The stallion, the beast that had sent two men to the hospital, closed the distance. He stretched his long, elegant neck out. He sniffed Toby’s fingers. And then, with a sigh that seemed to release five years of abuse and fear, the horse pressed his velvet nose into the palm of Toby’s hand.
Toby didn’t just touch him. He wrapped his arms around the horse’s neck, burying his face in the coarse mane. The horse rested his chin on Toby’s shoulder, closing his eyes. A pin drop could have been heard in the dirt.
Toby looked up, tears streaking through the dust on his face. He looked straight at Harlan Gentry, whose face had gone the color of old ash.
“The bet was to touch him,” Toby said, his voice cold and hard as iron. “I believe I’ve done more than that.”
“This is a trick! You drugged him! That’s fraud!” Harlan sputtered.
“No drugs,” Toby said, stroking the horse’s neck. “Just memory. You bought a stolen horse, Mr. Gentry, and you treated him like a monster, so he became one. He was just waiting for the one person who knew he wasn’t.”
Mr. Pendergast, the lawyer, stood up from his bench. He brushed the dust off his suit and walked to the fence. He looked at Harlan, then at Toby.
“The verbal contract was clear, Harlan,” Pendergast said, his voice projecting the authority of the law. “Witnessed by fifty people. Touch the snout, get the deed. I’d say the boy has a claim.”
“You can’t be serious!” Harlan screamed, veins bulging in his neck. “I was joking! It was a figure of speech!”
“I don’t joke about property law,” Pendergast replied dryly. “And neither does the state of Montana.”
But the drama was far from over. Harlan Gentry wasn’t a man who lost gracefully. He reached into his truck, pulling out a rifle he kept for coyotes.
“Get away from that horse!” Harlan shouted, raising the weapon. “That animal is my property, and you’re trespassing!”
The crowd screamed and scattered. Toby didn’t move. He stood in front of Midnight, shielding the horse with his own thin body.
“You shoot me,” Toby said, staring down the barrel, “and you lose a lot more than a ranch. You’ll rot in a cell.”
“I’d rather rot than give my land to a stable rat.” Harlan clicked the safety off.
The crack of the rifle shot was deafening, echoing off the metal siding of the barn and rolling out across the Bitterroot Valley.
Toby didn’t flinch. He didn’t drop to the ground. He stood rooted to the spot, his hand still resting on Midnight’s neck. The bullet hadn’t hit him. It had slammed into the dirt three feet to his left, kicking up a spray of red dust that coated his boots.
Harlan Gentry stood there, chest heaving, his finger tightening on the trigger for a second shot. The rage in his eyes was blind and consuming. He was a man who had never been told “no” in forty years, and the word tasted like poison in his mouth.
“Drop it, Harlan!”
The shout came from the left. Sheriff Colton, a man with skin like tanned leather and a reputation for being the only lawman in the county Harlan couldn’t buy, had his service pistol drawn. He had been leaning against his cruiser by the main gate watching the spectacle and had moved with surprising speed for a man of his age.
“You’re witnessing a trespassing, Sheriff!” Harlan roared, though he lowered the rifle slightly. “That boy is stealing my livestock!”
“I’m witnessing an attempted murder,” Colton replied calmly, walking steadily toward the enraged landowner. “And I’m witnessing a man welching on a bet he made in front of half the county. Put the rifle on the ground. Now.”
Harlan hesitated. He looked at the crowd. The wealthy investors, the ranch hands, the local politicians—they were all staring at him. But the look in their eyes had changed. It wasn’t fear anymore. It was disgust. Harlan Gentry had just tried to shoot an unarmed boy protecting a horse. The illusion of his untouchable power cracked in that silence.
With a snarl, Harlan threw the rifle into the dirt. “This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Pendergast, get this trash off my property.”
Mr. Pendergast, the lawyer in the expensive suit, walked over to the Sheriff. He adjusted his glasses, looking from the furious landowner to the calm boy…
