Tuesday early morning
Tabitha screamed, "Ronin. Ronin!"
No answer. She stared at her father in shock. "He stopped talking mid-sentence. I heard another voice. Something about 'Jesus, a tough bugger, aren't you.'"
Her father stiffened an odd look coming over his face. He shook his head. But his voice was calm – maybe too calm. "That could be anything. Try him again."
Already opening her phone, she sent her father a suspicious look. Hating that because she didn't truly know her father, his words were sending off internal alarms. Wondering if she could trust him.
She walked to the far side of the surgical room where she could look out the window and keep an eye on the still-unconscious guard and her father.
There was no response to the call. She knew there wouldn't be. Something had happened to Ronin. Talk about being in an ugly spot. What could she do? Roman. She called him on her phone.
"What?" growled Roman.
"I think something has happened to your brother," she answered quickly, "but I can't check because I'm standing guard over the other two men who've been attacked. The ambulance is just coming up the road."
"I was just speaking with him. He was fine." Now Roman was all business. "What's happened."
She quickly explained.
"Stay inside. Don't let anyone in or out, do you hear me?"
"I hear you, but I can't do that. One guard is on the ground outside and I have to deal with the paramedics. After that I can go look for Roni—"
"No. I'm on my way and I'll call for backup. You stay put." He paused for a second. "Are you alone?"
"No, my father is here." She turned to stare at her father... only to realize he'd left. "Shit."
"What?"
"My father was just here." She walked into the other room looking for him, loathe to leave the guard alone. "But he's disappeared."
She swallowed. "Maybe he went out to direct the paramedics. Just get here fast."
"Already in the car."
He hung up, and she walked to the window. Sure enough, there was her father, directing the ambulance. She heard him yell, "They are over there. One outside, the other in."
He pointed to where Tabitha and the guards were.
As the paramedics ran inside, Dennis bolted in the other direction. She lost sight of him as she raced to her patients. What was he up too? Then she didn't have a chance to worry.
Thankfully, the paramedics were in and out in minutes. The injured men were safely on the way to the hospital. She'd wanted them to wait for her to find Ronin, afraid he might need their services more than her guards, but they only had room for two. They'd promised to come back, if needed.
She shuddered.
By then, it might be too late.
She locked the front door and raced out the back. Tripod's panicked bark pulled her up short. She sent a hard wave of soothing energy his way. Immediately, she was slammed with his panicked response and pictures from his mind.
Ronin on the ground. Blood in the dirt. The smell bothered Tripod, Ronin's limp body bothering him. She could see even as she ran to his side that Tripod was nudging Ronin's body and whimpering. She soothed Tripod's energy, and forced her body to move faster.
Tripod, easy boy. Take it easy.
The dog whined deep in the back of his throat. He calmed, knowing she was close, but it still wasn't enough.
She took a quick glance around, but there was no sign of animal or human energy that she could see. Stefan would say that the only thing stopping her from seeing other people's auras as well as she did animals was that she did not want to see them.
Humans had layers that were less than nice to see, and the more they tried to hide the layers, the more the deception showed in the disruption to their energy. Who'd want to know that level of information about their fellow man?
Up ahead, she could see Tripod standing guard over a crumpled form.
She knelt beside Ronin and checked for a pulse. His color was paler than normal but his pulse was still strong. He looked fine. Except he was out cold. She started to key in Roman's number again but heard his shout before she finished. She yelled, "Over here!"
Tripod barked as Roman's footsteps came closer. "Easy Tripod. He's a friend."
"How is he?" Roman asked, dropping to his brother's side. He immediately started to check his brother over.
"He's out cold but I can't see any injuries."
As Roman ran gentle fingers over his head, Ronin groaned.
"Easy, Ronin. You've been knocked on the side of your head."
Ronin's eyelids fluttered open. "What the hell happened?" he said, but the words came out more as a snarl.
Tabitha smiled. "I was hoping you could tell me that. We were talking on the phone and all of a sudden you stopped – mid-sentence."
His stared at her, a distant look in his eye before everything suddenly seemed to snap into focus.
"I was talking to you and then...nothing." He grabbed hold of his brother's shoulder and pulled himself into a sitting position. He reached a tentative hand to the back of his head. "Ouch… Did you see anything?"
Tabitha shook her head. "No. But I heard another voice saying 'Jesus, tough bugger aren't you' right before we got disconnected. That's when I called Roman. The paramedics left with my injured guards and I followed Tripod here."
He looked at her then shook his head. "Thanks, Tripod. Glad you found me." He reached out a hand. "Help me up." With Roman's assistance Ronin stood. He took two steps in the direction of the offices and stopped.
Tabitha watched him reach an arm out wondering what it would cost him to ask for help?
"Not as much as you might think," he muttered when she put an arm around his ribs.
"I didn't say anything." She stared at him carefully as they walked slowly back to the office. "And you need to get that injury checked."
"Right." So not going to happen.
"What?" She stopped in outrage. "Yes, it is going to happen. Injuries like yours kill people."
Stop reading my mind.
"I'm not reading your mind. Now stop arguing. You're getting checked out."
Roman laughed. "You two sound like an old married couple."
Tabitha snorted. "As if that would happen."
Ronin murmured. "Sure it could." If he could deal with his cat shit and she could deal with him.
Tabitha stopped. "That works for me."
What was going on? Was he speaking telepathically or was she just tuning into his thoughts. And how did that work? She heard him think, How much further? My head is killing me.
"Not much," she answered. "Just a few more minutes."
He leaned heavily on her shoulder.
Roman spoke quietly behind her, "Do you want me to take him?"
No, she doesn't. I'm fine. Or I will be as soon as I can sit down.
Tabitha shook her head. "He said he's fine."
There was no doubt now. Somehow Ronin had suddenly started talking telepathically to Tabitha in his head. At first he assumed he was speaking out loud. Damn.
She couldn't stop her instinctive call to Stefan for help. This was definitely his specialty not hers.
She motioned to the open back door as they approached. Roman rushed forward and opened the door wide. Ronin grabbed the doorframe and pulled himself past the doorway. He stumbled into her office and collapsed into the visitor's chair. "I just need a minute."
Roman snorted. "You'll need more than a minute."
"I'll be fine. A drink of water would be good."
Tabitha rushed to get it, as she returned she heard Ronin say, "Dennis, Tabitha's father brought over a box of papers he'd taken from her grandfather's office last night. We were thinking there might be something in there to explain the current situation."
As Tabitha watched and worried, Ronin closed his eyes as a wave of pain crossed his face. After a moment, he added, "A few hours ago, while we waited for Tabitha to return from..." He shrugged as if the right word failed to appear. "Whatever she was doing, we took a look inside."
She gasped. "Really? You didn't tell me. What was in there?"
"We haven't had a chance to sort out everything as many of the papers are really old. But there was a bundle of hate mail that went way back. No name or identification on any of them and each was signed, 'You know who I am.'" He straightened, tentatively at first then with more confidence. "The last one was particularly nasty."
She narrowed her gaze. "Then what are you not saying?"
Roman reached out and grabbed her hand. "Tabitha? Where's your father?"
***
Dennis had no idea where Ronin could be, but he had a horrible feeling he understood how Ronin came to be attacked. And God damn him if he was responsible…
Surely not. Damned well better not. But that voice on the phone...and the language...
He knew this acreage well after years of being involved, even if only on a periphery level. He'd supplied much of the money that had gone into building this place. It was his way to ease his guilt for ignoring his daughter and for letting his father dominate him. Damnation. He should have done something about reconnecting with her a long time ago. Now with his father's death, the bonds that had held him back had suddenly dissolved, setting him free.
He'd built himself a life without his daughter and his father. A decent life. At least he'd thought so. But that voice he'd heard through Tabitha's phone – God, it sounded like someone he knew. And knew all too well.
He barreled down the back path heading to the large feed barn.
Please let him be wrong.
Please. Now that he'd lost his father and regained his daughter, he didn't want to lose another person in his life. Please, let me be wrong.
He whipped along the pathway searching for the back gate. He was probably too late. But he could hope...
The morning light shone clear. There were a few animals stirring, but as he ran past he could see them shy away from him. Probably just as well. If he found what he was afraid he would find, he might just do some violence himself.
***
Tabitha stared. Then she spun around to stare out the open door. "He directed the paramedics then took off to the back of the reserve. I figured he was looking for Ronin. But I haven't seen him since. Shit."
She ran to the back door.
"Tabitha, wait. Don't go out there alone."
She stopped at the doorway. "Then someone come with me. He could be lying injured anywhere. I'm not leaving him out there alone." She spun around to look at Roman. "You said you'd call for backup. Where are they?"
Ronin said gently, "He called a couple of my guys. Figured as they'd been handling the break-ins, it made sense to get them in on this. They are on the way."
She threw up her hands. "Fine, I don't care who you bring in. Just, please, let's figure this out and stop it."
"We don't know who is involved and how far this goes." Roman added, "Or how long this has been going on."
That stopped her in her tracks. "What are you talking about?"
"You said your grandfather went real quiet the last few months before he died. How do you know that something nasty wasn't going on? Maybe he was being blackmailed? Or threatened?"
"My grandfather? This has something to do with my grandfather?" She hated the rising panic in her voice. She stared at them. "Or are you suggesting he might have had something to do this nightmare? Because there's no way he'd be involved with anything illegal."
They just stared at her. Her stomach roiled at the thought. "No. No. Oh no." She walked backwards several steps, shaking her head. "I'm not going to stand here and listen to something so ridiculous. I'm going to find my father."
She turned and dashed outside, but after several feet, she stopped and bent over, breathing hard. Desperately trying to make sense of this. Of what they were saying. Of what they weren't saying.
She wanted to throw up. But at the same time, she wanted to rant and scream at them.
And that just brought her father back to mind. He was the one she needed to ask some of these questions. He might have the answers.
Or he might not. She didn't know him enough to tell. What she had learned – the important things about him – had come these last few days. After her grandfather's death.
Each new calamity sent her body reeling and her mind grappling for a solid ground to stand on. And none of what was going on right now seemed related to the bigger issue in her life. Trinity.
Or was it?
Or rather, how was it not? What were the chances that Trinity and the problems at the reserve were not related?
Zero to none, she'd say. She was also assuming the problems at Exotic Landscape had something to do with black market animals – when it might have no connection at all.
Or was someone trying to make her look incompetent? Make her look as if she couldn't handle the responsibility?
And there was only person who'd benefit from that. Her father. The reserve and everything to do with it would belong to him.
Her heart squeezed tight, clogging up her blood flow and sending pain radiating outward. She took a deep shuddering breath as she forced herself to contemplate such a betrayal. It couldn't be. Her father didn't want Exotic. He'd never wanted it.
No, there had to be another explanation.
She turned slowly to face the brothers who were standing beside her now. Ronin looked better, but his color was still off. Then again, she was sure hers was way off too.
"We can't answer these questions until we find my father." She ran her fingers through her hair. "I need help to do that."
"We're here."
She shook her head. "Ronin, you can stay here until the staff arrive." She glanced down at her watch. "Which should be in the next half hour. Explain about the guards and that the reserve is locked down to the public today. Wendy might have to field calls if the media finds out." She glanced at Roman, who stared back at her steadily. "Will you come with me? Help me search for my father?"
"Like hell," Ronin snapped. "I'm going with you. He can stay here."
Roman turned to glare at him. "You're not one hundred percent and you're needed here. You can be the hero next time."
Ronin stood firm, glaring at his brother. Then he shook his head like an angry grizzly bear. "I'm doing fine. I'm going with her."
"Damn it." Roman glared at his brother, then as if realizing there'd be no reasoning with Ronin, he said, "Then tell me where you’re going. I'll be following as soon as I can."
A few minutes later, she led the way through the maze of pathways. As she walked, she dialed her father yet again. Still no answer.
"What do you think happened to him?" asked Ronin.
A shudder of denial whispered through her. "I hate to say that I hope he's lying unconscious somewhere, but that is preferable to finding out he had something to do with this mess."
Ronin stayed quiet after that. She was no fool and she hadn't had a relationship with her father. But she'd hoped – and after yesterday's revelation – she'd believed, if only for an hour, that they had a basis for one.
And that made his possible betrayal that much worse.
***
Dennis's panic increased with every step. He had to be wrong. He'd spent many hours bitching about this place. About the money he was constantly forking over, first blackmailed into it by his own father to help with Tabitha's care and then by his guilt. He'd thought he would be free after his father's death, but instead the bonds holding him here had been reinforced. He didn't object to helping out the reserve. It was all tax deductible and he could use that. He made money. A lot of it. But he'd also invested much of it into his father's pet project.
He hadn't thought it was an issue. But now little things came back to haunt him.
Comments that meant nothing at the time, but in the greater scheme of what he knew now he had to wonder about. To question. If he was right, his whole life was about to be brutalized by yet another betrayal. He'd thought he'd been through the worst and now he knew there was a possibility everything he'd been through so far was a prelude to this.
"Dennis? Is that you?"
Dennis spun around to see Germaine, his long-term friend, business partner and the financial head of his company, standing in front of him. A big smile on his face.
With a big gun in his hand.