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Her lips curve. It’s infinitesimal, but I notice it. “Why?”
“Loki, probably. I came to him to escape and you saw me with him so you picked up on stuff by association.
“I didn’t know you could share a heart horse until I saw you with him. Do you want to know what one of my biggest regrets has always been?”
“Aside from the obvious?” she rasps.
“Uh-huh. It’s that I didn’t get to see you ride him. You never did. I think that’s a damn shame.”
“I didn’t need to. I enjoyed being with him.”
“I know. But I’d still have liked to see you ride him.” I clear my throat. “Speaking of, do you want to meet your mount?”
She gives Levi a final rub to her ears before she takes a step back and glances around. “I don’t know why I’m surprised the stables look this way.”
There’s barely any wood here. It’s mostly concrete with steel joists.
“Callan insisted.”
“I bet all the tack is labeled, right?”
“Yeah.” I grin. “Most of the food and supplements are too. We have a multitude of printouts for every horse, every day, every week. He enjoys it though.
“God only knows what he’ll be like when we build a horse barn for the breeding program.”
She tugs on my hand. “You’re restarting it?”
“I was always going to but I wanted to wait until Clyde died,” I admit. “Now, I don’t need to.”
“Why?”
“Why wait?” My jaw works. “I never liked him around the horses.”
“He was… cruel?”
“He was. I swear the first time I hit him was built-up rage from the last time I saw him on Jude—his Irish X. I wanted to kill him. I settled on beating the shit out of him.”
“No one ever dared say anything to the SPCA, I’m guessing.”
“No. You know what he’s like. Had everyone under his bootheel. Plus, he had the RCMP officers so far up his ass, they were his resident butt plugs. It was a relief when the old inspector retired and Burbanks got shipped in from Saskatoon.”
“It’s good news about the marshal office, isn’t it?”
“You overheard that?”
“Cody told me.”
“Yeah, it’s good news.” I gently guide her down the pristine aisle. “Out with the old, in with the new. And Cody runs a tight ship so there’ll be less corruption around the county too. Exactly what we need.”
“Agreed. How much of the stables is wood?”
“As little as possible. Everything’s concrete or metal. It’s as fireproofed as we can make it.”
She exhales. “Good.”
“Did Cody ask you about the fire?”
“You know him well.”