Outlast the Night by Ariel Tachna Page A

running to me when it goes south on you.”
    “I haven’t come running to you for anything since I was five and you laughed at me for falling off my first pony,” Jeremy said.
    “I should have known there was something wrong with you then,” Devlin sneered.
    “There’s not a thing wrong with me,” Jeremy replied, “except how long it took me to tell you to go to hell.”
    Not waiting for an answer, he rolled up the window and let up on the brake. He didn’t gun the engine. He didn’t want to hurt Devlin, after all, just get the hell away from him.
    “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” Jeremy said to Sam after Devlin had stepped back and was nothing more than a shadow in his rearview mirror. “Devlin has a blind spot so wide you could drive a truck through it where Caine and Macklin are concerned. It was bad enough when he thought I agreed with him. Now that he realizes I don’t, he’s added me to his blacklist.”
    “It’s fine,” Sam said in a meek voice. “It’s not your fault.”
    They reached the gate, and Sam jumped out to open it before Jeremy could say anything else. He drove through and waited for Sam to join him again.
    “You’re not freaking out because you found out I’m gay, are you?” Jeremy asked. “You didn’t seem bothered by Caine and Macklin, so I thought—”
    “What? No, of course not,” Sam said. “That would be really stupid, not to mention hypocritical. I mean, I didn’t know until your brother said something, but it’s none of my business, and you had no reason to tell me—”
    “Sam, breathe,” Jeremy interrupted. “You’re going to hyperventilate if you keep going like that.”
    Obediently Sam leaned forward and put his head between his knees, breathing in slow, measured cadence. Jeremy might have chuckled at the sight if he hadn’t been so busy resisting the urge to plant a fist in the face of whoever had done such a number on Sam. Then he realized what Sam had said: hypocritical.
    Wasn’t that interesting? Had his ex-wife found out and used it against him? Had he known when he married her or was this a recent realization? Did anyone else know?
    Sam’s breathing steadied after a moment, and he sat back up.
    “Feel better?” Jeremy asked.
    Sam nodded, although in the fading light of night and the impending storm, Jeremy thought he still looked a bit like a fish out of water.
    “Your ex did a number on you, didn’t she?”
    “What?” Sam said.
    “Your ex,” Jeremy repeated. “What did she say to you to make you so tentative about everything?”
    “Nothing,” Sam said immediately. “She just wanted out. She deserves someone who really loves her.”
    “What about someone who really loves you?” Jeremy asked. “Don’t you deserve that too?”
    “An out-of-work office manager with no social skills, a thickening waistline, and receding hair?” Sam countered. “Sure. They’re lining up at the door.”
    “That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Jeremy said. “That kind of statement right there. Who made you believe that?”
    “The mirror,” Sam replied.
    Jeremy let that part go. If Sam wasn’t ready to talk to him, Jeremy couldn’t force his confidence. He could, however, address the content of what Sam said. “Then you need a new mirror. Because, first of all, last time I checked, you weren’t out of work anymore. Unless you think Caine hired you out of pity?”
    Sam took just long enough to answer that Jeremy knew he really did believe that, even if he shook his head.
    Jeremy nearly snorted in disbelief. “Let me tell you something about sheep stations, at least ones the size of Taylor Peak and Lang Downs. Most years, the difference between running in the black and in the red is one or two lambs. All the worth of the station is on paper, tied up in the land and the buildings and the equipment and the livestock. Money comes in twice a year, when the lambs are sold in autumn and after the shearing in the spring, when we sell the