Her Undercover Refuge

by Linda O. Johnston

  She hoped that meant they were all safe.

  No matter what that horrible text had said.

  Well, she was here because she’d been a cop. She still had a cop mentality. That was why she felt she hadn’t done her job well enough before, or that gang task force situation would have had a better ending.

  With no one on her side killed.

  Did she have a minor case of PTSD? She didn’t really want to look into it—but wouldn’t be surprised if she did.

  In any case, here, she would do everything she could to make sure nothing went wrong, that all staff members—and managers and animals, too, of course—remained safe.

  She had a sense that the closer she worked with Scott, the more likely she’d have the outcome she craved.

  That was the reason she missed him now, she told herself as she returned to her apartment.

  The only reason.

  Chapter 8

  Scott woke up at his normal time of 6:30 a.m. But this wasn’t a normal morning, since he was in an apartment at the shelter.

  After a quick shower, he threw on a shelter T-shirt and jeans. Then he unlocked the door, after listening for any sounds in the hallway.

  He heard some soft voices from down the hall, as well as a few barks from outside. Ahh. Not only were some of the dogs awake, but Nella was, too. He felt certain that one of those voices was hers.

  She’d gotten up at least once last night to meander down the hall and check on things. So had he. Twice. The first time, he had just returned to this apartment before he heard her door open.

  Of course he’d had an urge to join her. She might as well get used to his teaming up with her when she did her job and worked at taking care of things around here, at least when they both were in the same area. He wasn’t sure how long he would remain in this apartment. Probably a while, until they figured out who’d sent that text and dealt with it. But once they did, he liked the idea of having Nella be the only manager to continue residing here, and patrolling the residential hallway would make a good duty for her to accomplish on at least some nights.

  Did he trust her more than his other, longer-term managers, Telma and Camp? Of course not. If he didn’t trust either one of them, he’d fire that person.

  But his interactions with Nella so far had convinced him of her dedication to helping both people and animals. And she didn’t have anywhere else to live at the moment. He wouldn’t have any qualms about attempting to convince her to live in this building as long as she worked at the shelter.

  The fact that he might wind up seeing her more often that way? Irrelevant.

  He closed his apartment door behind him and strode down the hall toward those voices. Sure enough, Scott saw Nella’s slender T-shirt-clad back in the open doorway as he reached the last apartment on the same side of the hall as his current residence. Bibi’s unit.

  Both women exited it and stood still, looking toward Scott. “Bibi was just about to head downstairs when she saw me walking down the hall,” Nella said. “I asked to see her apartment, to learn how similar it is to mine.” Nella’s cool glance at Scott suggested she didn’t want him to ask questions, which he wouldn’t. Not now, at least. But he figured Nella had wanted to go into Bibi’s unit for reasons other than checking its appearance.

  He’d find out more from her later.

  “They’re all pretty similar,” Scott said, “but it’s a good idea to find that out for yourself.” He paused. “Does anyone else seem to be up yet?”

  “Nope. Just us,” Bibi said. “But I bet some of the others are already outside walking dogs. They usually are by now. I want to show Nella our kitchen and eating area, but first we plan to walk some dogs, too. I explained to her that’s one of our first responsibilities each morning besides keeping the kennel areas clean—although we wind up cleaning them even when our doggy residents have been good all night.”

  “Exactly.” Scott nodded at both of them. “That’s what people who help rescue pets do. I’ll come with you.”

  Nella seemed to study his face, as though trying to read how truthful he was being.

  He figured she wasn’t questioning the need to walk dogs or clean up after them—but whether it was okay to take walks this morning after that threatening message.

  Was he just guessing her thoughts? Maybe, but she looked as concerned as he felt, so he figured he guessed correctly.

  “Good thing we have some large areas inside our fence to walk the dogs,” Scott said, responding to what he believed were Nella’s unasked questions about security. “They can get their exercise and do what else they need to do better and faster than if we had to take them off our grounds.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Nella said as she fell into step beside Bibi, and Scott trailed them a bit. “The walking part, I mean. Not the cleaning, but I’ll do whatever’s needed around here.”

  “Me, too!” Bibi sounded excited. “And I think it’s cool that even our managers don’t mind getting their hands dirty. So to speak.”

  She turned briefly and smiled at him, revealing the gap between her front teeth as she did very often. Bibi was damned good with the animals, and with her fellow staff members.

  And he knew she had a good reason to be a resident at this shelter.

  They reached the end of the hall and Scott was amused when Nella was the one to reach into her pocket and pull out her keycard. Soon, they were all outside within the shelter area, heading toward the rear of the facility to go leash up a few dogs.

  He allowed Bibi to pull ahead and was glad when Nella began walking at his side. “I hope this is okay.” She talked so softly he had to strain to listen—which was a good thing. “I thought about trying to get up even earlier and making everyone stay in their rooms this morning—except to let me in, like Bibi did, so I could confirm everything looked all right, as it did in hers. And she seemed calm and happy and...well, unthreatened, so she appears okay—assuming whoever issued the threat would also attempt to scare the target before doing anything. But I didn’t tell her anything, wasn’t sure you wanted the residents to know anything. And I figured you’d have given orders to me and the other managers if you had something in particular in mind for us to do.”

  “That’s right,” he said. “And I did get in touch with Telma and Camp to tell them about the message, as well as that Chance PD contact who had the phone number checked. Our two managers are walking the outside perimeter, looking for anything out of the ordinary. And we’ll have police car patrols today.” He paused. “But aside from checking in Bibi’s room, have you done or seen anything unusual—either this morning, or when you got up again last night?”

  “How did you know I was up again last night?” Her brows furrowed as her eyes briefly met his in a glare.

  “Because I think I’m beginning to know how you think,” he said in a playful tone. “And because I think similarly and also got up.”

  Before Nella could respond, Bibi stopped walking and looked at them as they caught up with her. “What are you two whispering about?”

  “I just want to know what we have for breakfast,” Nella replied.

  “I told her about how some of you, especially Sara, cook really good pancakes,” Scott said, “and I rarely get any, since I don’t generally live here.”

  “You stayed here last night, right? Looked like you came out of one of the apartments when Nella and I left mine.”

  “Good catch,” Scott said. He didn’t want to tell one of the residents the whole truth—but some of it wouldn’t hurt, to ensure they remained particularly careful. “We’ve heard some rumors about information regarding this place getting out in public more than it should. I’ll talk about it a bit at breakfast. Right now, I think we’re okay, but I do want everyone to remain alert and careful—and I may just hang out here a little more than usual in the meantime.”

  Bibi’s face seemed to g
row even puffier than usual as the edges of her mouth drew down. “Are all of us in danger? Some of us?”

  “We hope not,” Nella said. “But now that I’m here, I’m glad I’ll be staying in your building at night. Rumors often don’t have substance, but we don’t want to take any chances with our staff members. I know that Scott and the other managers really care for all of you, and I’m joining in on that.”

  Scott wanted to take the couple of steps between Nella and him and give her a big hug, but of course he wouldn’t. Not with others around, and most likely not again when they were alone, either, not even a strictly friendly gesture.

  Even so, he nodded toward her, then smiled at Bibi. “Looks like I did a good job in hiring Nella, doesn’t it?”

  “It sure does.” Bibi was the one to draw close to Nella and hug her. “Now, as long as it’s okay, I think we’ve got some really nice and needy doggies who need our attention.”

  “Let’s hurry, then.” Nella smiled at her new buddy, then aimed a glance at Scott that suggested she was really into this, being both a manager and a protector at this wonderful shelter of his.

  * * *

  Okay, Nella thought as they walked out of the apartment building and onto the concrete area inside the shelter. She understood why Scott had said what he did, telling Bibi he wanted to let everyone know to be even more careful without unnerving them with the complete truth.

  She agreed.

  Especially since she would remain here and help to keep all residents safe. And so, apparently, would Scott, for as long as he thought his increased presence was needed.

  But how best should they do that? Clearly Scott didn’t want to alarm them with the details of why they were more concerned than usual.

  A lot more, she was sure.

  Anyway, they remained inside the safe, covered fencing. She wanted to check to see who all was out here walking dogs and who was in the kitchen area, do a census of sorts to make sure everyone was well.

  And not dead, the way that threat had gone.

  Unless she could take Scott aside comfortably, though, she wouldn’t announce her intention to him or anyone else.

  Despite the threat, it was certainly fun to be out here. Of the eight staff members, four were out already with dogs on leashes, walking back and forth, allowing their pups to sniff the narrow grassy areas at the sides of the walkway—and stop and sniff and squat and whatever else they wanted.

  The people? Nella had tried to make herself memorize who was who. But she appreciated it when Scott began reminding her.

  “Since you’re so new here and we’ve got a bunch of staff members and pups, I’ll point out who’s got who with them right now.”

  “And since most of the dogs are our medium and larger ones, I’m going to pop in here—” still standing beside them at the beginning of the path, Bibi pointed toward the shelter building nearest them “—and get myself a small dog to walk. Care to join me?” She looked toward Nella.

  “Yes, in a minute.” And Nella was glad when Bibi left, since none of the other people were particularly near them. “What do you think?” she then whispered to Scott, who drew up close to her. Very close. She even felt his hip against her side, a feeling that she noticed too much. And also liked too much.

  But he said, “Just wanted to fill you in on more before we join the others in walking the dogs,” he said. “I’m going to leave Camp, Telma and you in charge after breakfast while I visit the Chance PD and request more help. Maybe that threat meant nothing, but—”

  “But we have to assume otherwise, of course, till we know for sure,” Nella finished. This was important to her, and it was also important that Scott understood her dedication to his shelter.

  “Right.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I really give a damn.”

  Scott smiled and look her straight in the eyes with his sparkling blue ones. “I’ve noticed,” he said. “Now, we need to go ahead with what I started pointing out before.”

  He quickly began indicating each staff member and which dogs they walked. “You probably remember Darleen’s favorite pup is Pebbles, the Maltipoo,” he began, nodding in the direction of the middle-aged lady and dog.

  “Absolutely.”

  Then there was Shupe, the Shetland sheepdog mix, surprisingly being walked by thin, senior Kathy; thirty-something Muriel walking Honey, a black Lab mix; and Warren walking Rover, a Scottish terrier mix.

  For fun, Nella walked up to each of them and said hello, then bent to pat the pups. “Have a wonderful walk,” she said.

  “We’ve been at this for twenty minutes,” said Warren, a senior with thin gray hair and a happy smile whom she’d seen before. “My buddy Rover here has accomplished a lot. Good boy!” This was directed to Rover, who had begun sniffing in the grass.

  All this made Nella eager to walk a dog, too. She told Scott that, and he accompanied her inside the second building.

  There, among several other pups, he introduced her to Baby, a pug mix, got a couple of leashes that were hanging on the wall, then took Herman, a Chihuahua mix, from the same kennel as Baby.

  Once they were back outside, Nella took a deep breath and smiled. “This is fantastic,” she said, bending once more, this time to pat Baby and Herman.

  “And it can distract us a lot,” Scott reminded her—not that she really needed the reminder.

  “I understand,” she said. “I see Telma and Camp up ahead. Let’s go there and take them aside and make sure they know what’s going on—and you can be sure I’ll be observant of everything and everyone that’s at all near me.”

  “Good girl.” Scott nodded toward her with a look that suggested he knew he was addressing her as he would an obedient dog.

  Which only made Nella laugh. “Of course,” she said. “Now, let’s go, Baby.” The chubby little pug with the flat nose looked up at her as if understanding at least her name, if not exactly what was going on. “Let’s beat Scott and Herman to reach Camp and Telma.”

  Then, maneuvering carefully around the humans and pups, Nella sped up in the direction of the other managers.

  “Good morning,” Telma said as Nella caught up with them, then looked down. “So you’re a pug fan?”

  “Love ’em,” Nella said. “Especially Baby.” She knelt to hug the little pug, who snorted at her, making her laugh.

  “Are you heading to breakfast soon?” asked Camp.

  “In a few minutes, after Baby and I finish our walk.”

  Sweet Baby and Herman both accomplished what was needed fairly quickly. Of course both Nella and Scott did what cleanup was necessary, then took them back to their enclosures.

  Their speed was a good thing, since the others who’d been walking dogs were also settling them back in their habitats, some sweetly promising it was temporary and they’d all find new homes soon.

  Nella hoped that was the case—and also hoped there would be more rescue dogs brought in to care for and find new homes for.

  Scott and she exited the building together. “Come on,” he said. “Breakfast time.” He began walking ahead of her to the admin building.

  Nella followed closely behind. She realized she was hungry—for the information Scott would impart, even more than food.

  Chapter 9

  Scott didn’t have to unlock the dining area door. Everyone here had access to it and went in and out all the time.

  Of course, as part of the orientation to the shelter, Scott always warned incoming residents to be alert everywhere, especially in an unsecured place like this one. And though the indoor eating area’s doors remained open, the place had some degree of security since it was behind the fencing surrounding the whole location.

  Knowing how he’d wanted this facility to be, Scott had made sure the design of the dining area on the lower floor of the residential building was large and inviting, wit
h a good-sized, brick-walled kitchen off to the side, which contained several refrigerators and freezers, along with a large gas stove, ovens and other major equipment as well as a good supply of cookware, plates, glasses and utensils.

  At the moment, he was glad to see breakfast being served as usual at one end of the dining room by a staff member, Sara, who’d most likely cooked it, and Telma, who’d probably supervised her cooking and the area earlier. Sara wasn’t as fond of animals as the others were, so she rarely walked dogs, although she did help to feed, and clean the cages of the smaller rescue pets in the last building along the pathway.

  So why had Scott accepted her at this shelter? Her parents were friends of Scott’s parents and his aunt Pat—his uncle Andy’s widow—and though he hadn’t completely described what he was up to here, his folks knew he was involved in helping people in need and not only animals. So how could he resist their plea?

  Today, Sara wore a yellow Chance Animal Shelter shirt over jeans. Middle-aged and quiet, Sara always appeared sad. That was unsurprising, considering the history that had brought her here. She had been a cook at a well-known gourmet restaurant in San Diego, but her boss, a married and controlling much younger man, had begun sexually harassing her. She’d reported it, as she should have, but the guy had been smart and turned the tables on her, purposely tainting something she’d cooked and serving it, making a few of his customers ill.

  He had promised he would kill someone and ensure she got blamed for it if she ever talked about it again.

  And when she quit and started to leave, she’d been the one who’d been poisoned, in a way that no one could prove it had been her boss. Nor could she prove he’d threatened to do it again if she ever spoke about it.

  Which had boosted Sara to the top of Scott’s list of whom he believed the recently received threat involved—except that Sara had been here for more than six months, so why start this now?