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“Because we have evidence that links a white UTV with a purple stripe to the horse shooting,” she said sweetly. “And we thought we’d take a look around.”
Silas almost laughed. The woman was fearless.
“You get off my property.” Darrell reached for the door handle, but Silas kept the door closed with his foot.
“You sure you don’t know anyone with a white UTV? Because those shooters are gonna get caught eventually. We’ll make sure of that. And it’d probably be better to share what you know with law enforcement on the front end.”
The man’s laugh came out more as a snarl. “You think I’m afraid of the consequences for shooting a wild horse? It’s a misdemeanor, son. A little slap on the hand and a fine. Hell, they rarely even hand out any jail time in those cases.” Darrell ripped open the door and went inside. “Now, I’m not gonna warn you again to get off my property. You read the signs. I’m not afraid to protect what’s mine.”
“We can take a hint.” Silas slipped his arm around Tess’s waist and guided her back to the car, where he opened the driver’s side door for her.
“He’s right, you know,” Tess said when he climbed in next to her. “Even when we catch the person who shot Legacy, they’ll get off pretty easy.”
“Maybe by the law’s standards.” He settled his hand on her thigh as she started up the engine. “But more importantly, we’ll be exposing them for who they are. Most of the people in town aren’t going to put up with men who’ll target innocent animals. If Darrell is involved, you know he won’t survive without his daily morning coffee and cinnamon rolls at the café. But if Minnie finds out he shot the horse, she won’t be serving him anymore.”
“That’s true.” Tess was smiling again as she slipped the truck into gear and started down the driveway. “I also think we need to do more to protect the horses. I’m considering applying with the Bureau of Land Management to become a contracted wild horse sanctuary.”
“That’s a great idea.” If they could keep the horses on Tess’s land, people won’t target them.
She stopped the truck and looked both ways before turning out onto the highway. “It would be a lot of work though. I’d need some serious help to run that kind of operation.”
“You’ll have all the help you need,” he assured her. This would be a whole new mission for him and Thatch and Aiden. And probably the fifteen or so others who came to the meeting at Tess’s house. “I’ll bet the majority of the town will get involved.”
“I know. And there’ll be plenty of work to go around.” Instead of turning south at the fork in the road, Tess continued west.
“Aren’t we heading to Ford’s house?” As far as Silas knew, their other suspect lived south of town.
“He’s not going to offer up any more information than Darrell did,” she said with a sigh. “I really do think those two are involved somehow, but they’re not going to rat themselves out. So I thought we’d head over to pick up the girls.” She slid him a glance. “If you don’t mind.”
“Oh.” Why did picking up the girls together make him nervous? “You sure that’s a good idea?” He’d seen how Brad had looked at Tess at the meeting last night. Even though she insisted they were friends, the man was clearly interested in her. And wouldn’t the girls wonder why Silas and Tess had been together so much more lately?
“I told Brad you and I had feelings for each other. When we had dinner. I told him I wasn’t interested in dating because I was interested in you.” Now Tess put her hand on his thigh. High on his thigh. High enough to make him whimper.
“See?” The woman had one hell of a smirk. “I’m not hiding you away.”
“I do have feelings for you.” He put his hand over hers. He hadn’t prepared for his feelings to run so deep… to make him question everything about his future. But he needed to. He needed to consider the kind of future he wanted in light of his feelings.
Tess turned off the highway and into a gravel driveway. Two log houses were separated by a meadow with a few barns and outbuildings clustered between.
“This is quite the place.” Kline clearly had money.
“Brad lives here with his parents.” She slipped the gear into park and left the keys in the ignition.
“I’ll wait in the truck.” He didn’t want to make things awkward for Brad or for the girls by going inside.
While Tess was gone, Silas checked his phone. He’d missed a text from Aiden this morning.
Are you still at my sister’s house?
Yeah, he wouldn’t be answering that. But eventually he and Aiden would have to hash out his friend’s obvious disapproval of Silas being with Tess. It likely didn’t help matters that he was getting ready to go back to Afghanistan. He scrolled through a few new emails, including one from Fletch.
Hey, man. Still waiting on some intel. Should be ready to shove off in three weeks. I’ll keep you posted.
Silas wouldn’t be ready to shove off in three weeks. He’d never be ready.
The doors started to open and Morgan climbed in first.
“What’re you doing here?” she asked as she settled into her seat.
