Page 31 of Live Love Lasso

I slap my forehead. “Those fucking pixies.”

The entire story comes out then. Shadow and Oz pepper me with a million questions, and they don’t stop until I explain how I’ve just returned home from Furyon’s.

Shadow beams at me. “Was this human who showed up hot?”

I chuckle. “As a matter of fact, she was really pretty. But I don’t get the sense that orgies are really Furyon’s thing.”

Oz laughs and shakes his head. “Not at all. In the five months I’ve been here, plenty of monsters have tried to date him, and he’s never shown interest in anyone. He’s super in tune with the animals, and that’s his focus, honestly.” He rubs my arm. “Until Lemon showed up in those sparkly pink boots and got him all twitterpated!”

Shadow snaps her fingers. “Knew it! I know they’re not exactly practical, but damn if they aren’t pretty.”

Oz shrugs. “Who needs practical if you can be bedazzled?”

We share a laugh over that. Then Shadow fills me in on everything I’ve missed back home, which is a lot of sexcapades but not much else. Amadala’s no longer talking to the minotaur she met on the girls’ trip. Kingston’s off on a month-long vacay with some rich vampire who wants to court her. And Shadow’s still happy as hells with Dain.

I bite the edge of my thumb. “Any news on Varitius’ daughter?”

Shadow shakes her head. “Nothing new. Apparently she’s still covered head to toe in hives.”

I groan and clap a hand over my face. What a nightmare. “I’m gonna be stuck here forever.”

Oz slaps the side of my boob. “You mean dating a hot dark elf and having a gay bestie? Yeah, what a horrible time. Take it back.”

I rest my head on his shoulder and rub his chest playfully. “Adore you, though.”

Eventually, Shadow informs us she has to pee and Dain’s calling her name. I’m jelly of their easy connection. They haven’t been dating that long, but she says he completes her. I’ve met him a few times now, and it’s true. He fucking adores her and they travel between here and Rainbow quite a bit.

I make Oz and me coffee, and we lie in my bed. He reads me every column of The Gulch Gossip, including the one all about Furyon and my trip through the pumpkin and gourd garden. Honestly, it’s light on detail and heavy on assumption, but I suppose that’s a small town for ya. The city has society columns in The New York Yapper, so it’s not entirely unexpected. I’ve been the uncomfortable subject of those a time or two.

It feels different here, though.

Here I’m starting to know people.

Here it feels more personal.

Furyon

“Why ain’t there a trace of anything wrong now?” Echo crosses her arms as we stand at the bottom of the gulch, watching the horses.

Their eyes are normal, their behavior even more so. Nothing out of the usual as they graze and play in the water. I suck at my teeth, considering the possibilities. We still don’t know what we don’t know, because Mykel isn’t sure if his cattle were sick before he moved them back to his ranch. The only thing that’s clear is that whatever got his cattle is affecting the mustangs now too.

“Let’s consider this. We don’t know what happened with the moose prior to it ending up in Lemon’s hole.”

Echo lets out a disapproving snort, which I promptly disregard.

I wave at the mustangs. “As far as we know, Mykel’s cattle were sick for at least one day before going catatonic. And then, of course, we have no idea how long the moose was sick for before it died. The mustangs attacked Lemon, but they’re fine now.”

“The only commonality is that vampire, far as I can see,” Echo grumbles. “Something ain’t right there, Boss.” She sighs. “Saw you two in The Gossip this morning. You ain’t worried about how it all looks? I don’t normally pry in your personal life, but…” She trails off, frowning at me.

I freeze at her mention of the Sunday gossip paper. Merit and Bryony’ll be to blame for that. I wonder if Lemon’s seen it yet. The way she left made me think she wasn’t all that pleased with how Tryst showed up. I don’t like it. Makes my skin itch. Reaching down, I rub my fingers over the mustang tattoo.

“I ain’t worried about the optics.” I look at Echo. “My gut’s always been good, you know that. Something else is going on here, Ek. When I was out with Lemon yesterday, we saw one of the ranchers refuse to sign a contract with Varek.” I give her a meaningful look. “I wanna talk to him. ‘Cause when I think about that black liquid and the way it ate up the land, it occurs to me that land becoming less valuable potentially gives him something to gain. If he’s struggling to get folks to sign rights over to him, maybe he’d be desperate enough to resort to something like this.”

Echo’s dark eyes go wide, then she looks up at the sky as she seems to consider it. “Damn, Boss. That’s a dark fuckin’ angle to this story, but it makes sense. I’ve seen him in disagreement with a few ranchers lately.”

I ain’t really sure how things are going for Varek in terms of his grand plan, but now’s the time for me to start digging into that. Which means this has moved past a Fish & Wildlife thing and more into the gray territory where Sheriff Rygold and I overlap.

I’m happy to see the mustangs seem normal today. Still, I worry they won’t stay that way.