“I don’t tell Masenak anything. I find that’s the safest and most profitable way to get whatever I want from him.” He smiled. “But I’ll tell you that you’re doing exceptionally well…considering.”

She stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“I know horses. I know jockeys. In these last days, I’ve watched you with Chaos and I’ve found it interesting. You’re careful, but there’s still something…” He shrugged. “As I said, interesting, and as long as it doesn’t affect me, I’ll ignore it. Masenak isn’t blaming me for anything you do. You’re probably just trying to survive Masenak like the rest of us.” He turned and strolled away.

Not good. Davidow was sharp and knowledgeable. She might be able to deceive Masenak into believing that Chaos was too much for her, but there were signs to the contrary that only an expert like Davidow would pick up on. Though having her seem a failure might even be to his advantage, evidently, he wasn’t going to act on anything he’d seen as yet.

Yet.

But she didn’t want Davidow watching her at all. As long as Masenak thought she had little or no control over Chaos, anything the stallion did that was wild or out of the ordinary might catch him off guard. She might need that slight edge at some point. Though who knew when or where.

The sun was going down.

Her pace unconsciously quickened to eagerness as she reached the stable. It had been a rough day but now it was over. She would be able to talk to Gilroy soon if he’d managed not to get himself killed. The idiot took so many chances…Don’t think of that. He’ll be fine.

And he had promised she would be able to talk to Alisa tonight. That was something to which she could look forward. Gilroy had never broken a promise to her yet…

*  *  *

10:40 P.M.

“What took you so long?” Sasha jumped to her feet as she saw Gilroy open the door connecting the stables. “I thought that you’d been caught and thrown off the damn mountain.”