Rare Find (35 page)

She smiled and gave the big teddy bear a scratch under his chin.

"Hey, big guy. Life is treating you pretty good, isn't it?"

He started to purr. His big diesel engine rippled outward across the countryside. Tabitha laughed and looked up at Ronin. He was staring at her in bemusement.

"He's not dangerous?"

"Oh, in the right circumstances, he's very dangerous. But with me...? No." She shook her head. "As he doesn't know you two, I laid a layer of energy to keep his hunting instincts suppressed."

"Thanks, I think."

Ronin glanced over in the direction of the road. "Nothing personal, but any chance we can get the hell out of here now?"

***

"Where the hell is Dennis and the others?" Germaine scanned the pen. Rocks, brush, trees. And no sign of the rest of them. "And why is there no screaming? Yelling? Hell, the damn lions should be roaring...shouldn't they?"

The two men stared at each other.

"I'm more worried about them getting away," Eric said. "There's no way they can be allowed to live at this point. We have to make sure they can't tell anyone."

Germaine groaned. "We can't go in there. We should have shot them dead and then thrown their bodies over the damn fence."

A cold hard voice spoke from behind. "A little too late for that."

Eric stiffened. "Shit."

"Don't say a fucking word," warned Germaine.

"Hey, I'm not going down for this," Eric cried. "I haven't done anything."

"Don't. Just don't. Keep your mouth shut," Germaine snapped. "They don't know anything."

"I wouldn't say that exactly. Hands out of your pockets and turn around slowly."

They turned slowly. Eric gasped. "We put you in the lions' pen!"

Roman smiled a little grimly. "Actually, you put my twin brother in there. But he's fine. No thanks to you. At least one of you, if not both of you, is a lousy shot. Not that it matters. There are cops coming up behind me."

The two men looked at each other. Then bolted into the closest field. The fence wasn't high enough to slow them down.

They heard shouting behind them, but neither of them slowed enough to make the words out. Big mistake.

Coming from the side and ripping forward at an incredible speed in their direction was another cat.

"Oh shit. That's a fucking tiger."

Tuesday 8 am

T
abitha heard the shouting. "Sounds as if help has arrived." She scanned the paths to see which would take them to the new arrivals. "The sounds are coming from over there."

"And what's over there?"

She sighed. "Tigers."

"Dangerous?"

"Remember the part about all wild animals in captivity still being wild creatures in the right circumstances?"

Then a horrific scream made her pull in her shoulders. She lay down on the gravel in front of the astonished men and jumped free of her body. In spirit form, she raced down the path toward the chaos. She could hear Boran, a big male. He was running, chasing prey, his blood pumping with the hunt.

Shit.

She slammed into him. He never faltered. Up ahead, Eric peeled across the ground at a breakneck speed. He saw the fence in front of him and flew up as high as he could go. She watched as he made it almost to the top before Boran jumped and clawed at him.

The male cat caught him by the foot. Eric screamed again and scampered up higher. Boran couldn't go any higher.

He was pissed. The man struggled at the top of the fence but it didn't have a bar to support him. He had to get over or climb back down again. He chose over.

She watched and wondered what she should do. She'd have loved to seen Boran eat him for breakfast, but that was hardly fair. Plus it might make Boran sick.

She gave Boran several good loving strokes of sympathy as he paced below the prey.
Sorry, buddy.

Sighing, she slipped back to her body. She groaned at the harsh landing but managed to sit up fast and face the other two. "Eric is sitting at the top of the fence between the tigers."

"Between the tigers?"

"Yeah, there are two females on the other side. And Tango's pen joins in at the far end."

"He goes out with the other tigers?"

"Of course," she said. "Socializing with other tigers is important to his well being."

"Can we leave now, please?" Her father’s voice quivered. "As much as I hate what Eric has done, I don't want to see him as tiger bait."

"Too late," said Ronin cheerfully. He went to take a step forward when Nisha twined around his legs. "Is it safe to leave?"

"Yes, but they are happy with the company." She bent to scratch the sides and belly of the biggest lion in her family. Captain sucked it up.

"Amazing."

She studied Ronin's face, a fat grin on her own. "You do realize you're barely reacting?"

***

Once back on the path and feeling as if he'd been given a second chance at life, Ronin turned to see his brother approaching.

Roman called out, "Hey, you survived the lions?"

"Yeah, can't say I'm as bothered anymore." Ronin slapped Roman on the shoulder. "Amazing what a little hands-on experience will do for a guy."

The two brothers grinned. "If you're ready," Tabitha said, "let's get Eric down and you guys can take him away. My place is a mess and I have a lot of animals looking for food."

"Yeah, I presume you've picked up Germaine already?" Ronin asked.

"No. We think he's hiding in the one of the pens. We're looking for him now."

"Not the smartest place to hide."

"And yet you're fine."

Ronin motioned to Tabitha, who'd entered the pen where Eric hung, suspended, just out of the cat's reach. "She's the reason. I can't say for sure how these guys would act without her, but in there with her, the damn things were pussycats." Ronin shook his head. "I had no idea such a thing was possible."

"Like that?" Roman pointed out Tabitha's progress toward the tiger.

In the distance, Tabitha called, "Boran, come here, boy."

And the damn tiger barreled toward her, his big body jumping and twisting with joy.

"Jesus."

Roman stood beside his brother, watching as Boran knocked her to the ground, lay on top of her and proceeded to clean her face with long slow licks.

Eric chose that moment to sneak down the fence and bolt for the gate. Roman let him out and Ronin cuffed him. Dennis left with the police and their prisoner. Germaine had been picked up on the other side.

"Tabitha, we got Eric." Ronin called out.

She waved a hand in the air but didn't appear to be in any hurry. After a moment, she stood up and walked to a gate on the far side. From where the men stood, Ronin could see that Tango and a large golden-colored tiger were pacing on the far side. She pinned in the code at the gate and walked through to Tango.

"Boran isn't too happy to be left behind."

Ronin watched the golden tiger pace and whine at the closed gate. "Neither is the golden one," Ronin said. "She's magic with them."

"It's an energy thing."

"Can you see it? The energy stuff?" Roman asked.

"No," Ronin said, "but weird stuff is definitely happening."

"Like?" His brother slid him a long sideways look.

"I can't say exactly. It happened after the knock to my head." He shrugged. "I'll ask Stefan about it."

"It seems he's always around."

A contemplative silence fell between them.

Roman nudged him. "Is she the right one?"

Ronin didn't have to guess at his brother's meaning. "Hell, yes."

With a grin, Roman asked, "Does she know?"

"She should. It seems as if she knows everything else." Ronin laughed. "It's an odd feeling."

"You’ll get used to it."

***

Tabitha bent and gave Tango a big hug. "It's been a long day, hasn't it, big guy?"

He rubbed himself all over her, hard enough to make her stumble against the fence. Boran's cold nose poked at her from the other side. Feeling better about life than she had in a long time, she reached through and scratched his nose. "We got the guys. Somehow, we'll fix the rest of this mess."

She had to. That so many people had been involved in the damn conspiracy scared her. She'd been so unaware. It had happened under her nose and she never knew. Then her father had also been totally taken in. That had to be tough for him.

Her poor grandfather. She had avoided going through his papers, not being in great shape herself. She'd been happy to leave everything to the others. The pain had been too sharp for her to delve in any deeper until she could handle it better. Now, there was no choice. She needed to find out if anything else had gone wrong and to make sure her house was in order.

She'd spent her life helping these animals. She would make sure they were taken care of.

She glanced through the fence to see Ronin standing on the path with his brother, watching her. She waved at him. She had a mess to clean up, but with Ronin at her side and her father back in her life, she was confident she could handle it.

She opened the gate to return to Ronin's side through Boran's pen when her knees buckled.

She cried out. "Ronin!"

"Tabitha, what wrong?" Ronin cried.

The cries inside and outside overwhelmed what little clarity she had left. A roar, loud and panicked, ripped through her mind. Ripped into her body and soul.

Trinity was in trouble.

With all the chaos here, she'd forgotten about Trinity. And her own fate that was so connected to the captive tiger.

Now it was too late.

"It's Trinity!" she screamed. Through the long distance of energetic time, she heard the sound of gunshots.

Her body jerked. Once. Twice.

She looked down at her body.

Blood welled from her side, with more coming from her left hip.

"Noooo!" she screamed.
Stefan, help.

And she collapsed.

***

Ronin raced to the fence. "Tabitha? Tabitha!"

No answer. Roman was at his side, studying the locks. "I can open this gate," he said, "but I do not know what to do about the tiger."

Ronin stared through the fence at Boran. The Bengal tiger roared fury. The gate was open between Tango and Boran, but they were more concerned with Tabitha, who'd fallen face first on the ground. They circled her, nudged her. Tabitha never moved.

"What do we do about him?"

Just then Boran roared at the top of his lungs. Then Tango answered.

"Ah shit," Ronin cried. "There's no way we can get in there."

"What about the other staff?"

"Which ones?" Ronin searched for Sue. "The ones that double crossed her to steal the damn place or the ones that worked here before that?"

"We need Stefan." Ronin was already keying in his number.

Roman looked at him quickly. "Can't you call him telepathically?"

"No idea." Ronin lifted the ringing phone to his ear. "Can you?"

"Sometimes." Roman stared back at Tabitha and the milling tigers. "I expect he's already over there with her."

"Well, he's not answering his phone."

I'm busy.
Stefan's exasperated voice slipped through Ronin's head.
I can only help one of you at a time, and right now that's Tabitha.

"What can I do to help?" Ronin rolled his eyes at his brother as he put away his phone.

Get in there and keep her safe.

"And the tigers?"

Remember that personal problem about cats you asked me to look into?

Damn, he didn't want to go in there. He'd survived because Tabitha had taken care of the lions. Now it was his turn to take care of her...and he could barely function.

You have to. Someone has to keep her safe.

***

Stefan left Ronin to make a decision about the cats. He had bigger issues. Tabitha had disappeared quickly. She'd had no warning. That meant the layers of calming energy she'd left surrounding Trinity had been cut through by something major. Something drastic. And there were injuries showing on Tabitha's body. Which meant, as he assumed it had something to do with the tiger, that Trinity had been the one injured.