Kris sat in the back of Sheik O's limo next to him as he made phone calls to various clients about business meetings and barely glanced up when he suddenly leapt out of the car and walked towards Dani's. She heard Dani screaming at O, then him shouting at her, and then both of them came back over and climbed into the car. Dani made a disgusted face as she glanced at Kris sitting next to her. "What are you doing here?"
"I honestly have no idea," said Kris. Then as the limo sped off, the two girls sat next to each other in silence.
"Hey, is that Junior's car we just saw go past?" said Kris.
"Yeah," said Dani. "He must be worried sick about us. Or at least you, since obviously he doesn't care about me at all."
Kris's cell phone buzzed and she flipped it open to check. "Don't tell me Matt's trying to call you again," said Danni. "That's like twenty times in one hour."
"Twenty-seven, but who's counting?" said Kris. "Actually, that was a text from Pablo. He wants to talk to me in a few days."
"Don't even think about calling either of them," said Shiek. "Or Junior, or anybody else. In fact, it might be best of you would just give me your phone right now. Remember, this will only work if no one knows where you are." Kris bit her lip, shut her phone off, and hesitantly handed it to Sheik O. "I promise you, I can get you back your family, your home, your horse, your life, everything. Just trust me."
"I don't want my family back," mumbled Dani bitterly.
"And I never said I'd do a damn thing for you," said O, looking at her frankly. "I said we had some business to discuss."
"Hey, I told you, I've suffered just as much as she has in all of this!" yelled Dani.
"Because you're the one who blew the whistle," said O. "I had everything under control, and you brought this on yourself and all of us, so don't you dare come crying to me."
"Where are we going?" asked Kris quietly. She hadn't felt this uncertain about her life since the day Pablo had brought her to live at Raintree.
"There's a little place I own called Desert Springs," said Shiek O. "I'm taking you both there to stay while we sort this whole thing out. No one will know where you girls are except me and all my employees." Then he turned to Kris. "Six months should be time enough for the dust to settle and for me to arrange for your comeback."
"Wait a second," said Dani. "You're telling me that I have to stay somewhere with her alone for six months?" Kris suddenly looked up with a horrified glance.
Sheik tightened his jaw. "Dani, please don't talk until we get to my airport."
Since that same day he had also as much as said that he could guarantee that they wouldn't get in trouble for running the match race, Kris and Dani were both a little bit nervous about trusting them. But like he'd said, they had absolutely nothing to lose.
"Hey, Kris? KRIS!"
"Huh?" she woke with a start. She was sitting next to Dani on board Sheik's private plane. Everything that happened came back to her in a rush. The match race. The racing board taking her license. Jean kicking her out of Raintree. Her breaking up with Matt…
"We're about to land," said Dani.
"Thanks," mumbled Kris. She sat up and pulled on her seatbelt.
"Look at this place!" said Dani.
Kris's jaw dropped when she glanced out the window where Dani was looking.
"Is that a barn or a mansion?" asked Kris.
"I don't know…" said Dani. The enormous building they were looking at looked from the top like it was a mansion, but it was surrounded on all sides with green pastures with horses in them. "Whatever it is, it sure makes Davis Farms and Raintree look like the dumps that they are."
That made Kris feel sad all over again, and she knew that it made Dani feel sad, too. She wondered why Dani had left. It wasn't as if Ken and Junior could kick her out after she took the fall for them. Then she remembered what an angry person Dani was and it made sense.
"Good morning," said Shiek Omar. "Did you ladies sleep well?" He sat down next to them and put on a seatbelt.
"Yeah, thanks," said Kris.
"Okay, I guess," said Danni. "Where are we?"
"At my place, of course," said Shiek. "Where else?"
The plane slowly coasted to a stop, bringing into full view the beautiful garden surrounding the mansion that almost made it look normal. But each window had a horse's head sticking out of it, and the stalls opened out into luscious green pastures.
"This is your barn?" asked Kris.
"It's my house," said O. "The horses just happen to live on the first floor. Come on, I'll show you both around."
"To say that this place is incredible would be an understatement," Kris admitted after having seen some of the first floor of Shiek's house. The two longest outside walls were lined with stalls, and in the middle there was one area for the servants' apartments, a huge tack room, a huge feed room, and several areas for exercising the horses.
"Glad you think so," said O. "I designed it myself. Why don't you look over there?"
"Here?" said Kris. Confused, she wandered in the direction of a stall he was pointing to that seemed to be empty. Suddenly, a tiny chestnut head peeked up over the door. "Flame!"
"Gillian sold him to me," said O. "You'll see a few more familiar faces around here as well. Jean sold all the horses to me but Wildfire." Before Kris could say anything, Sheik O pressed a button that caused an elevator door to open. "You can look around more later. For now I'll show you where you'll be staying." He pressed the elevator button and opened it so that they could all get on. "Oh, before I get, here are some maps in case you get lost."
Danni opened hers right away. Kris barely noticed Danni's smile get bigger and her eyes grow wider with every second that she continued to look at the map. Any other day, Kris probably would have been just as excited. But today, all she wanted was to be waking up back at Raintree, in the bunkhouse with Matt, kiss him good morning, maybe eat breakfast up at the big house with him, Jean, and Todd, go down to the barn, and get Wildfire ready for a ride.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. "Okay Kris, your suite is over there to the left, Dani, yours is right next to it. You're both welcome to use the pool, the movie theater, or whatever else you want. If you have any questions, just ask one of the servants. They're supposed to be awake in about six minutes and thirty seven and a half seconds."
"Where are you going?" asked Kris.
"Come on, Dani," said O without really answering the question.
Once they'd gotten away ten feet down the hall, a servant of O's walked up to him. "Good morning, Mr. O'Hattan." Sheik O gave him the look. "Sorry. O. Welcome back. I have some rather important messages waiting for you."
"Dani, go wait in my office," said O. He walked off, somewhat rudely, with the servant, motioning to a room behind glass doors with brass handles. Dani entered the office carefully, noticing that the floor was made of plexie glass and underneath there was an aquarium. The whole office was filled with artifacts that looked like they were from all over the world, and the large hand-carved wooden desk was covered in trophies.
Suddenly, Dani noticed what else was on the desk: bills of sale of every single one of Raintree's horses, two of Davis's horses, and Flame. She was gawking at the numbers when O walked back in.
"Please stop looking at my papers," he snapped.
"You bought all those horses for half a million dollars apiece?" said Dani. "Most of them aren't worth half that much!"
"I did as compensation for Matt, Junior, and Gillian because I promised we wouldn't get caught and we did," said O. "Again, thanks to you. Since Kris doesn't own anything valuable but lost everything that really matters to her, it's going to take a bit more time to fix things for her."
Dani sighed. "Look, I'm really sorry that we got caught and you lost so much money, but…"
"I don't care about the money," O interrupted. "I care about why you called the police to stop the race."
"I was trying to save my own ass, okay?" snapped Dani. "Can you blame me? And if you haven't noticed, it didn't work."
"Are you sure you didn't do it to get rid of me?" asked O.
"Of course not!" said Dani. "Why would I do that? I was about to sign a multimillion dollar deal with you."
"Because you noticed I think you're hot?" said O, stepping slightly closer to her.
Dani froze. "I…you seriously think I'd blow a massive business deal for a reason like that?"
"Glad to hear you didn't," said O. "And by the way, I still think you're hot." He stroked her cheek with his right hand.
"You brought me out here to try and seduce me, didn't you?" said Dani.
"Do you seriously think I'd give you a ride on my private jet and bring you to my private estate for a reason like that?" asked O. "No. I brought you out here because as long as you're out of a job anyway, I'd like to hire you to be my office manager. You would live here, attend teleconferences in my place with clients, investors and the like, and field phone calls. Your monthly income would be in the six figures."
"Sounds tempting," said Dani. "But I only work for people who I can trust."
"And I only hire people who I can trust," said O. "You get a week to think about it. In the meantime, enjoy the estate. I have to go take off now. Business meeting in Kentucky." Then without a proper goodbye, he left.
Dani made her way over to the bedroom she knew she'd be staying in next to Kris's.
Both rooms looked like they came out of some exotic five star hotel. The bedding, curtains, and other things in their rooms were of the finest quality-but none of them looked like they were bought in the same country. They also each had their own bathroom with a shower and with a hot tub instead of a bathtub.
Danni flopped down on her French featherbed and turned on the big screen TV. This was much better than the TV back at Davis Farms. This room was much better than her room back at Davis farms. Then she grinned "Junior or Dad would kill to be here right now," she mumbled to herself as she sank down into her fluffy mattress. "Their lives suck compared to mine now. They're the ones who are suffering."
In her room, Kris sat down in a huge fluffy armchair and closed her eyes. In her mind she was out on the track with Wildfire and Matt. Maybe Matt was reading her mind, although for once, she didn't need him to. She knew exactly what she was thinking: that all she wanted was to be back at Raintree. She couldn't imagine being or belonging anyplace else.
It was business as usual back at Davis Farms-at least as far as Ken Davis went. Junior was constantly off with Gillian, driving that Porsche all around the state looking for Kris and Dani. "Hey, son where are you going this time?"
"I wish I knew," said Junior.
"Look, this is getting ridiculous," said Ken. "They're not dead, okay? They're big girls, they'll come back eventually, and in the meantime, we have a race to prepare for."
"No, you have a race to prepare for," said Junior. "I have to go look for my sister and Kris, and Gillian's in the car waiting."
"Wait!" said Ken. Junior ignored him and was out the door. Ken sighed. Just when he finally thought that Junior was home for good, this had to happen. Of all the girls Junior had to suddenly be spending all his time with, why Gillian? Gillian, who's father still wanted to turn Davis Farms into condos and a shopping mall!
Oh well. Better her than Kris.
"Hey, Pablo?" said Ken. "I'm sending some guys to the tack store, do you need anything?"
"Hold on one second," said Pablo. "Sorry, just leaving another message on Kris's answering machine."
"Oh god, not you too," mumbled Ken. Just then, he saw the Raintree truck pulling up. Jean got out and came over. "Hey Ken, how are you?"
"Ah, I'm okay," said Ken. "Both my kids are being stubborn, but that's nothing new."
"Know what that feels like," said Jean quickly. "Mine just took over Raintree."
"What?" said Pablo.
"Yeah, you heard me," said Jean. "I suggested that Todd go to boarding school and Matt and I open up a dude ranch, and Matt lost it. He's coming over to get Wildfire in an hour, and Todd is going to help him look for some new horses to bring to Raintree this afternoon."
"Can't you stop him?" asked Ken.
"Technically no, I can't," said Jean. "He's half-owner of Raintree, so he can spend the money and do whatever else he wants. It's really making me nervous."
"Obviously, you're going to have to compromise and come up with some sort of agreement with him," said Pablo.
"Apparently, yes," said Jean. "Oh by the way, Ken, Matt wanted to me to ask you if you've heard anything about Dani or Kris."
"No, I haven't," Ken nearly snapped. "Why are we all standing around and talking about them, anyway? Don't all three of us have work to do?"