Serendipity (Southern Comfort) (9 page)

“And you think my uncle would reward you for killing his only niece?”   She regretted it the minute she said it.  And she cursed herself as pathetic for using her uncle as a defense.

The goon chuckled. And stepping back, just a little bit, used the blade to groom his nails.  “What makes you think your uncle didn’t give the order?”

The question, asked so casually, had a chill snaking down her back. 

“Ah, I see the cat
has taken hold of your sharp tongue.  But you’re correct, senorita, your uncle doesn’t wish to see you harmed.”  The goon patiently trimmed his thumbnail, discarded the remnants near his booted foot.  “Your uncle is a passionate man. A man, you could say, who’s ruled by his blood.  And his blood flows in your veins.  But you and me…”  He pointed at her with the blade and then angled it back toward himself.  “We share no blood.  So don’t believe I would suffer your uncle’s compunction about spilling yours.”

The blade flashed again as he ran the flat of it down her cheek.  For the first time in longer than she remembered, Ava truly tasted her own fear. 

“You think about that next time you decide to play your little games with me.”

The sound of a shotgun being pumped caused Ava’s racing heart to stutter. 

“And you think about this, senor.”  Lou Ellen stepped off the porch, her whiskey voice iced with cold fury.  “The next time you threaten my tenant, the next time you set foot on my property, the next time you so much as breathe within a five block radius of either one of us, I’ll shoot your balls off.  And believe me, I’ll suffer no compunction about eliminating you from the gene pool.”  She held the shotgun steady and gestured with her chin.  “Now get the hell out of here before my finger gets itchy.”

With a careless movement of his wrist, the man looming over Ava closed the switchblade, then rapped it lightly against her nose. 

Ignoring Lou Ellen, he whistled I’ll Be Seeing You as he strolled away.

“Oh my God.” With an uncharacteristic loss of composure,
Ava
threw her arms around Lou Ellen’s neck.  “Oh my God.  You didn’t have to do that.  You shouldn’t have done that.  I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Lou.” 

LOU
ELLEN
held the shotgun aside and wrapped Ava in a tight embrace.  “Stop your babbling, child.”  Her heart, which had all but stopped when she’d looked out the window, began to pulse an erratic beat.  Ava was the closest thing she had to a daughter. And despite the fact that Ava told her little, and complained even less, she knew the girl was under a tremendous strain. 

The men she’d seen at all hours of the day and night weren’t lurking on the street because they needed veterinary services. 

Knowing that Ava would talk about it only if and when she needed to, Lou Ellen tucked a lock of tousled hair behind the younger woman’s ear.  Her smile was bland as she shouldered the shotgun.  “So. What are we having for dinner?”

Because it was exactly what she needed to hear, Ava laughed. 

AVA had passed a perfectly pleasant evening with Lou Ellen over dinner and a bottle of wine.  She’d inoculated a litter of kittens, treated a rabbit with sore hocks and removed a benign lump from a Labrador before noon.  Lunch was spent at her desk, catching up on paperwork.  Her life was too busy to waste time with worry. 

But whenever she had reason to be out front, Ava found herself looking for the black Thunderbird. 

God knew why she’d had to provoke the man yesterday.  Galling as it was, she had to admit she’d behaved foolishly. 

And the worst part of it was that she’d inadvertently drawn Lou Ellen into the fray. 

Since that was bad enough, she’d held her tongue when Katie asked about her weekend.  Keeping it to herself – and keeping herself in line – was the best way she knew to protect the people she cared for. 

Her thoughts wandered back to the task at hand as she finished a neat line of stitches on the abdomen of the pampered cocker spaniel she’d just spayed.  The little minx had gone looking for adventure, digging under the backyard fence while her mistress planted gladiolas. 

She
’d found that adventure
with the lab-terrier mix next door.

The puppies had been given away and the fence repaired, but the purebred’s reputation was damaged beyond repair.  She’d retired from the dog show circuit in shame.

Ava rolled weary eyes while she considered the ridiculous things people worried about.

“Okay, Katie.  Let’s get this little tramp into post-op.” 

Katie smiled as she finished cleaning up the implements Ava’d used during the surgery.  “Don’t let Mrs. Harris hear you say that.  By the way that woman was carrying on you’d think it was Queen Elizabeth that got knocked up.”  She helped Ava shift the unconscious dog into the room they used for recovery.

Ava grabbed a paper towel to dab at the Betadine she’d gotten on her sleeve.  “Now why is it that you can make comments like that,” she asked Katie, “but when I do you mutter about sarcasm and customer relations.”

“First of all, I never mutter.  You mutter.  I enunciate clearly and concisely.  The mode of delivery makes all the difference.”

“Kiss.  My. Ass.  You’re
right.  That sounds much better,
” Ava
said as she
headed toward her office. 

“You’ve got fifteen minutes to consider why curse words are a crutch of the unimaginative,” Katie called after her.  “There’s a guinea pig with an infected war wound due in at four. Suspected hamster uprising.”

“I’ll be sure to bring along a little purple heart.”

Ava pushed a lock of hair from her face as she plopped into her seat.  The stack of files on her desk from her weekend patients threatened to topple over, so she grabbed one off the top.  And took the punch to the gut when she saw Finn/ Wellington scrawled by her own hand.

The man was insanely appealing, but that surely didn’t warrant this dragging sense of disappointment.  It wasn’t like he was the first attractive man to
ever
express an interest. And he wasn’t likely to be the last. 

Was she feeling so peevish because her uncle had inadvertently made Jordan something akin to a forbidden fruit? 

How long had it been since she’d felt this way?  All tingly and excited and nauseous.  Probably not since… Michael. 

Almost two years.  Almost two years since her mother had gone missing, her father had gone out of his head, and her engagement had gone the way of the dinosaurs.  Michael had taken his ring back in a fiery explosion of anger and fear, leaving her to choke on the cloud of their relationship’s dust.   He’d loved her, but he hadn’t loved her enough to take on her family.

And God, how could she really blame him?  The Brady Bunch, they were not.

She told herself that things were better this way.  Better that the only man who’d caught her interest since then was for all intents and purposes unavailable.  Given her situation, she needed to view the opposite sex as… meringue.  Tasty enough for a moment or two, but basically lacking substance.

Dating was fine, but dating sexy, persistent men with cute dogs and cuter dimples was completely out of the question.  To do so, she risked wanting more.

And more was something she wasn’t sure she could have.

Especially not with Jordan Wellington.

Sighing, Ava picked up her pen and began to transcribe some notations on Finn’s file.  She’d no sooner written her first letter when Katie burst through her office door.

“Cole Nash’s Bernese was hit by a car.  He’s out there bleeding all over the waiting r
oom
.”

“Get him back to surgery,” Ava said hurriedly.  “And grab the lead apron out of the closet.  I’ll need to take some X-rays.” 

She dropped the pen on top of the folder and rushed out the door. 

IT was past six by the time Ava finally locked the clinic’s front door.  She’d spent the better part of two hours repairing the extensive trauma caused when a ninety pound canine takes on a car.  Muscle and tendon damage, slivers of shattered bone. Two delicate steel rods had been inserted to give the dog the chance of independent mobility.  Due to his size, and his breed’s tendency toward hip dysplasia, she knew that he and his owner had a long, difficult road ahead. 

But at least she’d managed to save his leg.

Sighing, Ava flexed her fingers, trying to work out some of the cramping brought on by hours of delicate work.  Then sliding her keys into the pocket of her lab coat, started toward post-op.  She now had two patients recovering from surgery, so it looked like she would be spending the night.  There was a well-used folding cot in her office, and a full bath off the small kitchenette in the back. She wasn’t in the type of profession where you could count on leaving your work at the office at five o’clock and heading home.

Yet she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Ava?”   

“Hmm?”  Ava blinked twice and brought Katie into focus.  She noticed that the other woman – who’d switched into friendship mode as it was past five o’clock – was holding a bottle of shampoo, a bar of soap, and a clean, folded towel in her hands.

“You’re a mess,” Katie said mildly.  “Why don’t you go hit the shower and wake yourself up?  I’ll keep an eye on the dogs for you.”

“Oh.”  She blinked again.  “Thanks, Katie.  But you don’t have to stay.  The cocker spaniel’s already perking up, and I imagine our big guy will sleep for several hours.  He came out of the anesthesia fine, but the pain meds are going to keep him down.”

“Nevertheless.” Katie thrust the shower accouterments into Ava’s arms.  “I think I’ll stick around, just in case.  Run along, now.” 

She hustled Ava toward the back. 

AS
soon as her boss was out of the room, Katie rushed over to the desk to grab her purse.  She touched up her makeup, swept her shoulder-length hair into a casually elegant twist, and exchanged her jeans and sneakers for a short, floaty skirt and a pair of sandals.  She’d debated the issue of heels, but wasn’t entirely sure of the size of the men she’d agreed to meet.

And besides, she didn’t want to look like a stick figure next to Ava’s petite package of curves.

She was bent over, fastening the strap around her left ankle when she heard the knock on the front door.  Perfect.  Lou Ellen was right on time.  The woman might be flighty, but she could be counted on in a pinch.

Katie waved at the older woman before hurrying over to let her in.

“Thank you so much for coming.” 

“You think I’d miss this?”  Lou Ellen drifted in, smelling faintly of rosewater and the peppermints she favored.  “Girl hasn’t so much as sniffed at a man in going on two years.  Doesn’t start using what the good Lord gave her it’s likely to weld shut.  Here.”  She handed Katie a figure hugging red dress and a pair of open-toed pumps.

“Perfect.”  Katie gave the outfit an once-over, decided that she couldn’t have done better herself.  The dress was sensational.  Casual, tasteful, but brief enough to make it hot. Ava would look like a siren. 

Lou Ellen glanced around, taking in the neatly organized supplies, the tidy reception area, the scrubbed floors.  The mingling scents of animal and antiseptic in the air.  “So this is it, huh?”  She wrinkled her nose.  Katie knew that work, let alone work that involved the tending of animals and their
bodily functions
, left an unpleasant taste in the other woman’s mouth. 

It was why, despite her and Ava’s close relationship, this was the first she’d stepped foot in the clinic.

“And the… dogs I’m supposed to keep my eye on are where?”

“In the back.” Katie knew it spoke of the depth of Lou Ellen’s affection for Ava that she would be willing to lend a hand.  She had no great love for man’s best friend.  “One has been moved into the kennel and should be no trouble.  The other is still sedated. You’ll just need to monitor him for any signs of trouble.”

“And what am I supposed to do if there’s trouble?  Restrain the beast?”

Katie laughed.  “He’s drugged and he has a broken leg.  He’s not going anywhere.  But if he becomes agitated when he wakes up, or looks like he’s going into distress, just call Ava.  Chances are good that he won’t even wake up until after we get back.  We should only be out a couple of hours.”

“Well, then.”   Lou Ellen pursed her lips in an expression that hovered between distaste and resignation. 

“You’re a good sport, Lou Ellen.  With everything that Ava’s had to deal with lately I think that a couple of drinks with a pair of attractive men might be just what she needs.”

“After tonight, that might be just what I need as well.” 

Katie swung an arm around the older woman’s shoulders.  “I’m afraid I don’t have any adult beverages to offer, but if you’ll come to the back with me, I can introduce you to a big, prostrate male.”

“When you put it that way, darling, how’s a lady to refuse?”

AVA washed the day’s work, if not the day’s worries out of her hair.  The metallic odor of blood, the chemical tang of disinfectant, slid away in a sudsy froth that hinted of coconut.