Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [211]
She didn’t think she had anything to fear, yet as she started heading out to the other area of the clinic, she was hit with a sudden blast of memory—a light flicking on in the storeroom, a beaten and bloodied intruder slumped over on the floor. She paused, her feet stopping dead as the vivid image flashed through her mind, then vanished just as quickly.
“Hello?” she called out, trying not to jostle the dog in her arms as she walked out from the vacant kennels. “Is someone here?”
A hissed curse came out of the large examination room off the reception area.
“Ben? Is that you?”
He came out of the room holding an electric screwdriver. “Tess—Christ, you scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here so early?”
“Well, I happen to work here,” she said, frowning as she took in his flushed face with the dark rings under his eyes. “What about you?”
“I, uh…” He gestured back to the exam room with his screwdriver. “I noticed the hydraulic lift was sticking on this table the other day. I was up, and since I still have the spare key to the place, I thought I’d come in and fix it for you.”
It was true, the table had needed some adjustment, but something about Ben’s flummoxed appearance didn’t sit right. Tess walked toward him, gently petting Harvard when the dog started to stir in her arms. “It couldn’t wait until we opened?”
He ran a hand over his scalp, further mussing his disheveled hair. “Like I said, I was up. Just trying to help out where I can. Who’s your friend?”
“His name’s Harvard.”
“Cute mutt; kind of runty, though. A new patient?”
Tess nodded. “Just came in last night. He wasn’t doing too well, but I think he’ll be feeling better soon.”
Ben smiled, but it seemed too tight for his face. “Working late again last night, Doc?”
“No. Not really.”
He glanced away from her, and the smile turned a little sour.
“Ben, are we…okay? I tried to call you the other night, after the museum reception, to apologize. I left you a message, but you didn’t call back.”
“Yeah, I’ve been kind of busy.”
“You look tired.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about me.”
More than tired, Tess thought now. Ben looked strung out. There was an anxious energy about him, like he hadn’t slept for the past two days. “What have you been up to lately? Are you working on another animal rescue or something?”
“Or something,” he said, sliding a shuttered look at her. “Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I really have to go.”
He pocketed the screwdriver in his loose jeans and started heading for the clinic’s front door. Tess trailed after him, feeling a chill as an emotional distance that hadn’t been there before now began to crack open between them.
Ben was lying to her, and not just about his purpose in being at the clinic.
“Thanks for fixing the table,” she murmured to his fast-retreating back.
From within the opened door, Ben swiveled his head around to glance at her over his shoulder. His gaze raked her with its bleakness. “Yeah, sure. You take care, Doc.”
An icy drizzle ticked against the glass of Elise’s living-room window; overhead, the stone-gray afternoon sky was bleak. She parted the sheers of her second-floor private residence and stared out at the cold streets of the city below, at the clumps of people rushing to and fro in an effort to escape the weather.
Somewhere, her eighteen-year-old son was out there too.
He’d been gone for more than a week now. One of the growing number of Breed youths who’d disappeared from their Darkhaven sanctuaries around the area. She prayed Cam was underground, safe in some manner of shelter, with others like him to give him comfort and support, until he found his way home.
She hoped that would be soon.
Thank God for Sterling and all he was doing to help make that return happen. Elise could hardly fathom the selflessness that made her brother-in-law devote himself completely to the task. She wished Quentin