Page 14 of Property of Legend

That goddamn thoroughbred.

I remember screaming.Blood on my hands.That twisted body in the stall, the horse lying warped and broken.My father’s shouts echoed like thunder through the darkness.

Something in the dark, teeth too long and eyes too wrong.

A shiver runs up my spine, cold as a Kentucky river in winter just remembering.

Folks still whisper that I lost my damn mind, cracked my skull and saw a monster.

Hell, maybe I had.

They found me weeks later, wandering aimlessly.Couldn't remember shit, still can't.But I remember everyone pointing fingers, calling me crazy.While I was gone, my dad got accused, fired, then disappeared, and my life turned upside down faster than a flipped whiskey barrel.

And me?I got meaner.

Paradise was anything but, and Sophie Montgomery became a flash in the pan I tried like hell to forget.

Until now.

"Legend."

Oaks’ voice breaks through, steady and low.Man’s been my right hand for years, solid as the name he wears.He stands beside me now, eyes scanning the horizon like it might bite.“Montgomery’s are waitin’.”

“They said today.Didn’t say when.Go on without me.”

“They want you.You, specifically.”

I light a smoke, Zippo snappin’ loud in the quiet.“They got a funny way of askin’.”

“Rich folks always do.”Oaks’ smile is more grim than amused.

“What’s the issue, again?”

“Threats.Dead animals.Real nasty shit.”He pauses.“Sophie’s rattled.”

I grunt.“Didn’t think that girl knew how to rattle.”

“Guess the game’s changed.She asked for you.”

That gives me pause.She asked?

“Sophie Montgomery don’t ask for help.Especially not from me.”I drag deep on my cigarette, letting the smoke scorch down my throat like cheap bourbon.“What the hell could scare a girl like that?”

“Somethin’ real,” Oaks says.“Somethin’ dangerous.”

I flick the ash, watching it scatter.“They could hire a damn army.Why us?”

Oaks smirks.“You ain’t listenin’.She don’t want an army.She wants you.”

The words twist like barbed wire in my chest.

“Yeah,” I mutter.“Figures.”

“You in?”

I grind the cigarette out beneath my boot, already knowing the answer.“If Sophie Montgomery’s scared, then it’s already too late for half-measures.”

He nods.

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