The Right One

by RM Alexander

  “No, Mom. This includes you too.” She walked across the Oriental rug, sat on the black leather sofa. Stood again, fidgeting with her hair. Why am I so nervous?

  Mrs. Lockhart laughed, a sound Cami thought sounded more nervous than natural. “I can’t imagine what that would be. Okay.” She sat on the edge of a matching leather chair, ankles crossed, hands folded in her lap. “What is this about?”

  Tommy glanced at Cami, waited until Alex moved across the room to stand next to her.

  “There has been an investigation taking place involving the Lockhart Sanctuary. There has been some threats, and Cami wanted me to keep a watch on things.”

  Her father nodded. “Of course there have been problems. We’ve warned her about that venture of hers. Bringing animals like that,” he paused, shaking his head and placing the pen down with purpose. “Well, that’s asking for trouble.”

  “I guess you’d know, Dad,” she muttered, feeling Alex’s hand close around an arm.

  He chortled. “I’m sure I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean. And I don’t like how you’re treating your mother and me.”

  Tommy turned to her, “Cami, please.” Straightening to look back at her father, he said, “Mr. Lockhart, we’ve already arrested Tank, and have talked to Corey Fletchum. We know you and Mrs. Lockhart were involved with the threats, and with the poisonings of the cats.”

  “We never tried to …”

  “Hush, Abigail.” Her father pointed at his wife. “I don’t know what you’re accusing me of, but you can’t come in here without …”

  Cami shot to her feet. “Shut up, Dad. How could you?”

  “Now look here, young lady.” He pointed at his daughter, icy glare penetrating the air.

  She took another step towards the desk. “Don’t! Just don’t. You killed my cats!”

  Tommy turned, “Alex, please take her out of here.”

  She turned, finger pointed. “Don’t you dare dismiss me, Tommy. I don’t care if you’re a cop or not. This is family and they killed my cats, tried to destroy my dreams.” Cami faced her father. “Why, Dad? Why?”

  “We weren’t trying to destroy your dream, we were trying to protect you!” Her mother shouted from the chair.

  Her eyes flashed at her mother, then slacked jawed father. “Then you admit it. You killed Cato, Shakir, almost killed Regellius.”

  Mr. Lockhart stared at her, clean shaven face the color of pomegranate. “I don’t know who you are talking about, and I’m not saying anything more to any of you, not even you Camille.”

  “Cami, we don’t want you around those dangerous animals. Do you know how many people are killed from animals like that? People who have more training than you do?”

  “Abigail, don’t say another word.”

  Mrs. Lockhart turned to face her husband, eyes glowing with some fire. “Do you hear how our daughter is talking to us? Like we haven’t taken care of her her entire life. Given her everything she could ever want. Including a rich trust that is now being wasted on those beasts. Now she’s going to come here with two boys who enjoyed our hospitality over the years and correct us for actions we took to protect our daughter.”

  “Shut up, Abigail.”

  “I don’t understand what everyone is so upset about. They’re animals. That’s all. Just animals. It’s not like we contracted a murderer. This wasn’t a hit.” She threw arms in the air, face frantic. “My stars, it sounds like we’re talking like we’re in the mafia or something.”

  Cami watched as her father flew to his feet, papers skittering across the desk in the gust of wind his body created, face burnt red, lines she’d never seen before etching into his features. “I said shut up!”

  Tommy stepped forward. “Mr. Lockhart, I think it’s best we continue this conversation down at the station.” He glanced at Mrs. Lockhart. “And you’re going to have to come too, I’m afraid.”

  Mr. Lockhart shook his head. “If you’re not arresting us, we’re not going anywhere. I’m a lawyer, Tom, and I’m more than aware of my rights.”

  “Yes, I’m sure you are, Mr. Lockhart. And I’m sure you are aware it’s much easier if you cooperate with me.”

  Her father hung his head, hands planted firmly on the desk. Slowly, his head lifted to meet Cami, eyes hard in scorn. “You’d do this to your own father, your mother? We raised you, gave you everything, and you’d watch the cops – a snot-nosed kid that used to come here and play in our backyard and swim in our pool – you’d let them take us in like we’re some kind of common criminals?”

  “Dad, how could you?” she breathed. Years melted away, stripped as devotion slipped away. “My dream. Everything I’ve always wanted to do and you would stoop so low as to take it away from me. I don’t know you.” She turned to face her mother, “Or you. How can I … what am I supposed to say?”

  “You’re supposed to say you stick with your family. You stand with us. That’s your duty as our daughter.”

  “And what is your duty as my father and mother? To fight to destroy everything I care about? To downgrade my dreams?” She turned to Tommy. “Go ahead. Do what you need to do.”

  She turned, Alex at her side, and walked, then ran out of the study, past Georgette and outside. Hands leaning on the car, she fought hot tears as Alex stretched his hands around her shoulders.

  She spun, swinging arms down onto his, jaw set. “Don’t. Just. Don’t.”

  He stepped back as though he’d been hit. “What? Why?” He shook his head. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Oh, really? It is? Gee, thanks for the assurance, because right now, I’m not quite sure where this is going. My parents,” she waved wildly at the house, “They killed two of my tigers and sent someone to scare me away from … from everything. I accused a good man of doing the very same awful things. Once word gets out about this, the sanctuary could be in trouble. Who’s going to refer the sanctuary when people so close to it are trying to destroy the cats?” She paused, dropping octaves, “And my parents. How am I supposed to feel about that?”

  Alex gathered her in his arms. “You’re supposed to feel exactly the way you do. Come on. Let me take you home.”

  His arms tight around her felt good, so good. Lifting her head, her mouth searched for his lips, eyes closed. Alex’s hands held her face, palm against cheek, cheek against palm, both necks stretched to meet the other.

  “Well, isn’t that a wonderful scene? Our daughter making out in our drive way as her parents get hauled to the police station.”

  Cami spun around to stare at her mother. “How dare you judge me?” She paused, a tidal wave of fury overtaking her. “How dare you?” She jolted forward, Alex’s arms shooting out to wrap around her waist in restraint. “How dare you do this to me?” Tears spurted from eyes enraged and heated. “I’m your daughter. I’m supposed to be able to trust you.”

  “Come on, Cami. Let’s go. Let Tommy do his job.” Alex whispered in her ear. “Don’t do this. You’ll regret it later.”

  “How dare you.” She sunk to the ground, watching, helpless, as Tommy helped her mother into the backseat of the cruiser, her father defiantly ducking in after her, never turning to look at Cami.

  Tommy nodded at Alex, then climbed into the cruiser and drove away.

  Alex helped her up. “It’s time to go.”

  She shook her head. “No, I can’t go home just yet. I have somewhere else I need to stop first.”

  “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

  “Then take me to see Paul Schotter.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Cami stood in front of Paul’s office door at the county office building, hand hovering, shy, unsure, then knocked. His voice called from behind the cheap wood and she turned the doorknob.

  His face shifted from friendly to curious to chilled. She fought not to shrink back, guilt pulsating through her. Eyebrow raised, he turned from the monitor and slid the keyboard tray under the desk. “Cami. This is a surprise. What can
I do for you?”

  “Hi, Paul. Do you have a minute?” Her voice faded to inaudible on the last word and Paul’s gaze shifted once more, boring into her. “I won’t take much of your time, but I do need to say … some … things.”

  He drew in a hard breath and swallowed loud enough for her to hear as he motioned to a chair. “Have a seat. But I don’t have a long. As you can see, I’m at work, and there’s more to be done.”

  She nodded, slinked into the navy reception chair and placed her purse in her lap, wishing it was large enough to hide behind. It wasn’t. “Thank you. I know I don’t … I know there’s no reason for you to allow me a couple of minutes.”

  Heleaned back, folding his hands, and said nothing.

  She nodded. “Right. So. I’m here because I owe you an apology. I was way off.”

  Paul shifted in his seat. Said nothing.

  “The thing is, I, I’m protective of the sanctuary. What I’ve wanted to do, it’s always been ridiculous to everyone, even family.” Her voice cracked and Cami paused as the thought of her parents sitting at the police department ripped through her mind. Pushing it back into the recesses, she hugged her purse closer. “You were the enemy from the beginning, right from the moment you showed up at the sanctuary. And I couldn’t ever see past that.”

  He leaned forward against the desk. “Are you done?”

  She shook her head. “No.” The word whispered through her lips. “I was wrong to think that about you. You’re a good man, Paul, and I’m sorry.”

  Paul cocked his head to the side. “But you didn’t come up with this on your own, did you? Something happened.”

  The blink was long and hard, bordering on closed eyes, and once again, her voice cracked. “What happened doesn’t matter.”

  “Doesn’t it?”

  She shook her head. “No. It doesn’t.” It does, though, it really matters.

  “Tell me anyway.”

  “Why? What difference does it make?”

  “Because it makes a difference to you. What happened?”

  Cami turned away, dragged her body to stand and face away from the man who sat behind the desk. Alex. Paul. Paul. Alex. Two good men who were too good to her. “It was my parents all along. Them and one of the men at the ranch who was a guy I trusted inexplicitly.”

  “That Alex guy?”

  She spun around. “Alex? Oh gosh, no. Not him. Tank. I thought he was a good man, but he was hired by my parents. The background check, I missed something and never saw.”

  Paul rubbed the side of his nose and stood, walking to stand to the side of her. No outstretched arms, and Cami didn’t want a hug. The obvious forgiveness was enough. “I’m sorry. That has to be hard. Your parents. That’s … isn’t he a huge lawyer around here?”

  She nodded. “That’s how he knew Tank. Tank was a client, and Dad contracted him. Maybe at Mom’s instruction. I don’t know. Either way, they killed two of my cats, and left one so sick he’s still not out of the woods.”

  “Regellius? You’re favorite?”

  She nodded and turned to face him. “How’d you guess?”

  “That fury on your face that day at the restaurant. You love your sanctuary, but none of the cats like that one who you can touch through the fence.”

  She nodded. “He’s hanging on, and might have finally turned a corner, but it’s been touch and go. Pesticide. Can you believe it? Tank poisoned them all with pesticide. And my parents asked him to do it.” She paused. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m here for. Tommy’s taking care of all of that, and I picked up a couple cubs yesterday, and …” No need to say anything about Alex. Paul didn’t need to know that much. “I just came to say I’m sorry. That I know now it wasn’t you.”

  He nodded. “Thank you, Cami. That means a lot.” He outstretched a hand. “Friends then?”

  “I’d like that.” Straightening her shoulders, she took his hand. “Take care, Paul.”

  “You too, Cami.”

  In the parking lot, Alex leaned against the grill of the truck, arms crossed, foot resting on the bumper. He straightened when he was her, a strange nervous smile dressing his lips. Cami struggled to smile, but couldn’t. Healing would come, she knew, but not so soon, and she only said, “Can we go back to the sanctuary now?”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  Silence engulfed the truck. She leaned her head back against the headrest, closed her eyes, fighting thoughts and fears and hurts.

  “How’d it go with Schotter?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Schotter? How’d the visit go?”

  Cami opened her eyes and turned to look at Alex. “It went okay. He was really nice about it, parted on good terms.”

  “That’s nice.”

  She reached over to take Alex’s hand. “Friends is friends and that’s all we are. Anyway, right now, I don’t have time for anything more.”

  “No, I suppose not.”

  Silence overtook them once more, and Cami fought back the irritation rising like bile in her throat. Who had time for thoughts about relationships with betrayal so heavy in her heart? She rolled her eyes, closed them, and didn’t open them again until Alex pulled into the driveway at the sanctuary.

  Hopping out of the truck, Cami trotted, wordlessly, to the clinic. Regellius and the cubs. No one else in the world.

  Nothing else mattered.

  Alex slammed the truck door shut, rocking the frame and shaking the windows. For every step forward, two steps back. That was life with Cami. And now, he wondered, maybe it was time to let her go. Friends, yes. Anything more, maybe they weren’t ever meant for it.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Tears rolled as she sat on the floor, two roly-poly cubs climbing across her lap, crouching and pouncing on one another, falling over like clumsy toddlers. One, the female, kept coming back to Cami for licks and nips. “Nakita,” she whispered, rubbing the top of the female’s head, and nearly smiled as Nakita wrapped paws too large for her body around an arm. A playful nip, then her brother, the one named Ravi, batted at Nakita’s tail and set off another round of wrestling with his sister.

  Regellius rested in the other room with Jessica, another setback and concern about his future echoed through the clinic. He couldn’t gain enough ground, his body now fighting infection.

  All because of her parents.

  Nakita ran at her, lunged, nipped at an arm with baby teeth, fell on her side and rolled in a ball of striped fur. Cami reached out and rubbed the cub’s belly. It wouldn’t be long and this kind of play would be dangerous. Until then, she intended to enjoy them.

  Ravi followed his sister, paws a bit larger, teeth too, and she ducked out of the way as he launched for her. “Oh no, baby boy. You don’t get a piece of my arm like your sister, you’ll hurt me.” The baby tiger struggled to roar, the sound coming out like a hoarse mew instead, and Cami smiled ruefully.

  Jessica came in the room, removing surgical gloves and smiling. “Regellius is going to be fine. The medication is beginning to work. The poisons are out of his blood stream, the fever is coming down. I think we finally have reached the end.”

  Cami pet the top of Nakita’s head as the cub rested, worn out from play, on her lap. “We thought that before.”

  She nodded. “Yes, you’re right, we have. But this time, I don’t have any concerns. He’s on medications, so that’ll take care of any threat of infection, and there’s nothing else of concern in the bloodstream. Regellius is going to be fine.”

  Cami softly knocked Ravi down, and he, too, seemed to have enough as he curled next to his sister, laying his head on Nakita’s back. She looked up to Jessica. “You’re sure?”

  She stooped, rubbing Ravi’s back as he grumbled and closed his eyes, asleep in seconds. “Yes. I’m sure. The crisis is over. Now, what about you?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll survive, and that’s the best I can say for now, I think.”

  Jessica reached out and patted her shoulder. “When you’re rea
dy, when you get past the hurt and anger, forgive them. Staying angry will only poison you. The rest is up to them.”

  “But where do I go from here?”

  “You do what you’re meant to do. Take care of these babies, Regellius, and every other cat sent to you. You admit to Alex you have fallen in love with him, and you see where that goes. My guess is, with a man like Alex, you won’t be sorry. Then, one day, when the time comes, you deal with your Mom and Dad on your terms, and give them what they need to heal.”

  “I haven’t fallen in love with Alex.”

  Jessica laughed. “I may not be Liz, and we haven’t grown up together like nearly everyone else in the area. But, Cami, love is love, and that look is that look everywhere. I’ve never seen two people more meant to be together than Alex Reynolds and Cami Lockhart. Never seen a more beautiful couple, either. You are a brave lady when it comes to these guys,” she leaned down and pulled Ravi up into an embrace. “But a total chicken when it comes to relationships. Not everyone is your parents. Unconditional love does exist. Go find Alex. Tell him before some other woman comes in and realizes how wonderful that man is. Tell him before he realizes he’s wasting time waiting on his best friend to open her eyes and trust him.”

  She watched as Jessica bent to retrieve Nakita. The cubs, sweet in slumber, were about to be woken for a thorough exam before being put in a room which would be home until they were older. Jessica nodded with encouragement and Cami’s jaw worked as she turned and retreated into examination, the cubs crying on her shoulders.

  Alone, she leaned her head against the wall, eyes closed, willing thoughts to stop circling like vultures. Romance – the furthest thing from her mind. Yet, everything Jessica said made sense, more sense than Cami cared to admit. There was nothing she could do about her parents, that was in Tommy’s hands, and the lawyers already undoubtedly hired to keep them from being charged. There was nothing she could do about any of that, or the emotions garbled within.