AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did I pass the test?”
“You got a ‘C.’ But it’s good enough.”
Meaning she hadn’t caught him in an outright lie.
Yet.
“When did you have time to check?”
“You were standing behind me, right? In the bedroom?”
“You’re fast.”
“Yeah. And good. Come on.” She snagged a bag from a nearby chair. “I’m still driving.” Her eyes met his as if she was expecting him to challenge her. He lifted his hands in surrender. “And I’m taking my flashlight.”
He didn’t argue.
Didn’t need to.
He had a gun.
CHAPTER 23
“We should never have gotten involved in this. It was a mistake from the get-go.” Ned Crenshaw forked hay into the manger and talked to his wife as he worked They were in the stable, and he was feeding the horses, the front half of the building illuminated, the back still dark, as he’d only flipped one switch. Tonight, he planned to cut his chores short as there was a big football game on TV, and he’d already missed the first half.
Nova, his favorite mare, a bay with intelligent eyes, was in her stall and watching his every move. Nova was due to give birth in the late spring, and her body was just a little heavier than normal, her coat shining under the lights of the stable. She nickered at him, impatient, as he was later with the feed than usual.
“Hey, it’s coming, it’s coming,” he told the mare as the others, Frida, a paint mare in the next stall, and a buckskin gelding farther down the line looked at him expectantly, their ears forward as they snorted to gain his attention. The stable could hold eight horses, four boxes built along either side of a concrete walkway that ran the length of the building. Currently he owned these three, along with a small herd of cattle and a coop full of chickens. Oh, and one dog, a mix of lab, pit, and possibly shepherd, who was currently outside in the woods that cut through these fifty acres and was barking his fool head off.
Probably caught scent of a rabbit or skunk or . . . whatever, but it worried him a little. There were coyotes in the area, and six weeks ago, Bob Hanson, who owned the place just up the hill, had spotted a cougar.
“You worry too much,” Trudie said.
“Maybe. But we’d better get Copper inside.”
“Precisely my point. He’s just doing his dog thing. But now back to the book.” She was currently sitting on a stack of sacks of grain, watching him as he fed the horses. A split bale lay open, most of the hay already fed to the horses, a second bale ready to go.
The book. “It’s nothin’ but trouble, especially since that woman did the flying leap in San Francisco. What the hell, Trudie?”
“That’s nothing to do with us.”
He shook more hay into the manger. Nova snorted her approval as dust motes swirled and strands of hay fluttered in the air. Boy, the dog was really going at it. “Jesus God,” he said, looking out one of the open windows. “What if Copper tangles with a porcupine, or a coyote or a skunk?”
“When’s the last time you saw a porcupine around here?”
“Okay, but we’ve both seen plenty of coyotes.”
“I suppose. But Copper can hold his own, I think. He’s smart and tough. Like you.”
He rolled his eyes and threw the last of the bale into Nova’s manger, the tines of the pitchfork scraping against the concrete floor.
Trudie was one of the reasons he’d left his first wife, Didi Storm, though he hadn’t stepped out on Didi, hadn’t hooked up with Trudie until after he was divorced. Long after. He’d only fantasized about his wife’s taller, leaner, and more grounded friend. Didi had married the magician before Trudie had even moved in with Ned. In the meantime, Trudie had traded in tight dresses for tighter jeans, swapped an abundance of flashy jewelry for a simple gold band, and opted for a warmer, honey shade of blond rather than the near-white platinum she’d sported in Las Vegas. Trudie had even toned down her makeup, though it still took her nearly an hour to get her look just right. And he loved her.
But the main reason he’d left his first wife is that Didi had been freakin’ nuts. Beautiful and sexy as hell, but a stone-cold kook. Insane. He couldn’t count how many objects, from ashtrays to frying pans to books, he’d had to duck when she got mad. Boy, howdy! He’d left without looking back but had felt a pang of regret for her kid. The daughter. Remmi. He’d liked her but had no claim to her, so he’d left her with her loco mother.
When he’d heard about the leaper the other day, Ned had half believed Didi had actually jumped from that hotel in San Francisco.
And here he and Trudie were, eyeballs deep in that damned book. A huge mistake, no matter how much money they were paid. So far, it hadn’t been all that much, but with sales soaring, Trudie had stars—or at least diamonds—in her eyes.
