful, he might just score the one thing that could save his family’s farm. His feet crunched the gravel below him as he took slow steps toward the barn office.
“Ben?”
He turned.
The surprised voice belonged to none other than the platinum-haired Bianca, who was coming from the direction of the office. “Is that Ben Devere?”
“That’s right.”
“Good Lord, we were just talking about you.”
“We? We who?” This was weird. He didn’t even know anyone knew he was back. “And what were you saying?”
“Oh.” She hesitated just long enough to imply she was hiding something. “Nothing, really. Just that you were here in town. So what brings you here?”
This was it. Time to take that step. “I was hoping to see Kate.”
“Oh, were you?” Bianca raised an eyebrow. “How interesting! Now, why is that? You’re not planning to ask my single sister out on a date of some sort, are you?”
“Um, no.” He frowned. That was a strange question. “It was a business matter.”
Bianca’s face fell and her lips puffed into that famous Bianca Gregory pout. “Oh. Darn.”
He felt a little like he’d stepped into someone else’s bizarre dream. “I’m sorry…what?”
Bianca shrugged with the drama of a four-year-old child. “Nothing. Never mind.”
Ben looked down at the earth beneath his feet and briefly weighed the relative merits of selling the farm and moving his mother to a smaller place, closer to him, versus begging the Gregory girls for their help.
Saving the farm won, of course. “Look, I understand you have the capability of siring a mare by Fireflight.” It was awkward but he couldn’t think of another way to word it. Word underground was that the Gregorys had somehow acquired frozen genetic material from one of the finest racehorses ever to hit the turf and if there was one thing that could save his farm, it was a foal or two by Fireflight.
Dawning understanding came into Bianca’s pale blue eyes. “Oo-oh, I see. You’re here to make a purchase.”
“Depending on the cost, yes.” That was where this conversation was going to get really sticky. His finances were limited and he could only bluff so far before they, potentially, made him look like the desperate man he was. “So what’s your price?”
Bianca looked at him, raising her finger to her mouth and looking him over as she considered. “From what I hear, the Devere Ranch doesn’t have a whole lot of money, Ben.”
“Don’t listen to everything you hear.”
“Fireflight’s worth a whole lot.”
“Potentially.” He tried to look casual. “You never know what you’re gonna end up with. Artificial insemination of a mare…well, it’s a hell of a gamble. You know that.”
She gave a nonconcessionary nod. “It’s a gamble a lot of people are willing to pay a hell of a lot of money for.” She eyed him. “Victor’s working a colt out at the track every morning, and he says the times are absolutely amazing. He may even beat his sire. So I’m thinking it’s a pretty safe bet anyone who sires a mare by Fireflight will end up with a profit in the end. That is, if they can pay up front.”
“What are we talking about?”
“Half a million.”
He couldn’t shell out more than a quarter million. Not for such a risky chance as this. After all, the money was going to be coming out of his pocket, not the ranch’s. “Well, Bianca, this business being what it is, I think I’d rather just take a chance with what I’ve got.” He gave a short nod and started back toward his truck.
“I think I might know a way you can take it for free, though,” Bianca called behind him in a singsong voice.
This was no time to stand on pride. He stopped and turned back to her, cautiously keeping his face impassive. “Who do I have to kill?”
She laughed. “You only have to date my sister.”
She hadn’t said what he thought she’d said. Surely she wasn’t suggesting it was worth five hundred grand to Kate to have a date. “What are you talking about?”
Bianca gave a slow smile and sauntered over toward him. “I need a little favor. If you succeed, you get Fireflight and my sister, and you have a chance at real happiness. If you don’t succeed—” she shrugged “—well, you’re no worse off than you are now. What do you say, are you a betting man, Ben Devere?”
Chapter Two
It was a chilly, misty morning and Kate could hear the thundering hoofbeats on the turf long before the horse actually appeared from the mist, running all-out, white puffs of steam coming from his nose.
He was beautiful.
Her father had named the horse Kate’s Flight, in honor of her and in reference to his sire, so she felt a special affinity for the chestnut stallion. As much as she hated the gamble of this lifestyle, she loved the majesty of the animals and the heart they showed every time they hit the track.
The story of Black Gold—crossing the finish line with a shattered leg, to complete his final win—was never completely out of her mind. The horses loved to run and, more than that, they loved to win, there was no doubt about it.
So she smiled as she watched Kate’s Flight barrel past in the predawn light.
“Quite a horse,” a voice behind her said.
She turned to see a man walking toward her through the mist. He was tall and dark-haired, with piercing dark eyes and the sort of chiseled jawline usually reserved for the cover of a romance novel. He looked familiar, but it took her a moment to realize why.
When she did, it was with a start. “So it’s not a rumor. The prodigal son has returned.”
He smiled, that movie star smile she remembered better than she ought to. “I’m as surprised as anyone.”
She’d heard rumors that the Devere Ranch was in trouble. “Here on family business?”
He nodded.
She looked at him for a moment, then said, “Look, I’m sorry things aren’t going well over there. I was sorry to hear about your dad’s death last year. Your mom must really miss him a lot.”
He shrugged, noncommittal.
“I really hope you can help her get it all straightened out,” Kate offered.
He looked at her with surprise in his eyes. “I appreciate that.”
“So what brings you here this morning? I haven’t seen any of your trainers around.”
“Actually, I’m here to see your trainer.” He nodded toward Victor and Kate’s Flight. “Or, more specifically, your horse.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
He kept his eyes fastened on the horse’s workout. “I’ve got a colt I think I can run against him. I just wanted to check him out first and talk to Victor about it.”
“Oh.” She thought about that for a moment. It made sense. If he could run a colt against the son of Fireflight and win, it would do wonders for the credibility of Devere’s breeding. “I see.”
“Does that worry you?”
Everything that had anything to do with failing on the track and losing financial security worried her. “Not at all.”
He nodded, his tightened jaw betraying an attempt not to smile. “Good.”
“I mean it.”
“I’m sure you do.”
She frowned and turned back to the track, where Victor was walking toward them. He was small but powerfully built. Every time Kate saw him, the thought came to her that he was shaped like a shoe horn.
“Hey, Kate.” He waved a meaty arm at her. “You take that dog to the vet yet?”
Victor had been telling her Sierra was getting too thin, so, even though she thought it was old age, she’d finally given in and made an appointment. “We’re going this afternoon.”
“Good girl. Better to check it out.”
