Chapter 4
four
The ride to Springvale was uneventful. And quiet. I had managed to suck all the air out of the cabin with five little words. Even Sloane had gone silent.
“We’re here,” Liam announced ten minutes later as he rolled to a stop in front of a brick building with an immaculate lawn. “Pampered Pooches.”
“The lights are off.” Sloane leaned forward, scanning the area. “There are cars in the lot, though.”
“Call Rochele,” Rían snapped out the order. “Tell her to drive a loop around the block while we check in.”
Not about to get left behind, I climbed out to give him room to unfold like an accordion until he towered over me. “Don’t tell me to stay put,” I warned him. “I’m going with you.”
“Liam underestimates you.” He quirked his lips, his scar thinning. “I don’t have that problem.”
Thanks to Rían’s long strides, he beat me to the front door. That was what I told myself anyway. I was on his heels when he swung it open and a gust of copper-rich air hit me in the face.
Oh no.
No, no, no.
“Move.” Liam shoved me aside, barging into position to flank his cousin. “Bodies?”
“None that I can see.” Caution weighed each of Rían’s steps as he called out, “Hello?”
A tug on my sleeve drew my attention to Sloane, who jerked her chin toward the sidewalk leading to the rear entrance.
Nodding, I backed away as the Walshes pressed on, neither of them checking behind them.
I was certain that Liam had told Sloane to escort me back to the SUV in the event of an emergency, which explained why he didn’t balk when she snagged me, but I was equally sure Rían anticipated our mutiny.
From the moment I met the vampire bleeding out in the potting shed at GSG, something about him had encouraged my rebellious tendencies. Today was no exception.
I had worked here for months, learning the ropes from the owner before branching out on my own.
During that time, Tara had taught me invaluable tips and tricks for working with animals, dealing with unhappy customers, and maintaining the oftentimes fussy equipment.
That she hadn’t greeted us at the door with a bright smile and a warm hug would have set my stomach roiling even without the scent of stale blood in the air.
Despite sneaking in being her idea, Sloane wasn’t taking chances with my safety.
Gone was my chatty friend, and in her place prowled the sentinel who had impressed Dad enough to get assigned to my detail.
She kept me on her periphery as we padded toward the employee entrance.
I had a bad feeling about what we would find inside, but I didn’t hesitate to follow her past the kennel runs.
The silence was deafening when there should have been happy barks and general chaos in the yard.
From what I could tell, the dogs were unharmed, but they shivered and shook in the enclosures.
Sloane took point at the door, letting herself in and clearing the room before waving me on.
Water dripped from a tub faucet, its sprayer limp on the drain. A pair of clippers buzzed softly across the nearest table, hitting the end and clattering onto the floor. The loud noise brought Liam rushing in. Rían, a familiar phone with a pink case in his hand, trailed him.
“I found this on the front counter.” He offered the cell to me while Liam went to turn off the clippers. “Tara answered a call from Mindy fifty-five minutes ago, right before we left Brentwood.”
“So, whatever this is happened after that.” I punched in her code and unlocked her phone. “I always told her it was reckless to give people her password.” I hesitated with my thumb on the message app button. “Past tense because I’m a former employee, not because…”
“We didn’t find any bodies.” Rían rested his wide palm between my shoulder blades. “There’s not much blood either. I’m not sure what happened, or why, but we’re going to figure it out.”
The timing bothered me. It was too precise.
Whoever was responsible had gotten in, gotten out, and gotten gone within an hour of our estimated arrival.
Sartori eyes would be on me, but that didn’t mean they would piece together our plan and destination when the details had been up in the air until the last minute.
“Hold on.” A faint memory clicked in place.
“Fayne told me Dad forged alliances with the other packs, clans, and prides with territory around Brentwood. That he forbade them from granting you permission to cross their lands while you were moving in.” I watched his face, hoping to read the truth there.
“Does this have anything to do with that?”
Had Tara, a human, gotten tangled up with pack politics when she agreed to shelter my animals?
Sartori sentinels had shadowed me while I worked here.
Were they to blame? Had I caused this? Again, I had to question how they had known when to strike.
Unless there was a Walsh mole feeding Dad information?
“I’ve negotiated a temporary truce with the others,” Liam informed me.
“They won’t go against Sartori, he’s too vindictive, but they’re willing to look the other way if we travel through their territory as long as we don’t stop without clearing our agenda with them first and stick to the main roads. ”
“They’re waiting to see who comes out on top.” Sloane exhaled slowly. “I’m glad I’m not an alpha.”
“Yeah.” Liam cast his cousin an inscrutable look. “Me too.”
“And here I thought we would never agree on anything.” Sloane went to turn off the dripping sink. “Ana, I’m going to make the rounds and check on the animals.”
“Thank you.” I gripped Tara’s phone harder. “I’ll see if I can access the security feeds.”
“You can do that?” Liam perked at the news. “This might be over quicker than I thought.”
“The connection out here is slow,” I warned him, logging into the app. “The video quality isn’t great either.”
“We’ll take all the help we can get.”
“Contact Rochele and tell her to keep driving and wait for instructions,” Rían ordered him. “Then go help Sloane.”
With a sharp nod, Liam withdrew his phone, dialing as he stalked after Sloane.
“It’s your call—” Rían frowned at his hand like he had forgotten he was still touching me, then grimaced like it hurt to let go, “—but I would suggest we have Rochele and Mindy escort your animals back to Brentwood until the situation here is resolved. Things are chaotic enough without adding more animals and owners into the mix. GSG is secure. Your clients will be safer there.”
“I agree.” I tipped my head from side to side, working out a kink in my neck. “We need to focus on caring for the pets at this location and getting all of them home to their people.”
“I’ll let Rochele know.” He hesitated, just for a second, like he might offer to massage out my soreness, before tapping the side of Tara’s device. “There’s no service block out here, if you need to use your phone.”
“Yeah.” Laughing softly, I began skimming her active conversations. “I picked up on that.”
“You could call Sartori.”
The suggestion hung between us, distracting me from the task at hand. I couldn’t tell if he wanted me to contact Dad or if he thought I required permission to reach out. But whatever his reasons, I had decided I wouldn’t be the one who bent this time. “I’m good.”
“There’s no one else who might want to hear from you?”
Sloane is the only friend I’ve got stuck to the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t about to confess.
The last thing I wanted from him was pity.
Let him think I was being stubborn. Better stubborn than pathetic.
And it was pathetic to see how wrong I had been.
Tara had been a friend to me—or tried her best to be—but I hadn’t let her in.
I hadn’t known how. I could only hope it wasn’t too late to set things right.
“Tara had no incoming calls past the one you mentioned, and her text chains are with friends and family. Nothing here suggests she was afraid or concerned about today.” A bitter taste flooded my mouth. “Mostly she was excited to see me, since I haven’t been to visit in six months or so.”
A vibration alerted me that the security app had finished loading, finally, so I switched screens.
“There are several videos from today,” Rían murmured over my shoulder, startling me since I hadn’t noticed him move. A guy that tall shouldn’t be stealthy. “Are the cameras motion activated?”
“The exterior ones, yes.” I queued the clips up in order. “The interior ones run 24/7.”
The better to protect Tara and her employees from claims of misconduct and their clients from potential abuse. If I hadn’t been creeped out by the knowledge Dad would have hacked my feeds and set his people to monitor me on screen around the clock, I would have followed her example.
“Are you familiar with her current staff?”
“She has two full-timers who have been with her from the start and one part-time new hire.”
“Do you remember the new hire’s name?”
“Kato Okumura.” I rewound the footage to the start of the day. “Ah.” I pointed out a lanky twenty-year-old with his long, dark hair twisted into a bun at his nape. “That’s him.” I angled the screen to lessen the glare. “The original two are Lon Maddow and Bryce Saab.”
As the others arrived, I identified them.
The three employees held a brief meeting then dispersed to begin their work feeding animals and cleaning enclosures.
Tara arrived last, as usual, a skill she had perfected by always running errands before clocking in.
She shoved in the door, called out a greeting, then set bags full of detergent, fabric softener, and other cleaning supplies on an empty table.
Their morning went the way mornings did at grooming salons. Nail trims, haircuts, baths. They had done the heavy lifting and moved on to walking the boarded animals on the small path circling the property in a wide loop people often mistook for a public dog park, when we hit pay dirt.