I walk over to the window and look outside. It’s not like they aren’t used to thunder up here. What are they barking at?
The door to the stable swings open and closed in the wind, the light left on and casting a glow as the rain pours. Mud puddles dance as drops hit, and I buckle up my raincoat, heading out the shop door.
I walk across the room, opening the bay door and stepping outside.
Running to the stable, I squeal as water hits my jeans, and I dash inside, throwing off my hood.
Danny howls as Johnny runs up to me, and I give him a quick pet, hearing Shawnee thrashing in her stall. She whinnies, jumping up and down, her hooves hitting the wooden door.
What the hell?
I run over, grabbing her mane and pulling her down to me. I stroke her nose.
“Hey, hey, it’s just rain.” I chuckle, giving her a good rub. “You’ve gotta be used to storms by now.”
“It’s not the storm upsetting her,” someone says.
Tiernan
I twist around, my heart thundering in my chest as a hooded figure steps out of the next stall. Smoke billows into the air as he drops a cigarette to the ground and grinds it out on the cement.
The overhead light swings back and forth in the breeze, casting him in shadow every few moments.
“Who—？”
But I stop as he slips off the hood of his jacket, and I see Terrance Holcomb turn to face me. Rain has darkened his sweatshirt and glistens across his face as he looks me up and down.
No.
I didn’t hear bikes approach. There are no vehicles outside. He arrived undetected.
He snuck in here.
Quickly, I glance around for anyone else and take a step back, toward the exit.
“We didn’t invite you on the property,” I bite out. “No one wants to see you here.”
“There’s no one here except you, though,” he says, eerily calm. “You’re all alone, right?”
Keeping my eyes locked on him, I reach over and pull a rake off the wall that I can see hanging there out of the corner of my eye while slowly reaching behind me to pull my phone out of my back pocket. His eyes are fixed on my weapon.
He chuckles, stepping toward me as I step back. “At least it’s not a shotgun,” he jokes, and I remember Kaleb and Noah, armed and rushing to the pond to get me away from this guy all those months ago. “It’s cute how they try to protect you.”
“They don’t have to.” I squeeze the long handle. “Leave.”
“What if I came just to talk to you?”
“By lurking in our stable on a dark, rainy night?”
Yeah. This isn’t a social visit. He either saw the Van der Berg’s in town without me and seized his opportunity, or he’s been here, waiting for them to leave.
I retreat another step, his boot crawling heel to toe and approaching.
“Kaleb is going to be charged over the damage he did to those bikes last November,” he says.
I press the power button on my phone and try to swipe in my security pattern behind my back, listening for the small click over the rain that tells me it’s unlocked.
“And yet, you’re here and not the sheriff,” I point out.
I try a few more times, my fingers shaking, but I finally hear the click.
“I’ll say it was an accident,” he tells me. “I’ll take his side and back him up.”
“What makes you think I care?” I tap the screen where I know my phone icon is located.
Terrance grins knowingly. “Everyone saw you two in town today,” he replies. “It was really a no-brainer. Women love assholes, especially the quiet ones. He was always going to have you, even if just a piece.”
My chest is too heavy to breathe. He tries to close the distance between us, and I retreat, the rain growing heavier outside the door behind me.
“You sponsor me, and I will not pursue him,” Terrance proposes. “I’ll get the sheriff and my team to back off, and you and he can live happily ever after.”
“You have a sponsor.”
“I had a sponsor,” he retorts. “They pulled their support when Kaleb destroyed the bikes.”
I cock my head, leveling my eyes on him. Kaleb caused some damage, so he lost his sponsor? Really?
He shrugs, knowing I’m not buying it. “And they got wind of some other things, too,” he admits.
I nod. Yeah. Like his clubhouse, maybe. Or any one of a million shady things I’m sure he’s up to, because he’s a sleazebag. A reputable business doesn’t want him representing them.
Kaleb may be fined—he’ll definitely have to pay damages—but he’s not getting arrested.