“She lies. I saw her.” He insisted.
Bloody fucking traitor.
Grabbing the front of my tee the bastard drew me towards him and pushed his face into mine. “Call her, call her or you die in her place.”
I smiled widely. “Not calling her and I will gladly die in her place.”
He was about to say more when a pissed off female voice interrupted us.
“Why isn’t that filthy animal down yet? We need to get this done and get out of here before the patrol comes back around again. And who the hell is this?”
I turned my head and looked at the woman standing in the open gate glaring at us. She was dressed in black from head to toe, but not to camouflage, no it was to accentuate her curves…of which she had a lot. Her boots were fancy little stiletto boots more suited to a night on the town than a poaching expedition.
“This is Doctor Sunny Wolmarans, and she’s going to call the cat to come to her or she dies.” The bastard had a hint of laughter in his voice.
“Not happening, asshole.” I ground out through clenched teeth.
The woman gave an irritated grunt, stalked over to us and slammed her fist into my face. I rocked with the force of the hit but didn’t give her the satisfaction of crying out, even though my split lip hurt like hell. I just locked my knees and spine and waited. The nasty bitch crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me for a few seconds before she smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile at all.
“Give me your knife.” Holding a hand out to Mitch, he hesitated for a second before pulling it from the sheath at his side and handing it to her.
Waving the knife in a figure eight pattern she smiled then stabbed the knife towards me. I don’t know if she was trying to frighten me or kill me but neither happened.
Because that’s when Dayana attacked.
Blood curdling screams erupted from the woman’s throat as my baby roared with fury and raked her back with her claws then clamped her jaws around her shoulder.
Moses gave one high pitched scream and ran. Fucking coward.
I jumped to get between the bastard with the gun and my cat. She was crouched over the still screaming woman’s back, growling viciously.
Screaming the words I knew would send her off into the darkest part of her run I hoped and prayed she would listen.
“HIDE BABY! HIDE, HIDE, HIDE!”
She released instantly and sped off into the dark, the waving long grass the only indication of where she had disappeared. I thanked the gods I had gone overboard when planting the vegetation in her run. They would never find her now.
“You bitch! You fucking crazy bitch!” The man no longer had the balaclava pulled down over his face and I was stunned when I recognised Bart Pistorius, the owner of RK. Or did he steal the cat to finagle his way into the sanctuary? Was he responsible for the murder of RK’s owners?
The next minute pain slammed into my head and everything went dark.
I came to with pain thumping in my head only to realise I wasn’t in Dayana’s run anymore. I was lying on a cold cement floor and I could smell exhaust fumes. Slowly opening my eyes I cringed at the bright light and moaned when the movement caused the pain in my head to spike.
I was sprawled on my side next to a dark SUV and fluorescent lights turned the garage bright as day. At least that’s how it felt to my aching head and eyes. My abductors hadn’t even bothered to tie me up. I tried to sit up but gave it up as a bad idea when the pain in my head had me groaning and slamming my eyelids shut over my aching eyes. Why were my eyes aching as well?
Lying there steeling myself to once again open my eyes I heard a gentle scuffing sound. Shoes. Someone was in the garage with me. I forced my eyes open, ignoring the pain and looked around without moving my head. A pair of dusty boots appeared next to my head.
“I’m so sorry, Sunny. I didn’t want this for you.” Mitch said very quietly as he crouched down next to me.
Really! What an ass!
“You…you helped them to murder Rex. You’re a criminal and a killer.” My voice came out rough and tight.
“I had no choice, I still have no choice. By now Loek knows it was me and he would have found Moses’s body outside the gate. These people are dangerous, Sunny. You have to do what they ask, no matter what. If you don’t they will go after your family, after the sanctuary. Everyone you love is in danger if you don’t do what they ask.” He mumbled as he pretended to look over the wound at the back of my head.
“And how did that work out for you, Mitch? How safe are your loved ones right now?” I bit out through tight lips.
“For now they are safe. Just do as she says and you will stay alive. Trust me, Sunny.”
What the hell was he saying? Was he with them or wasn’t he?
He didn’t say another word, just grabbed my arm and jerked me upright. I moaned as my head wobbled on my neck and pain pounded in my skull.
“He needs you to fix her. Dayana did a lot of damage and if you don’t help her she will die.” He muttered as he dragged me through the garage and into the building.
I frowned as I took in what looked like a clinic, and by the posters on the walls it was an veterinary clinic. What the hell was going on here?
My questions went unasked as I was dragged into an examination room where the woman was lying on a steel examination table. She was topless on her belly and Bart, or whatever the hell his name was, had towels packed over the deep slashes on her back and the bite on her shoulder. When I came stumbling in he whirled around, pointed a finger at me and his voice was harsh and vicious as all hell when he spoke.
“You will fix her and keep her alive because I need her for the next stage of our plan. Get to work, and no fucking funny business. I might not be a doctor but I’ll know when you’re screwing with her.”
Shaking my head I could only stare at him. “I’m a vet, I fix animals not people.”
“Tonight you are both. Get to work.” He bit out as he moved to the other side of the table from where he could keep an eye on me.
“Can someone get me a headache tablet or something so I can at least focus on the problem?” I was snarky as shit because right now it was all I had.
“Go, check the desk drawers in the reception.” He ordered Mitch. “Bitches always seem to have something for headaches at the office.”
Carefully lifting the towels I grimaced as I looked at her back. Dayana’s claws had cut deep in two places and I would have to put stitches inside the wounds to close them. The other slashes weren’t as deep and required only a couple of stitches.
“Once I start working on her she’s going to wake up. I need something to keep her sedated.” I glanced up and he gave a sly smirk.
“Taken care of already. She’s not going to wake up for a while. I gave her a shot. Stop wasting time and get to work.”
So I got to work. Mitch brought me two tablets and a bottle of water and I gulped them down before washing my hands and pulling on the surgical gloves from a box next to the basin.
I worked steadily and when I was finally done I was quite pleased with my handiwork. I lay gauze over the stitches and taped them closed. She would have scars but at least she was alive and the bite to her shoulder wasn’t that deep at all. It looked like Dayana had clamped her jaws down and just held her in place. She had puncture wounds that I had closed with a few stitches and then taped closed.
I was in pain and swaying by the time I finished. I badly needed to sit down and take care of the wound on the back of my head. I had caught a glimpse of myself in the shiny stainless steel doors of a cabinet and it had taken everything in me not to gasp in shock.
Whatever he had hit me with had split the skin on the side of my head. My hair was caked with blood and stuck to the wound while more blood had dried on my back, neck and upper arm. My eyes looked dark and sunken with pain and the split in my bottom lip had bled down my chin and onto my chest. I looked a fright.
Pulling the gloves off and dumping them in the conta
iner in the corner I reached for another pair and he was immediately next to me.
“What are you doing?”
“I need to take care of the wound on my head, if I don’t it will definitely get infected and then I’ll die. Apparently you need me to take care of her, so, for me to take care of her I have to take care of me.” I explained as if to a child.
He grabbed my hair and I winced in pain. “Get it done.”
His lips were drawn back in a snarl and his eyes glittered with menace as he stepped away.
Using the shiny cupboard door as a mirror I cleaned my wound then inspected the cut. It was going to need a stitch or two to keep it closed. I ignored him as I prepared a needle then clenching my teeth I stuck the damned thing through my skin and closed the wound with two stitches, it would have to do, my hands were too shaky to continue. My eyes watered but I refused to show pain. Dusting the wound with an antibiotic powder I had found in the cupboard I cut a small piece of gauze put it over the cut and taped it closed. Next was my lip, but all I did was clean it and dust the antibiotic powder over the cut.
And then it was done. It was force of habit that had me cleaning up and putting the instruments I had used in the autoclave set up in the far corner of the room.
Through it all he leant against the table and watched me with narrowed eyes, but the minute I was done he straightened.
“Mitch!” He kept his eyes on me as he called out.
I had never even realised the man was no longer in the room but at his name being called he came running.
“Yes, Boss?”
“Put her in one of the cages. You can give her a blanket but make sure there’s nothing else in there.”
He nodded, grabbed my arm and walked me out of the room and down a long dark passage. Turning into a room he flicked on the lights and I couldn’t help it, I gasped.
There was a row of four big cages against one wall, all empty. They were very similar to the reinforced cages we had for our cats when they were sick or needed surgery.
Mitch didn’t say a word, just gestured to the furthest cage and I crawled in and sat down on the mat. Taking a fleece blanket from the top of the shelf he threw it in and locked the door.
“Can I have some water, please?” I asked as he started to leave. Giving a short nod he disappeared then came back with two bottles of water that he slid in through the little door at the side of the cage that would normally be used to slide food or water bowls in for the animals.
And then I was alone.
In the dark.
Locked in a cage.
Like an animal.
I knew I would never look at the cages in my surgery the same way again, ever.
Making myself comfortable in the corner of the cage I wrapped the blanket around me and that’s when the reality of my situation hit me.
The events of the night played like a horror movie in my head. Ending with Dayana flying out of the dark like an avenging black angel.
Somehow, while running through my night in my head I fell asleep.
My sleep was troubled and I didn’t sleep deep.
A couple of hours later something rattling the cage woke me.
The bitch stood swaying in front of the cage, drew back her foot and kicked it. And now I knew where the rattling sound came from that woke me. She stood glaring at me through the mesh, looking feverish and crazed. She was going to need strong antibiotics to counteract the infection she would get from Dayana’s claws and teeth. And by the look of her, the sooner the better.
“Get the bitch out of there.” She snarled at whoever stood in the doorway, I couldn’t see who it was.
I braced for whatever was going to happen next.
I didn’t have a long wait to find out. And like her it was crazy.
But to stay alive I would do anything while I watched for a way to get away from these crazy people.
I needed to get away but I had to be careful and wait for the perfect time.
While I waited I took care of the bitch’s wounds and my own. But always I had my escape plan in the back of my head and silently waited for the opportunity I knew had to come.
It had to.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Loek
The alarm blaring from his phone jolted him out of a shallow troubled sleep. Sitting up he reached for his phone and ice gathered in his gut when he saw the origin of the alarm.
Fuck. Sunny’s front door.
Jumping out of bed and struggling into his pants with his phone clamped between his head and shoulder he called the control room. No one answered. Mitch was on duty. He trusted the man, why wasn’t he answering? The bad feeling in his gut escalated to full out alarm.
“What’s going on?” Cherise mumbled sleepily.
“Sunny’s front door alarm is going off and Mitch isn’t answering his phone. I have to check it out.”
He should have expected his woman’s reaction. She was up and grabbing jeans, jerking them on over her sleep shorts and pulling a tee on over the camisole she wore to bed.
“I’m coming with you.” Her voice was a mumbled as she sat bent over tying the laces of her tekkies.
“Okay, bokkie (little deer), but you stay behind me, understood?”
She nodded vigorously and watched with wide eyes as he slipped his gun into the holster on his side then took the rifle from the top of the cupboard. Both were already loaded in preparedness.
“Why are you taking the rifle? You only use that if there’s problems with a cat.” His girl whispered with wide worried eyes.
As he opened his mouth to answer bloodcurdling screams and the roaring of a big cat split the night.
“Fucking hell!” Loek pulled the gun from its holster and pressed it into his girl’s hand. Early on in their relationship he had made sure she knew how to handle a firearm.
They ran and as they ran Loek pressed the panic button on his phone to alert his team. They would all be up and responding to the call. He knew those on patrol would have heard the screams and Dayana’s furious roars.
Ignoring Sunny’s wide open door he made straight for Dayana’s run. They all knew her voice and it had definitely been her roaring her rage into the night. He hoped like fuck the cat hadn’t lost her mind and attacked Sunny. He did not want to kill her, but he would if it was necessary.
Around them all the cats were up and agitated and roars, growls and chirps filled the night.
Reaching Dayana’s run he slowed when he saw the wide open gates. What the fuck?
The thought had scarcely made its way through his head when Lebo pulled up in the sanctuary’s jeep with Alan, Thabang and Johnny with him. No Mitch. He tried the control room one more time, still no answer.
“Johnny, I need you to check the control room. I can’t reach Mitch. The rest of you stay outside the run but keep your eyes open. We don’t know if she got out or not. Sunny’s place is standing wide open, so keep an eye out for her as well.” He issued orders while his eyes never stopped scanning the run.
“We’re going to need more light in there. When you get to the control room turn all the fucking lights on.” He gave Johnny his last order as he slowly approached the open gates.
“Wait, wait, baby.” Cherise grabbed onto the back of his jeans and pulled. “She knows me, I’ll go in. If you go in and she smells the guns she’s going to attack. I won’t go far, just through the gate to see if I can spot Sunny.”
Loek shook his head violently.
“No! Baby, we don’t know if her mind has finally snapped and she did the unthinkable. I can’t let you go in there. David would have a fucking bowel collapse.” He tried to dissuade his woman but he knew he wasn’t going to win. She was a stubborn piece of work.
“Dayana would never hurt Sunny. Never, never, ever. Whatever this is, it’s not our kitty.” Cherise patted his back, slipped his gun back into the holster at his side, then she shot past him and into the run.
And his bloody woman didn’t stop once she was through
the gate. She walked right inside and started calling both Sunny and Dayana.
“Sunny! Dey-Dey! Where are you girls? Stop hiding and come on out! Sunny! Bitch if you’re playing with me I’m going to kick your ass so bloody hard. Come on out!”
She suddenly halted and bent down to look at something on the ground, then jerked up and looked at him over her shoulder, her eyes wide.
Her voice was quivering when she spoke.
“Loek, there’s blood here. A lot of blood and marks, like drag marks towards the gate. And boot prints in the dust, big boot prints. Not Sunny’s small boot prints.” She reported while slowly stepping back.
A low growl had her stopping in her tracks and Loek watched with his heart in his mouth as a dark shadow came slinking out of the long grass.
Cherise ignored their calls to get out of the run, instead she crouched and spoke to the visibly agitated and enraged cat.
“Dey-Dey, where’s Sunny? Where’s Sunny, baby girl?” His woman asked in a soft soothing voice.
Loek and the men swore afterward that it sounded as if the cat cried when she crawled up to Cherise and nudged at her with her big head.
Cherise slowly raised a hand and stroked her fur.
“She’s bleeding, Loek. There’s a wide gash along her side and she’s got what looks like blood on her muzzle. Something bad happened here tonight and it involves Sunny.”
The security lights suddenly came on and Dayana recoiled, snarling viciously but Cherise stayed low and unthreatening and crooned to her soothingly. The cat was nervous but she calmed as Cherise kept soothing her. Once this shit was done his woman owed him a fucking explanation about how it was possible for her to get so close to the crazy feline. He, and everyone else, was under the impression only Sunny could get close to her.
Loek’s phone ringing had her jerking her head towards them but she didn’t move any further. Answering while keeping his eyes on his woman and his rifle trained on the cat he listened to the report.
Mitch was gone. And there was no sign of a struggle. It was like he got up, walked out and disappeared.
“Check the camera footage for Dayana’s enclosure, and call Roos and Tau. I smell a huge fucking rat here.”
A Touch Of Grey Page 9