Princess Wanted - The Complete Book Set: An Alpha Billionaire Prince Trilogy (8 page)

Chapter Five - the Race

T
here are administrative concerns in transporting a horse between countries, which suited Chris, who could not quite bear to leave Texas yet. Right now, he could not think of any compelling reason to leave the bar stool on which he was perched, nursing a drink. Why wasn’t he happy? He had got exactly what he had come for, and had done so in far quicker time than he had anticipated. Of course he had rather hurt Jody, and for that he did feel bad, but there was more to it. Bad as he felt for hurting Jody, he felt just as bad for losing her. It wasn’t just the thought of her tear-stained face that upset him, it was the thought of never seeing that face again.

“Drinks all around!” The booming voice of someone luckier than him rang through the bar. “I hit the jackpot!”

“How’s that Pete?” a less effusive voice asked.

“I’m marrying money,” the man called Pete replied. “Actually, I’m marrying a whole damn stable full of money. All I gotta do is play the dutiful husband a few years till old man Crane pops it and BANG! All mine.”

Chris head shot up.

“You’re marrying little Jody?” asked one voice.

“Not so ‘little’,” commented another. “She’s filled out nice.”

“Yes she has,” said Pete with relish. “Can you think of a nicer to earn yourself a few million? And if I get bored there’s plenty of other tail about the place to pass the time.”

Thoughts bludgeoned their way through Chris’s mind. On the rebound from Chris, Jody had gone back to Pete. Which might have been a good move had he not turned out to be… well, exactly the same as Chris. The girl knew how to attract the sons of bitches.

But if he was exactly as bad as Chris then…

Chris finished his drink and strode across to Pete.

“Can we talk?”

Pete looked him up and down with disdain. “You’re the Prince aren’t you? No hard feelings. Sorry for ratting you out but you’d have done the same to me. And you still got the horse. So we’re all happy.”

“Except Jody.”

Pete scoffed. “You think I don’t know how to make a woman happy? You don’t know Pete Jackson.”

“I’ll trade you.” It was probably not the way any girl likes to be treated, but Chris could not allow this man to use Jody. “Jody for Silmarillion.”

Pete laughed. “So you fancy the stables as well? No dice. You got the horse, and I think you should consider yourself pretty lucky to get that. Walk away.”

“The stables will be
Jody’s
when her Uncle dies,” Chris pressed. “Silmarillion would be all yours right now.”

Pete shrugged. “I can wait. And we’ll see about who owns that stable. A wife’s got to do as her husband says, and if she doesn’t… well we’ll just see about that too. Besides, I’m not walking away from Jody just yet. A man’s got needs other than money and a woman like Jody…” he chuckled to himself.

Chris resisted the urge to punch Pete in the face, not because the man could have tied his spine in knots, but because right now he had to think about Jody, and that meant striking a deal.

“Take Silmarillion and you’ll be walking out of here with a million dollars in your pocket.”

The immediacy of that image made Pete stop and think but he still shook his head. “No. Look, a horse is a horse.”

“Of course.”

“Of course. But a stable; well that’s whole bunch of horses. That’s a man set for the rest of his life. Nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the ride. If you know what I mean.” He laughed and all his friends followed suit.

Chris slumped – he couldn’t let this happen to Jody but seemed powerless to stop it. He could warn her but there was no way she would believe him, not after what he had done.

Pete stood. “Who’s for poker?”

Chris’s racing mind came to a screaming stop. “You like a bet?”

Pete shrugged. “Who doesn’t?”

“I’ll bet you; you win, you get Silmarillion; I win, you leave Jody.” She would never take him back, but at least he could save her from this man.

“Poker?” Pete shook his head. “I ain’t chancing those stables on cards.”

“I’m guessing you ride,” said Chris

“Sure.”

“A race then.”

But Pete still shook his head. “Why would I risk it?”

“You get Silmarillion regardless.”

Pete frowned. “What?”

“You win, you get Silmarillion, the stable and Jody; I win, you still get Silmarillion but you leave Jody. No matter what, you walk away a winner.”

Pete stroked his chin. “You really want that stable, don’t you?”

Chris said nothing.

Pete sat back. “No. Too risky. You’d be riding Silmarillion. I’ve seen that horse run. But I’ll do you a favor, since you’re desperate; I ride Silmarillion, you ride the horse I choose. Then you gotta bet.”

That sounded to Chris an awful lot like just giving everything away. Silmarillion was, by all accounts, the fastest horse at the stables; he was going to win. And it wasn’t like Pete would give Chris the second fastest horse just to make things interesting. Chris would be getting some useless nag that had never won anything. Pete was playing on Chris’s obvious desperation. There was no hope.

But there was always a chance. Chris recalled a Damon Runyon quote: ‘The race is not always to the swift or the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.’ Runyon was right, but the first half of the sentence revealed something that a gambler like Chris knew well: the race is
not
always
to the swift. In a lifetime of gambling he had seen hundred-to-one shots come in, he had seen bad luck scupper the favorite, he had seen miracles. And while it was not safe to bet on a miracle, that was where the big money was. And right now the stakes were the biggest he could imagine: Jody’s happiness. He was playing for that smile.

Chris thrust out his hand. “You’re on.”

The area that Pete had selected for the race was some rough terrain a little way from the Stables, out of sight of prying eyes in a ravine. Chris was not sure what to expect when he turned up. The smart money was on old and fat, some horse that had never been any great shakes and was now gone to seed. In fact the horse Pete had selected had never even been given the chance to be any great shakes, he had never run a single race.

“Catcher,” breathed Chris.

“You two met?” asked Pete.

“We’re acquainted.”

There was no way that Catcher could beat Silmarillion unless the latter was struck by lightning, but Chris still found himself oddly cheered to see the horse. At least Catcher was familiar to him and liked him. That was something wasn’t it? Not enough to win a race, but something.

“Two laps,” said Pete, pointing out the circuit. “And the bet is final. No trying to wriggle out.”

Chris shook his head. He had never welched on a bet in his life.

The men mounted up and took their place next to a dead tree that was acting as a start/finish post.

“Three, two, one… GO!”

The horses sprang into life, leaping from the line. Instantly Silmarillion was ahead – this was what he had been bred for, this was what he had been trained for, he knew exactly what to do and what was required of him, this was his home.

And yet also not. True, he had run every day of his life, but he had done so on race tracks – what the hell was this? Silmarillion lived in a world of smooth ground and evenly spaced jumps; he was not used to rocks strewing his path, he was not used to hard, dusty ground - none of this felt like a race to him. Catcher on the other hand had spent much of his life at the bottom of a steep slope away from the immaculately tended practice tracks. When Jody took him out riding it was through the rough landscape surrounding the stables, and while those rides might not be races, that did not mean that Catcher did not know how to run. He might not be as fast as Silmarillion, but this was where he was accustomed to running; and he did enjoy it.

The first lap was completed with Silmarillion leading all the way. But Catcher was closing the gap.

“What the hell’s wrong with you? You stupid horse!” Pete bawled at Silmarillion as the horse delicately picked his way around boulders and other obstacles like an obsessive compulsive avoiding cracks in the pavement.

Chris did not approve of yelling at horses but a little vocal encouragement might not be a bad thing. He leant forward to whisper in Catcher’s ear. “Look, I know this isn’t entirely your scene but this is for Jody. If you could find it in you to give it your best then I’d be eternally grateful.”

Whether the horse understood or not was hard to tell, but Chris felt sure that there was an extra burst of speed. Or perhaps it was simply that Catcher ran with the right attitude. He did not care about rocks, he ran straight through vegetation. He wasn’t in a race, he ran for the sheer joy of running. No one watching would have picked his form as being that of a winner, he ran with the gangly grace of a giraffe on stilts, but as they turned the corner into the final straight, he took the lead.

Suddenly Pete lashed out at Chris, a ham-sized fist catching him a glancing blow. Chris slipped in his saddle, losing one foot from its stirrup so he hung perilously, unable to steer, unable to see.

“It’s all you now Catcher!” He wasn’t sure if that would help but there was very little else he could do.

And as they passed the dead tree, it was Catcher by a nose.

Chris tumbled to the ground in a heap. He had won.

He rubbed the side of his head and looked across at the livid Pete. “I know we didn’t set the rules beforehand but I still consider that to be a little unsportsmanlike.”

“You think you’ve won?” Pete dismounted and strode towards him. Approaching at this speed there was no doubt that Pete was an imposing figure and Chris realized that, perhaps, meeting him alone in a ravine in the middle of nowhere had not been the best idea. This was a great place to dump a body - by the time he was found the vultures would have made him unidentifiable.

“I have won,” he chanced.

“So what are you gonna do?” asked Pete. “You gonna tell Jody I’m just dating her for her Uncle’s stable? She won’t believe you. You got any proof? Have you hell.”

“But that was the bet.” Perhaps it was a stupid thing to say but the idea of going back on a bet was unthinkable to Chris. Perhaps that was ironic, given that this week he had tried to seduce a girl to get a horse, but he had at least learnt the error of his ways since then.

“I don’t care.”

“You’re welching on the bet?”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Please leave Jody alone.” There was nothing he could do about it. But he couldn’t let her end up with Pete. “I’ll do anything. Just don’t break her heart.”

Pete’s expression changed. “You’re not after the stables at all are you? Dammit, you didn’t even want the horse. You actually love the girl.” He burst out laughing. “You stupid little pussy. Women are ten a penny and you were willing to give up everything for one? I can’t think of anything stupider you could do.”

“Think harder.”

The two men looked up to see a figure standing on the edge of the ravine: Jody.

“How long have you been there?” asked Pete, clearly wondering how much of this he could backpedal.

“Longer than you would like,” said Jody.

“I can explain…”

“You know what’s funny?” Jody skidded down the side of the ravine to join them. “When I found out Chris was just after Silmarillion, I cried my eyes out. When I find out that you’re just after my Uncle’s stable, I don’t feel a thing. How do you account for that?”

Pete spluttered but Jody kept talking.

“Doesn’t matter. You’re fired. Clean out your things when you get back. And I’d start now if I were you, it’s a long walk.”

For a moment it seemed that Pete might protest, but he clearly knew he was beaten. He trudged off, shoulders slumped.

Jody turned to Chris.

“How did you find us?” asked Chris.

“That’s your first question?” Jody shook her head. “You think I let Catcher get that far from me? I know wherever he goes.” She smiled at Chris. “I always knew he had a race in him.”

“Maybe you have a thing for runts?” said Chris, hopefully.

“Maybe I do.”

“Jody,” Chris swallowed awkwardly, “what Pete told you about me was true. I was only interested in Silmarillion. At first. Not for that long really. There was always something about you that…”

“Chris?”

“Yes.”

“Shut up.”

And she kissed him, which was enough to shut Chris up for quite a while.

They were riding back - Chris on Silmarillion, Jody on Catcher – when Jody finally spoke again. “We’re down a member of staff if you need a job. It’s hard work but it beats washing cars.”

“Thanks,” Chris nodded. “That’d be…” he ordered his thoughts. “Jody, maybe I’m missing something but… I’m still not sure how things are between us.”

“Well,” said Jody thoughtfully, “you still owe me dinner. We can discuss it then.”

Chris’s heart soared. It was a feeling he had only previously experienced after a big win, and this had been the biggest of his life.