Rare Find

by Dale Mayer

  Dennis sighed and followed Tabitha inside.

  With a backward glance, Ronin headed down the path to the office of Exotic Landscape.

  ***

  "If he thinks for one minute that I'm going to stay home like a 'good little woman,' he's sorely mistaken," she muttered to herself as she stormed into her house and up to her room. Her movements were sharp and jerky but efficient as she stripped off her nightclothes and changed into jeans and a t-shirt. This night was over, and the thought of more sleep had become a distant dream.

  Some asshole was messing with her place. With her animals.

  She reached for her phone and called security. The phone rang and rang.

  "Crap." She pocketed her phone and went in search of her shoes.

  "Where are you going?" her father asked, standing in front of the doorway. From the wide stance and crossed arms, she deduced he had thoughts about stopping her.

  "My security men aren't answering. I have to make sure they haven't been knocked out, that they're awake and on the job."

  He frowned. "Isn't that a job for the police?"

  "Ah, the police is here, remember?"

  "I don't think he wants you out there."

  "No, he doesn't. But those are my men. One of them should have answered. Neither did. That could mean trouble."

  Her phone rang just then. She pulled it out and checked the number. "It's Ronin."

  She answered it. "What's up?"

  "I've called for paramedics. Your security guard has been knocked out."

  Her gaze flew up to meet her father's somber look. "I'm on my way. There should be a second guard there. Neither answered their phones."

  "I'm on it." She could hear the sounds of doors opening and closing. Was he inside the center?

  "Where is the guard?" she said sharply. "I'll come look after him."

  "He's outside the back door of the clinic."

  "Have you checked inside? We were wondering because of the earlier break-ins if maybe junkies were after the drugs there."

  "Do you keep many?" Ronin sounded distracted.

  "Hell no. But the junkies might not know or care."

  "Right. Bring your father."

  "Will do. Be there in five." She put away her phone and slipped into her shoes. "He wants you to come with me. One of my guards has been attacked. Ronin has called for the paramedics, but I need to go and see what I can do."

  Her father was already pulling the door open and said, "Does this happen often?"

  "First time. Some other problems started a few months ago." Outside, she led the way back along the path to the office.

  "Was your grandfather worried about anything?" Dennis asked. "Did the break-ins upset him?"

  "Yes. He'd gone very quiet these last few months. As if something bugged him, but he never talked about it."

  "No autopsy was done – did that bother you?"

  "No." She shrugged. "I didn't see the sense. He was old, his health failing." From the pathway, she could see the lights were on inside the center. She frowned and picked up the pace.

  She entered the front door and found the lights on throughout the building. She walked through the office, her heart sinking as she took in the mess. The desk drawers had been pulled out and dumped, the chairs had been overturned, the pictures tossed.

  Damn. What about the animals that just had surgery over the last couple days? They shouldn't be disturbed. She hurried through to the clinic side and found the animals untouched. They were nervous, stressed and hurting from their various procedures, but as far as she could see, their energies were solid. No additional injuries or damage.

  Immediately, she poured waves of calm energy over the pens and animals, stretching it out, letting it float to the far corners of the reserve.

  It's okay. Everything is fine. Relax.

  As she turned her attention to the rest of the center, she heard Ronin call her.

  She raced to the surgery to find Thomas, her long-time security guard, stretched out on the table.

  "What on earth...?"

  "My thoughts exactly." He motioned to the door at the far end of the room. "This is the second guard. The first one is outside."

  She studied the man's face. There was no apparent injury, but he was definitely out cold. As if sleeping. Or drugged. Her heart sank.

  She pulled his sleeve back to see a red injection site. She closed her eyes. "Ah hell. He's been drugged."

  ***

  Ronin left Tabitha and her father at the center and did a quick look around. He was pretty sure that the intruder was gone, but this was no longer a simple case of mischief. Now two guards had been attacked, which said something about the seriousness of the intruder's intentions.

  He headed for the security system, wondering if the intruders knew about the upgrades. He knew his brother's company received a copy of the feed. Had they received an alert of an intruder?

  His phone rang, and he knew it was Roman before he picked it up. This happened sometimes, as if Roman could hear his thoughts.

  "Are you at Exotic?" Roman asked.

  "Yeah," Ronin said. "Two guards were attacked and we disturbed an intruder heading for Tabitha's house."

  "Professional job?"

  "Quite possibly. The guards were knocked out with drugs. The offices have been tossed." Ronin stared out into the early morning light. Inside, his stomach knotted. "What the hell is going on?"

  "There were no alarms set off on our end."

  "Well, that answers that. The system's new; it has to be an inside job." Ronin paused. "Who installed it?"

  Roman's tone turned thin and hard. "I'll be checking into that. You check on her the staff at Exotic?"

  Ronin snorted. "Working on it. She doubled her staff after her extended hospital stay. She had to. She's still not back to full strength. At this rate, Exotic will need a new owner, too."

  Silence.

  "Is that a possibility?" Roman asked seriously, "because that's motive right there."

  Ronin thought about it. "It's possible," he answered slowly. "There's no one else in her life at the moment except her father. And those that work at the center."

  "Who inherited everything when the grandfather passed away recently?"

  Running a hand across his forehead, Ronin told himself to think. To see this for what it likely was – a money grab. Trust his business-minded brother to cut through the distraction and get to the root of the problem.

  "Tabitha did, supposedly. Is there any money in this place? It's run by donations and the sweat off Tabitha's back."

  "And a large amount of donation money from Shay's Lassiter Foundation."

  So true. "I'll look into the inheritance issue and who the beneficiaries were and who stands to benefit if Tabitha can't."

  "Although, I doubt anyone could make the tiger do what the caged tiger’s done to Tabitha," Roman said, "that doesn't mean the intruder you disturbed tonight wasn't after something else."

  "Shit." Ronin hung up the phone.

  While he worked his way back to the offices he heard the sounds of the ambulance in the distance. He pulled out his phone again and keyed in Tabitha's number. "Hey, I'm on my way back. I didn't see anything, but that doesn't mean he's not arou—"

  Ronin's head screamed in agony. He dropped his phone, both hands going to his head as he fell to his knees.

  "Jesus. Tough bugger, aren't you?"

  A second blow dropped Ronin face first into the dirt.

  Then he knew no more.

  Chapter 23

  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 l
ook. 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 narrowe
d 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…