Chapter 1 - The Word Titan Remembered
By eleven thirty, three professional riders had hit the dirt.
The fourth never made it into the saddle.
Titan, a seventeen-hand black stallion with a white slash beneath his left eye, ripped backward against the lead rope and struck the ground so hard that people in the first row stepped away from the fence.
Robert Hayes stood in the center of the arena with a microphone in one hand and a million-dollar promise behind him on the electronic screen.
$1,000,000 CHALLENGE.
Ride Titan.
Control Titan.
Win.
The crowd loved it.
Robert was beginning to hate it.
He owned Hayes Crown Ranch, four hundred acres outside Fort Worth, two breeding barns, a training facility, and the horse that had become the most famous failure in Texas.
Titan had thrown national rodeo riders, stunt riders, trainers, and one former Olympic alternate. The videos had hundreds of millions of views.
Today was supposed to be the final challenge before Robert retired the horse from public events.
Then a child's voice came from behind the rail.
"I can do it."
The laughter started before Robert even found her.
She was tiny.
Seven, maybe eight.
Brown hair tied with a piece of blue ribbon. Faded jeans. A shirt with a missing bottom button. Boots so worn the leather had gone pale at the toes.
A man near the beer tent laughed.
"Honey, that horse weighs twelve hundred pounds."
The girl climbed through the bottom rail.
"Closer to thirteen fifty."
The laughter weakened.
Robert lowered the microphone.
"What's your name?"
"June Mercer."
"Where are your parents?"
"My mom's working the food tent."
Robert turned toward event security.
"Find her mother."
June kept walking.
"I'm not letting you near him."
She looked at Titan.
"Then why'd you say whoever?"
A few people laughed again.
Robert didn't.
Titan's ears had flattened.
His muscles trembled beneath his black coat.
June stopped twenty feet away.
"Nobody move."
Robert almost smiled.
"That's my line."
"Your people are making him worse."
Robert's smile vanished.
"What?"
June looked toward the challenge saddle hanging over the arena rail.
Then toward a man in a gray staff shirt standing near the gate.
"Tell him to take his thumb off the black button."
The gray-shirted man jerked his hand behind his leg.
Robert turned.
"Travis?"
"She's a kid, Mr. Hayes."
June ignored him.
She faced Titan.
The stallion struck the dirt again.
People shouted for her to get back.
June lifted one hand.
Not toward the horse.
Palm down beside her hip.
Then she whistled three low notes.
Titan froze.
Robert's blood went cold.
He knew that whistle.
He had not heard it in six years.
June said one word.
"Bluebird."
Titan's head dropped.
The crowd went silent.
June took one step.
Then another.
Titan's ears came forward.
She reached his shoulder.
Placed her small palm against the dark coat.
The stallion exhaled so deeply his entire body seemed to soften.
June leaned close to his neck.
"You remember him, don't you?"
Robert walked forward slowly.
"Who taught you that command?"
June looked at him.
"My dad."
"Who is your father?"
The little girl glanced toward the giant screen showing Robert's million-dollar offer.
Then back at him.
"Caleb Mercer."
Robert stopped breathing.
Six years earlier, Caleb Mercer had been Titan's trainer.
Six years earlier, Robert had stood in a courtroom and testified that Caleb deliberately used an illegal electric training device on the horse.
Caleb went to prison.
Titan became uncontrollable.
And Robert Hayes had never once seen Caleb's daughter.
June pointed toward the challenge saddle.
"My dad said if Titan still knew Bluebird, it meant he never forgot what really happened."
Robert stared at her.
Then June looked at Travis again.
"And that man is holding the same kind of button they said my daddy used."
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