“Jai Heller, right?” Hollingsworth asked. Jai just folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve heard you’re quite the stockman. We’re looking to develop our own flocks to feed our animals, perhaps create feeding pens where the animals could hunt their own food, replicating their wild behaviour. Perhaps you’d—”
“No.”
“But you haven’t heard my proposal.”
“Don’t need to. I get more work than I can keep up with by hiring myself out to the farms.”
“Yes, I’d heard your people are quite clannish.”
“My people?” His eyebrow shot up. “What people is that?”
“The descendants of German and Scottish immigrants, of course,” Hollingsworth said with a twist of a smile. “What did you think I meant?” When Jai didn’t respond, his eyes swivelled to me. “So you’ve formed a relationship with Mr Heller? Congratulations are in order!”
“Hollingsworth…” Stuart said, his expression becoming increasingly unhappy.
“As Jai said, that’s none of your business,” I snapped, but before anything more could be said, Carla walked in with Izzy, both of them stopping in the doorway, sensing the mood in the room. “Come through, Carla, Izzy,” I said, shifting gears to put my warm client voice on.
“And what happened to your pretty receptionist?” Hollingsworth asked as I walked towards the exam room.
“Janey?” Stuart replied. “We haven’t heard from her. I thought she’d taken a job somewhere else. Which is odd, as she has a lot of personal stuff here still.”
“Well, you know how flighty women can be. Perhaps she’s just lying low for a while.”
Lying low? That was a weird turn of phrase. When I turned around, I saw Jai still stood there, arms crossed over his chest, watching Hollingsworth like a hawk.
“So I hear you’re starting your own clinic!” Carla said brightly.
“Give your excuses,” Jai hissed when I passed by, going to the reception desk to process Carla’s payment. She was rabbiting on about how many appointments she’d be able to book once I went freelance and asking if I’d have the equivalent of a frequent flyer program.
“Um…we’re still working things out,” I told her, feeling Jai’s eyes burning on my skin.
“We… Is that you and Jai Heller?” She gave me a conspiratorial wink. “I always wondered about you two. Your nan seemed to think there might be a match there for a while.”
“She did?”
“She used to talk about you a lot when she was seeing Izzy as a pup. It was so sad when she passed.”
“Yeah, well, I hope Izzy stays stable for a while longer.”
She waved to me as she walked out, Izzy’s thick plume of a tail wagging furiously. I saw Mr Sawyer had arrived with his elderly galah, Floss, nodding to me through the window. Floss liked to pluck out her feathers if I didn’t have a word with her.
“Palm him off, say you’ll see him at the house,” Jai hissed, standing beside me now.
“What? Why?”
“Because Hollingsworth smelled like Janey when he was in here.”
Chapter 20
Jai got his wish after that. I did a quick adjustment on Floss out in the carpark, something that disconcerted Mr Sawyer, but when I told him there was no charge, he was happy enough. After that, we piled the dogs into the car and went to my place.
“Janey?”
I called out her name as soon as I opened the door, but I knew she wasn’t here. The house had that kind of curious stillness about it that empty houses take on. I rushed up stairs to her bedroom and saw it was the same mess it always was. Her suitcase was still in her cupboard, and so were her clothes. There was a half-read book sitting on her bed and a cup of tea, now with a thick skin of milk on top of it.
“Only her here,” Jai said, taking a deep breath.
“I need to get onto her aunty. Maybe she—”
A sharp bark from downstairs had both of our heads jerking up.
“Buster’s found something,” Jai said.
It became clear where Janey had gone when we got to the back door. It had been left open a crack, something the dogs had managed to shove their muzzles between and wedge open. Max ran around on the grass, nose to the ground, sniffing wildly, but Buster came running up with a familiar fluffy slipper in tow.
“Give it here,” I said, holding out a hand for him to drop it into, and he did with some reluctance. He liked the soft feel of the fabric between his teeth and wanted to shred it, but when I reached down and patted him, telling what a good boy he was, an explosion went off inside him.
His whole body wagged as he felt a huge rush of love, those big brown eyes searching mine, looking for more, more, more validation. I dropped down to my knees, scrubbing my fingers through his chest fur as Max and Jai walked on.
They found tracks, I could see that each time they stopped to consult a patch of ground before moving onto the next. I stayed there for a moment, not wanting to get to my feet and find out why. I just watched them move farther and farther away.
Which was perhaps why they got the drop on us. The breeze was blowing against my face, whisking their scent away, and they’d obviously been perched on my roof for some time, waiting for exactly this. The only warning I got was Buster stiffening when he heard the faint shift of footsteps, prompting me to look around. I saw nothing initially, searching the house for signs of life, but it wasn’t until I looked up that I saw them. A brief glint of sunlight on the muzzle of guns, the reflective film on their sunglasses, and a scream was halfway out my throat when the dart slammed into me.
“Fuck!” I yelped, fingers going to the big plastic syringe hanging out of my shoulder, but I could feel the drug taking effect as I did so. My fingers felt too big, like meaty sausages that struggled to grip the tube, dragging a gargled scream from me when they did.
“Shan!”
Jai’s voice sounded way too far away, all echoey and reverberating around in my skull, but it died away all too soon as I heard another shot ring out. I couldn’t do anything about it, as the world went sideways. I landed on the ground like a sack of potatoes, helpless to move away when Buster began madly snuffling at my face. Jai’s growls came out long, distorted, and drawn out sounding, before they and everything else fell away to nothing.
Chapter 21
“Ms Bruce? Ms Bruce? Are you all right?”
I woke up in a world of pain, my head feeling like someone was rhythmically stabbing an ice pick into it. My body curled up, like somehow I could shelter my brain from the agony raging inside it, but I couldn’t stop something coming from inside it. I whimpered, unable to make intelligible words, as I felt like vomit would surge up the moment I did.
“What dose did you use! She’s much smaller than Heller and is more humanoid. If I lose her to some kind of overdose…”
“I’ll administer another round of the anaesthetic reversal drug.”
“Need I remind you of how important she is to this project? We would never have based the institute out here without her and those wolves of hers. The animage is crucial to our successes and continued survival.”