Read Online Rocky Mountain Miracle by Christine Feehan - Free Book Online

moment he thought about hugging the kid, but he couldn’t quite find a way to do it. Instead, he handed the teenager one of the packs. “We’ll need your help.”
    â€œI would have put the horse down, Mr. Steele,” Al Benton said, “but the boy refused to let me.”
    â€œWere you able to tell how this happened?” Cole asked, choosing his words carefully.
    Al scowled. “Someone had to have run him into the fence, Mr. Steele. His rump had a couple of welts on it.”
    â€œWho was around?”
    â€œAll the hands were already gone when Jase called me.”
    Cole let his breath out slowly. Al hadn’t been with Jase. That didn’t sit well with him. Doubt tickled at his brain, even though he didn’t want to think the boy could have done such a thing. It made him feel like a monster even to entertain such a notion. He ticked suspects off in his mind. Al, the ranch hands, Jase. The ranch hands were working away from the main house and shouldn’t have been there. He shook his head to rid himself of the persistent doubt about his younger brother. If he was lucky, it was a legitimate accident. Maia was already walkingbriskly toward the horse, and he trailed after her, grateful for the distraction.
    â€œThe wounds are down to the bone, Mr. Steele. The horse isn’t going to be any good for work,” Al said.
    Maia flashed a brief smile in the foreman’s general direction “Let’s not draw any hasty conclusions. I haven’t had a chance to assess the damage yet.” She glanced at Jase. “You did great getting him in out of the snow and putting him in the stocks so he can’t move.”
    â€œAl helped me,” Jase said. “He’s been quiet.” He patted the horse’s neck, his hand trembling. “He didn’t give us any trouble at all.”
    â€œWhat’s his name?”
    â€œHis official name is Celtic High, but I call him Wally.” His gaze shifted toward Cole, then away.
    â€œLet me see what I can do for him.” Maia put her hand on the horse’s neck as she moved around to look into its eyes. Her stomach somersaulted. Images crowded in fast and ugly. Brutal, mean memories of an animal watching helplessly as a boy was beaten and taunted and cruelly punished for nonexistent crimes. The images were harsh and jumbled together. The animal’s sorrow and pain, both physical and emotional, beat at her.
    She saw through the horse’s eyes, memories of young Jase hiding repeatedly in his stall, only to be dragged out again and again while the animal could do nothing to help him. She felt the familiar lurching in her stomach, the sweat beading on her body and the strange dizziness that always accompanied revelations the animals passed to her. It was her greatest gift, and a terrible curse. She could do nothing to help the children and animals she saw coming through her practice. She could only remainsilent, just as the animal was forced to do, and move on, move away.
    â€œMaia?” Cole’s hand went to her back to steady her. “Put your head down.”
    She kept her hands firmly against the horse, forcing herself to see what the animal was willing to share. Something stinging his rump. The shadow of a big man in the snow, raising his arm and slamming it down with purpose. Repeated lashings across the hind legs and rump until the horse ran without thought into the fence in a desperate effort to escape the terrible blows. Too big to be Al or Jase. Wide enough shoulders to be Cole, but the horse displayed no nervousness near him.
    â€œMaia.” Cole gripped her hard. “You’re as white as a sheet. She was sweating too, and her gaze was filled with a kind of horror. It had nothing to do with the gaping wounds or the blood. He knew it was something else, something entirely different.
    Maia shook her head, letting go of the horse’s neck and stepping back. “I’m all