Blood and Roses (Holly Jennings Thriller) by A.K. Alexander Page B

thought about Elena’s filly, Karma’s Revenge, and wondered if there was truly such a thing as karma. If so, was Tieg’s murder karma or was it revenge?
    O’Leary didn’t know what to think at this point as he tried to compose all of his memories onto the notepad and computer.
    Back in the day, when in Lexington, O’Leary had agreed to exercise some of Tieg’s horses. The pay to exercise horses wasn’t great considering the purses he was winning, but O’Leary knew enough at the time to understand that relationships in any business were what really counted. He figured that maintaining a good relationship with Hollywood could be to his advantage. He never imagined that it would take the twist that it did.
    O’Leary started realizing that things weren’t so kosher after a few weeks had gone by and he hadn’t been paid.
    He’d asked one of the grooms about it. A guy he had sort of befriended.
    Ted Ivy.
    Ted was an odd cat in some ways. But he seemed to really love the horses. He was good with them. Had good instincts.
    But the others around Tieg’s place treated the poor guy shitty, so O’Leary took pity on him. They had shared some beers here and there and talked shit.
    The day that everything changed at Tieg’s farm, O’Leary remembered handing Dirty Games—he had nicknamed him Sucio, meaning dirty in Spanish—over to Ivy, who put the horse in the wash rack and started rinsing him. “Want to wash Sucio up, man?”
    Ivy nodded. “I got him. Love this horse. You’re a lucky bastard. He’s a real good boy.”
    “That he is, and that I am.” O’Leary grabbed a couple of Coronas, which he’d noticed was Ivy’s drink of choice, from the stocked fridge in the barn office. He waited to give the guy the beer until he put the horse up. It was only noon, but the horses were done for the day, and neither Tieg nor Laugherty was in town.
    A spring breeze blew through the aisle, carrying with it the scents of fresh-cut grass and earth. O’Leary handed Ivy the beer as he closed the horse up in the stall. “Oh man, I don’t know if I should take this now,” he’d said. “It’s only lunchtime and since Laugherty fired the security guards last week, I’m taking the night shift.”
    O’Leary laughed. “Come on, no one is here to give you shit. I certainly won’t say a word. Take a nap in a bit and then you’ll be good as new.”
    “Gershon is still here.”
    “Who’s that?”
    “The other guy who exercises the horses.”
    “That pissant. Come on, Ivy, don’t worry about it. I’ll take the heat if there’s an issue.”
    Ivy took the beer and smiled. “Thanks.”
    They talked for a while about how great the horse was, and how Tieg had no idea of the caliber of animals inside his barn. And how Laugherty was kind of an asshole.
    “I don’t like him very much,” Ivy said after sucking down the beer. O’Leary had been accommodating and grabbed two more from the office.
    “He’s kind of brusque. I don’t think he’s always fair with the animals,” O’Leary commented.
    Ivy nodded. “That bugs me. I seen him beat one or two around here.”
    “Right.” O’Leary’s stomach tightened. He’d grown up around horses. His family had always had a backyard horse. And one thing heknew was that although an animal needed to understand boundaries, it was very, very rare that one ever needed to be beaten. Beating was for a horse who aimed to kill you. Those horses were out there, for sure, but they were few and far between. And O’Leary’s take on that kind of horse was that it was far more humane to put a needle in his neck than beat the shit out of him and hope for the best.
    As far as he was concerned, there was no need to beat any of the animals in Laugherty’s care.
    “I don’t mean to get into anyone’s business, but have you been paid lately?”
    Ivy shook his head. “No man. I haven’t been paid in almost two months.”
    That had been longer than O’Leary had seen a check. He whistled.