Wild Horses (25 page)

Smoothing his brow to conceal a frown, Kai pressed a glass of orange juice into Attila’s hand, and watched Attila sip some. “If it is the West Nile virus, there is a low probability for me to get truly ill. It will just pass. There is nothing the doctors could do for it anyway. If I come down with migraine headaches, I’ll call Dr. Russo. However, it is just as likely that I contracted a common cold in the movie theater last week.”

“You went to see a movie?” Rita asked. “What did you see?”

“Some action movie….” Attila closed his eyes, then sipped more orange juice.

“It was truly awful,” Kai added, hoping to cover for Attila. “The only redeeming value of that outing was a chocolate milk shake afterward.”

“What did you have, ’Tila?” Rita asked. “You don’t generally like sweets.”

“I made an exception… it was dark chocolate, with mint.”

Rita nodded. “I see.” She focused her attention onto her plate. “This is very good, Kai.” Rita was off to make conversation again.

“Uh… thanks.” Kai’s eyes slid to Attila’s plate, where the food was cooling, barely touched. He frowned. When they all finished and Tibor’s family left, and once Attila was settled down in bed with a bottle of Gatorade by his side and an ice pack on his forehead, Kai turned on Attila’s computer. It was time to ask Dr. Google.

“I
AM
fine. It’s just aches and pains,” Attila objected. His fever was down to one hundred in the morning. “I have gotten up to feed the horses feeling worse than this before.”

“I thought you never get sick,” Kai countered.

“I seldom get sick. And I am not truly sick—it’s just a virus. They come, they go.”

Kai rushed ahead, unwilling to plod along with his stubborn and exhausted boss. The way he saw it, if he got a head start at the stables, there would be less work to do and the ornery man would visit his four-legged friends and go back to bed where he belonged.

He was done filling the mangers with hay by the time Attila dragged himself up the hill. Kai spared him a brief look. “You look like shit, like you’re totally exhausted.”

Attila collapsed on a bale of hay, breathing hard. “I have no business being tired. I took a cold shower in the morning and I gargled with salt.”

“Yeah. I looked up what you have on the Internet. Expect to feel like shit for a week, maybe a bit longer. It should resolve itself, though. Unless you get those headaches and a stiff neck.”

Attila nodded.

“Is there a reason why you won’t call Dr. Russo today?” Kai asked, pushing the cart with grain before him and pouring carefully measured doses into the horses’ feed buckets.

“Because there is nothing he can do.”

“He can find out what you have for sure, just in case.”

Attila bristled. “Do you know what they do to find out? They stick a big, fat needle between your vertebrae. I am not having my back damaged on account of your paranoia.”

K
AI
finished pouring grain into feed buckets. Then he pulled out the water hose and opened each stall door to top off the water buckets. He would have said hello to each horse, but they were busy eating, and besides, getting Attila back to the house was his overriding priority. He had not missed the occasional shiver Attila tried to suppress.

Attila was beyond grumpy. He had mentioned that his head hurt and his muscles ached before, and now he was hot to the touch again. Kai understood his need to remain tough and obstinate, and he decided to choose his battles wisely. Currently, he was doing his best to get him undressed and between the freshly changed sheets.

“I hate when you do this,” Attila complained. “If you try to get me to stay in bed, at least you could offer some kind of an incentive.”

Kai flashed him a wolfish grin over a glass of water and two Advil. “Would that keep you from sneaking out of bed?”

Attila swallowed the pills, and shrugged. “There is only one way to find out.”

“Well, then.” Kai checked the thermometer. Attila’s fever was back to 102.8.

“Let’s get you undressed and we’ll see what I can do to motivate you to behave.”

Attila responded to Kai’s touch despite the fever and headache. He gasped as Kai slid his cool hands down his sides and between his thighs. And when Kai employed his sensuous lips and his wet, slippery mouth, he felt Attila’s fingers plunge into Kai’s mane of hair and just go with it, enjoying the ride. Attila’s shuddering climax seemed to have left him spent—and it also provoked heavy sweat. Kai noticed, too. He drank a glass of water, then wiped Attila’s clammy forehead with a cool, wet washcloth.

“I think we found a way to break your fever,” he said with a grin as he wielded the thermometer. Attila gave him a tired smile, but at least his temperature was down to 99 degrees for a while.

“I feel a lot better,” Attila declared. “I should go do something constructive.”

“Go take a shower,” Kai advised, and was surprised when Attila did just that. Within an hour, his fever was back. His new method of bringing it down seemed to have certain built-in limitations.

Kai waited until Attila was asleep for at least half an hour before he picked up his new cell phone. He dialed one of the few numbers he stored in its memory.

“Hal?” He kept his voice quiet, even though he was all the way across the house. “Yeah, it’s me… no, he’s not doing very well. He’s as stubborn as a mule. Listen… that Dr. Russo, he’s his doctor too, right? Do you have his number?”

K
AI
made himself lunch and ate it before going up to the barn. He had to work several horses in Attila’s absence, and his prime directive was not to fall and get hurt with nobody else around. The usual staff was not scheduled to work that day, and Kai considered making a few phone calls to summon extra help. Then he decided against it—being able to do it all by himself would prove an interesting challenge.

Sen came first. Attila’s horse tolerated Kai and accepted his treats, but Kai had never ridden him without his special human’s watchful presence. This time, Attila would not be there to remind the horse to behave. He brought all the tack and opened the door to Sen’s stall. “Hey, dude. Hey, Sen, baby. It’s your turn today, and your buddy is a bit under the weather, so you’re stuck with me, okay?”

The horse turned its brown eyes at him, the skin right above his eye ridge crinkling into a worry line. Sensational Snowfall allowed Kai to tack him up, and he permitted Kai to lead him to the arena and mount. Yet when Kai pressed his legs against Sen’s sides, the gelding saw no compelling reason to move.

“C’mon, Sen! This is for your own good.” Kai dug his heels into the white flanks, hard. The horse took a few grudging steps, and Kai loosened the reins immediately, rewarding him. “There you go. Just go around a few times.” He transferred the reins into his left hand, using his right to scratch the horse’s brushed-out mane. “Yeah… there we go!”

He rode the hesitant beast through his usual warm-ups and sped up to a trot, working on his own posting and balancing exercises. Standing in the stirrups, he was leading the horse in a tight, speedy circle in the arena when Hal and Brent walked in. Kai slowed down and walked Sen over to them. “Hi, guys.” He was loath to admit it, but he was happy to see help had arrived.

“I see you got started. That’s good. Did you get the stalls clean yet?” Hal sounded pissy, eyeing the brazen redhead astride his uncle’s horse.

“No… I figured I’d get Sen, Cayenne, and Dusty worked and turn them out together and do their stalls afterward, and so on. I should be done with these guys before Dr. Russo shows up. He knows where to find me.”

“Well, the way I see it, you can have Cayenne all to yourself.” Brent grinned. He looked down at the clipboard, eyeing the exercise schedule. “Effie hasn’t been ridden in two days. You have any plans for her?”

“Not really,” Kai admitted. “I was just going to lunge her ’cause I’ve never ridden her.”

“I’ll take her,” Brent said. “She’s one of Mona’s.”

“I’ll take Cooper,” Hal said, not missing a beat.

“What, wait… you’re riding?” Kai gave him a dubious look, trying to detect any signs of weakness in Hal’s formerly broken back. “You’re not speeding things up, are you?”

Hal shrugged. “The x-rays looked good. I’ll go easy. I’ll need to get my legs back, anyway.”

Kai frowned. “If you fall, your mom ’n’ dad are gonna kill me. Not to mention Attila.”

“Oh yeah?” Hal’s chin became suddenly quite prominent and his bearing reminiscent of his impressive father. “And who died and made you God? We’ve been running this place for Uncle ’Tila for the last few years whenever he’s gone. You don’t know squat. So shaddap and stick to mucking out.”

“Whatever.” Stung, Kai turned Sen away from the two and asked him to canter, and to his utter delight, the horse complied. His gait was butter-smooth and increasing in speed as they circled the arena. In not too long, Kai tightened his fingers a bit, signaling him to slow down. The gesture worked. Relieved, Kai loosened Sen’s reins again, rewarding him, letting him run some more. A few rounds later, they transitioned into a trot. When Kai felt Sen might be done, they walked. The horse needed to be cooled off, and Kai kicked his feet out of the stirrups as Attila had instructed him to do, stretching his legs and feeling the minute shifts of the broad back beneath him.

“And never let the stirrups dangle against their sides….”

Hearing the echo of Attila’s voice in his head, Kai bent low and retrieved first one stirrup, then the other, crossing their straps in front of the saddle. Sen slowed down some more. Two more circuits of walking and Kai would saddle up Cayenne and hope for the best.

“So shaddap and stick to mucking out.”

Hal’s harsh words got him riled up all over again. He’d finally felt like he belonged, and then something like this happened. Hal was only being territorial—yet Kai felt a keen sense of responsibility for the well-being of Attila’s charges in his absence.

He dismounted Sen and led him to the middle of the barn, then put him in cross-ties and untacked him. His hands followed a series of movements that now felt automatic and efficient; his previous fumbling with all the straps and buckles that comprised the headdress felt as though it had happened a long time ago. “Yeah, dude. Good horse. You did great. You were nice to me. Here… have some apple.” Kai brushed Sen out, picked his hooves, and let him loose in the paddock.

Then he saddled Cayenne and put on his soft rope halter and reins and communed with him for a while, making nice. By the time he made it back to the arena, both brothers were already walking their horses around, warming up. Embarrassed on account of Hal’s earlier words, Kai chose to ignore them, running Cayenne through his playful paces instead with the knowledge that he’d need to reserve at least ten minutes at the end to reward the stallion with a game of equine soccer.

Halfway through his workout, the phone rang in his pocket. Kai sat back, communicating disinterest and a heavy load, making Cayenne slow to a walk. He fished the device out of his pocket. “Dr. Russo? Yeah… I’m up in the barn, riding. I have to cool the horse off, but I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Make yourself at home. Attila’s probably still asleep.”

Hal circled toward him. “That the doctor?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll go down and take care of it.”

Kai gave him the most innocent look. “Oh, would you? That’s great, ’cause Attila doesn’t know Dr. Russo is coming.”

Hal’s panicked expression was worth a thousand words. “You… you stupid fuck. You didn’t!”

“I did.”

“Against his express orders?”

“Attila didn’t give me any express orders. He was in no condition to do so, anyway.” Kai shrugged. “I know I should just stick to muckin’ out, but you know me… dumb as rocks, I am. Besides, I’m not interested in receiving Attila’s ashes in a box.” The last words flew out of his mouth of their own accord.

“You didn’t say Attila was that bad!”

Kai felt tightness in his throat and his eyes threatened to sting. An image of a still, blonde carcass on the floor of the dim stall filled his mind again. “It’s not usually fatal in humans,” he choked out before he turned his back on Hal and dismounted. He could lose Attila. The thought terrified him. He could lose the rare smile, the crinkle around the blue-gray eyes, the delicious and barely suppressed gasp of ecstasy. He could lose the deft fingers combing through his unruly hair, the endless kisses, the shared milk shakes and wine. Suddenly, the air felt cold, reminding Kai of the clammy river mist in the wee hours of the morning when he used to huddle on the old loading dock.

Kai shuddered as he led Cayenne into a smaller outdoor arena seldom used for riding. He gave the ball a soft kick, rolling it in the direction of the horse.

Cayenne ignored it. He came to Kai and whickered.

“The ball, Cayenne. Where’s the ball?”

A soft nose pressed against his chest, and Kai gave in and embraced his warm neck, noting its temperature was within normal range. He took a deep breath, centering himself as though on horseback.

“Alright, Cayenne. Not today… there’s a lot going on, I guess.” He scratched the horse’s chest, grateful for his comforting presence. It took all he had to pull away from Cayenne’s warm solidity before he fed the horse a slice of apple and took him to the big paddock and let him loose with Sen. Kai headed down the worn path through the grass toward the house.

Kai kicked his shoes off by the door and walked into the kitchen, where Dr. Russo sat in a chair, browsing on his laptop. “Hi! Thank you for coming.” Kai washed his hands at the sink before he accepted the other man’s handshake.

Dark brown eyes regarded him for a short moment. “You look a lot better than last time I saw you. You’re Kai Alewright, right?”

“Yeah. Thanks for coming out that time, too.”

“That’s what I do. So… about Attila. Let’s see him.”

Kai cleared his throat. “Just… just so you know, he might not be pleased to see you. He was claiming he was okay, but we had a horse die of the West Nile virus just yesterday and the pond water is still being tested, so….”