“I came to ride the baby horse, and this monster attacked me,” the kid said, glaring at me.He swept a tear from his face with a dirty hand, leaving a filthy smear on his cheek.
Footsteps outside the stall came to an abrupt stop, and Danica breathed, “Clyde?”
Clyde.
Right.
“So, you snuck onto my property and into my barn?”I asked, my anger building as I pieced together everything that had happened out here before I arrived.Somehow, this delinquent managed to get into my barn.Then, with his two brain cells competing for third place, thought it was a good idea to climb into a horse stall and attempt to ride a newborn foal.
Clyde stood up, still glaring at me, then at Danica.“This big horse is stupid.She should be shot.She nearly killed me.”
Danica shook her head.“She was defending her foal.Any parent would do it if their child was threatened.”It was probably lost on Clyde, but it wasn’t lost on me the way she enunciated every word, particularly emphasizing “their child was threatened.”
“I wasn’t threatening it.I want to ride it.”
“You don’tridefoals,” I growled out.
Why was I arguing with this turd of a child?
“Clyde, who told you about the foal?”Danica asked, her voice cracking just a touch, but it was noticeable to me.This was Sam’s bully, so she probably wanted to do what Raven did and protect her young by kicking this kid in the head.I couldn’t blame her.I wanted to do the same.
Clyde sneered.“My nan.Said you’re going to let people come ride the horses now.I want to be the first.”
I was going to have an aneurysm at any moment.I just knew it.Speaking to this child was causingmeto lose brain cells.
“I’m sorry, Clyde, but there’s been a misunderstanding,” Danica said gently.“The horses are not going to be ridden by the public.They can be visited and petted.Maybe even fed, but not ridden.These horses and other animals are here for peace.They’ve had very traumatic lives, and Tom has this place for them to feel safe.”
“Not the baby horse though,” Clyde argued.“Nan said he was born here.”
“You don’t ride foals!”I exclaimed, the burn of rage making my arms and belly hot.
“I’m telling my mom and grandpa about this,” Clyde threatened, stepping past me toward the door.“They’re going to shut you down.”
“Shut me down from what?”
Danica shook her head at me as if to say, “Do not engage.”
The insolent child stopped just outside the stall, and his mouth turned up into probably the evilest smile I’d ever seen on any person.“Sam’s such a freak.She needs to go to one of thoselooney bins.That’s what my grandpa says anyway.”
Danica’s eyes widened, and she bunched her hands into tight fists at her sides, enough to make her knuckles glow white.“Best get home now, Clyde.I’m sure your parents and grandparents really miss you.”
Clyde rolled his eyes, gave another smirk and spun on his heel, heading down past all the stalls.Monarch and Galahad watched him, and I could have sworn they sneered at him.He used the barn door, which I rarely locked.But now I would make a point of it.
San Camanez Island was known as a relatively safe place.Nobody locked their doors or cars, and theft was among the lowest in the country.It also just made coming and going from the barn easier for me.And just because a person leaves their door unlocked does not give a stranger permission to enter, damage, steal, or attempt to mount their infant horse.
Danica followed him and stayed outside for at least five minutes, probably watching the miscreant cross the field and disappear into the trees.She returned absolutely fuming.
“That kid is a monster,” she said, wrapping her arms around my waist as I did the same to her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.She glanced up at me.“Have you ever met anybody so inherently cruel?”
I shook my head.“Can’t say I have,bella.It is honestly scary.”
“That’s the kind of kid you worry about bringing a freaking gun to school, or putting kittens in a sack and tossing them into the river.He gets a thrill out of hurting others.And right now, Sam is his target.”
I sucked in a sharp breath through my nose.“The security cameras should arrive today, and I will make a point of locking the barns from now on.”
“I just hate to think what he could have done … how he might have hurt Midnight.”She trembled a little in my arms.“He’s been through enough.”
Nodding, I released her and together we went into Raven and Midnight’s stall.Surrogate and foal seemed to be okay, all things considered, and the little black colt was nursing happily.
