CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Tommaso
Ideally, I would have loved to stay in bed with Danica late into the morning. With my face between her thighs, as she came undone over and over again—just like last night—but I couldn’t. I had animals to feed and a property to maintain.
So while the blonde beauty slept naked and peaceful in my bed, I crept out, got dressed, and headed to the kitchen to feed Portia and start the day.
My pig stood in the kitchen in front of me, waiting for her oatmeal and blueberries.
Now that the new security system was fully installed, I was trying to make a habit of checking things first thing in the morning.
So far, there’d been no nefarious nighttime antics, but I could feel it in my bones that it was only a matter of time.
Vincent was desperate, and I didn’t trust that that Clyde kid wouldn’t return just to wreak havoc.
Portia grunted and stomped her front feet in impatience as I scrolled through the video footage on the screen for the security system.
“Abbi pazienza, amore. Solo un attimo,” I told her, asking for patience.
Just as I was about to put the tablet down to get her breakfast, a flash of something on the screen—movement, and not from livestock—made me pause.
It was hard to see, since they skirted the edges and kept their heads down, but there were definitely two people in the barn, both dressed in black.
The timestamp said four-eleven in the morning.
I didn’t waste any more time watching the screen, and with Portia—my trusty sidekick—right beside me, I slid into my loafers and sprinted across the property to the barn and toward Midnight and Raven’s stall.
I knew before I even reached it that something was wrong.
Raven was distraught and kicking the stall walls.
I opened the door to find her in a panic, her nostrils flaring, eyes wide and wild, showing all the whites.
“Easy,” I murmured, going to her. I already knew that Midnight wasn’t there. I didn’t need to hunt for the little guy. He wasn’t that small, and the stall wasn’t that big.
“Okay … okay ….”
What did I do? Where did I even start?
A buzzing sound filled my ears, competing with Raven’s noises of distress. My fingers twitched and crumpled into fists at my sides as my gut spun, threatening to vomit up last night’s dinner. I reached for her, wrapping my arms around her neck to calm her as well as myself.
I just continued to console Raven as I racked my brain about the next step. Did I call the police? Midnight wouldn’t run away. And besides, the video footage of two people showed that they broke into my barn—how?—and obviously ran off with my foal.
The bar door opened and then slammed shut, and running footsteps echoed along the concrete, drawing closer. Danica arrived out of breath, concern painted all over her face. “What happened? I heard you leave in a panic.”
“Someone has kidnapped Midnight.”
She gasped and entered the stall. “What?”
“I … I must have forgotten to turn on the alarm last night. The cameras show two people entering.”
“Two?”
I nodded.
She already had her phone in her hand and stepped out of the stall. I grabbed my phone, still staying close to Raven, and called the first person that came to mind—Jagger.
“Yo, bro,” Jagger greeted with a yawn. “What’s up?” I could barely hear him over the buzzing in my ears, and Raven’s continued sounds of anguish.
“Midnight has been kidnapped.”
“What the fuck?” Now he was awake.
“I … I don’t know what to do. Danica is on the phone—”
“On it. We’ll send out an island-wide BOLO. Have you called the cops?”
“I … I will.”
“Okay. We’re on the way.”
“Grazie.”
“No worries.” Then he disconnected the call.
Danica returned to the stall. “I just called Gabrielle.”
“And I called Jagger.”
She nodded. “They’re all on their way. McEvoys too?”
“Si.”
“I’ll call the cops, you … you look at the camera footage again and maybe see if you can find the point of entry.”
All I could do was bob my head. My brain wasn’t working right now. Not anymore. Not since walking into this stall and finding my foal missing, and his surrogate mother in distress.
“Hey, Myla. This is Danica. Yeah, I’m over at Tommaso Barone’s and one of his horses is missing.
The foal, Midnight. He’s been stollen. We can see on the security camera footage that someone broke into the barn this morning—two people, by the looks of it—and now the foal is missing.
Yeah … okay … thanks, Myla. See you soon. ”
I pressed a kiss to Raven’s neck, but every cord, every muscle in her body was tightly wound with stress. I couldn’t even imagine what she must have been feeling right now.
“Perhaps we should move Raven with Kenny for the time being. To help calm her down,” Danica suggested, returning to the stall. She stepped up beside me and petted Raven’s neck. “Hmm, sweetheart.”
“Si. That’s a good idea,” I murmured.
Danica took care of everything. She harnessed Raven, then gently led her over to be with Kenny, where lo and behold, the old gelding comforted her, just the way we'd hoped.
Raven was beginning to settle, but I wasn’t nearly as lucky. I still had that awful ringing and buzzing in my ears, which kept me from hearing anything going on around me as any more than muffled sounds. I squeezed my eyes shut and bunched my fists to keep my fingers from twitching.
But when a hand landed on my shoulder, I jumped.
Danica, wide-eyed, took a step back. “The McEvoys are here,” she said gently, wariness on her face. “You okay?”
“No,” I blurted out. “Of course I’m not okay. I forgot to set the alarm last night because … because …” I growled. “Perché mi hai distratto. Sei una distrazione fin dall’inizio.” She was a distraction.
The barn door opened, and Jagger appeared first—still limping a little—followed by his four older brothers, and one woman with shoulder-length brown hair.
She pushed past the men and came straight up to me, wrapping her arms around me in a hug, speaking fluent Italian to me and introducing herself, telling me that they were here to help.
“Ciao. Sono Ludovica. Mi dispiace tanto sapere del tuo puledro. Siamo qui per aiutarti a trovarlo in tutti i modi possibili.”
I glanced at Danica, who didn’t at all seem surprised that this woman was speaking fluent Italian.
Ludovica stepped back, with an apologetic smile on her pretty face. I stood there like an idiot, just staring at her. Wyatt McEvoy joined us, wrapping an arm around her, offering me his hand. “Sorry about this, man. Who the fuck steals a foal?”
The woman beside him shook her head, fury burning hot in her brown eyes.
“Vica insisted she meet the other Italian on the island,” Wyatt added. “Wanted to help any way she could.”
“Si,” Vica said, nodding. “Wyatt speaks Italian, but as you know, it’s not the same as chatting with someone from back home.”
My head bobbed. “Sorry … I’m just …”
“We get it,” Wyatt said, dismissing my apology. “This is all crazy and it sucks.”
The tall, dark-haired man beside Jagger, who was their eldest brother, Clint, clapped his hands once to gather everyone’s attention. “All right, so we’re on the hunt for a black, week-old colt, yes?”
Danica nodded. “He has a white star on his forehead.”
“Doubt we’ll run into more than one black foal on the island,” Jagger joked.
Danica rolled her eyes.
“I’ve already called the ferry terminal, and they know to stop and search any vehicles that are big enough to stash a foal,” Clint said.
“Clint,” Vica started, “where do you think someone who stole a horse could even hide on the island?”
“Well, considering we’ve had to search the island for people hiding before, the first place we’re going to check is Bonn Remmen’s land and his old house.
Then we’ll hit other vacation homes that are currently vacant.
I doubt any islander would risk stashing them, but we can’t rule it out. We’ll go in teams of two.”
“My cousins and Maverick are on their way too,” Danica added.
Clint nodded. “Good. Brooke and Chloe are staying with the kids, and Justine is working at the clinic. But we’ve messaged all our pub staff, and those who aren’t scheduled to start until later tonight are already out looking.”
A message made his phone ping, and he glanced at it.
Meanwhile, I just continued to stand there like a helpless idiot, having a silent anxiety attack, while people I barely knew devised a plan to help me find Midnight.
“I also messaged Cameron Arendelle,” Danica said. “He’s got all the distillery dads out searching too.”
“That was Jolene Dandy,” Clint said, stashing his phone back into his pocket. “She’s started the island phone tree now. By lunch, not a single islander won’t be in the know or out looking.”
Danica offered me a small, reassuring smile, but I wasn’t able to reply with one of my own.
I hadn’t even noticed, but Wyatt and Vica had made their way toward the other end of the barn, and were just walking back to us now. “Looks like a forced entry into the stall across from the one they stole the foal from.”
Vica nodded. “They pried open the door of that horse’s stall from the outside.”
“That’s Ginger’s stall,” Danica said. “She’s so gentle. No wonder they didn’t get kicked in the head or anything. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“They must have left the same way, it would seem,” Wyatt added. He had my security tablet in his hand and was studying it. “There are cameras at all the main doors, and we see no movement.”
“I … I forgot to turn on the alarm,” I murmured, staring at the ground as that buzzing invaded my ears again and my fingers tingled and burned so much that the only thing I could do was curl them into fists.
Thankfully, Clint seemed used to organizing and delegating this kind of thing. So he didn’t wait for me to gather my thoughts. He just launched into creating search party teams.
“You’re with me,” Danica said, sliding her fingers through mine and giving them a little squeeze.
I couldn’t muster the corners of my mouth up. I just stared back at her blankly.