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Goose bumps pricked her flesh, and Beth wrapped her arms across her chest as if she was giving herself a hug.
“What do you mean…again?”
He stared at her for a long moment before continuing.
Beth was officially freaked out, and he hadn’t said another word yet.
Eli set his hands on her knees. “They never caught the poachers. I lost everything, and they never had to answer for it. And now? I thought I had a potential placement for Midnight, but something felt off, you know? Something about it just gave me this feeling like Midnight wasn’t going to be safe if I signed the deal. So I wanted to go over the paperwork, maybe get a lawyer’s eyes on it, but—”
“You found a placement for Midnight?” Beth’s voice trembled, and she felt the heat creep up her neck and into her cheeks until it filled her eyes with the familiar burning that came before the waterworks. “You’re still getting rid of her?”
She grabbed his hands and gently pushed them off her knees.
“Beth…”
It was one word. Just her name. But she heard it all in his tone.
You knew this was the plan.
She was never meant to stay.
You were never meant to stay.
“Were you even going to tell me?” she asked, sniffing back the tears. Beth knew the mare didn’t belong to her. Not in the technical sense. But she and Midnight belonged to each other in a way that no document or contract could explain. She knew it, and Eli knew it. But he still left her out of the conversation.
He nodded. “I’m telling you now.”
His eyes were still red, and his dried tears left streaks on his dirt-smudged face. She only now realized that it was more than just his sweat-dampened hair. Eli was a mess.
How could she be angry after what he’d just put himself through? How could she fault him for what was always supposed to happen? Logic told her she needed to hear him out, but her heart wasn’t listening to logic.
“Why?” She exhaled a shaky breath. “Why are you telling me now? Something happened.”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “It’s more than Midnight’s door. I think someone’s been messing with the property, and I think whoever it is wants me to know that they can do it and get away unseen. So there’s no way in hell I’m bringing you back there and putting you in danger. I’ve got the trailer. I’m going to take Midnight back to the property and wait.”
Beth sprang to her feet. “You’re using her and yourself as bait? Are you crazy?”
Eli stood too. “It’s not like I can get the sheriff’s department involved. I don’t exactly have hard evidence.” He held his arms out and tilted his head toward the sky. “It’s gonna be a clear night.” He met her gaze again. “And I’ve got the alarm and the security cameras installed. It’s perfectly safe. The second I hear or see something, I’ll make a call, and it’ll finally be over.”
Beth’s heart raced. “This isn’t the Wild West. You know that, right? It’s California. I bet there’s even a vineyard not too far off.” He opened his mouth to respond, but she shook her head. She wasn’t finished. “And you wouldn’t be pawning me off on Delaney and Sam if it was ‘perfectly safe.’” She made air quotes around the last words. “When people want to steal something valuable, they usually resort to violence to get it. Is she valuable? Midnight? Was Fury valuable?”
Eli waited a beat before asking, “Do I get to talk now?”
Beth groaned. “Yes.”
He sighed. “Midnight is a Friesian, which is a rare enough breed as it is. That white star between her eyes, though? The appearance of a marking like that on a pure breed is even rarer. She and Fury could have been twins, and I know what Fury was worth, not that Tess or I would have ever sold her. So yeah. With Midnight being the horse she probably was before the injury, I bet she was worth a lot. And I’m guessing the reason why her owners were going to put her down was because the injury meant she wasn’t.”
Beth hugged herself tighter. Had the temperature changed? Why was she so cold?
Eli raised a hand gently toward her but let it fall. She could tell he wanted to touch her, to wrap his arms around her and fix whatever was happening here. She both wanted him to try and was also afraid she’d push him away. But it didn’t matter because he stayed where he was, on his side of the porch steps, and somehow that made her gut twist even more.
Fury was a rare breed, and someone had tried to take her.
Midnight was the exact same breed, and even if Eli’s physical evidence was almost nonexistent, if Beth were in his shoes, she’d suspect the same.
“Fine,” she finally said. “If we’re going to catch these horse bandits or whatever…” Ha. Whatever. They’d still never figured out what that word meant. “Then I’m coming too,” Beth declared.
A muscle twitched in Eli’s jaw. “The hell you are,” he practically growled.
