Breaking Free (Thoroughbred Legacy #10) Read online

  “Dylan!” She grabbed his arms. “You shouldn’t be here!”

  Rain drenched her instantly, water sheening her face, plastering her hair and clothes to her body. His heart clutched sharply.

  “I didn’t come for you, Megan. I came for Heidi.”

  She looked confused “She’s…not here.”

  “You sure?”

  Thunder crashed and rolled into the hills. Wind gusted, lashing the rain at them.

  “Of course I’m sure.”

  He spun round, stared into the driving sheen of wind and rain. Where the hell was she? What game was she playing with him?

  He felt so incredibly alone in this moment.

  “Dylan—”

  He ignored her, making for his vehicle.

  But she ran after him, slamming her hand against the door of his truck as he tried to close it. “Talk to me Dylan! What happened?”

  “Heidi’s missing. Has been all day.” Emotion choked his voice. “Can’t find her anywhere.”

  “Have you checked Huntington Stud?”

  “Why would she—”

  “Because Zach’s there. She’s fourteen, Dylan. She thinks she’s in love, and she’s feeling rejected by her father. It’s where I would have gone. Maybe Zach is missing, too. Have you called there?”

  He felt like a complete idiot. He was a cop. It should’ve been one of the first places he looked. But as a father, he’d panicked, developed a blind spot. He looked up into Megan’s eyes, the rain coming down thick between them. “Phone lines are down. I’ll go there now—”

  “I’m coming.”

  “No. There’s a court order. So just stay the hell out of my life—”

  “I don’t give a damn about that injunction!” she yelled, refusing to let him close the door, rain streaming down her face and hair, plastering her shirt to her body. “This is my problem as much as yours! Heidi is my friend. I know her, I can talk to her. I can reason with her where you can’t. As much as you care for your daughter, you’re a stubborn ass, Dylan Hastings. And I care deeply about you both.” She paused. “I love you, dammit.”

  Dylan’s world tilted. He stared at her blankly for a moment, then cursed. “Get some gear!” he yelled, putting the car into Reverse.

  Megan raced into the garage, pulling her wet T-shirt up over her head as she made for the cupboards at the back. She had no idea why those words had come out of her mouth at that moment. All she knew was that they came straight from her heart. And it was true. She loved the obdurate hunk of cop, and she was suddenly determined not to let him get away. Ever. She frantically pulled out a mechanic’s shirt, yanking it over her head as she reached for an old oilskin and hat. Hopping on one foot she slid oversize bush boots onto her bare feet, and ran out to where Dylan had the car door open and engine running.

  He gunned the gas, tires biting into gravel before she even had the door closed.

  Dylan drove too fast, fiddling with his personal scanner as he tried to tune into the volunteer-firefighting frequencies. His radio crackled with sporadic reports of fresh lightning strikes as the big storm cell moved south. There was now also a flash flood warning.

  “You not on duty?” Megan asked, looking at his clothes.

  “Thanks to you.”

  She stared.

  “What? You people had no idea what your injunction would do to me?”

  “I know you’ve been taken off the case, but—”

  “Off the goddamn force. Pending internal investigation, I’m suspended. Thanks.”

  Megan’s stomach churned. Oh, God, she hadn’t expected him to be suspended off the bat.

  “It wasn’t my doing, Dylan! I told you to let Louisa go before this happened. I tried to warn you—”

  He swore as he swerved round a fallen tree trunk, tires slipping on the muddy road that led to the Huntington Stud farther up the Hunter River banks, farther into the wilder area of the Koongorra nature preserve that ran along the opposite bank.

  Where Liam had been killed.

  “You knew last night that Louisa was being moved, didn’t you? You sat there holding my hand, knowing what was going down while I damn well near proposed to you.”

  “I did not know it was going to come down last night. I only found out when I got back to Fairchild. Honest, Dylan. I was praying he wouldn’t get it through. I was—”

  He slammed on brakes as the bright eyes of a kangaroo reflected the headlights. Rain thrashed at the windscreen, wipers slashing to keep up, the night black as pitch.

  He breathed out.

  “Do you realize, Megan, that if your aunt is innocent there is still a killer out there who could come for her now?”

  She gripped the dash as he hit the gas again, tires spinning wildly in watery mud that ran in rippling sheets over the road. “Why would—”

  “Because whoever might be framing her for murder might also want his secret to die with her,” he said as he wheeled into the Huntington Stud driveway, bouncing over fresh ruts running with storm water. “I think this is much bigger than we all thought. Syndicate maybe.”

  “What!”

  He shot her a look. “Didn’t think of that, did you? And who’s protecting your aunt now? In that big manor house in a blackout storm with no phones? D’Angelo and his briefcase?”

  He pulled to a stop outside the Harrison staff house. Mrs. Harrison came dashing out, the umbrella over her head yanked by the wind, her face white in the light from the headlights. “Thank God you’re here, Sergeant! Zach and Heidi were seen crossing the river into the Koongorra this morning, and Zach’s horse just came back. Riderless!”

  Dylan got out of the car. “Which way did they go?”

  She pointed frantically down towards the rising river. “There’s a small bush trail right on the other side of the Hunter that Zach likes to ride. That’s where they were last seen on horseback this morning. I tried to call you when it started raining, but the lines went down.”

  “You send anyone after them?”

  “No! I didn’t know what to do—” She choked on her next words. “There’s no one left here. All the men have gone to fight the fires. Bill and Steve were the only grooms left, and they’ve taken the horses to higher ground because of possible flash flooding down here. I’m manning the radio dispatch myself with the phone lines down—”

  “You got any horses left we can use?”

  She nodded fast. “Down there at that shed. Two trail horses and saddles.”

  Dylan took Mrs. Harrison’s hand in both of his. He looked her direct in the eyes, rain drenching him. “Hang in there, Mrs. Harrison. I’ll find them.”

  “Oh, God, please, please find my boy.” Her eyes were glassy and frantic in her pale face.

  “I will, Mrs. Harrison. I will find Zach. Have faith.”

  And Megan loved him more than ever.

  She knew how distraught Dylan was himself, and the news of the riderless horse must have wound him even tighter.

  Yet he was able to give a caring touch to someone else in need, zeroing in on her child. Megan’s eyes burned. She loved this man, and they were going to find these kids, or she would die trying.

  And then she was going to find a way to be with him, here in the Hunter.

  If she’d learned anything from Louisa’s letters, she’d learned that some choices could not be undone. Time could not be rolled back.

  She was at a crossroads. A major one in her life.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The river was already swelling, rain driving at them, when Dylan and Megan crossed on horseback in the pitch dark with the aid of a flashlight. They negotiated a wide and rocky area where the water was still fairly shallow, and Megan hoped it would remain fordable on their return. Even if the water did rise several feet over the next few hours, it should spread wide at this point, as opposed to grow deep.

  They carefully picked their way up a steep path trickling with water, the gum forest closing around them, hooves sending loose stones skittering dow
n a ravine at the side.

  Lightning flashed, splitting the sky apart, starkly silhouetting Dylan on the horse ahead of her. Through the sheets of rain cascading from the brim of her hat, Megan kept her focus on his solid shape. Thunder rumbled a few seconds later—the centre of the storm closing in fast.

  Dylan’s two-way radio crackled, and she heard him speaking.

  “What is it?” she yelled, the wind rushing through the high tops of the gum forest sounding like a freight train now, cracking off branches that crashed through brush to the ground.

  “Backburn didn’t work! Evacuation orders are being issued for the Upper Hunter,” he yelled back to her. “Fire is moving in from the northeast, joining with the Koongorra fires. If the wind switches again, it’ll crest over the ridge—we’re in for a mega-fire!”

  She could smell thicker smoke now, acrid in the wetness. She almost imagined she could hear the distant roar and crackle over the ridge, or was that the wind in the trees?

  Panic wedged into her chest. She knew how fast these monster fires could move, devouring every living thing in their path. But she tightened her grip on the reins, impelling her horse forward, fighting her own urge to flee as the trail narrowed upward, and into the path of danger.

  Scanning the ground up ahead with the beam of his flashlight, Dylan called out periodically for Heidi and Zach.

  Then suddenly he saw it—a piece of shredded yellow plastic fluttering in the branch of a pine that hung low over the trail.

  His heart kicked.

  He quickly dropped down from his saddle to examine the strip. It was from a supermarket bag—the kind they gave out at the Pepper Flats Mini Mart. The kind he had at home. His pulse quickened.

  Holding the reins of his horse with one hand, he carefully panned the dark glistening area under the trees with his torch. His beam lit on another bit of plastic. Same yellow. Same size.

  This strip had clearly been tied to the tree, the branches and understory crushed and broken as if a small freight train had gone barreling through.

  Frowning, Dylan directed his flashlight farther into the black bush…and saw fine strands of long blond hair snagged in some twigs, blowing in the wind.

  Blood thudded into his ears, old memories crashing down on him, hurtling him back to the time he’d led police into an area not far from here in search of his brother. His stomach constricted sharply at the sudden flashback to how they’d found Liam. Sweat broke out under his hat. Hot. Prickling over his skin.

  Lightning cracked above them again, and his horse whinnied, jerking back. He tightened his fist around the reins. Focus, damn it!

  He had to believe.

  He’d told Zach’s mother to have faith. He had to hold on to that too. He knew from his law-enforcement experience just how powerful hope could be.

  Megan dismounted, came to his side, touched his shoulder.

  He glanced up at her.

  Rain dripped from her hat and she was dwarfed by the huge outback coat, so far removed from the golden art dealer in the champagne convertible. A woman standing right here with him. At his side. In the dark wilderness. When he’d stood so alone for so many years. His radio crackled again, disjointed voices saying the blazes were converging several miles out.

  They didn’t have much time.

  He stood, took her shoulders. “I want you to go back, Megan,” he said. “The fire—”

  She shook her head. “No. You need me.”

  He did.

  He needed her more than she’d ever know. The macho cop was scared to death about what he’d find, how he’d deal. Just her presence was giving him courage. But he couldn’t risk her life.

  “Megan,” he said firmly. “I’m ordering you to go back.”

  “You can’t order me, so don’t waste time trying. Let’s find them. Then we go back.”

  She was dead serious. But he could not be responsible for hurting or losing her, too.

  “Megan—”

  “You’re wasting precious time, Dylan.” A jagged fork of lightning speared the ground not far from them, thunder exploding mere seconds later, the centre of the storm hovering closer. Wind gusted, scattering a shower of thick raindrops at them. “I’m not leaving, so let’s move.”

  The horses danced nervously, pulling back, whinnying. But Megan held her mount steady and stared Dylan directly in the eyes, and he loved her more than anything.

  She was right about one thing.

  He’d been strangling the very things he loved most by trying to hold on to them too tightly. He’d been inadvertently pushing his kid to do something like this. And looking into Megan’s face in the storm, he made a silent pact—if he found his child unharmed, he vowed to change. He would ease up on the reins. He would give her more freedom. He’d find a way to send her to Brookfield. He would learn to compromise. And he would do whatever it took to win Megan back. Even if that meant taking it slow.

  He’d visit her in Sydney on weekends when he visited Heidi. He’d be open-minded about his career. He’d look into new opportunities in the city. He’d do it all, if he could find his child safe. Because now he knew what he really stood to lose.

  And all he wanted was a second chance.

  A chance to make it right.

  “Heidi should have left me a note,” he said, voice snagging in his throat. “If I’d allowed her more freedom, then she’d have been more open, told me where—”

  Megan placed her hand on his cheek. “We’ll find her.”

  He nodded, trying to swallow the burn in his throat.

  “There! Look!” She pointed suddenly as another flash of lightning threw the forest into stark relief.

  He angled his flashlight under the branches to where she was pointing, saw another piece of shredded plastic. And a few yards farther, where the ground dropped sharply away into a narrow ravine area dense with scrub, was another shred of glistening yellow.

  Someone had tied the markers along what appeared to be a barely discernible track down into the ravine. His heart kicked hard.

  Was it Heidi? Zach? Were they down there in the ravine, hurt, unable to move? He thought of the riderless horse.

  Why on earth would they have tried to negotiate this section down to the gorge?

  Not risking the horses on this terrain, Dylan and Megan led their mounts on foot, picking their way carefully down the narrow switchback that grew dense with eucalyptus and olive trees tangled with weeds, morning glory, balloon vines, and toxic scrub as they got closer to the river that snaked down in the gorge.

  Then they heard it—a horse.

  Dylan’s heart began to thump. He discerned the shape of the saddled animal in the trees, the whites of its eyes stark. The animal was terrified. It was tethered to a branch just off the narrow trail.

  Another shred of plastic fluttered down to the left of the horse where the ground dipped even more sharply.

  Megan moved forward immediately to placate the mare, smoothing the animal’s neck with her hand. “Give me your horse, Dylan,” she said. “Go ahead while I secure the horses here. I have a flashlight. I’ll follow you down.”

  Dylan hunched low, thorn and scrub scratching at his back and face as he followed more pieces of plastic lower into the ravine.

  The incline grew even steeper. “Heidi! Zach!” he yelled, his voice drowned by the wind, the sound of water now reaching him from the gorge.

  He half slid, half crawled, cut by thorns. How in hell had she come down here? Why? Where was she? Was the plastic even hers? “Heidi!”

  Thunder boomed simultaneously with a lightning strike, the storm directly above, the wind a crashing sound. Another heavy branch smashed through the undergrowth, just glancing off his shoulder. Pain thrummed in him. Dylan stilled for a second, swore. A few inches closer and it could have bloody killed him. Then he saw two huddled forms. “Heidi!”

  She waved. “Over here, Dad! Help!”

  Relief punched violently through him as he slid and scrambled down to her.


  “Dad. Oh, God, Dad, I knew you would come. I just knew it!” She flung her arms around his neck, shivering and wet and white. “Zach’s hurt. He broke his leg, badly. His horse spooked at a snake while we were coming down the ravine. He fell, but got caught in the stirrup, and the horse came down on him, crushing his leg.” She was shaking violently. “I…I left a trail…with the plastic…I thought I should stay with him…that you would come.”