Embittered Competitor: Day 5

Word Count: 30,002

Summary of Events:
Chapter 9:
It was pouring outside Terri's RV and she and Steele discussed the weather for awhile before Chad de War decided to go four by four driving in the mud and got stuck. They then went over to where he was and told Chad to call a tow truck even though he wanted to keep trying to get out. Chad looked out of his truck and saw the depth of the mud and realized they were right, then he fell out of his truck and into the mud. Steele and Terri guided him out and Terri took him to a hose while Steele called a tow truck. Later that evening Steele was competing. Spencer missed his calf and got no time. Steele roped his calf but the knot opened on his rope and the calf escaped, leaving Steele without a time. Steele tried to fix the not but found it irreparable. Steele then began to wonder who would do such a thing and got to wondering if all of the women he'd rejected over the years — the first one most specifically — were behind it.
Chapter 10:
Terri and Mark Vest got talking about Steele's knot opening and Mark asserted that it had to be sabotage because he bought his ropes from the same company as Steele and had never had one fail like that. They then discussed who could do it and also thought about the women Steele had rejected and decided to try and do what they could to help Steele find out who it was who was sabotaging him. Steele thought the idea was not bad, although he told Terri that she should put a good filter on who was helping out as guys like Evan-Lewis Reidy might not take their job as seriously as they ought to be. The rodeo was then about to start so Terri headed off. Steele got Riverbed ready and then went to ride around the warm-up ring. He rode beside Dixon Sawatsky and was told that Dixon's dad Ben had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Dixon was shaken and wasn't sure he wanted to compete, but Steele encouraged him to and he did and managed to get the fastest time.

Excerpt of the Day:
"But was it just one woman? Was it more than one? Was it . . . ? Steele glanced around feeling slightly nervous as his mind brought up her image. He was sure she'd left him with all due pleasure — except for the fact that she'd been facing prison time — but nothing said she couldn't be released. As soon as he'd been free he'd paid no mind to anything that might've been said about her. He didn't know how long she would've been locked up.
It had been nearly seven years since she'd been locked up. About that time he'd perused the Criminal Code of Canada and it'd said that the minimum sentence for a first-time assault charge — which he was pretty sure was what'd been brought against her — was five years. It was conceivable that she could be out now.
But why would she want revenge on him? Because of the prison time? He hadn't brought the charges against her, the police had because they'd seen all the damage. As he rode out with the other cowboys he looked at the back of his right hand: they could still she the damage if they wanted to.
However, he had to admit that it made reasonable sense. Maybe she was mad at him for the prison time, or maybe it was for other reasons, there were a few of those he could think of. Either way, it seemed to make sense. She would do something like that. She would go out for revenge.
Steele stopped at his trailer. He could feel the inner pain that had rocked him when he'd regained consciousness in the hospital. The pain that he'd never really felt until then, the rejection. The heartbreak. All of it.
Images flashed through his mind as he stayed still on Riverbed. The tangled limbs, the flying clothes, the fire. Steele shuddered and rubbed the lower side of his right forearm at the recollection. The pain, police, paramedics, and then unconsciousness.
Blessed unconsciousness. Except that he'd woken up in the end. And it'd all been real, there had been no surrealism about it. It had all really happened.