Lucas

by Dale Mayer

  He moved across the street and worked through that side of the block. The fourth property had a huge arena, and he found a kennel full of dogs too. Some of them were injured, tied up, and some were loose. He then went into another building, and, sure enough, there were cages full of small dogs.

  He snapped as many pictures as he could and sent a text to Detective Madison. We need to raid this property and save these dogs now. Before tonight.

  He got an answer back. Animal control has been contacted. We’re on it.

  He gave the address and slipped onto the next property. This one didn’t appear to be much different. But there were no animals. He kept going and found one more property with two big dogs—a Doberman and a rottweiler—both bleeding and lacerated, with bad temperaments. He took pictures and texted them to the detective.

  He walked back to the coffee shop and slipped in the front, as if from the truck, and walked to Tanya at the counter. He sat down beside her, ordered another coffee.

  She raised an eyebrow and pointed out an article in the newspaper on rising property prices in the area. But he just nodded. In a low whisper, she asked, “Any success?”

  He nodded. “Some.”

  She frowned. “That’s too bad. Guess I was hoping we would be lucky and not find anything.”

  “Not finding something,” he said, “is not an option.”

  “Maybe we can save some of them.”

  “Some, yes. All, no.” He shook his head. “Not sure we can save some of these. Too far gone.”

  She stared at him in horror, and he shrugged. “It happens. But I’m not saying that yet.”

  “Top Hat?”

  He shook his head. “No. If Andy is still here, I’d like to go back and search his place.” He gave a nonchalant glance over his shoulder. But Andy was no longer seated at the table with his buddies.

  She stared at Lucas, stood, called the waitress over. “How much do I owe you?” The waitress told her, and she put down the money. They walked out together just as Andy exited the men’s room and returned to his table.

  “Andy’s back at his table, and his truck is still here,” Lucas said with relief. “Let’s go see if we can do a quick search of his place before he gets back.”

  “Do you really think Top Hat’s still there? While you went looking for him, Andy had the very dog you were looking for hidden?”

  “I don’t think it’s a case of still there,” he said. “I think, if Top Hat was shot by Andy, then Top Hat was taken back there.”

  “That would really suck.”

  “Yes, it would. If I find Top Hat, I don’t care. I just want him good enough to travel, so we can get the hell out of here. Get him to a vet if he’s injured and get him home or at least to my sister’s place. I’ll figure out what I’ll do after that.”

  “You’ll take him yourself?”

  Silence.

  She looked at him. “Lucas?”

  “I’m not sure what I’ll do,” he said with a note of finality. “It’s too early to tell.”

  He might not know what his future plans were for sure, but he was already considering helping out Meg and Nathan with the kids and the dogs at their place. Then Lucas could pinch hit for Titanium Corp too as needed. But he didn’t have the whole picture yet. He glanced at Tanya. It was up to her. However, now Lucas’s immediate focus was on heading back to Andy’s and doing a quick search. He didn’t know when the undercover detectives would arrive here in town, but Lucas already planned to send a text telling the detective what his current plan was. Just before he went to hit Send, he stopped himself.

  An inner urging said he didn’t know who to trust yet. With Andy safely at the coffee shop, Lucas needed to get to Andy’s place as fast as possible and find a way to park so nobody saw his vehicle.

  “Where will you park?” Tanya asked as they drove across town.

  “I was just wondering that. A neighbor’s not too far away where we could park nearby. Then I could sneak over to Andy’s place and search. We still don’t know for sure that Andy has anything to do with this either. He just happens to be in a very good position to facilitate dogfighting.”

  “I hope you kill him,” she stated bluntly.

  He shot her a startled look.

  “Okay. So, maybe not kill him, but he shouldn’t be allowed to hurt animals.”

  He nodded but said nothing. His mind was busy trying to figure out the best way to get up to Andy’s without being seen. The problem was, Andy had a long driveway, so if he came home when Lucas was parked up there, Andy would know he’d been here.

  He frowned. “Andy left while you were still at his house, so maybe I can just park there and hope Andy doesn’t come back while I’m out on his property.”

  “But that’s taking a chance,” she warned.

  “True but short of parking somewhere a long way away and taking an hour to hike in, which will take time I don’t have,” he said, “there’s not too much choice here.”

  “If he does come back, I can stay in the truck and tell him that you went looking for him.”

  “That would work,” he said. Inside though, he worried. “As long as Andy doesn’t appear to be too aggressive.”

  “He was always friendly before. And he did walk out of the house and leave me alone. So he obviously didn’t think there was anything for me to find, even if I had cared to look.”

  “Or maybe the need to tell somebody else you were there was stronger,” he said.

  “There are phones for that,” she said in a dry tone.

  He chuckled. “True enough.” He drove steady for a good fifteen minutes before they got to Andy’s place; still no other vehicles were here. Lucas parked as close to the same spot as he could, then said, “I won’t be long.”

  He shut off the engine, hopped out, left her with the keys and took off. He didn’t even bother going through the house. He headed for the barns and the dog pens. The fact that Andy was supposedly running dog training and rescue for large dogs gave him a good cover. Lucas didn’t want to think ill of Andy, but he wasn’t sure what else to do.

  Lucas searched everywhere, and, with relief, he finally came back and realized there were no signs of any dogfighting. Didn’t mean Andy wasn’t supplying dogs for the trade, but Lucas hadn’t seen any signs of abused animals being kept there. But it also left him at a dead end as to where he was supposed to go from there.

  He returned to the truck and hopped back in, shaking his head. “I didn’t find anything.” He put it in Reverse and drove down the driveway and back onto the main road, this time going in the opposite direction from which they came.

  He studied the properties as he drove by, then contacted the detective, putting the call on Speaker. “Does Andy own just one piece of property? Or is there a second one somewhere?”

  “A good question,” the detective replied. “He does have a lot of land up there.”

  “I took a quick look, but I didn’t see anything at his main property,” Lucas said. “That’s why I’m asking if there’s another title somewhere.”

  “Doing a land search right now,” the detective said.

  “A lot of land is out here,” Lucas said. “And just enough houses to keep things confusing.”

  The detective chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth? He has another property about two miles away from the house you were in, and the far corner of this property touches the far corner of the other one, so there’s probably a gate letting him go from one to the other one.”

  “Address?” The detective read it off, and Lucas punched it into the GPS. He pulled off to the side of the road, did a quick U-turn and headed back the way he had come from. “I’ve got it,” he said. “I’ll take a look to make sure nothing’s going on there either.”

  “We’ve got a couple men already getting into position at the areas you were talking about earlier, and animal control should be there any time now.”

  “Good. You will need boarding for the dogs. There’s probably around twe
nty dogs that I saw, and that’s without counting the ones in cages.”

  “We’ve got various animal agencies alerted,” the detective said. “You be careful though. A lot of criminal charges stem from something like this, and people get a little irritated over the thought of being locked up for a few years. Not to mention losing assets to cover their legal fees.”

  “I hear you,” Lucas said. “I’d get a little pissed myself. I’m still looking for my dog, and I’m afraid he’s already been worked into the system.”

  “I hope not,” the detective said. “That would be bad news for him.”

  “And for anybody else. Top Hat’s got an issue. Remember?”

  “Right,” the detective said with a heavy sigh. “Stay in touch. Let me know. You realize you’re trespassing the minute you go on their property, right?”

  “What property?” Lucas asked cheerfully. And he ended the call. He glanced over to see Tanya staring at him in surprise. “What?”

  “He just brought up a good point,” she said. “Trespassing.”

  “Yep,” he said. “But if I don’t, who will?” he asked.

  “They could kick you out of the country.”

  “They could,” he said. “I’ve got to go home anyway.”

  “Oh,” she said quietly and settled back. “You weren’t planning on going back a year ago.”

  “A year ago, we were getting married. I had a job lined up here and family close by. I was near the end of my naval commitment and all ready for a new beginning. And I would then start immigration proceedings, but remember? Something changed in that process.”

  “Yeah, the family part,” she said sadly.

  “I still want a family,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”

  “You know that, even when you do get to that stage, there’s no guarantee you’ll have your own children.”

  “I didn’t say they have to be my own, but it does feel very much like I would like to try.”

  “And if you can’t?”

  “Well, at that point, I’ll have to see. An awful lot of children could use a good solid family.”

  “So you’d adopt?”

  “I’m not against it,” he said. “Will you be alone for the rest of your life?”

  She swallowed hard. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

  “No,” he said. “But, if you’re not prepared to have your own family, you have to find somebody who doesn’t want one either.”

  “Lots of people don’t want kids,” she said. “And more so every day.”

  “Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “But I’m not one of them.”

  And that note of finality in his tone had her gasping. “So, I guess we’re not getting back together then, are we?” she asked with a broken cry.

  He never said a word. In the back of his mind, he had no idea that she was even thinking along those lines. “Is that why you came with me today?” he asked. “Has your stance changed?”

  “I just told you no,” she said, sagging against the corner of the truck.

  “You never did really explain why you don’t want a family.”

  “Yes, I did,” she said wearily. “I explained many times. You just didn’t understand.”

  “I guess that’s true,” he said. He kept watching the GPS as he drove, following the directions. “It should be around here somewhere. The thing is, they weren’t your children. They were your siblings, and I get that you felt like you didn’t get a childhood because you spent it raising them, but that doesn’t mean raising your own will feel the same.”

  “No,” she said. “But I don’t know that it’ll feel any different either.”

  “You’re too scared to try?”

  “It was a lot of work,” she said. “I had nightmares about failing. Nightmares that something would happen to them under my watch. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t rest, worrying about them.”

  “Ah,” he said. “So it’s not that you’re worried about the work but more that you’re afraid you won’t be there to protect them all the time?”

  “I was a lousy parent,” she snapped. “Why would I want to repeat it?”

  “You weren’t a parent,” he said. “That’s what you keep getting confused about. You were an older sibling charged with a responsibility that shouldn’t have been yours. Your mother was a terrible parent.”

  “No argument there,” she muttered.

  “You haven’t separated your childhood from motherhood.”

  “Because it seemed like one and the same,” she said. “All I did was change diapers, warm bottles, feed kids, do laundry and chores.”

  “Do you really think it will be like that when it is your own children?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I just have such terrible memories.”

  “I think it’s got nothing to do with raising kids,” he said. “Granted two parents raising kids has got to be easier than a single parent raising kids. But I think, for you, it has more to do with being afraid you will end up the same as your mother.”

  He heard her gasp. He nodded and said, “That’s something you’ve refused to look at. But just because your mother was a piece of shit doesn’t mean you’ll be too.”

  Her small, gentle voice damn near broke his heart when she said, “But what if you’re wrong? What if I am? I could never forgive myself if I ended up being just like her.”

  Chapter 7

  It sounded so much worse coming out of his mouth than from her own tortured thoughts. Tanya sagged back in the seat and said, “It’s easy to dismiss. But what if …”

  “Now you’re just borrowing trouble. Don’t do that. This isn’t the time or the place for this discussion.” He took a left-hand turn and said, “This is our destination.” He pulled up the long driveway to Andy’s other property, and thankfully there were no vehicles and no house, but there were several outbuildings.

  He nodded. “This looks like a likely prospect. You stay here.” He shut off the engine and hopped out, leaving her alone to her thoughts.

  She stared at the man she’d always loved as he walked away from her. How many times had he walked away from her? And yet, she knew it was her fault every time. Was he right? Was she more terrified about being a lousy mom than reliving her lousy childhood? It seemed too simple. Seemed too easy. It made her wonder if that was possible. Because, if it was, that would be a whole lot easier to deal with.

  Her mother was still alive, but Tanya had nothing to do with her. The moment she could walk away, she had. And, of course, the guilt from that had been horrific too. Because all her siblings had been there looking to Tanya to be a mother. She did keep in contact with them, but the two youngest hardly even knew her.

  When she’d left, the twins had been four. And now they were young teens, both boys and into their own lives. But the five siblings above them had all been girls. Tanya did keep in contact with them somewhat. The two closest to her in age were in college, and they talked regularly. She was very grateful for that bond—the others she talked to sometimes, but much less so. Those two girls were working instead of going the college route.

  As for her mother, Tanya had very little to do with her. She pulled out her phone and checked her contacts. Her mother’s was still there. Made her wonder just how long it had been since she’d last spoken to her. On impulse, she hit Dial. When her mother answered the phone, she said, “Hi. It’s Tanya.”

  “Wow,” her mother said in a snide voice. “What do you want?”

  Tanya laughed. “I don’t want anything. It just occurred to me that I haven’t spoken to you in a long time, and I thought I’d see how you were doing.”

  “I’m alive. Now you know,” her mother said, her tone suddenly weary. “So you can hang up and disappear again.”

  “I just might do that,” Tanya said. “The fact is, hearing the way you speak to me, that tone, is enough to make me disappear for another five years.”

  “Good,” her mother replied. “You were pretty damn useless anyway.”
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  Tanya gasped and felt her blood boil. “Are you serious? I lost my childhood because of you. You were never home. Always out drinking with your buddies, getting banged by your latest conquest, leaving me to raise your family. I didn’t want to be a parent. That was your job.”

  “Maybe,” her mother said. “But getting banged, as you called it, is what put food on our table. You think I liked having all those strangers crawl all over me? I didn’t. But it doesn’t matter. Down to the last two and pretty soon they’ll be gone too.”

  There was an odd note in her mother’s voice. Tanya sank back against the seat and stared out the window in the direction Lucas had gone. “Are you telling me that you only turned tricks to put food in the table?”

  “What do you think I did it for?”

  “Your next drink, your next shot of drugs,” Tanya said. “There was never any food.”

  “You went to the food bank. You were fine.”

  “I could only go to the food bank so many times in a week,” Tanya said. “Besides, it wasn’t up to your eldest child to go to the food bank to pick up food for her siblings.”

  “So you’re still bitching about your childhood.”

  “What are you doing with your life now?” Tanya asked. “Still drugs, booze and more men?”

  “No,” her mom replied. “I am trying to figure out what to do with your brothers.”

  “What’s wrong with them?”

  “They will need a home soon,” she said. “And don’t act like you don’t know. It’s not like you’ve reached out to take them.”

  “Take them? I don’t even know them,” Tanya said, everything inside her recoiling at the thought. “And why does somebody have to take them?”

  There was a silence on the other end and then a bitter laugh. “Are you serious? You don’t know?”

  “Know what?” Tanya asked.

  “I have stage four breast cancer,” her mother said. “Nothing doctors can do. I’ve got less than six months to live.” With that, she ended the call.