Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (43 page)

Evan nods reluctantly, and Dan resolutely stands up, pulls the covers back, and climbs in. Evan stays sitting on the end of his bed for a while, then gets up and turns out the light, and makes his way to bed himself. Dan doesn’t get to sleep for a long time, but he doesn’t say anything, doesn’t want to resurrect the silly chatter of the previous night. He needs to re-establish some boundaries here, and pillow talk is not going to be the way to do it.

He finally drifts off, but wakes up before the alarm the next morning. He lies there, trying to get back to sleep, but as usual it’s no use. He looks over at Evan, sleeping peacefully in the next bed, and rips his eyes away almost immediately. Employees shouldn’t look at their bosses asleep, shouldn’t want to touch their bosses’ bare shoulders, or run their hands down under the covers….

He lifts himself out of bed warily, and scouts out his objectives before he moves. His shoes are there; his socks are there; and the room key is there… he’d slept in sweatpants and a T-shirt, so he can go outside without needing any new clothes. He carefully retrieves all the items and heads for the door. It makes a little brushing sound as it opens, the loudest noise he’s made since he woke up, but he forces himself not to turn around and check on Evan. He squeezes outside and shuts the door softly behind him, and takes a deep breath of the cool morning air. It feels good to be free.

He sits down on the curb and pulls on his socks and running shoes. He thinks about Evan’s workouts, the idea of exercise as stress relief, and he stands up and walks a few steps before he starts jogging. He’d worked hard the day before, and he hadn’t slept well, so he doesn’t have all that much energy, but it does feel good to be working at something. He heads out on the sidewalk and turns left. They’d come from the right, and he doesn’t remember seeing anywhere all that running-friendly in that direction. Not that he needs anywhere special—at this time of day, the sidewalks are deserted, so he can get enough room anywhere. He stops after ten minutes and stretches, and then starts out again at a faster rate, pushing himself a little, trying to get into his non-thinking zone. He finds his rhythm, hears the slap of his feet on the pavement as if it’s coming from inside him, somehow, and everything else fades away. It feels good.

Eventually, he comes out of himself enough to notice that traffic is starting to pick up a little. Still not exactly rush hour, but probably time to get back. They aren’t on quite such a tight schedule today, but there’s still a lot to get done. And Dan had told Evan that they’d be home by noon. With that thought, he feels all the tension he’d just worked out of his body come rushing back in. They’d be home by noon so Dan could go and answer a bunch of questions about some stupid stuff he’d done in what seems like another life. He believes Evan that a juvie record isn’t a big deal to his current employment, but that doesn’t mean he’s looking forward to reliving it all, or being grilled on his life’s mistakes by total strangers.

When he gets back to the motel, the room is empty and Evan’s stuff is gone, although the Cherokee is still parked outside. Dan glances at the clock. He’s tight for time, but not yet late. He hangs his sweaty clothes up to air out a little while he has a quick shower. Evan’s still not back when Dan gets out, so he pulls on jeans and a T-shirt, finds his work boots, and packs up the rest of his crap. He knocks on the door to Michelle’s room but there’s no answer, so he eats his cereal by himself, then pours out the last of milk and packs up the food from the mini-fridge. He piles everything by the door and does a quick sweep of the room for anything left behind, then walks over to the diner that’s attached to the motel. If Michelle and Evan are anywhere together, it’s probably there.

His suspicion is confirmed as soon as he opens the door and hears Evan’s loud laugh coming from farther inside. The two of them are in a booth by the window, Evan’s back facing the door so Dan can only see Michelle’s face. She looks pleased at having made Evan laugh, and Dan feels a moment of irritation. Obviously Evan isn’t too worried about what he’s making Dan go through today. But then, why should he be? People have their employees go through security stuff all the time, and Dan needs to make sure he doesn’t forget that he’s Evan’s employee.

He walks over to the table determined to be civil. “’Morning, guys.” They both look up, and Dan addresses himself to Michelle. “Are you out of your room? Can I go check us out?”

She nods. “Yeah, we put my stuff in the car. We’re ready to go whenever you are. We were just waiting for you.”
Dan glances at his watch. They’re still on schedule, but he feels like Michelle is accusing him of something. Maybe he’s just being paranoid, bracing himself for the accusations that will come that afternoon. “Okay. Uh, Evan, can I borrow the keys to the car? If I load my stuff I can check us out, and then meet you guys out there in a few minutes?”
Evan nods, and stands up to dig the keys out of his front pocket. “Sure, man. Do you need any help? Or do you want me to do that, let you get some breakfast?”

“No, I’m good, thanks.” He’s really not interested in owing Evan any favors.
A few minutes later when he walks out of the motel office, Evan and Michelle are both sitting in the Cherokee waiting for him, Michelle in the back seat. It’s a fifteen-minute drive, so Dan doesn’t bother trying to figure out a way to get her to trade positions.

Michelle has a few questions about the barn while they’re driving, and Dan tries to drag them out, turn them into discussions for just him and Michelle. Sometime over the course of the restless night and short morning, Dan seems to have developed a bit of resentment toward Evan, and he’s reluctant to talk himself out of it. It would be a lot easier to keep his distance from the guy if he weren’t so damn likeable… and at least right now, he’s not.

When they get to the site, Tat and Robyn have already fed the horses and are working on packing things up while the animals eat. Dan looks around for the horse trailer, and then looks quizzically at Robyn. “No transport yet?”

She shakes her head, and he checks his watch, then tells himself to calm down. The guy isn’t even late yet, so why is Dan looking for trouble?

Someone is running a tractor with a low hay wagon behind it as a sort of equipment shuttle, taking stuff from the temporary stalls to the loading area. Dan flags the driver down, and they all start loading equipment. And then one of the site administrators comes over to settle up the final accounts. They’d brought feed and hay with them, but they’d bought bedding, and there’s the prize money, meager though it is, to sort out. By the time that’s taken care of the horse trailer has arrived, and everyone’s busy loading equipment and then animals.

When everything’s on board, the crew gathers. Dan looks at Michelle. “I wouldn’t mind talking to the driver about some stuff, get his impressions on different events and things about the industry out here. Would you be okay riding in the car?”

She leans in to make sure the driver can’t hear. “You don’t have to… I’ve got a second wind for the stories, I’ll be fine.”

Dan makes himself laugh. “No, I seriously want to talk to him.” She smiles, happy at her escape, and Dan turns to the youngest member of their band. “Tat, there’s room for you in the car too….”

“No way! I want to hear about the events too!” She looks excited, as usual, and Dan groans to himself. Now he’s got to come up with some actual questions to ask the guy. Still, better to make conversation with him than with Evan.

By the end of the trip, Dan isn’t sure that was true. He’d run out of any possibly useful questions after the first half hour, and after that the driver had just taken the bit in his teeth and told story after story, almost all of them with no discernible point or ending. Even Tat is looking a little overwhelmed, and Dan feels like he’s been to war. He jumps out of the cab before the truck has even come to a complete stop, and sees Robyn and Michelle notice and laugh at him. He rolls his eyes at Michelle, and she nods in agreement, and then they get to work with the horses.

Sara’s at the barn looking after the animals that were left behind, and she comes out to help. Tat is game, but obviously dragging, and Dan would just as soon be rid of Evan. “Why don’t you head home now, Tat?” She raises her eyes in protest, but Dan says, “Sunshine’s unloaded and in her paddock, you’ve taken her tack inside, and you spent two nights on a cot… you’ve done more than your share, for sure.” She looks tempted, especially when Evan smiles fondly at her and gives her an approving nod.

“Yeah, head up, brat. I’ve gotta sort a couple things out with Dan, and then I’ll be up too. Why don’t you see what Tia’s got for our lunches?”

She nods, and then turns to Dan. “Are you gonna come up for lunch too?”

He’s caught a little off guard, but manages a calm, “No, thanks, I’ve got some stuff to take care of down here.”
She leaves, and Evan turns to Dan. “So, I talked to the security team. They said they’d like to get this cleared up as soon as possible, so they’re gonna come by today at one, to your house. Is that cool?”

Dan looks at his watch. It’s already half past twelve, and Evan grimaces. “Yeah, sorry, man. When they get something in their heads, they’re pretty aggressive.”

Dan doesn’t want to hear any more apologies, doesn’t want to pretend that this is a favor he’s doing for Evan. This is mandatory; it’s a term of his employment. If they say to be ready at one, he guesses he’d better be. “Yeah, okay, I’ll just make sure everything’s on track here and head over.”

“Is there anything I can do to help? I mean, here, or….”

“No, not really. Everybody here knows more about horses than you do, so they can handle everything. It’s fine. I’m gonna take the rest of the day off, probably. Did you see the sheet in the tack room for everybody to record their hours? I’ll sign out in there.”

Evan shakes his head impatiently. “Dan, I told you not to worry about the damn hours! I trust you, I know you’re doing your job, you don’t need to prove anything to me.”

Dan snorts. “Well, apparently I need to prove things to somebody, right? I’ll just hang onto the hour sheets in case payroll decides to launch their own investigation some day.”

Evan looks like he’d like to answer that a little sharply, but after a brief struggle he holds his tongue. “All right. Let me know if there’s any problems this afternoon.”

“Evan, if there’s problems, I expect I’ll be the last to know. That’s how it worked this time around.”
Evan’s face twitches a little, but again he doesn’t respond, just raises a hand to wave and climbs into the Cherokee. Dan feels a little bad, but he resists that urge. Evan’s the one who dragged him out here into this crazy world with its bodyguards and in-depth security checks, so why should Dan be the only one who’s uncomfortable, while Evan cruises around consequence-free in his little bubble of wealth? He knows that’s not fair, remembers that Evan and Tat have not been cushioned from all of life’s blows, but he doesn’t really care about being fair.

He goes over to the paddock where Smokey is grazing. The water trough has overflowed somehow and made a little mud pit, and Smokey’s obviously been playing in it, with mud splashed all over his legs and up under his belly. When the little horse sees Dan he comes over to the fence to nose around for treats, and Dan pats his neck affectionately, fingers working loose some of the dried mud that had splashed up even that far. “You and me, Smokey… maybe we’re a little too dirty for a place like this, huh? What do you say? Do you want to just run away, go live in the hills?” Smokey nods his head, but Dan isn’t convinced. “Yeah, you say that now, but how about when it gets cold or if it rains, huh? And you’d miss all the apples you get down here, wouldn’t you, and all your friends?” Smokey nods again, and then, apparently giving up on finding a treat, he turns and walks back over to where the other horses are grazing. Dan can tell that he’s in a bit of a melodramatic mood because he actually feels betrayed by the horse’s choice.

He shakes his head and walks over to the barn. He needs to make sure that everything’s on track and then sign out. He doesn’t want to be late for his own inquisition.

Chapter 34

W
HEN
Dan arrives at the guest house, he sees a dark sedan already parked out front, and as he approaches two men climb out. They’re wearing dark suits and sunglasses, and Dan feels dirty and underdressed. Not the best start to the meeting. Still, he has no choice, so he approaches them and holds out his hand.

“I’m Dan Wheeler. You guys are from the Kaminski security… thing?”

The older of the two men nods. “I’m Bill Albanese, this is Neil Dawson.” They all shake hands, and then Bill says, “Do you mind if we go inside?”

Dan shakes his head and walks in front of them toward the stairs. He deliberately angles his body so they can’t see his code as he punches it into the door. He knows they probably have easy access to that sort of information, but fuck them, why should he trust them when they don’t trust him?

He doesn’t really know what to do with them when they get inside. He drops his bags from the trip in a pile by the door, then turns to the men. “Uh, do we need a table for this, or do you want to sit in the living room?”

“A table might be useful.” This time it’s Neil talking.
“Okay, uh, let’s go into the kitchen.” They follow him down the hallway, and when they arrive in the sun-filled room, Dan wonders how much of a host he’s supposed to be. “Do you guys want coffee or anything?”
Neil shakes his head, but Bill says, “If you’re making some

anyways,” and Dan decides to like him better. He still doesn’t like him, but… he’s better. Dan wonders if they’ll do a good-cop-bad-cop routine, and how much it would mess up the system if Bill turns out to be the bad cop. While he’s having these thoughts, his body is automatically moving around the kitchen, pulling out the coffee and pouring water into the reservoir, settling the carafe in place, and checking the fridge for milk. Luckily, he’s got some, and he pulls it out and puts it on the table next to the sugar bowl. Then he gets mugs out. He’s aware that the two men are watching him do all this, but he doesn’t really see how much they could be picking up from his actions. Doesn’t everyone make coffee about the same way?