Page 6 of Coyote

Inside, a row of key fobs hung on pegboard between a county map and a calendar stuck three years deep on the same topless month. I took everything that looked like it went to a bike and let myself out. I only realized I was humming when Nimue flicked her tongue against my jaw like I was embarrassing her.

The pen sat across open ground, and the big man watched me come the whole way.

I took my time so he could get a good look at what was walking toward him. Not much of me, and what there was had another man's blood on it to the wrist and a snake around its neck. People usually pick one thing to be scared of. I like to give them options.

When I reached the cage, I dropped into a crouch with my wrists resting on my knees and cocked my head. "¿Hablas inglés?"

"English, Spanish, and a little Diné Bizaad."

I grinned. "Good."

Up close, he looked worse.

Gray threaded through his beard, and the years sat deep at the corners of his eyes. He was fifty at least, probably past it, with big scarred hands that had been used hard for longer than I'd been alive. He held himself like a man waiting for the next thing. Not braced for it. Just waiting. I didn't have a word for what that was, and not having one bothered me more than it should have.

Seeing it didn't cool what I wanted. It poured gas on it.

The chain ran from his wrists to a ring welded into the back wall. I unlocked the cage and stepped inside.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"You."

I tried the first key on his cuffs. Wrong one.

"What for?"

"Not for fighting boars."

The second key turned.

His wrists came free, but he didn't move. He rubbed one thumb across the raw skin where the metal had sat and watched me.

Nimue lifted her head to get a look at him. I braced for the flinch. Grown men have screamed about Nimue.

He tipped his chin at her like they were being introduced across a table. "She yours?"

"She's her own. She lets me carry her around so she can see more of the world."

His lips twitched like he wasn't sure if he was allowed to smile.

I unlocked the cuff around his ankle and pulled the gate open wider. "Well? You want out or not?"

"That depends on what you plan to do with me, little one."

Little one.

The words sent gooseflesh down both arms.

I'd put men twice my size down without my pulse changing. This chained giant looked at me with that patient, ruined face and called me little one, and my body went for it before I'd cleared a single part of it to go anywhere.

"You got anything against horses?" I asked, like my pulse wasn't beating in my throat. "I work a ranch. I live near it. Could use a big, handsome guy like you around the place. Not that that's why I'm cutting you loose. That part's free. Room and board we sort out with the boss when we get there."

He studied me, looking for the catch.

Smart.

"What happens when you get tired of me?"