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Olivia Gordon reappeared, leading a lossy coat He had to be about seventeen hands high

"This is Cheyenne He was bought as a three-year-old for a young rider He was too much for her and the father sold him to a hack ranch He was never handled properly and started throwing riders One of the stable hands thought that whipping him would work and Cheyenne threw hinored until--" she paused for just a second "--until Marcus Danby came upon hi with hi on boundaries So, first, one by one, get to know hi to know a horse was going to be therapeutic for an adolescent boy, a Down syndrome child and a woman in court-ordered rehab Or how a difficult horse could help anyone with "boundaries" Or why the three of theressed, he realized that what Olivia was telling the hiht theiven a distance to cover; they weren’t to stop because Cheyenne tried to bully therass Neither were they to jerk on his reins or in any way har--even for Dustin--because the horse was a powerhouse of ed to speak to one another And they were all encouraged to give the horse encouragement, to applaud his coelding and he immediately bolted for the field Cheyenne ran about for a few ed Brent, and Brent laughed delightedly and returned the aniet him to do that?" Patty asked Olivia

"I didn’t He chose to come back," Olivia said "Okay, we’ll take Cheyenne to the stables now Groo exercise Olivia supplied brushes and they decided a themselves who’d do the mane and tail and how they’d share this one-person task

Then their two-hour session was over Olivia told Brent to say hello to his oodbye to Patty and informed Joey that they’d be ready for his ride in half an hour She turned to Dustin He was struck again by the beauty of this slender woman who seemed to have so much confidence, such easy control

She was obviously waiting for the others to walk away so she could speak to hi themselves

He moved closer to her "I’lanced quickly around "So handled"

Her taut response gave him a start He lowered his voice "You could answer your phone," he told her "Although one would’ve thought that if you’d called an agent for help and another agent showed up, you’d put two and two together Then again, if you answered your phone, you ht have spoken with both of us"

She looked away "Yesterday wasn’t a good day for us We got the autopsy report in the "

"Yes, I know that, Ms Gordon Because the day before, I was about to head out on a serious case--kidnapping and murder in the Northwest Instead, I’one back to his old ways"

She flashed a glance at hi with hostility "I’ was ih for you, I do apologize But you are here to investigate I--"

She paused, ht ith horses in a stable, but she wore some kind of subtle perfume that made her smell like the whisper of flowers in the breeze

"I have two individual sessions this afternoon You’re not one of them Everyone starts off with a session like you just went through, to see if they feel this will be of benefit to them That will allow you to fit in here, which is the point So, now you can investigate What are you going to do?"

He frowned at her, sootten under his skin All his life he’d walked a straight line He felt he had syh he wasn’t and never had been a counselor in any way But he didn’t let emotion invade his work In his position, he couldn’t He’d wind up

In therapy, he thought dryly

"Well?" she asked "What will you do this afternoon?"

He angled his head thoughtfully "I’et off, Ms Gordon?"

When Olivia finished with her last session, she discovered that Dustin Blake was still at the facility He was playing doubles; he and Joey were partnered against Sean and Matt

Officially, the Horse Faruest"--as they officially called their patients or clients--elco open hours, which usually ended at six They’d long ago noticed that their guests were comfortable at the Horse Far in the back rooa for her But she paused by the reception area, pouring herself a cup of coffee and watching hi her last ride, and he’d ed to call her back Yes, if she’d answered her phone, she would have learned that Blake was the agent who’d been sent

He was a curious choice, she thought He was hardly nondescript The man stood at about six foot four He had the kind of lean, hard ht be seen on a basketball player His every ility His face was chiseled, his jaw square, and he had flashing dark eyes that seemed to view the world around him with a certain amount of skepticism No one could miss him Hardly the type to slip in and out of anywhere unnoticed

But then, he’d come here as what he was--or iddy that the bureau had chosen their facility as a place for the man to unwind, chill out or vanquish his deested that he was addicted to alcohol or other substances, but you didn’t have to be an addict or suffering froe to benefit from the Horse Farht various kinds of people together For instance, a stressed-out business exec could learn that patience and tolerance for an autistic or otherwise handicapped child was so man like Brent could show true acceptance and affection to a drug addict or alcoholic who discovered that friends--real friends, or the ones who’d enabled their addictions--were afraid to be there for theh school and college football heroes, a number of pro athletes, s on Wall Street, they’d never had anyone quite like Dustin Blake

He was the topic du jour

Drew Dicksen stepped in from outside He walked directly over to her and the table with the ever-present coffee service