“If you want your horse back, you need to hand over the property,” came a distorted voice.
“Vincent?”
The line went dead.
Fear and anger coiled around my insides like two snakes fighting.
My gut told me it was Vincent from the beginning, but I just didn’t want to believe it.I didn’t want to think that he’d stoop so incredibly low.But I shouldn’t be surprised.The man was desperate and stupid, and that was a lethal combination.
And now, Midnight might be the one to pay the ultimate price.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Danica
I’dbeendrivingaroundfor hours with absolutely no luck.
Clint had an ongoing message thread for everyone to stay up-to-date.Once we’d looked somewhere, we could say that location was clear, in order to effectively canvas the entire island and not triple-check unnecessary locations.
My stomach rumbled like nearby thunder, but I ignored it.It was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon, and I’d come up with absolutely nothing.
Nobody in the group message had.
Bennett McEvoy had gone to the ferry terminal and checked all their early morning security footage to see if there was anything suspicious, and besides a couple of large delivery vans leaving on the 6 a.m.ferry, there wasn’t anything overly suspicious.And we knew the drivers of those vans, and there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that they were innocent.
I needed to pee really badly, and I was closest to Tom’s house at this point, but I didn’t dare go back there right now.Not after the way he was right before I left.Was this his way of telling me it was over?That I was a liability to the property?To him and the animals?
I knew he was an anxious person, and not used to the sudden “fame” of the animals.So I hoped that his reaction to things and the way he treated me was just a side effect of the situation, and not the beginning of the end of us.
I wasn’t ready to face him again though.Not after the way we left things.
Gabrielle had texted me to say that she, Maverick, and Sam were with Tom and the animals at the property.So I took solace in knowing they were together and nobody was alone with their stress.
The urge to pee was strong now.I just pulled over on the side of the road between Tom’s driveway and Otto Pickford’s driveway and walked down into the trees to quickly relieve myself.Traffic was so minimal on the island in this area, and even if a vehicle did drive by, they wouldn’t be able to see me crouching behind the big spruce trunk.
I pulled up my pants and was just climbing back up the small embankment to the road when a weird, faint sound on the wind made me pause.
I recognized that noise.It was a horse.
And yes, I was close to Tom’s property and there were horses in the field, but that wasn’t a noise that any of the adults made.That was a sound reserved only for a young foal.
I paused again, gripping the smooth, barkless trunk of the madrona tree beside me, and waited for the noise again.
Was that just wishful thinking?
Or when I used to think I’d hear Sam crying when I was in the shower, only to jump out and find her fast asleep in her crib?Was I hearing things?
Then it happened again.Brought to me on the cool, briny breeze like a gull’s cry.But that was no gull.That was a foal.That was Midnight.
I crept back through the trees, blazing my own trail toward Otto Pickford’s house.
Another whinny, this time even louder, echoed toward me, and it was definitely coming from the direction of their garage.
Was Midnight reallythisclose to home?
And why on earth was he in Otto’s garage?
A twig cracked under my boot and I paused, my body going ice cold as I waited to be discovered, but just like Midnight’s cries for help were getting lost on the wind, so was my twig snap.
