by Rebecca Rode
His words should have comforted me, but I was still worried about Bianca not answering her phone. Was a cell tower down in Phoenix? I scrolled through my contacts, looking for someone who might have heard from Bianca, and my eyes were drawn back to the message icon. Clicking on the notification, I saw the messages I hadn’t yet read were all from Ruth, one of our former foster sisters who still lived with Bianca in the apartment. Ruth had lived with Lily as long as we had, and we shared a similar darkness in our past, which made us closer than most. Her texts all said the same thing: Is Bianca with you? Call me.
Ruth answered on my first ring. “Please tell me Bianca is with you,” she said without a greeting. “I’m going to kill her for making me worry.”
Ruth was always playing mother, and at any other moment, I would have teased her about worrying. Now her words made me panic. “What do you mean? I’m in Valentine at the sanctuary. Bianca’s in Phoenix, but she’s not answering her phone.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Ruth! Where is she?” I became aware of everyone in the breakroom staring at me: Declan from the window, Stephen on the couch, and Ross at a table. I turned my back and pressed the phone tightly to my ear. “Where is she?” I repeated.
Ruth’s words came spilling out. “She went to see you! Or to move in with you, I mean. She left like four or five hours ago. Before the storm. Oh, I can’t believe this is happening! She wanted to surprise you, so she arranged to submit her final art projects early. Then we stuffed everything we could into her car this morning—not the pottery wheel or her pots, obviously, but practically everything else. I told her three times about the storm warning, but she said she’d be there long before it hit. Then she never called to say she got there. I’ve been calling and texting her for the past hour because of the flooding.”
“What flooding?” Alarm filled me at the word. Declan said he’d seen the roads around here covered in water.
“On Route 93. But maybe she was past it by then. She’s probably fine. She could have—”
“Ruth,” I said, trying to stop the jumble of words, “did she say if she was going to my place in Kingman, or if she was heading to the sanctuary in Valentine?”
“I don’t know.” Ruth paused and I wished I could reach through the phone and shake her.
“Did she say anything that might give you a clue? Because otherwise, I won’t know where to look for her.”
“Well, she said something about seeing a raccoon. Do you have one at the sanctuary that’s going to have a baby?”
I stifled a groan. I knew that meant my sister had been heading here, not to my house in Kingman. Bianca had driven to see me three times in the past month, and after the first time, she’d started using Hackberry Road instead of deviating to Kingman on the I-40 and then going up Route 66 to Valentine and the sanctuary. The unpaved Hackberry Road might be interesting to drive on a good day, but in a storm, it could be a death trap, especially in my sister’s little Honda.
Ruth was still talking in my ear, but I couldn’t internalize what she was saying. Something about Lily sending out her husband to look for Bianca on the road leading from Phoenix. “Call me if you hear from her,” I said. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”
I hung up, standing for a moment rooted to the spot, unsure what I was going to do. In the end, though, there was no real choice. I was the only one who could get to Bianca, and it was up to me to find her. In two steps, I was grabbing my jacket and pulling it on. The left sleeve was slightly stiff with caked blood.
“What’s wrong?” Stephen asked.
“My sister left to come here hours ago, and no one has heard from her.” Now that I thought about it, she’d probably been on her way when I’d talked to her in the aviary. That seemed like a lifetime ago.
“You can’t go out there,” Ross said. “It’s suicide.”
I glared at him. “I guess that means you’re not coming, huh? Why am I not surprised? You’re such a jerk, you know?”
“Uh, Zoey, for once, I agree with him,” Stephen said. “You’ll have to wait for the storm to pass. Then we’ll all go.”
“You can’t go anywhere. But I am going after my sister. Now.” I grabbed a few water bottles from the fridge. We didn’t have any more blankets in here, but we had some small animal print ones in the gift shop.
Please let her be okay. Maybe if I said it enough, she would be.
“Zoey, no!” Stephen tried to raise himself from the couch but sank back in pain.
I purposefully avoided his eyes—and Declan’s, though I was aware of Declan going into the closet. Maybe he was checking on Betsy, but I was too panicked to care. He’d have to take care of both the raccoon and Stephen. Ross, of course, would take care of himself.
Without another word, I ran into the gift shop and stuffed a lap blanket, a sweatshirt, and a handful of candy bars into my backpack. Then I checked for the keys to my truck, pulled up my hood, and plunged into the darkness of the storm.
Chapter 5
I HURRIED AS FAST AS I could, stifling the fear that pummeled through me with the wind and rain. I was soaked before I’d gone ten feet, but at least the heavy deluge had cleared away much of the dust in the air so I could see my way to the muddy parking lot. The sky was still black and ugly, the wind battering. The raindrops felt like whips of ice.
Sprinting to my Toyota, I felt a sense of déjà vu. When Bianca and I had run away from our uncle’s home all those years ago, it hadn’t been storming, but the fear was exactly the same. Fear that if I failed, Bianca would pay the price. Fear that he’d find us and force us to go back. Grief for my mother—and anger at her for dying and leaving us with no protection from his abuse. I was fifteen when we left; she’d been dead three years. Then and now, Bianca only had me.
No, that wasn’t fair to say, not since Lily Perez had found us in the park. We’d had Lily, her husband, and the foster sisters. An education. I wasn’t really alone.
Except at this moment, I sure felt alone. Would Stephen had come with me if he wasn’t injured? I really couldn’t say.
I tried not to think about Declan, the man who would face a raging tiger with the same aplomb he showed when he so tenderly felt Betsy’s stomach. He must be disgusted with me after seeing the marks I could never hide. It was one thing to come to terms with what happened myself and an entirely different matter to expect others to understand.
His problem, I thought. I don’t care.
It felt like a lie.
My hand shook as I tried to open the door to the Toyota. The truck was ancient, the green paint peeling, but it had new tires and the engine was reliable. Lily’s husband had picked it out with me years ago when I turned eighteen, and now just touching the side made me feel less alone. The truck would make it over Hackberry Road in this storm, if anything could.
I’m coming, Bianca. Other words ran through my mind, chiding ones that would make certain she’d never risk herself again, but what if I never had the chance to say any of them?
My chest ached with the pain of it all. I shouldn’t have left Phoenix. Finding my future meant nothing if something terrible happened to my sister.
Finally, the key twisted in the lock, but a clunk in the back of the truck startled me before I could yank open the door. I pushed my wet hair from my eyes and turned to see Declan, who had apparently thrown a tool box in the back of my truck. That was followed by a pickaxe and a shovel before he covered it all with a tarp and began tying it down.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I yelled over the wind. I hated the relief I felt seeing him, but at the same time I wanted to grab onto him and weep with gratitude.
“Going with you,” he yelled back, barely looking up from his task.
“Why?”
“Because you shouldn’t go alone.”
“What about Stephen?”
“I gave him a shotgun. In case the attorney acts up.”
Despite myself, I sputtered a half laugh. �
��Good.” Amazing how the situation looked so much more hopeful now.
Opening the door a crack, I threw in my backpack and climbed onto the bench seat. Seconds later, Declan tossed his canvas bag on the floor of the passenger seat and jumped in, his hair plastered against his face but still curling in a few places.
“Thanks for coming,” I said.
He shrugged. “At least I got that bath we were talking about. Where’re we heading? Kingman?”
The smirk died on my face. “Hackberry Road. You sure you want to go?”
Declan held out his hands as if weighing the options. “Hmm, let’s see, facing almost certain death on a washed-out back road . . .” He let his left hand sink farther than the right. “Or putting up with that lying, pathetic excuse for an attorney.” His right hand plunged to his knee.
I couldn’t help laughing for real then. “Well, when you say it like that.”
“No contest at all. Let’s go.”
“Anyway, my truck hasn’t let me down yet,” I mumbled as the engine caught, “so it’s not certain death.” As if to disagree, a jagged streak of lightning cut through the angry clouds. Way too close.
“I hear being in a vehicle prevents people from being hit by lightning. That’s good.”
“Yes, it is.” I punched the gas and we shot forward.
The street from the sanctuary to Route 66 was paved, but in the few minutes it took to reach the highway, my arms ached from tightly clutching the wheel as I tried to keep us on the road. Rain fell in sheets so dense the wipers couldn’t keep up, and once we reached Route 66, I had to slow to a crawl. The normally well-traveled historic highway was completely deserted.
By the time we reached Hackberry Road, my nerves felt stretched to the point of breaking. I steered onto the dirt, glad that here at the beginning of the road, the earth was rocky enough to give the truck a little traction. Regardless, I wouldn’t give up. Bianca would know that I was coming.
I tossed Declan my cell phone. “Try to call her, would you? The unlock pattern is a backward C.”
He dragged his finger over the face but shook his head. “Sorry, no bars. Not surprised in this storm. It was only a matter of time before the cell towers were affected.”
“Try your phone.”
He did. “Same here.”
I wanted to scream and slam my hand against the steering wheel, but instead I breathed out a deep and steady sigh.
“You okay?”
“I will be.” Breathing was one of the techniques I’d learned to ease tension, much safer than cutting or hurting myself. Actually, screaming was pretty good too, but that wasn’t an option with Declan sitting here next to me. Running, swimming, and watching a good horror movie also helped.
“Oh, I meant to tell you,” Declan said. “Betsy had one of her babies before we left.”
“Really?” Hearing that was better than screaming any day. “Then she should be okay.”
“I think so. She was taking a little break when I checked on her, but the others should come faster.”
For no reason at all, I suddenly felt weepy, but at least I no longer felt like screaming or hitting the wheel. Maybe Declan had a soothing effect on me too.
We crept along the road. It was growing muddy now, but the truck was still moving. As long as I didn’t stop, we shouldn’t get stuck—I hoped. There seemed to be no letting up on the heavy downpour.
“Ever seen anything this bad?” I asked Declan
“No. I’ve heard old-timers talk about killer storms, but I’ve never been in one this bad myself.”
“We’re going to need a new quarantine, or fix that hole the tree made. I didn’t mean to let the door blow away.”
“I think that was one of the original structures that they modified when the sanctuary first opened. Believe me, a new one is long overdue.”
“You’ve been here six years, right?” I risked a second-long glance to see him peering attentively through the windshield as if doing so helped me stay on the road. Thankfully, he hadn’t come up with the stupid macho suggestion that he drive my truck. I knew my baby better than anyone.
“That’s right.”
“You think you’ll ever do anything else?”
“Nope.”
I didn’t question him because I felt the same way. But with Stephen managing the place and the Careys owning it, there really wasn’t any way for Declan to move up. I didn’t know what he earned now, but my temporary wage here wasn’t nearly as much as I’d been making at the research firm. I didn’t care about getting rich—the sanctuary was a non-profit outfit—but even if they did have a permanent job open up, I’d need more if I was to make it a career. For the moment, I was content with the situation, but soon I’d have to make plans for the future. At least I knew now that I wanted to work with animals, and that was more than I’d learned during all my years in college.
We lapsed into a comfortable silence, the rain hammering out an irregular rhythm against the truck. Every now and then, the tires seemed to sink into the ruts, but a little punch on the gas kept us moving.
“Looks like trouble up ahead,” Declan said after we’d been driving for over forty minutes but had only traversed about six miles of road. “I was worried about this spot.”
I slowed but kept moving forward, trying to peer through the rain. Jerking the wheel to the left, I headed off the road, bypassing what looked like a mud slide. To his credit, Declan didn’t look nervous as I gunned it over a couple of large rocks. I had to make sure the wheels hit just right so we wouldn’t get high-centered.
“Nice,” he said as I angled back to the road after clearing the water. “Reminds me of your first day.”
“Ha. What do you remember about it? You barely talked to me.” He’d been at the interview I’d had with Josh and Lena, but he hadn’t said three words. Even as they took me around for a tour, Declan had only watched silently, unnerving me with his stare.
“My orders were to watch how you interacted with the animals. Josh says I have a sense for it. But what I meant was the guts you showed when we introduced you to Cuddles. You didn’t hesitate to go up and give her a nice scratch.”
“Lena said she’d just been fed, and you were all petting her.”
“Yeah, but she knows us.” He held his hand out near the steering wheel. “She gave me this the first time I dared to go in her cage—and that was after I’d been there a month.”
“Ouch.” I couldn’t see the nasty scar at the base of his thumb in the dark cab, and I wasn’t about to take my attention from the road to try harder, but I’d seen it before and wondered at the cause.
“The moment you left, I told Josh to hire you, even though we wouldn’t have the budget to keep you when Patty comes back from taking care of her mother.”
“I knew it was only temporary when I signed on.”
“No, it’s not. We’ll find a way to keep you.” His voice sounded amused now, and I could imagine his lazy grin. “We’re actually kind of hoping Patty doesn’t want to come back.” He laughed. “Even if she does, it’ll work out.”
A surge of energy bubbled up inside me. I had no idea they felt this way, and it made me hopeful, because if you peeled away all the worry about supporting myself and Bianca while she grew her pottery business, I belonged at the sanctuary. “Well, I hope Patty earns more than I do, or my sister will need to sell a ton of pottery to help pay a mechanic the next time my truck breaks down.”
He chuckled. “Just as long as it doesn’t break down tonight.” After a few moments of silence, he added, “You know, you could always get more training in something we really need. Then they’ll pay more.”
“Guess you’re all full up on biologists.” Declan had a degree in wildlife biology, and Ewan had one in biology.
“Something like that. But Josh finds funding when he needs it. Six months ago, I hit him up for a hefty raise—and he gave it to me. He knows that with my experience, there are a dozen of other jobs I could take.”
“Well, my double degrees in biology and chemistry don’t seem to be in demand here.”
“Actually, it’s a good start, and one of the reasons I pushed for you.”
I dared to take my eyes from the windshield for a second. “Why?”
“Because what we really need is someone who’s studied animal medicine. If there is something we can’t handle now, or one of our animals needs surgery, we have to call in a vet, sometimes clear from California, depending on the problem.”
“A vet? That’s a lot more schooling.” Four years, in fact. “And expensive.”
“Josh and I’ve discussed the possibility of sponsoring someone in exchange for a promise to work at the sanctuary for a certain amount of years. Might be worth looking into.” His voice was a little too casual, which hinted that he cared about my response—maybe even a lot. Had he and Josh discussed approaching me with this idea? And where did Stephen fit into it all? He was the official manager for the sanctuary and should be able to weigh in with his opinion.
My emotions were all over the place just contemplating a new career. The physical sciences had been my favorite classes in college, but I’d never even thought about being a vet. I had heard it was hard to get in to veterinary school, though with the well-known sanctuary as my sponsor, my chances were infinitely higher.
“I might be interested.” I was actually more than interested, especially if it meant staying at the sanctuary with the animals I loved.
“We hoped you might. Josh asked me to feel you out about it.”
Interesting that Josh had asked Declan and not his nephew, Stephen, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. “Well, you can tell him I’ll think about it.” As if to punctuate my words, the truck jolted as we rolled over a particularly deep rut.
“I think the rain is getting worse,” Declan said.
I had to agree. I really couldn’t see more than the occasional glimpse of the road through the driving rain. Another lurch and the truck rocked violently. Instinctively, I let off the gas and the truck stopped. Muttering under my breath, I punched the gas, but the wheels just spun.
