Page 181 of Things We Hide from the Light

“Might sound that way, Sloaney Baloney. But we’re friends. Have been for years. Far as I can tell, our lives are gonna stay tangled up. So maybe instead of butting in and being nosy, we focus more on bein’ there for each other when needed.”

“I don’t need anyone to be there,” she said stubbornly.

“All right. But I might need a friend if I can’t convince Lina to take a chance on what we’ve got.” She opened her mouth, but I held up a hand. “I probably won’t want to talk much about it if I lose, but I sure as hell am gonna need a friend to help keep me from disappearing again.”

Sloane’s face softened. “I’ll be there.”

“And I’ll be there for you if and when you need me.”

“Thanks for fixin’ my wall, Nash.”

“Thanks for bein’ you, Sloaney.”

I was just closing up the paint can when dispatch called for me over my radio. “You out and about, Chief?”

“I am.”

“Bacon Stables has a horse on the loose again. Had a couple of reports of a big, black stallion galloping its ass southbound on Route 317.”

“On my way,” I said on a sigh.

“I can’t believeyou won him over with a damn carrot,” I said as Tashi Bannerjee handed the reins of the big-ass Heathcliff to Doris Bacon, who was holding an ice pack to her ass.

We were standing in waist-deep weeds in the east pasture of the foreclosed Red Dog Farm, a fifty-acre horse property that had sat empty for going on two years since its owner’s multi-level marketing skincare business went belly-up.

Heathcliff the stallion had decided he didn’t feel like riding around the ring today and had bucked Doris off on her ass before heading south.

The seventeen-hundred-pound son of a bitch had kicked the passenger door of my SUV and tried to take a bite out of myshoulder before Tashi had distracted him with a carrot and snagged his reins.

“You handle the snakes, Chief, and I’ll take the horses.”

“I seem to recall you riding one of Heathcliff’s relatives through a drive-thru your senior year,” I teased.

She grinned. “And look how that paid off.”

I kept my distance as Tashi and Doris coaxed the humongous horse up the trailer ramp.

Something tickled between my shoulder blades and I turned around. Two deer jolted, then disappeared into the woods. There was nothing else out there. Just weeds and trees and broken fences, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something or someone was watching us.

Doris slammed the gate shut on the trailer. The sound of hoof meeting metal rang out. “Quit acting up, you big ninny.”

“Maybe it’s time to sell Heathcliff to a farm with higher fences,” I suggested.

She shook her head as she limped around to the driver’s side door. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for your help, Chief, Officer Bannerjee.”

We waved her off as she maneuvered the truck and trailer onto the property’s driveway and headed for the road.

The stallion let out an earsplitting whinny.

“I think he just put a curse on you,” Tashi teased as we headed for my dented vehicle.

“Like to see him try.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out.

Lina: You won’t believe what the town grapevine is reporting now. According to a not-so-reliable source you spent your afternoon herding a horse around town with your SUV.

Me: It wasn’t just any horse. It was Heathcliff the Horrible.