Chapter One

      Julia Nash might hang out with the superrich, but she definitely wasn’t one of them. She was only in Dubai because her employer, Equine Earth Magazine, had sent her there on assignment. And she was only staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel because her friend Melanie Preston, a jockey and the subject of the article, had insisted they share her room. Otherwise, Julia would have been down at the Crystal Sands, living within her reporter’s travel allowance.

      Like regular people, Julia had a condo payment, a crack in the windshield of her four-year-old Honda, and her eye on a limited edition watercolor at the Beauchamp Gallery back in Lexington. So, when Melanie had invited her shopping this afternoon, Julia decided not to subject herself to temptation. She’d claimed she was duty bound to scope out the Nad Al Sheba race course, and the excuse was mostly true. She needed to get a feel for the sights and sounds of the exotic Thoroughbred racecourse.

      The Prestons owned Quest Stables outside Louisville, Kentucky, and their horse Something to Talk About would race in the Sandstone Derby on Thursday evening. Any background information Julia could pick up between now and then would make her story that much richer.

      It was a fluff piece, something to combat the negative press the Prestons had received lately in connection with their Thoroughbred Leopold’s Legacy. DNA tests had revealed that the stallion was not sired by Apollo’s Ice, as recorded, and therefore could no longer compete in Thoroughbred races until the true sire was found. But she took the job seriously. Not only were the Prestons her friends and in need of positive publicity, Julia knew her way out of the lifestyle section of Equine Earth was to do each and every story to the best of her ability.

      Although today’s Thoroughbred races wouldn’t start for a couple of hours, the Arabian and expatriate crowd was beginning to gather. Men in white robes contrasted with women in high fashion. Grooms walked sleek horses, while jockeys chatted amongst themselves, some suited up, some still in street clothes.

      In the three years she’d been working for Equine Earth, Julia had developed an appreciation for Thoroughbreds and their breeding. She even imagined she was developing an eye for which horse had potential and which one did not. She’d never be as good at it as Melanie, who’d grown up at her family’s famous racing stables. And she couldn’t touch Melanie’s brother Robbie, Something to Talk About’s trainer.

      But, for now, she slowed to watch two horses pass by on the dirt track on the opposite side of the fence from her, judging for herself the Thoroughbred’s potential. It was easy to tell which was the helper and which was the racer. One was a stocky, barrel-bellied chestnut with a scraggly black mane, who looked positively bombproof. The other was a twitchy, long-legged dun, straining at the halter, its tail flicking nervously over its haunches.

      Wait a minute.

      Julia inched toward the fence, straining for a closer look at the tail. The Thoroughbred was a dun. It had a clover-shaped star and the familiar, dark-brown eyes. It also had that unique flaxen tail that Julia had stared at in dozens of pictures at the Prestons.

      The Prestons’ veterinarian, Carter Phillips, had found a stallion in California two months ago that he swore was a twin to Leopold’s Legacy. Julia realized she had now found a triplet.

      She paced alongside the animal, trying to keep up without looking conspicuous. She scanned its head, its shoulders, its withers and legs, desperately searching her brain for something definitive, something that would tell her whether this was an animal worth investigating. She wished her eye was as keen as Melanie’s or Robbie’s.

      Then, she remembered her cell phone. Perfect. She’d e-mail a picture to Melanie and take it from there.

      All but trotting along under the warmth of a waning desert sun, she dug into her small purse, tugging out her cell phone. Then she ran a couple of steps to get the angle right, and held up the phone.

      Instantly, a white, brass-buttoned, uniformed chest stepped between her and the fence, blocking her view.

      “I am very sorry, madam,” the man said, not looking sorry at all.

      Julia had no choice