Rare Find (24 page)

With a last glance around the empty room, she slipped out the door and down the hallway to the exit. Like hell she was sticking around. She had to pay the bill, but she could call them from home.

Outside, weak but gaining strength with every breath of fresh air, Tabitha searched the parking lot for a cab.

Only to have a truck pull up in front of her.

Ronin.

With a stern look, he asked, "Going somewhere?"

***

Ronin studied Tabitha. She looked terrible.

He didn't know if he should show her the pictures he'd printed off right now or later.

Stefan had sent him a new one. He'd passed it around the office but no one recognized the guy's face. A black and gray sketch of a man's head and shoulders showed. The man could have been sleeping except for what appeared to be a pool of blood at the top of his skull. If he wasn't dead, he wasn't in good shape either. His pudgy cheeks sagged and his eyes were closed, adding to the corpselike look.

According to the email, this was one of Trinity's guards. He thought about the next part of the email. Then he'd been thinking about that part a lot. Stefan had said, 'Tabitha saw the image through the tiger's eyes and I could see this variation through my connection to her.'

How was that possible?

Tabitha slumped in the corner, her eyes closed. He wanted to bring her up to date on all he'd been doing to try to find the tiger, but would telling her he still had no solid leads depress her more?

He'd tracked the phone number the homeless man had left behind down to someone who dealt in the black market, and he was hunting him now. There'd been no answer at the end of the phone, and given that this guy dealt in what he dealt in, maybe that was normal. He wouldn't have recognized Ronin's number.

Ronin had been on his way to the office when he decided to swing by the hospital. He'd just had the feeling that he should go...

Damn good thing he did.

Because she looked like walking death. He cast another glance at her slumped in the corner of the truck and wondered if he should just turn around and take her back to the hospital.

***

Stefan stood in his studio staring at his blank canvas.

He'd tried a lot of odd and original stuff lately. That was the one thing about psychic abilities – there really was no level of comfort, of knowing the capability of your skills because they were forever changing. Forever growing. He'd done things in this last month that he'd never considered possible – stuff he'd never considered doing before. His abilities never put a judgement on such things. He could only try something when the idea struck him and often, new things didn't work the first time. If he gave it a rest and tried again a few days or weeks later, sometimes it did work. It was as if his first attempt was more a notice to his abilities, telling them that this was something he wanted to be able to do. Informing his skills and abilities that the next time he tried this he wanted it to work. So the ability had to evolve the new maneuvre. And yes, Stefan had no illusions of how people would react if he tried to talk to them about this.

Thankfully his group of like-minded friends was growing. As were the crazy situations.

Look at this Tabitha nightmare. A tiger had actually psychically grabbed her with enough desperation that Tabitha had been helpless to resist. In fact, that had been the first time Stefan had any understanding of the power of an animal's will. His friend Sam, who lived just out of town, could help see the injuries sustained by an animal by connecting to the animal and seeing the damage. Tabitha connected to an animal on their energy level and worked her magic from there. That was the same method that Alex, another friend, used with plants. He himself did something similar with his garden but with a few other tricks thrown in.

Still, this was the first time he had seen an animal as the instigator in a psychic trauma. The connection was less Tabitha's energy work and more about her very intimate connection to Tango. He'd sensed yet another energy in her house, too. Although it appeared to belong and also appeared to be animal in nature, he couldn't help but wonder if that new energy wasn't connected to all this as well.

Or was it simply the new tiger's energy brought back to the house with Tabitha? Why and how? He had no idea.

He stared at his canvas and wondered what that idiom 'we're all connected' really meant. He'd been trying to paint from the images Tabitha sent, but could he connect to Tabitha and the tiger so he could see the man through the tiger's eyes and capture his face? If he could, this would be much more accurate.

How differently did a tiger see from a human? He knew there were differences but was not sure how that would all translate to his brain. To his own psychically artistic brain.

He picked up a paintbrush, surprised to realize he really wanted to know the answer to that question.

***

"Did you see it?"

Timothy had barely entered the fancy office when the man sitting behind an ornate desk jumped on him verbally. Add that hard stare and cold tone, and Timothy wished his damn tuition wasn't so hard to come by. It was obvious, this guy would slice his throat if he didn't like his answers. It was barely morning by the world's standards and Timothy hadn't gone to bed yet. This guy looked as he'd been up for hours already.

Then again, he ran his business like a captain ran his ship. Tight. Timothy had been approached by a middleman. Someone who'd found out that he'd checked the tiger over. Now he was reporting to the buyer. At least he hoped that's who was glaring at him. And if he'd realized who that boss was prior to this, he'd have walked away. As it was, he wanted to get the hell out now.

But as always – he needed the money.

"Yeah. I did." Timothy nodded. "The tiger didn't look bad at all. I don't know where the rumors came from, but the female was lying in a corner of the cage sleeping soundly when we arrived."

Silence. Timothy stood straight, knowing that to shift or show any uncertainty would possibly cause him more problems than this was worth.

"So there was nothing wrong with her?" The man leaned over the desk and gave him another hard look. As if lying to him would mean the end of Timothy.

Timothy had no wish to lie, but he didn't have much to add either.

"I didn't say that." Timothy shrugged. "I aint no vet, just a pre-medical student, but she looked to be okay. There's an injury on her hip that could use a bit of attention, and a shot of antibiotics would probably help there. She had the remains of a good-sized bone in there covered in chew marks. So she's eating and I presume drinking after all this time." He held his hands out, palms up. "Honestly, she looked fine to me considering..."

He hesitated.

The man raised that snake gaze and held him captive. In a soft dangerous voice, he asked, "What is it?"

Timothy shrugged. "The blood tests said the tiger was pregnant."

The other man's gaze widened in surprise then settled with a satisfied look. "Is she now? That's very good to know." The man gazed out the window at the tiny rays of morning light creeping in. He absently said without turning around, "Could you identify the species?"

"Only that it was unlike anything I'd seen before. She was gray." The younger man didn't care and didn't want anything more to do with this. The tiger was alive and well and as far as he could tell, she didn't even appear to be under any stress. He figured he should tell this guy everything. He might get a bonus. "They are probably giving her something to keep her calm."

"Do you think so?" The boss's gaze sharpened and he nodded slowly. "Smart. She won't hurt herself by fighting this way."

"So we're good?" Timothy asked, backing toward the door. He just wanted to get the hell out of here.

The boss nodded. "For the moment. When we do the snatch, we'll need you to check her over." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it over. "I'll give you a call tonight or tomorrow. This needs to happen fast."

Timothy accepted the envelope. "No problem. I'm in class all week." Careful to keep the casual look on his face, he turned and walked out, choosing the stairs over the elevator.

He'd thought the warehouse where the tiger was kept was rundown and cold. Spoke of back room deals and shady clients. Bookie style. This guy and his rich-ass office probably owned this whole building.

Well, what did he care? He carefully tucked the envelope beside the first one in his jacket pocket. Playing both sides might get him killed, but everyone had to make a living.

Some of them did a better job at it than others.

Like him.

Monday noon

B
y the time Ronin drove up to Tabitha's house, she was almost wishing she'd stayed in the hospital. Her energy had long since flagged. She watched the driveway appear and hoped Ronin knew to slow down. She wasn't antisocial, but she didn't appreciate uninvited visitors in her personal space and so hadn't made any improvements to the private driveway. It badly needed gravel. She ran a tight ship at the reserve and the animals never suffered, but to compensate, she barely kept back enough to live on. She took home the same salary as the other employees.

"Looks like you have company."

She straightened. "Oh hell," she murmured. "It's my father." That's the last thing she needed.

She ignored Ronin's sharp look as he parked beside her father's BMW. "Is that a problem?"

"Not always."

He hopped out and walked around to open her door. "He has keys?"

"Yes." She didn't add anything more. She didn't have the energy to spare. Ronin opened the front door.
Where was Tripod?

She called out, "Dad?"

"In the back."

She walked through to the living room, wanting nothing more than to head to bed. Even the hospital bed sounded good right now.

Her father was sitting with Tango at his feet.

She felt Ronin come to a halt beside her. Right, the damn cat thing. "Dad, Ronin. Ronin, this is Dennis, my dad."

The two men nodded at each other. She watched her father's cool eyes assess Ronin. "Ronin is a detective." Perversely, she watched her father's eyebrows shoot up.

"You need a detective?"

She sighed. "Why are you here, Dad?"

"You collapsed again," he snapped, as if that were reason enough. And maybe that would be okay if they had a normal father-daughter relationship. But theirs was anything but normal.

"Wow, your intel is as sharp as ever."

"No need to be snippy." He frowned. "You know I only want what's best for you, right?"

"Sure." She walked over and bent down at Tango's side. He opened one eye and his big engine kicked in. She glanced around. "Where's Tripod?"

"I let him out back."

On cue, Tripod started barking like mad from Tango's room.

"Tripod!"

He arrived just as she finished speaking. He howled and jumped for joy.

Knowing she shouldn't encourage his bad behavior but unable to resist, she patted her shoulders and opened her arms wide.

He planted his front paws on her shoulders and proceeded to clean her face. She laughed until tears rolled.

"I do wish you wouldn't encourage him," her father said in exasperation.

Maybe that's why she'd done it. So it would piss him off. The older she got, the less grownup she appeared to be. With a last hug, she pushed Tripod down. As soon as she did, Tango jumped up and took Tripod's place.

Only Tango draped his forearms around the back of her neck and rubbed his head against her.

Tears welled up again. These last few days had been difficult. So close to the tiger and unable to hug her physically. Tango understood. She could feel the waves of empathy – sorrow even – roll off him. She hugged him hard and burrowed into his thick fur. Emotion hit her hard in waves of unending sadness. The old ailing female, her unborn cub, her grandfather and...Tobias, her grandfather's tiger that died six months ago.

She'd loved that old tiger. At the memory of her old friend, the tears started to pour. She tried to stifle the sound but knew her shoulders were shaking. No amount of control could still the shakiness. She just didn't have anything more inside.

A strong hand wrapped around her waist. Ronin – and he’d come this close to a cat. But she could see her father in front of her...and she didn't miss the look of disgust on his face.

She'd battled that look all her life. With her grandfather alive to run interference, she'd managed to ignore it as much as possible. These days, everything seemed to bug her.

Then she realized there was an unnatural stillness in the arms wrapped around her. Bone and pliant muscles had turned stiff, unyielding... A silent quest for dominance had suddenly reared its head.