Zane

by Dale Mayer

  “No,” she said sadly. “But you’ll still leave.” On that note, she got up and made her way to the bathroom, closing the door. She washed her face, used the toilet and, by the time she was done, she felt a whole lot more awake. She stepped out and said, “I feel like I almost got a full night’s sleep.”

  “It’s eleven-thirty,” he said. “So you got a good five hours, if not a little bit more. You only ate a little before you crashed. How hungry are you now?”

  “I’m not,” she said, “but I might take some with me. I’ll be awake for the first hour for sure, and then I might sleep after that. Beth hasn’t called, I presume, so I gather everything is okay at the clinic?” She checked her phone and nodded. “No messages, so we’ll take that as a good sign.”

  “Good,” he said. “Let’s get something packed to go then.” He turned and walked out of her bedroom, going to the kitchen.

  She followed him and watched as he packed up the take-out containers. “We don’t have to take it all.”

  “Might as well,” he said. “There isn’t all that much left anyway.” He shrugged. “I’m a big eater, and you need to eat more.”

  On that note, she had a suspicion in the back of her mind forming. “Are you planning on staying at the clinic tonight too?” She worked hard to keep her tone neutral but figured she’d failed completely when he looked back at her and nodded.

  “Absolutely,” he said. “Especially when you’re alone.”

  That made her worry about Beth. “Do you think that’s why she hasn’t contacted me?” She chewed her bottom lip. “I don’t even think I warned her.”

  “Let’s go see,” he said.

  Within minutes they were in his vehicle headed to the clinic.

  No lights were on, and that was normal. It didn’t look like there’d been a break-in, but it was too early to tell.

  Holly hopped out and headed for the front door, shut off the alarm before it could go off, relieved to see it was still set. She walked through to the back office to find Beth sleeping soundly. Holly walked over, tapped her assistant on the shoulder.

  Beth’s eyes opened, and she hopped to her feet. “Oh, my God! I fell asleep,” she said, rubbing her face. “Sorry about that. I didn’t think I would need to. But then, all of a sudden, I went to lay down just to rest a little bit.” She had a wry smile. “And I guess I was out almost instantly.”

  “How are the patients?”

  “Last I checked, they were both fine,” she said, leading the way to the cages.

  Chico looked up, and his tail wagged as they approached him.

  “He’s looking pretty good.”

  They both checked his tubes and his medication levels, gave him a bit of a cuddle, and then Holly turned to look at Katch. He was awake and watching them from inside with an alertness to him that hadn’t been there earlier.

  Holly crouched in front of his unlocked cage, which was normal for these overnight cases, so they could access the patient faster. “How are you doing, Katch?”

  At the sound of his name, his ears tweaked. But now Katch’s alertness gave Holly an uneasy sensation. Katch appeared to be staring at Zane.

  She looked over at him and said, “I don’t know if he’s comfortable with you right now or not or if something else is bothering him.”

  Zane crouched in front of Katch and talked to him in a gentle tone. He seemed to relax slightly, but his gaze kept going to the entrance of the cage between the two of them. Zane stood. “Don’t take him out without me here.” He turned and headed back to the front of the office.

  She knew he would check around the grounds and was grateful for his presence.

  Beth put on her coat. “You okay if I leave now?”

  Holly locked Katch’s cage and stood, giving her assistant a hug. “Absolutely.” She walked her to the front door. Zane was there. She asked him, “Can you walk Beth out to the car please?”

  “Absolutely not,” Beth said. “No fussing.”

  “No arguing,” Holly said firmly. “Zane is here, and it won’t take him more than a couple minutes.”

  She stood at the front door, waiting as Zane walked Beth to her car and stood by as she got in, turned on the engine and headed out.

  When Zane returned, Holly reset the alarm. “I didn’t reset it when we first came in,” she said in a low voice.

  Zane nodded. “I noticed. I did a check, but I’d like to do another one.”

  “And we need to take the animals outside.”

  They headed into the back again. Almost immediately she heard Katch’s subtle low growl.

  Zane whispered, “Shit.” He turned to her. “You stick with me. Obviously we’ve got a problem.”

  “You think the intruder is here?”

  “No idea what’s going on, but, from Katch’s point of view, there is an immediate threat.”

  Hating to even think such a thing, Holly followed Zane from room to room, closet to closet, as he searched, while she stood in the hallway, making sure nobody changed areas while he was doing one.

  When they came back to Katch’s room, the dog was still alert and tense, the ridge on the back of his neck thick and angry-looking.

  “What if he’s just sensing him, like maybe he’s outside?” Holly pointed to the windows. “Maybe he saw him through the window.”

  “It’s possible,” Zane said. “The good thing is, he’s not inside right now. Which is where we don’t want him.”

  “So do we need to check outside?” she asked nervously.

  “We need to,” he said.

  “Honestly, I’m not too sure I want to. He had a gun. He didn’t shoot us last time, but, if we stand between him and the dog, who knows how determined he is to make sure Katch dies?”

  “I want you to stay locked up inside, so I don’t have to worry about you.”

  She frowned. “And what if he comes back inside?”

  “The alarm will go off, and I’ll hear it,” he said. “And I’ll be inside in a heartbeat. More than that, I want you to stay here with Katch. Let him know you’re not the bad guy, and you’re here for him.”

  “More than likely he’ll think I’m hiding out with Chico, not him,” she said with a laugh. And Katch wouldn’t be far wrong.

  “It doesn’t matter what Katch thinks,” Zane said. “The problem is, he’s giving us signals, and we need to listen.”

  She couldn’t argue with that. “I’ll put on coffee. Maybe warm up some food,” she said, as if distracting herself.

  He grinned. “Do that. I ate most of it already when you were sleeping.” And, on that note, he disappeared out the back.

  She swore softly but walked into the staff room, put on coffee, dished up a portion of food and put it in the microwave. She kept looking from window to window, wondering what the hell was going on outside. When her food was heated, and the coffee was ready, she walked back in to where the cages were and sat down on the floor beside the two dogs.

  “I’m not doing this to torment you,” she said to Katch. “Honestly, you shouldn’t be eating human food anyway. And, if you’re hungry, you have dog food in your cage.”

  But Katch was definitely interested in her late-night dinner. She sighed, feeling guilty. She got up and walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a couple small beef jerky sticks for the dog. She gave him one through the cage opening. After sniffing it delicately, Katch took it between his teeth and dropped it, then chewed on it, eating it slowly.

  “Well, that’s as nice a manner as I’ve ever seen a dog eat a treat,” she commented. “And, unlike you, I’m going to eat this as I normally do.” She attacked her food with a hungry vengeance.

  She felt quite decent, considering how much sleep she’d had. Too bad it was the middle of the night right now. Somehow she had to wear off some of this energy, then crash again so she could function in the morning. If she didn’t sleep more soon, her morning schedule would be brutal again, and the cycle would just continue.

  With her own food gon
e, and the second treat in Chico’s mouth, the three of them sat here quietly while Holly sipped her coffee. She needed Zane to come back so they could take the dogs outside. But she wouldn’t go out there as long as Zane was doing his protector thing because she had no doubt it would interfere with whatever plan he had.

  She wondered what he did in the navy where this was the work he instinctively knew how to handle. And what could he possibly do now that he was out of the military and living supposedly a normal life with his rare and dangerous skill set? What kind of a company was Titanium Corp? He’d said something about security, but was that like being a bodyguard? Or was that like being a security guard, overnight at an empty station to make sure hoodlums didn’t get into the building? Surely there was work like that for him here. But she highly doubted that was what he wanted to do. Then again, she had no clue what he wanted to do. He had only just now revealed to her that all he’d ever wanted was to be in the navy.

  And then she realized how hard that must have been for him when he had to leave the navy. All she’d ever wanted was to be a vet, and she was currently working her dream job. But, if she didn’t do this, what else would she do? She couldn’t think of anything else that she would want to do as much. Except maybe be a mom. But that didn’t have to be a case of one or the other. She could certainly do both at the same time. What about him? He was out of the navy and somehow on a trip across the country to retrieve a dog. No, not even retrieve—more like a welfare check.

  She looked down at Katch. “You must be something special.” Her gentle murmur caused Katch’s ears to twitch, and those huge brown eyes looked up at her. “You actually have his full attention. I don’t. I’m just a side thought. And I bet, if he’d had the chance to go anywhere but Maine, he would have. But he’s here now. The question is, how do we both manage to keep him? Because I think he’s your answer. It will take somebody like him to handle you.”

  She didn’t think Zane had had a lot of dog training, but he certainly had a way with animals; that she knew. She’d watched deer walk right up and smell his hands. She’d watched squirrels hop onto his fingers and run up his arms to sit on his shoulder. No doubt he was gifted, but what did one do with gifts like that when it came to finding a way to make a living? And had the Titanium Corp paid his way here? Not to mention the dog’s vet bills? It made the most sense but she hadn’t actually asked him.

  There were so many unanswered questions that it made her curious about the life he had lived in the navy, curious about the life he could see himself living now. There’d been absolutely no contact, as far as she knew, with his father or brother since he’d arrived that first night. Sure, only a couple nights has passed, but, if it were her brother, though she didn’t have any, but, if it were her brother, she would have definitely contacted him on a daily basis. But it seemed like these men just didn’t want anything to do with each other.

  Brody had been the more genial and jovial of the lot. But even he hadn’t had much to do with his father and brothers. Brody dealt with his father because his father didn’t seem to deal with anybody else, but Brody hadn’t particularly liked it. He used to say the old man was too dependent on him. What would Dad do if something happened to me? She admonished herself for not realizing just how prophetic Brody’s words had been, and, as far as his father was concerned, he was basically drinking himself to death.

  Given that thought, Butch came to mind. He didn’t seem to care about anything. Hopefully he cared about Sandra.

  What was there for Zane here? Not his birth family it seemed. She could hope it was her. She did have her own house at this point. So she was certainly okay as long as she kept her practice, and she didn’t really feel the need to move anywhere. But, if Zane asked her to, would she?

  She winced at that, because, of course, how could she ask him to pull up whatever life he had built to come back to a place he didn’t want to be if she wasn’t prepared to do the same, to move to a new location with him?

  “Oh, the twisted lives we lead,” she said to Katch. “You’re in the same boat, aren’t you? Nobody to love you, looking for a home, not too sure this is where you belong, because look what has happened to you.”

  She looked out the window again and said, “What are you doing, Zane? Hurry up, please.”

  Zane shifted through the darkness, keeping the clinic in sight, and listened to the night. He’d had way-too-much experience hunting. Both animal and people. He had a skill for it, mostly because the animals would let him walk past them in the woods and never give any warning. Here he had no weapons. And that put him at a disadvantage. He didn’t know what had triggered Katch’s response, but Zane wouldn’t ignore it.

  John McAfee should have been held behind bars, but Zane suspected the police had let McAfee out on bail, which would mean he’d come right back here again. Zane couldn’t get much information out of the police on the matter either. Maybe they knew he wouldn’t like what they had to say.

  Until McAfee did something serious. Obviously breaking and entering into two vet clinics probably wasn’t considered bad enough to keep him in jail. Or he’d escaped. Would the cops have even let him and Holly know that McAfee was on the lose?

  He pulled out the cop’s card and sent a text, not expecting a response, given the time of night—or early morning now technically. Instead, he got a reply fairly quickly.

  He was released. He’s to show up in court in two weeks.

  “Dammit,” Zane said, swearing under his breath. That was no help. Wish you had told us, he texted. I’m standing guard outside the vet clinic right now because we think somebody’s here.

  The response came back, Think?

  Think. The dog is reacting like he’s in danger. And I don’t trust that asshole intruder one bit.

  There was no response for a long moment, and then the officer sent another text. I’m here, working late. If you want, I can drive past and take a look.

  I’m already here, and the dog is inside, he typed. But, if you drive past, it might help McAfee realize you are keeping an eye on the place.

  Will do, he replied.

  Zane put away his phone and shifted his position, looking for any signs of McAfee. But there hadn’t been anything, not a branch breaking, nothing. If this guy had been overseas in the military, he was likely as good as, if not better trained, than Zane was.

  He waited in the darkness. It took only about ten minutes before a car’s headlights came down the street toward him. This area was relatively quiet at night, so this was the first car since Zane had come outside. It swung into the parking lot, and, sure enough, it was a cop car. The guy got out, reached in, grabbed his flashlight and walked around the clinic.

  Zane texted Holly to say a cop was doing a search and to stay inside. When he got her Okay response, he felt better. His eyes moving slowly, he watched to see if anybody else was out here who wasn’t so happy about the cop’s presence. Somebody who might take this opportunity to disappear. Zane thought he saw a shadow about thirty feet to the right of the clinic, which would put him directly on the far side of where Zane currently was, which was crappy positioning. He judged the distances around, wondering where the shadow was moving to, and saw it creep around farther in the back of the property.

  Zane headed for a meet-up with somebody skulking in the dark.

  Chapter 10

  Getting that text had been both good and bad. It had roused Holly from nodding off as she curled up against the cages, not willing to leave Katch or Chico. And it had easily explained the flashlight she could see, now that she was awake. It had alerted her that Zane was fine and still on the lookout. But it also reminded her of the dangers out there …

  She wanted to text him again and ask when he was coming back inside but knew that was probably not a good idea. If he didn’t have his phone on Airplane mode, and he was creeping up on somebody, then that would give away his position. And how rotten that she had to even consider such a thing.

  Finally she had to g
et up to move around; her legs were so stiff. She couldn’t see anything or anyone. The cop car was parked in front, for which she was grateful. But she suspected everything was happening on the back end of the clinic, where she had very little view.

  The main rear door led out to the back fenced-in area, but she dared not open it. It was attached to the security alarm, so hopefully the intruder wouldn’t easily gain access that way with his second attempt here at Katch. She needed to reconsider the security coverage here too, adding security sensors to all back doors. Hopefully the other vets wouldn’t put up a fight about it. Although they were doing okay here together, they weren’t making great money in the clinic, not to handle every new expense, but it was a living.

  At that word she winced. That was really crappy vocabulary for her to use.

  With the cop outside with Zane, Holly walked around the clinic several more times and grabbed her laptop, moving back into the rear room with the dogs. There she caught up on some of her reports, fired off a bunch of emails that needed to be done and then surfed the web. Anything to keep her mind off what was going on outside.

  When she heard an odd sound at the back door, she froze. She shut down her laptop, placed it on the counter in front of her and slid to her feet. She checked out Katch’s position, but he was calm, relaxed.

  “Does that mean it’s Zane?” she asked.

  Katch just looked at her steadily.

  She could almost see it in his eyes. Why are you asking me?

  Holly hated to admit it, but the dogs were much better at sorting out predators from prey. Humans sucked at it. She waited a few more minutes to see if she heard any more sounds. When she didn’t, she slipped around to the back door and peered out through the blinds. She made sure she just lifted a corner and didn’t bend it. But she saw nothing out there. There was nothing in the pen, nothing at all out back.

  Frustrated she turned around. Through the hallway she could see the cop standing at her front glass doors, talking on his radio. She wanted to race out and talk to him, but again she was thinking of Zane. She pulled out her phone and decided to send him a text. Is the cop leaving?