Authors: Emily Goodwin
Never Say Never
NEVER
SAY
NEVER
by Emily Goodwin
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidences are either products of the author’s imagination or a used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2015 Emily Goodwin
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover art by Sarah Hanson of Okay Creations
www.okaycreations.com
Editing by Murphy Rae and Kerry Genova of Indie Solutions
www.murphyrae.net
Other books by Emily Goodwin
Dark Romance Standalones:
Stay
All I Need
The Guardian Legacies Series:
Unbound
Reaper
Moonlight
The Shades of the Sea Series:
Beyond the Sea
Red Skies at Night*
The Contagium Series:
Contagious
Deathly Contagious
Contagious Chaos
The Truth is Contagious
The Never Romance Standalone Series:
(All are unrelated standalones with no reading order required)
Never Say Never
Now or Never*
Never Again*
*Release dates to be determined
To Mimi. I wouldn’t have been able to write this book without your help.
Table of Contents
NEVER
SAY
NEVER
by Emily Goodwin
Prologue
I flip through the photos on my phone, abhorrence growing with each swipe of my finger. Chipped gray nail polish slides across the screen as I look at the next. I inhale and look out the window, unable to get the image out of my mind.
“Do you think we’ll get there in time?” I ask, flicking my eyes back down to the glowing screen in my hand.
Mom drums her fingers on the steering wheel of the truck. She pushes her blonde hair back and nods. “We’re making good time,” she says but doesn’t look at me, doesn’t give me her trademark smile that causes little wrinkles to form around her lips. She’s not sure. We might be too late.
I look back down at the photo of the emaciated horses. “Can you go any faster?”
“Not with the trailer,” she reminds me. “And not if we don’t want to get pulled over.”
I nod and black out the screen. My heart flutters, like it always does. I reach up and pull on the necklace around my neck, a little silver horse on a thin chain.
“Nervous, Haley?” Mom asks.
“A little,” I admit. I’m always nervous. So much could go wrong on a rescue. My main concern is always for the horses, the poor pitiful animals that had been beaten, starved, and neglected within inches of their lives. Getting them away from hell and into the trailer isn’t easy. It’s scary, something new and unknown.
More times than not, when we get to them, when I climb a fence or run across a forgotten pasture and look into their eyes, they know. They know we’re there to save them. To bring them home. To give them hope.
To give them their second chance.
And also, more times than not, we’re sneaking in and stealing. Yeah, there are laws against animal cruelty, but things aren’t black and white. All the asshole owner has to do is prove there is food, water, and shelter and lie through their teeth about how the horse got in that terrible condition. They can’t know we’re coming.
“Want a shot of whiskey?” Mom asks.
“Mom!” I exclaim, turning to her with wide eyes.
She smiled. “Oh, loosen up, Haley. You’ll be twenty-one soon enough.”
I laugh. “Yeah, in a few weeks.”
“Less than one month until my baby graduates college and she’s old enough to drink. Life goes by in the blink of an eye. You’re making me feel old, kid,” she says, taking her eyes off the road for a few seconds to look at me. “There’s a bottle of Fireball under the seat. Next to the shotgun.”
I just shake my head, the smile still on my face. “Most moms don’t say stuff like that.”
That makes my mom extra happy. “I’m not most moms.”
And she isn’t. She doesn’t try to be the cool mom, the best-friend mom, but she is all of that and more. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had our fair share of mom-daughter fights, but since I went off to college, Mom and I have become really close. Who knew being away from home, away from the farm would make me realize just how much I love it?
“Really, though,” she says, seriousness back. “Don’t blow these last few weeks. You’re so close to graduating and I’m so proud.”
I shrug off the compliment. “I just want to be done. Then I can start writing articles and busting balls on the asshats that abuse animals.”
Mom nods. “And you will.” She says it like she really believes it. She’s got more confidence in me than I do myself, which is typical, right? Moms always believe in their kids one hundred and ten percent. “Is Lucas still bothering you?”
“Ugh, don’t even bring him up,” I huff and run a hand through my brunette hair.
“So I take that as a yes?”
I shrug. “He just gives me the sad puppy dog eyes every time I see him. I run away, Mom.” I laugh. “I know he’s going to try to get me back, so I literally go the other direction.”
Mom’s laughing too. “Aww, my little heart breaker. You take after your mother.” She takes her eyes off the road to wink at me. “You don’t need a man yet. Just bed ‘em and leave ‘em.”
“Mom!” I exclaim in horror. “I am pretending I never heard that!” I’m smiling, but I fight the urge to barf at the same time.
“Don’t be such a prude,” she continues, just to further my humiliation. “But seriously, Hay, don’t settle. You got your whole life ahead of you.”
I nod. I agree, though I do wish for a boyfriend. My best friend Lori has been with her boyfriend, Kit, for two years now, and I’d love to have someone like that. Whatever. Mom is right, I know she is. And I’ve seen her go through failed relationships, vowing to never settle.
“Do you have homework?” she asks, switching back to normal-mom mode.
“Yeah, but I’ll do it tomorrow. It’s just a few essay questions that I have to submit online. It won’t take long.”
“Okay,” she says with a nod. “Do that first, then help me in the barn. You should study for your finals too. You only have a couple of weeks left.” I start to protest, but she holds up a hand. “The horses won’t go anywhere.”
“I can bring my laptop into the barn,” I remind her. “One of the new guys we bring home might need some company.”
“We’ll see,” Mom says. I’m tempted to look at the pictures again, to get myself fired up to sneak onto the property and save the horses. Since we still have a while to go, I rest my head back against the seat and close my eyes, not meaning to doze off.
I wake up to Mom cursing. I blink open my eyes. Night has fallen, and darkness surrounds the truck as we hurdle down the gravel road. Then I see it, moments before the smoke comes through the vents and fills the truck with a distant smell that makes nerves tingle down my spine.
“Mom,” I start, sitting up in the seat. The seatbelt pushes back against me as I lean forward. “Mom,” I say again, frantic. Orange and yellow glow ahead of us, lighting up the night. “Is that it?”
Mom doesn’t answer. She steps on the gas, and the truck lurches forward. We’re still too far to be sure. My heart hammers in my chest, each beat painful, pulsing fear throughout my body.
“Oh my God,” I say when the barn comes into clear sight. It’s on fire. And I know right away that the fire was set on purpose to destroy the evidence of animal cruelty and avoid a fine.
“Call 911,” Mom says, throwing the truck into park. My hands shake, and I can’t seem to remember the passcode to unlock my cell. I yank against the seatbelt as I punch in the numbers. I only have one bar.
I dial the three numbers I never thought I’d ever call and put the phone to my ear. I get out of the truck and stand next to Mom. We’re only yards away and can feel the heat on our skin.
“Please state your emergency,” the 911 operator says.
I suck in a breath, words failing me. “There’s a fire,” I blurt. “A barn, it’s on fire.”
“What is the location of the fire?”
I don’t know where we are. Something pops and explodes inside the barn. I scream and drop the phone, ducking down. I hear the operator’s voice. How the hell can she be so calm? I reach for the phone after making sure Mom is okay.
And then I hear it.
A terrified whinny comes from deep inside the barn. I stand, pins and needles all over my skin. I don’t think. I just run.
“Haley!” Mom yells and chases after me. I duck under a string of rusty barbed wire and race around the barn. Mom grabs the hood of my jacket and stops me. “Haley, no!”
“They’re still in there!” I yell, beckoning wildly at the burning barn. “They’re still alive!”
Mom squints her eyes and looks at the barn. “Oh my God,” she says, hand flying to her chest. “I hear them!” She takes my hand and pulls me forward. We go to the other side of the barn where the fire hasn’t spread. She puts the back of her hand on the metal latch of an exterior door before pulling it open.