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his throat. “I'll prepare the
    paperwork.” He turned his attention to Jenna. “You
    understand you’ll have to sign a release that you're
    discharging yourself against my better judgment?”
    Jenna gave a quick nod.
    “I’ll send someone in to help you dress.”

    ****
Rye strode through the hospital doors to the parking
    lot, cursing himself for his impulsive action. His plans for
    Jenna didn't include being her nursemaid. Somehow he'd
    been drawn into her life through no fault of hers. Had he
    endangered her life by firing Dimitri?
    Hills' questioning irritated him. He resented the cop's
    implications that Dimitri hung himself because he'd been
    fired. He'd told Hills the truth. Dimitri had been acting
    strange for months. The cops should be investigating why.
    Pink fingers of dawn stretched into the sky as he
    climbed into the Pathfinder and drove to the front of the
    hospital where Jenna waited with a beefy-looking orderly,
    who assisted her into the passenger seat. The man rolled
    his eyes at Rye, mouthed the words ‘good luck’ and closed
    the door. Great. She must have been practicing her nasty
    act. When Jenna’s fingers fumbled with the seat belt, Rye
    reached across the seat to help. She snapped at him. “I
    can do it.”
    Christ, they hadn't even left the hospital grounds,
    and she'd already pissed him off. He clenched his teeth
    and decided to ignore her.
    Until her next words pushed him over the edge.
    “I'll give you directions to my house. You can drop me
    off.” Rye took a right and gunned the engine. The tires
    squealed, surprising him as much as his passenger.
    “You're coming with me. Tomorrow, you can go home. And
    don't,” he turned his head and glared at her, “you dare say
    another word.”
    Her body stiffened, but she kept quiet. Rye relaxed
    and concentrated on driving.
    “Do you blame yourself?”
    The softly asked question several minutes later
    18

    Dead Heat
    caught him off-guard. “What?”
    She looked at him as if he were the devil incarnate.
    “Do you blame yourself for Dimitri's death?”
    “No. Why should I?” He was damn tired of people
    making him out to be the villain. First the police and now
    Jenna. Christ. He had no idea why Dimitri hanged
    himself. The questioned nagged at his brain. The man
    could’ve found other owners willing to hire him and built
    his own stable of horses in no time. Leaving Rye's barn
    wouldn't have harmed his career.
    Yet, guilt poked at his conscience. Could he have
    prevented it if he’d dug more deeply into Dimitri’s
    problems?
    “You fired him.”
    “I fire a lot of people. Dimitri's the first one to commit
    suicide. Besides, I don’t think that's why he did it.”
    He turned the SUV onto US 60. Traffic was light, so
    he settled back and enjoyed the view of fields of bluegrass
    and miles of gentle, sloping countryside. They'd be at the
    farm in less than fifteen minutes. He pondered the
    strange note found on Dimitri's body.
    He glanced over at his passenger. She leaned against
    the door, her face pale. “Are you okay? Want me to pull
    over?”
    She shook her head. “I keep seeing Dimitri dangling
    from that rope. It doesn't make sense. Why knock me out?
    Why not just wait till I left and then do it? Why pick my
    tack room in the first place?”
    Rye had asked himself those same questions. “I don't
    know. Perhaps we'll never know.”
    “What did you think about the note the police found
    in Dimitri's pocket?”
    The lady read his mind. “It's not really a note. More
    like a list of sorts.” ‘Win, ransacked, sluttish, maniac’. The
    words played in his head. Just a bunch of words, or
    something more sinister? Win could be racetrack related.
    Maniac sure as hell described Dimitri. Ransacked and
    sluttish meant diddlysquat to him.
    When he glanced at Jenna, her eyes were closed, her
    lips slightly parted. She looked sexy as hell. His groin
    tightened, and he wanted to run his thumb over her full
    bottom lip as he’d done in