Chapter Sixteen
Present Day
The air smelled different in the fall. It probably had a lot to do with the wet leaves and change in seasons. Somehow, the aroma of maple and pumpkin mixed into the air. Cayden never dissected the exact reason for the scent. Groggy from lack of sleep, she stood in front of Stoney’s stall.
“Eight hours later … I think that’s an all-time record for ignoring my text.” Levi’s deep voice caressed her ears. One of the many things about him that turned her on. “Did you bother reading it?” He took off his plaid jacket and put it over her shoulders.
Since the temperature dropped, she understood his reference to her clothes from earlier. Cayden stood in her Uggs and Victoria Secret sleep shirt. When she woke, the clock read 10:45 PM, and she figured no one would be around at the barn. However, she didn’t consider the brisk temperature.
“What happened to Stoney?” The white bandage went all the way up the horse’s leg.
“Someone took her out on a joyride last night, and she got caught in a fence.”
“That seems…” Everything appeared out of focus. “Ridiculous.” The pills didn’t help her stay asleep, but they did manage to keep her off balance. She fought against the muck in her head to make sense of it all.
“Hey.” He grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her to face him. “Did you get any sleep?”
“Not much.”
“What’s going on? You’ve been out of it ever since you came back from the city.” He cradled her face in his hands while he studied her.
Cayden didn’t know how much she wanted to confess, but the weight of it became too heavy to keep to herself.
“Those sleeping pills aren’t working, I take it?” His icy tone indicated he didn’t approve. On accident, she left the prescription bottle on the night stand.
Once he realized she wouldn’t confess her sins to him, he dropped his hands from her face. Diagnosed with PTSD years before, Levi didn’t endorse self-medication. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he joined a cult that frowned upon medical intervention.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She took a step away from the stall but stumbled over her feet.
“You’re really out of it.” He steadied her with his hands. “Let’s get you home.”
The judgmental timber in his voice quickly changed into concern. Hefting her up into his arms, he cradled her to his chest.
“Levi?” Cayden said through the dense fog in her head. “Where are the ponies?”
“They’re in their stall, babe.”
“Nope.” As her head grew heavy, Cayden found she couldn’t hold it up any longer and let it fall back. “All the ponies are … gone.”
****
The sun shone bright in the cloudless sky, but it didn’t change Levi’s bad mood—he had been up all night. The ponies were gone. He spent the rest of the day combing through camera footage with the sheriff. They were able to narrow down a timeframe. The last employee left at 7:00 PM and Cayden noticed somewhere around 11:00 PM.
Shawn left the resort a couple of hours ago. Nothing of substance came up on any of the video feeds. Without a shadow of a doubt, he knew all the weird stuff happening had to do with Cayden.
Frustrated that things spun this far out of his control since the beauty showed up, he loaded the dishwasher.
“Cayden!” Before she even opened the front door, Levi heard his mother’s voice. If she continued to shout, she would wake up the spoiled but sexy brat.
He hurried to the hallway to stop her. “Mom,” he hissed.
She’d already made it halfway up the stairs.
Ignoring him, Mom called out again, “Cayden.”
“Mom.”
She glared at him with barely concealed anger. Beat down and tired from the previous day, he honestly wouldn’t mind taking out his mood on the closest person available. Nevertheless, it appeared that Mom would win this one. “Do you really want to do this?”
Familiar with her disappointed face, he waited for his mom to step back down to the foyer.
“Regardless of her stress-related insomnia or your triggers from PTSD,” she growled, “you two are grown and I can’t stop … whatever this is.” Instead of defending himself, he waited to hear her out. “Did you know she bought us a week stay at a spa in Chicago? Plus, first-class treatment with Bears and Blackhawk tickets which would keep us busy for more than a month.”
“Sounds expensive. Coffee?” he offered.
“Don’t distract me with politeness. I want to stay mad for at least a good minute. Why does she want us out of the way?”
“No clue,” he admitted. Even in her zonked-out state last night he couldn’t get much from her.
“This book is a bad idea.” Red blotches spread across her chubby cheeks. She seemed to be barely holding her anger at bay.
“Agreed.”
She stomped her little Ked-covered foot in frustration. “This isn’t a fifty-year-old case where she gives the reader a long backstory and then solves the crime… First Stoney, now the ponies?”
Considering that only a handful of people knew about Cayden’s writing career, he found the strange disappearance of their horses not entirely a coincidence.
“Think you can talk her out of this?”
“Do you?” he volleyed back to his mom as his dad honked the horn outside.
“I’m going to kill your father!” Obviously, Dad wanted to motor. “Last question, is she sleeping all day? Because that’s not good either.”
Slow to answer, he thought of something that never occurred to him before. “Do you think that means she’s starting to figure out who killed her?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” She threw up her hands in a huff. “I’m gone to leave you to do whatever this shit is!”
“Mom!” Shocked she cursed, he bit back a chuckle.
“What? Dealing with you two could drive a sober person off the wagon, just … take care of her,” she said before she abruptly turned on her heels and left. No good-bye kiss or hug. Instead, she stomped out of his house.
Levi crossed the hall to the front door to make sure she got to the RV safely and waved at his dad who sat in the driver seat.
“You can’t hold your horses for five damn minutes?” she fussed. Levi chuckled, happy to know that the next hour of his dad’s life would be pure hell.