Guarded (30 page)

“She’s crazy?”

“No, she’s gifted,” Dev said and cringed. “Shelley can just do things other people can’t.”

“Like tell fortunes in bowls of vodka?”

“No, Shells uh . . . talks to animals.” When Ian didn’t do more than gape at him, Dev added, “It’s why she’s going to the zoo. She’s going to get the animals to help her find Beau before she coaxes them back into their cages.”

“You really believe this shit you’re telling me?”

“It’s not shit,” Dev snapped. “Just keep your mouth shut and listen when we get there. You’ll see for yourself. It’s fucking amazing.”

“Great, I’m probably going to get arrested or maybe even eaten by some wild animal because you’re screwing Dr. Dolittle.”

A
DAM CLAPPED HIS
hands to his ears. Every fucking animal in the zoo was screeching, baying, roaring, bellowing, or shrieking. Who knew turtles made noises? Snakes slithered across the dark ground in front of him. The moonlight filtering between the trees barely lit the chilly paths.

Fall leaves showered around him as squirrels and golden lion tamarins hopped from branch to branch overhead. The forest surrounding the zoo was alive with animals awake when they should have been sleeping.

Up ahead, the tigress roared a warning. He recognized the sound. It was the same roar she had made when he’d shot her with the tranquilizer just before taking her cubs earlier in the week. But who would be shooting her now?

He ground his back teeth until his jaw popped. That fucking bitch was double-crossing him. She had sworn after he’d caught her stealing the first cub that she’d let him relocate the animals. She was going back on her word now? Did she have a death wish?

In a bolt of clarity, it made sense. She hadn’t reset the cameras in the tiger cage by mistake as she’d claimed. She’d planned to double-cross him all along. Fucking bitch was in for a rude surprise if she thought that.

Adam raced to Miah’s enclosure. With the dark all around him protecting him from the cameras he hadn’t had a chance to disable, he searched for that traitorous bitch. His blood surged as he found her, hovering just outside Miah’s pen, reloading the tranq gun.

He’d always heard of people seeing red, but he hadn’t believed it until now. Fuck. The moment he needed to tap into his calm, it vanished, leaving only the empty raging machine inside him.

Stalking closer to Reyna, he took in everything. The perimeter gate and barrier fence still secure. The bronze padlocks glinting in the moonlight. The single spotlight shining mercilessly down on the tigress sprawled in the grass at the foot of the ramp leading to her house. She roared another warning to her babies.

Adam swung his gaze left and right, searching for the three remaining tiger cubs. The steam rising from the dewy grass was the only movement out there, other than Miah herself. The cubs must still be inside the house.

Reyna, that fucking coward, wouldn’t dare approach them yet. No, from the looks of things, the bitch was going to overdose the tigress by tranquilizing her again. Disgust and fear bit Adam with razor-sharp teeth. Too fucking far. Too far away to stop her.

He ran anyway. Headlong in her direction. She raised the rifle. Took aim. The moment she would have pulled the trigger, something jumped up and knocked it from her hands.

The gun skittered across the dry leaves and into the woods, not far from his feet. Adam picked it up and ducked back into the shadow of the trees. Not to hide from the cameras. If Reyna was brazen enough to stand in the middle of the trail and shoot the tiger through the cage, she’d clearly already handled the security cameras. No, Adam wanted to know who’d interfered with her plans. And why.

“It
was
you,” a small voice accused. The boy. Beau was here? “No, you can’t do this.”

“Go home, kid.” Reyna pushed the boy aside, knocking him to the ground. “This is none of your business.” He hit the ground with a flump.

“He’ll kill you, just like he did Dr. Kessler.”

Reyna blanched. “Dr. Kessler’s dead?”

“Yes,” his voice quaked, but he didn’t back down. “And my papi told me someone was stealing the animals. I’m going to tell him it’s you.”

“You don’t have a daddy. The whole town knows you’re an orphaned freak.” Reyna’s haughty tone was edged with fear.

“That’s not true.” The boy jumped to his feet, his hands on his hips. “Tomás is my papi.”

“Well, good luck telling him anything. He’s dead too.” Reyna snatched the kid’s arm, wrenching it as she said, “You’re not telling anyone anything.”

Adam’s chest tightened. Because of that crazy bitch, he was going to have to kill a kid. His stomach churned.

“What did you do with my gun?” Reyna’s shriek brought Adam out of his musing. He hid the rifle beneath some leaves. He pulled his gun out of his waistband, then tugged his sleeve down over his right hand.

Reyna shook Beau violently. He appeared frightened but didn’t back down. He kicked her in the shins in an effort to shake off her hold. The kid had guts.

Adam stepped from the shadows. Allowing himself to be seen, he called out, “Beau, close your eyes.”

*   *   *

S
HELLEY PARKED
S
ETH’S
car right next to the locked gate. Except it wasn’t locked. It was closed, but the bronze-and-silver padlock lay on the ground. A cool wind slapped her hair in her face. She dug a hair tie out of her pocket and pulled her hair into a quick bun, then opened the gate.

Two steps inside and she nearly collided with a tortoise. While she was certain she could coax the animals back into their cages, she needed time to collect them all. Hurrying back to the gate, she pulled it tightly closed, then dialed Dev’s number. He answered on the first ring.

“Dev, I’m at the zoo—”

“I know. Jules told me.” He sounded out of breath, like he’d been running. “I’ll be there in less than five.”

A roar of pain and anguish erupted from deep inside the zoo grounds. Shelley jumped at the sound. “It’s Miah. Dev, I’ve got to go. Something’s really wrong. Beau’s in trouble, and the animals are running free. You can’t come inside. I need time to put them away.”

“Can’t come inside? Are you nuts? I’m not leaving you in there alone.”

Someone in the background made a comment that sounded remarkably like, “Mary Jane, you see?”

Shelley didn’t have time to argue. “Dev, if the animals get out of the zoo, they risk being killed. Most of these guys are reptiles. People look at reptiles and think Godzilla.” Another roar, this one weaker. “I gotta go. Guard the gate for me.” She’d barely started up the trail when she heard the first gunshot.

A woman screamed, birds took flight, and the zoo itself seemed to explode with noise. But the animals took cover. Following their lead, Shelley slipped off the trail, still headed to the tiger house.

She was almost there when a raccoon darted across her path. She skidded to avoid colliding with it. Instead of running, the bandit-faced animal sat up on its hind legs and met her gaze levelly.

In an instant, images of Beau and Reyna flooded her mind. Shelley saw the woman shake him hard by the shoulders. A long shadow cast the boy in temporary darkness as someone joined them outside the tiger house. Reyna pushed Beau at the shadowy figure, only to jerk backward. Then Beau ran into the woods, where the raccoon had been watching from the tree.

The vision ended, and the raccoon scurried deeper into the woods. A hunch had Shelley following it. The raccoon climbed up a scrub pine and chattered at her.

Beau has to be here.

“Beau,” she called in a stage whisper. “Beau, if you can hear me, it’s Dr. Morgan. Come out.”

The zoo still screamed with animals in a frenzy. Somewhere in the direction from which she’d come, a woman cried out in pain. Shelley cringed at the high-pitched scream. The killer had to be here, and she’d be fracking damned if he got to Beau now.

Using the tone her mother had used on her as a child, Shelley said, “Beau, I need you to come out right this minute.”

Rustling erupted behind her. Shelley spun around to see the boy, sitting up, leaves cascading off him.

“Doc?” His voice was small, frightened. “Is it really you?”

Shelley dropped to her knees, so he could see her better in the moonlight. “It’s me.”

The child’s left eye was still swollen. Silent tears tracked down the boy’s dirty cheeks. He clung to her, his thin body shaking.

Shelley’s heart ached and her eyes stung. She didn’t bother to fight back the tears. “What are you doing here?”

“Two men came to see me today. They said they were your friends. Mama Margaret was so mad after they left, she hit me. I ran away. I looked for my papi, but . . .” he snuffled, “I couldn’t find him. So I went to the clinic to find you. You weren’t there. I hid in the storage shed until I heard yelling inside. I went in and . . .” Beau broke down completely; he pressed his face against her chest and shook. “He killed Dr. Kessler.”

*   *   *

G
UARD THE GATE
,
right.
Dev was going to throttle one stubborn redhead the next time he saw her. Glancing at Ian, he said, “Did you get ahold of the sheriff’s office?”

“Yeah, they’re right behind us. Don’t you hear the sirens?”

Dev hadn’t, but he did now. He didn’t answer as he sped into the zoo parking lot so fast, he swore two wheels left the ground. Cutting the engine, he popped the trunk of his car. As soon as he opened the trunk to reveal his gun box, Ian appeared on his right, stopping him.

“Cuz, the sheriff’s on the way. Maybe the best thing we can do is wait out here. We don’t know how much trouble she’s in.”

Dev jerked his arm free of Ian’s grasp. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Ian’s serious face broke into a wide grin. “Fuck yeah, I’m kidding. Hurry up.”

“Ian, don’t be an asshole,” Ryan said, appearing like a ninja from the mist on Dev’s left. His bald head, covered with a dark skullcap—no doubt to hide the shine the moonlight would have cast—added to his already “don’t fuck with me” look.

Dev opened the box, retrieved his Glock and two clips and quietly lowered the trunk’s lid. The three of them slipped through the gate, then carefully latched it into place.

The zoo was a riot of noise and action. A dozen snakes slithered past them but seemed to take no notice of the men in their quest. Overhead, monkeys shook branches and screamed as they hopped in the same direction the snakes slithered. Even the birds, normally quiet at this hour, called to one another before taking flight. Again, headed in the same direction as all the other animals.

Away from the gate.

Dev would have expected them to race toward freedom. Isn’t that what wild or, hell, even tame, animals usually did when presented with the opportunity? None of these creatures were interested in that.

No, instead of freedom, they each slithered, hopped, and flew deeper into the belly of the zoo. At the fork of the three trails, Dev turned to his cousins. Ryan stared, his patent impassive expression giving nothing away.

Ian, however, gaped and hiked a thumb over his shoulder. “Shouldn’t they all be fleeing that way?”

Every animal was headed up the Tiger Monkey Trail. Like the animals headed to Noah’s Ark, they all seemed to have a single destination in mind.

Another roar went up. This one considerably weaker than the last two. Followed by a woman’s scream. The shriek of pain made the fine hairs on Dev’s arms rise.

All three men raced up the Tiger Monkey Trail, but the path was blocked by two tortoises having a slow motion war. Dev broke left and headed toward the monkey cages. Ryan broke right, heading into the woods. Ian leaped over the reptiles and disappeared up the trail.

Dev had only planned to skirt past the cages on his way to Miah and, hopefully Shells, but he tripped. Over the body of a woman. For one heart-seizing, blood-chilling moment, her slender fingers and voluptuous body appeared to be Shells.

The woman rolled over and blinked, blood pouring from a gash in her forehead. Reyna. She opened her mouth and screamed. Dev ducked to cover her mouth with his hand and something slapped the right side of his head.

The world started to spin, then faded as he collapsed face-first at the foot of the monkey cage.

*   *   *

“W
AS THAT A
gunshot?” Shelley whispered.

“Y-yes, I think so. He has a gun.” Beau’s teeth started to chatter.

Shelley pulled off her coat and wrapped it around his shoulders. She picked him up and walked carefully through the woods. Off the trail and hidden by the trees, Shelley pulled out her cell and dialed Dev. It went to voice mail.

She called Ian. More voice mail. Then Ryan. Still voice mail. Where were they? They were supposed to be guarding the gate, but if they heard the gunshot too, there’s no way they’d have stayed outside, right?

In the distance, sirens wailed. The cavalry was coming. The relief made her almost giddy. Surely Dev couldn’t be too far behind.

Then she heard it. Or rather, didn’t hear anything at all. Every animal fell eerily silent, as if they too waited for the next attack.

She squinted in the darkness. The poorly lit trails revealed nothing. Not an animal, not a person. The ground beneath her feet was barely visible in the slivers of moonlight shafting between the trees.

Up ahead, a branch snapped. The sound ricocheted off her chest in the unearthly quiet. Beau whimpered then trembled in her arms, from cold or fear. Probably both. Shelley hugged him tighter, whispering into his ear, “Shh . . . stay quiet.”

He nodded against her shoulder, his face buried in her blouse. Shelley’s arms burned with the strain of holding him. He might be small, but Beau was heavy. Her palms started to sweat despite the chill in the air.

He slid.

She needed to shift or risk dropping him. Tightening her shoulders and bending her knees, she propped his feet on her thighs. Beau clutched at her neck, his small fingers tugging painfully at the hair at the nape of her neck.