“You think Effie’s back in her apartment yet?” Dallan asked, glancing in the direction of the shop.
“Probably, you going to talk to her?”
Dallan shook his head. “Nah, we’ve got ink inventory tonight.”
Ink inventory was code for ‘we’re going to have sex and not talk about anything other than work.’
“You’re a hopeless coward,” I told him, giving him a playful nudge with my shoulder.
“This is true,” Dallan accepted, his earlier dour mood completely forgotten. “But, then, I suppose it takes one to know one.”
With a salute, Dallan turned and disappeared into the evening fog in the direction of the shop.
My cell dinged in my pocket and one glance at the message made me curse under my breath.
After everything that had happened today, I’d forgotten that the vet was dropping off horses tonight and was now pulling up to the farm without me there.
Thirteen
“Can you sign here,” the woman, who’d just jumped out of a pickup truck towing a horse trailer, asked as she handed me a tablet.
Inside the trailer I could already hear the frantic whinnying of horses as the sound of a hoof connecting with the metal sides echoed throughout the yard.
I’d only been at the house for an hour after Effie dropped me off, then I spent most of that hour checking on the pitiful-looking goats in the barn. I wasn’t sure when Cash would be back, but I hoped it was soon because I didn’t know if I was allowed to sign whatever the woman was asking me to sign.
“I’m not the owner of the house…” I began, taking a step away from the woman.
“I know that much, but obviously you’re a guest here and Cash must have told you I’d be dropping these mares off tonight,” the woman insisted, her eyes flashing an inhuman yellow as she started to lose her patience with me. She held the tablet out to me again. “Come on, I’m in a hurry. I’ve got to get back to the clinic before my next appointment.”
“I get that, really, but I don’t even know how to get them out of the trailer, nor do I know where Cash wants them,” I said and pushed the tablet back towards her.
The woman’s frown deepened and for a second I thought she was going to curb stomp me into the ground for slowing her obviously busy day down even more.
I opened my mouth to begrudgingly agree, my mind racing to picture the inside of the barn and where the hell I could put two terrified mares. But then a rumbling filled the yard, signaling the approach of a vehicle.
Cash’s blue truck roared up the long drive, going much faster than it probably should have been. He whipped it to a sudden stop, sending gravel flying everywhere as he hopped out of the cab.
“Lanie, I thought you were supposed to be here a little later,” he growled, approaching us.
The woman—Lanie—just shrugged. “That was before my day from hell, I swear everyone in town’s farm animals have picked today to have issues. I’ve got another fifteen minutes to get back to the clinic to take a look at a sheep dog that’s been struggling to give birth since this morning.”
She held the tablet out to Cash who took it and signed with the pad of his finger, his claw clicking on the screen as he submitted the signature.
“Daphne, why don’t you head inside while I get these mares into the barn,” Cash said, turning to look at me for the first time since he’d driven up.
“I can help, if you want,” I offered.
Cash shook his head. “Nah, that’s okay. These mares are a bit more to handle than the goats were this morning.”
Lanie, seemingly all business, was already opening the back of the trailers to reveal the pair of wild-eyed mares who were raring to get out of their tin can prison.
Not wanting to be in the way, I hurried up the front porch steps and watched as Cash worked to calm the mares. He took one by the lead and spoke quietly next to her ear, running a soothing hand down her scar marked back.
I always thought that animals strayed away from the supernatural, especially ones like Cash who looked more beast-like than human. But just like with the goats, he had the mare calmed in a matter of minutes and was able to lead her into the barn.
Lanie continued to struggle with the other, brown and white spotted one until Cash returned and repeated the process again.
“Thanks for taking them, Cash, I’ll be out in a couple of days to get shoes on them and check out some of those sores,” Lanie said as they shook hands.
