Chapter Thirteen

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This time another hand clapsed its way around my wrist, and I was yanked out of Jennings grip, pulled back into the safety of Niall's arms. But I didn't look up at him, or thank him in anyway. Not yet. My glare was still set upon my cruel, former trainer. 

"If you think you are going to get my horse," I snapped, "then you are dead wrong, ass. I suggest you get no where near my barn, and no where near my friends."

"For now little girl," He said, wagging a finger dangerously close to my face. "For now. But remember, I still have a promise to fulfill. And I don't break promises." With that, he spun on his heel, stalking briskly from the store, leaving me glaring at the front of a bookcase, folded safely into Niall's chest.

Niall's hand glided down and locked on my waist, pulling me around to face him, holding me out at arms length. His eyes darted up and down like he was inspecting a small, fragile child for injuries. His eyes finally found mine again; the light blue orbs were glazed over with worry and anger. Not anger at me. Anger at the man he didn't know who I had been growling at not moments earlier.

"Who the hell was that, and what the hell does he want with Sophee?" Niall demanded, his eyes boaring into mine as he contuined to hold me out at arms length.

"Can I talk about it some other time Niall?" I said, my voice coming out shaky and dangerously quiet. I usually wasn't like this. Something about damn Jennings made me scared out of my mind, even if I acted tough when I was around him. It was a fear, boiling somewhere in the deep pit of my stomach that someday he would get to my horses, and kill them once and for all.

And I still didn't know why he wanted to even do that in the first place. The hate and resentment for me. I did nothing. I stayed loyal to him for two years after he hurt my horse. Two whole years. We paid him ridiculous amounts of money to even keep him around. He didn't even leave our barn because of us. He left because he had pending animal cruelty charges, and he told us he would no longer be working for us.

All of it made no sense. Like a missing piece of a puzzle that had fallen under the table and you didn't find it until the day later when cleaning.

"Can I atleast know his name?" Niall asked, his voice softening ever so slightly as my face fell from my thoughts. "I need to know who the hell that was."

"His last name is Jennings. Niall, he's my previous trainer, before Fiona," I whispered, my voice falling even more as I began to shake slightly. All the memories. All the torture. It all came flooding back. Those horrible training sessions I had to live through when my parents left me alone at the barn with him. Cruel use of the whip for no reason. He carried it everywhere with him, at shows, at lessons, just around the barn. And if my horse even acted up slightly, even under my fault, that little thin rope would crack through the once peaceful air.

Or the time whenever he recommended the new feed for my little herd of horses. Having to watch my horses drop ridiculous amounts of weight in weeks of time. Jennings insisting to my parents that it was perfectly fine, and wasn't hurting the horses in anyway, that it was the season change.

The time he whipped Ginger in her pregnacy. The time I almost killed him. The first time I told my parents about his horrible actions. They didn't believe me. They told me I just wanted a new trainer that was more well known than Mr. Jennings, and that we just couldn't afford that right now. 

I didn't even noticed I was crying until I felt Niall's thumb flick across my cheek, the tiny little diamond glistening on his shiny fingernail. "I think we need to go home," He told me softly, looking over his shoulder to the other boys who's heads where partially hidden behind various book cases. "I'll text them and tell them where we went. C'mon."

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