Katie's Rescue. Pamela Tracy
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had plans for Katie.
She was photogenic.
She’d basked in the role of favored daughter, mistaking it for love. Sometimes, at night, Katie would replay in her mind what her father had taught her, how to hold animals, how to tuck them against the skin so they were tight and safe.
Katie had felt safe with her father.
Janie, on the other hand, had seemed to take after their mother—at least where animals were concerned. Leslie Vincent had liked animals but wasn’t so crazy about the effort it took to care for them. She’d been the bookkeeper, the organizer, the voice of reason.
And when she died, all reason left. There’d been no gentle voice to remind Bob that family came first, that their daughters still needed a father. So Katie had had to take care of Janie.
Her sister hadn’t inherited their father’s gift with animals, except when it came to drawing them. She also hadn’t inherited their mom’s money skills, though she was an expert at getting cash out of Katie. Janie did know, however, how to organize her time so that every minute was accounted for: going out with friends, surfing the internet and watching television.
Janie had a few issues to overcome yet, some Katie took the blame for. Which is why Katie needed to get to Scorpion Ridge, take care of Aquila and get home. Otherwise, judging by the earlier intrigued look, their house would become party central. Complete with an empty fridge and clothes everywhere. And without Katie there, who would cheer Janie up when she was down, remind her to eat when she was absorbed in her latest piece of art, kiss her good-night?
“I’ll miss you,” Janie said, following Katie as she carried two suitcases out to her Rav4.
Katie blinked back the tears that threatened. She’d learned long ago that tears changed nothing and only made her look weak.
She hugged Janie goodbye. “Be good, and do your homework.”
“Homework, what I live for,” Janie teased.
For a moment, Katie considered grabbing a third suitcase and stuffing Janie in it. Yet, in the back of her mind, she knew the separation would be good for them. Six years ago, at age eighteen, she’d fought the system to get custody of Janie, and she’d won. Ever since, she’d kept waiting to mess up and it all to fall apart.
The way her life had fallen apart when Janie had gotten attacked by Tyre.
Because of her.
And now she was heading back to the world that had ripped her family apart.
Katie started the car’s ignition, put the car into Drive and with a last wave headed for Scorpion Ridge. It would be a long trip. Dallas, in late afternoon, still had traffic issues. She hoped to make it to Odessa before stopping to get gas and something to eat.
If she could eat.
Then she planned on making it all the way to El Paso before stopping to find a motel. That would only leave her a six-hour drive for Saturday.
She turned the radio up and settled back, trying to let the music distract her. When that didn’t work, she thought about the first class she’d interpreted that morning. It had been a lit class with only a handful of students. Katie liked the class, the teacher and the student. She hated leaving him at the beginning of the semester, but since the law required that two translators be available per class, not that much would change for him. He would still have his other regular translator.
Katie turned off the music and instead switched over to an audio book. It worked, just barely, at limiting the unease she felt and also kept her awake. Abilene and then El Paso slipped by, and Katie focused on the evening shadows of the nearly deserted roads.
Her book ended as she drove through a tiny New Mexico town. She stopped for snacks and a bathroom break as she crossed the border into Arizona. The last of the evening dusk turned to inky blackness. Black as a panther...ready to strike....
She selected another audio book, as none of her music CDs could counter her memories of the past. A past she’d only wanted to forget.
At midnight, she figured there was still time to turn the car around. After all, she didn’t owe her dad anything. She’d gotten rid of his animals; he’d gotten rid of his children.
He’d claimed at the time it wasn’t safe to have two little girls around so many wild animals. He’d stressed the word wild as if it meant something.
She’d take a wild animal over Aunt Betsy any day.
But it wasn’t the memory of her father that kept her driving to Arizona, it was the memory of a black cat that she’d loved. Aquila.
Scorpion Ridge came into view just as the rooster crowed. Arizona looked nothing like Texas. There were no rolling green hills. Just brown dirt, the occasional somewhat dwarfed tree and lots of cacti.
Eyes gritty from lack of sleep, Katie checked the map and decided to go ahead and see if she could find Bridget’s AZ Animal Adventure. It wouldn’t be open yet, but maybe that was for the best. She could explore the park when only the keepers were there.
Katie took a breath as she turned onto the street that led back to a destiny she’d never chosen for herself.
* * *
LUKE HAD BEEN up since four, crunching numbers and trying to figure out if he had the money to pay Katie Vincent for her time.
So far, it looked like not.
Though really, he’d known that before he’d reached for the calculator.
Plus, what would he be paying her for? How much extra was she willing to do? He needed Ruth’s advice.
At six, he left his apartment and drove to work. It was only a five-minute drive, but today it seemed to take longer as he contemplated Katie’s arrival.
The new animals he’d acquired from her had been a leap of faith and just one of the many changes Luke had brought to Bridget’s.
During his first year at the animal park, before they’d even added Bridget’s name to the adventure, his goal had been to make the struggling animal park self-supporting. Back then it had been just him, Ruth, Fred the veterinarian and a handful of volunteers. They’d needed to expand.
He wasn’t a natural with all of the animals, so he’d hired Meredith and devoted his time to the animals he knew best.
He’d started with the fifteen burros. He’d redesigned their enclosures, written their history and not only put them on display but added brief rides for kids.
Later, he added mules so the bigger folk could ride, too. And with a little advertising, the burro and mule rides brought a trickle of paying people to Scorpion Ridge.
The trickle turned to a steady flow on the weekends. It was enough to establish hope, but not enough to make ends meet or fulfill his plans to expand.
So he brought his best friend, Adam, in. Adam’s price was perfect: a place to live. At night, he answered the phone and acted as a security guard. During the week, he painted. Thanks to Adam, the zoo had artwork scattered throughout: snakes on the snake house, camels drinking from water bottles on the main concession and, best of all, a playground area that was alive with depicted animals.
On the weekends, Adam also sold caricatures of the visitors. Sometimes Luke thought Adam made more money than the burros did.
The kid-friendly atmosphere brought in more crowds, giving Luke some capital to expand—which he’d spent on Bob’s animals. The first risk Luke feared wouldn’t pay off.
Luke drove his truck into the parking lot of Bridget’s and got out to unlock a side gate.
“Hey, boss.”
Adam called Luke “boss” just to annoy him. Luke doubted Adam could get along with a real boss.
“Hey.” Luke didn’t have time to talk. Adam loved art and thought