12. Mitch
Alcide got out and saw her pick up two boxes from the car and head toward the house. She could barely see over the top of it, and he shook his head. "Let me help-"
She jumped so badly when he spoke that the top box slid off and landed with a crash. She tried to catch it, and fell over it, the second box rolling away from her with a corresponding 'crash'. Whatever was in it, it had definitely been glass.
He reached down to help her up when he heard another door slam shut. A man in a pair of tailored pants and a polo shirt walked up.
"You know, Sunshine," he said to Sky, "it's hard to imagine how you ever became a premier horse surgeon. If you were any more clumsy, I'd have to hire a horse surgeon for you." He seemed to notice Alcide then. "Who's the lumberjack? You finally hire someone to help you move like I told you to?" He reached down and gripped Sky by the upper arm, practically dragging her to her feet.
"Can you go inside and wait for me, please?" She dusted herself off.
"No. We need to get going. I'm on a schedule, you know. Let the moving man do it."
"He's not a moving man, Mitch. Do you mind?"
"Come on, can't it wait? The flight's in two hours." Then he looked Alcide over again. "You give up the faggot finally?"
"I did not 'give up the faggot', Mitch. Why do you always have to be such an asshole?"
"Come on, I was just joking, Sunshine. Oh, look, here he is now." He raised his voice to yell at the new arrival, "Hey, faggot! We've been waiting on you!"
"Fuck off," came the retort as the other man got out of his car.
"Mitch, I swear to god, if you piss him off again, I will leave with him."
He chuckled. "No, you won't, sugar. You love those horses too much." He patted her on the cheek snidely and Alcide growled.
Sky turned to go into the house and promptly tripped over one of the boxes. She jumped back up, her face red.
"Jesus Christ, Sunshine. You act like you're fucking stupid. You just dropped that a minute ago."
Alcide's fists clenched and he considered smashing the smug, nasty man's face in.
"You must be Alcide," came a voice from behind him as Sky went inside with the arrogant ass.
"Yeah," Alcide answered, staring at the disappearing pair with undisguised loathing. "How did you know?"
"She only gets flustered like that when she's happy, embarrassed, or when she's scared. She quit being happy, embarrassed, or scared about Mitch a long time ago. So it had to be you." He held out his hand, "I'm Carlos. I'm her assistant." Then he pointed at the vanishing couple. "It's not what you might think."
Alcide glared at him, "And what might I think?"
He shrugged, not intimidated. "I'm not sure, but I doubt you could land on the truth of it. She puts up with him because he got the horses."
"What?" Alcide asked.
"They were going to get married. He wanted a horse ranch but couldn't quite afford it. So she went in on it halfway with him. They got it in both of their names. When they split up, the judge awarded her the land, and him the horses. But she wanted the horses, not the land, and now he has both. He uses the horses to keep her from selling the land. And whenever they need therapy of any kind, guess who has to come running."
"She was going to marry that guy?" Alcide couldn't believe it.
"He's a sociopath. He charmed her until he got what he wanted from her. Then he left her for another woman, whom he married because she was richer than Sky's family." Carlos leaned on Sky's car. "He only asked her to marry him so she'd help him buy the stables. He races the horses. Does pretty well, but keeps all the money from it for himself, even though he forces her to be at his beck and call. He's an asshole, and she hates him as much as I do."
"That's blackmail," Alcide said, angry and sad for her.
"Yeah. But what's she going to do? He has agreed to sell them to her. For far more than she could ever afford."
Alcide regretted the loss of Marrok even more now. He would have intimidated the man into giving up the horses. But now he was helpless to help her.
"So we're flying to Memphis to take care of Casbolt's Thunder. It'll probably be four days there and another to get back."
"She's spending four days with that guy?" Alcide wondered how she could stand it.
Carlos sighed. "She don't do it for him, man."
"I'm going with you," Alcide told him.
"So you got a plane ticket already?" Carlos asked. "That's fast, man."
Alcide pulled his phone out and started typing. When he got the number he wanted, he dialed it. When he finally got to the manager he wanted, he said, "I'm Alcide Herveaux. I'll be flying on behalf of Eric Northman. I need to be on the six pm flight today."
"I'm sorry, sir, but we're not accepting more passengers for that flight," the woman replied.
"Do you know who the AVL is, Ma'am? If you wish to continue to do business with them, I suggest that you find a way to get me on that flight."
Her entire manner seemed to change instantly. Within a couple of minutes, he was on the flight. Just in time, too, because Sky came out of the house, looking worn and harassed already. Alcide could only imagine what four days with this guy would do to her.
She came toward him, tugging at the cloth that held her hair in its customary ponytail. "What are you doing here?" she asked, her face wary, but slightly hopeful. Then she sighed and said, "Of all the things I imagined happening if I saw you again, none of this was it."
"I was supposed to meet the landlord here and look at the house," he answered honestly. "I was hoping to rent it."
She blinked and her face closed off from wary to cold. "Well, it's taken." She turned away from him and he grabbed her arm. Turning her, he pulled her into his arms. "I got lucky. When I was looking for you, I couldn't find you. Then I just ran into you randomly here."
She stood stiffly against him. "Please, Sky. I'm sorry. I was trying to protect you. Watching you die was the worst day of my life."
"Well, I didn't die," she told him. "So deal with your guilt on your own. I have things to do." She pulled away from him and he let go, aching.
"I'm coming with you," he told her.
"You, too?" she demanded. "What is it about me that tells you people that it's okay for you to invite yourselves along on my life?" She sounded exasperated and impatient. She threw the bags in her hands into the trunk and walked away.
Alcide stopped her. "Who's 'you people'?" he asked.
"Well, Sam is coming. Him, I asked to come. But you and Eric? You are both overbearing, pushy, self-inviting jerks."
"Why did you ask Sam to go?" Alcide demanded, angry and hurt.
"Because he's good with animals. Did you ever think of that? And because he didn't run off into the night as soon as we had sex."
Blind rage rose in him, "You had sex with Sam?"
She looked like he had slapped her. "No, Alcide. I stupidly had sex with you, and then you ran off. Immediately."
Mocking laughter came from behind her and Alcide actually heard her teeth grind together.
"Chased another one off, did you?" Mitch asked, still laughing. "Maybe if you were a little less needy and demanding, you could keep one around for longer than a few hours, Sunshine," he told her, slapping her on the ass as he walked past.
Alcide almost hit him in the face, but Sky pushed him. "Leave off. It's none of your business," and Alcide was hurt to see her glaring at him instead of the offensive asshole walking off down the sidewalk.
"I know he's blackmailing you," Alcide told her.
She rolled her eyes, "Fucking Carlos. If you know that, then you know that there's nothing I can do, and nothing you can do. If you hurt him, I'll lose my horses. So just back off. And stay here."
"No," Alcide told her.
"What are you going to do that Eric can't, Alcide?"
He flinched, but said, "Protect you during the day."
"Sam will be there. And he'll actually be helping with the horses."
"I'm coming with you. We need to talk," he told her. "And I'm not leaving you alone with Eric. Or Sam."
"Really? Why do you care all of a sudden? You're the dog in the manger, Alcide. How apropos for a werewolf, don't you think?"
"It isn't like that, Sky," he argued as she got into her car and shut the door in his face as Mitch blared the horn on his expensive rental.
"Yes it is," she told him. "You just don't want to admit it to yourself." She put the car in gear. "Watch your feet," she warned and started backing out. He stepped back and watched her go.
Carlos came up beside him. "You ain't givin' up, are ya?"
"What choice do I have?" Alcide asked him. "She said no."
"She can't keep you off a public plane, and there's plenty of hotels in Memphis," Carlos told him. "I'm just sayin'."
Alcide followed him in the rental car and got on the plane. He charmed the little old lady across from Sky and Mitch into switching seats with him and sat down with a newspaper. He saw Sam a couple of seats up.
"You're bringing the lumberjack with you?" Mitch asked her. "I hope he doesn't scare the horses. He's kinda hairy." Then he laughed at his own joke.
Sky sighed and asked Alcide, "What are you doing here? I asked you to stay away."
He crooked his finger at her and she leaned toward him. He whispered, just below her ear, "It's a public place, Sky. And if you won't let me stay with you, there are plenty of hotels in Memphis." He nipped her earlobe slightly before pulling away and going back to his newspaper. Let her chew on that for a while.
He smelled her, even in the midst of the crush of people, and smiled.
When they arrived, it was dark. Eric met them at the front door. A limo waited for them, and Alcide heard Sky make a sound of disgust. Mitch got in, and Sam grabbed Sky's bags to put them into the back of the limo.
Sky walked away, Carlos following. She flagged down a taxi and the pair hopped in. Alcide jumped in beside her. He smiled at her as he was crushed up against her, the three of them straining the limits of the taxi seat.
"I'll take the limo," Carlos said, jumping out.
So Alcide listened as she gave the driver instructions and they moved out. He held her against him, despite the vacated spot beside her. She sat rigid beside him and he eased his hold on her. She moved away, looking out the window.
"So why are we here?" he asked.
"I don't know why you're here. But I'm here because Casbolt's Thunder needs surgery. The stable vet thinks he should be put to pasture, but I think from the x-rays that I can save his knee for racing." Her breath fogged the window as she spoke, firmly turned away from him.
"Sky, there's something you should know," he told her. But it was too late. The ride to the stables was short, and she jumped out before he could explain.
"It will have to wait," she told him, handing the cabbie some money.
The taxi had stopped beside the limo, and Eric stood beside it. As Sky headed past him, he moved in front of her, stopping her. "Do you need any help?" he asked.
"Yeah, move," she told him.
He stepped aside with a lifted brow and a smirking bow.
She moved past him at a trot, then picked up to a run. Carlos trailed behind her.
Mitch laughed. "Never get between her and those animals," he told Eric smugly. "She'll run you over. She probably fucks them."
Before Alcide could even react, Eric's fist snapped out as casually as if he were swatting a fly. Alcide was jealous, he wanted to be the one to beat the shit out of the guy.
"Arg! I think you broke my nose," Mitch groaned. "If you knew what a nasty whore she is, you wouldn't-"
This time, Alcide got to him before Eric did. He punched him in the gut.
"I'll have you both up on charges," Mitch whined, gasping for breath.
"Try it," Eric invited him, still as casual as if he were discussing the weather.
Alcide was fuming. He was burning to beat the man senseless. And it seemed that Mitch recognized it, because he took several steps back. He turned to the limo driver, "Take me to the hospital."
Mitch left and Sam said, "I just met him and I fucking hate that guy."
"He's blackmailing Sky," Alcide told them. "She got the ranch, but he got the horses. She wanted the horses, so he uses them to control and manipulate her."
"Not for long," Eric said. "I'm going to look around." He flitted away.
Sam sighed. "I guess I'm left to take the bags in."
Alcide helped, then Sam said, "I'm going to see if there's anything I can do to help."
They walked down to the barn and a worker pointed them toward the back. There, they found Sky and Carlos, with another man, looking at x-rays.
"He'll have to be in traction," the other man said. "He'll lose muscular strength and tone, as well as weakening the joints."
"Not with physical therapy in a pool," Sky told him. "Providing that fragment hasn't moved, the tendon won't be effected. All that will be required from there is for him to heal and maintain muscular motion. With a pure grass diet for a couple of months, he shouldn't scar-"
"You can't take him off his feed," the other vet argued, and Alcide wondered if the guy had ever seen Sky before.
"I can, and I am," Sky told him. "He will get all the grasses and herbs he'll eat, and no grains unless they are green."
"But-"
"Carlos, let's get him sedated."
"You're going to operate now?" the other man practically squealed. "You're wasting your time. If we leave him alone, he'll at least be good for breeding."
"Yes, I'm operating now. If that fragment moves, he's ruined for racing. This is a race horse, Mr. Lablanc. He's too young to go to stud, and has too much potential."
"I'll tell Mitch. He won't let you do this!"
"Mitch," she said coldly, her face inches away from Lablanc's, "brought me here exactly for this reason. Now get out."
She turned to Carlos, who was struggling with the big horse. "Where's Sam?" she asked him.
"I'm here," Sam said, coming around Alcide as Lablanc brushed past him.
Sky's eyes met Alcide's for a second, and she started to smile. Then she clearly remembered that she was mad at him and the smile vanished.
"Can you calm him?" she asked Sam. "Just long enough for us to give him a shot. Please?"
"I'll try," Sam answered, stepping up to the horse. He murmured and patted the horse until he stilled.
Carlos jabbed quickly, and the horse slowly drooped. Sky began to work a crank, and Alcide went over to help Sam arrange the horse on the table for Sky. Carlos began working a huge tube down the horse's throat, and Alcide looked away.
Sam and Alcide stepped back as Carlos began to help Sky get dressed in sterile clothing.
"You can leave if you like," she said through her mask. "This will take several hours."
Then she turned back to the horse and Alcide watched as she seemed to almost go into a trance. If it weren't a horse lying on the table, he would have felt like he was watching a medical show on TV. What struck him the most was how focused Sky was.
All of the awkwardness he knew in her was gone completely. She was totally focused on the job at hand, her motions spare and certain. He leaned against the wall, and found that watching her, even unable to see much of her at all, was an unaccounted pleasure.
Eric appeared beside him. "Did you know she's considered to be one of the top three horse surgeons in the world?" he said.
"No," Alcide answered. "I have to admit that I actually agree with Mitch on that. I would never have imagined she would be so incredible at this. She's sort of awkward."
"Really?" Eric asked. "I've never seen her be awkward."
Alcide smiled, Carlos' words coming back to him about her being like that almost exclusively when she was angry or attracted to someone. He could hope it meant that, despite his blood, maybe she wasn't falling for Eric.
"If that horse can be saved, she'll be the one to do it," Alcide told him.
"So what do you know about Mitch? You said he is blackmailing her."
"Apparently they bought this stables together. The judge awarded her the land and holdings, and awarded him the horses. Seems her family is quite well off."
Eric looked at him oddly. "She's well off on her own," he said. "She invented something or the other. Several something or others, actually."
"You checked up on her?"
"Of course. You don't think I'd ask just any human to marry me, do you?"
"What?" Alcide stared at him.
"Don't worry, she said 'no'," Eric told him. "I think she thought I was kidding."
"You weren't?" Alcide was furious.
Eric looked at him. "A high profile human wife for an elder vampire would be excellent for the AVL's image. Especially an animal surgeon. Humans love animals."
Alcide snarled at him. "You don't even like her," he said. "You think she's irritating."
"She's growing on me. And she's brave," Eric said. "Not to mention smart and sexy."
"Leave her alone!" Alcide told him, then growled, his fists clenching.
Eric's fangs clicked out. "Or what, 'were?"
"HEY!" Sky yelled at them. "Take it outside. I'm working. What the hell is the matter with you?"
Alcide looked at her, finding her bent over the horse, glaring at them with undisguised ferocity.