Page 58 of Her Three Rangers

“Trouble, child.” Her voice was soft but powerful as she looked at me with full, sad eyes. “I feel trouble coming.”

I was up and moving before I fully realized what I was doing. Rambo did his best to follow me as I hurried into the kitchen to grab my keys.

If trouble was coming, I was going to meet it head-on.

“Where are you going?” she asked. Her expression hadn’t changed. She already knew the answer.

“I need to check on the clinic. I’ve got animals down there.” I walked over to her and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. “Stay here and lock the door behind me. If trouble comes knocking, don’t answer.”

“Take the dog,” she said, nodding at Rambo. “He’ll let you know if anything is wrong.”

I hesitated. He wasn’t fully healed yet, and the last thing I wanted was for him to injure himself even more. I couldn’t even imagine trying to explain to Ty if anything happened to Rambo.

But he would be an extra set of eyes and ears, and even if he just sat in the truck while I checked things out, it would give me a little measure of security.

“Okay,” I nodded once, calling Rambo over. “Come on, boy. We’ve gotta go check on the clinic.” He followed close at my heels as I walked out the door and I helped him up into the cab of the truck before sliding in and starting the engine.

I wasn’t sure if I was being extremely brave or extremely stupid, but I couldn’t just stay in the house and hope for the best while there might be something wrong at the clinic. It wasn’t just my livelihood, although yeah, that was a pretty big factor, too. It was my life.

If someone wanted to hurt me, they were going to have a fight on their hands.

It only took a minute to make it from the house to the parking lot of the clinic. I pulled up to the front door and got out, leaving Rambo in the truck. “Be good,” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Walking up to the locked door, I peered inside the darkened waiting room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me.

Still, I didn’t dare discount what Nana had felt. She might not get around as easily as she once did, but her mind was still razor sharp. If she said there was trouble, well… there was trouble.

It was really that simple.

I just had to hope that maybe trouble had decided to pass us by today.

Taking the keys in my hand, I unlocked the front door and stepped inside, flipping on the lights even though I knew my way around this clinic like it was the back of my hand.

A little extra light never hurt, though, right?

Especially when I was doing my best to convince myself that I wasn’t actually scared.

I moved through the reception area and down the corridor, past the break room and my office, past the exam rooms and the recovery room, flipping on lights as I went.

Each step I took made me feel a little better. So far, everything was perfectly normal, everything was in its place. The animals that I had under overnight care were all doing just fine.

There was only one place left to check.

Before I even made it to the back door, a noise from outside made me freeze in my tracks, my breath catching in my throat as I flattened myself against the wall.

I waited. I counted to ten.

Okay. It was probably nothing. The wind, maybe. Or your own overactive imagination.

Still, I held my breath as I cracked open the back door and peered outside. The guys had just put the finishing touches on the kennel a couple of days before, and my first thought was that maybe something had come loose. Maybe the wind had knocked a board against… something.

As I opened the door wider, the smell of gasoline burned my nostrils. I stepped outside and looked around. To the left was the kennel, looking like a million dollars after all the hard work the guys had put into it. To the right was—

“Oh, shit,” I said, under my breath as I laid eyes on the all-too-familiar bright red truck for the first time. It was parked on the side of the building that was hidden from the front parking lot as well as from the windows in my house—a fact that Garrick Windram would be well aware of.

I turned back in time to see him coming around the side of the kennel, a fuel can in hand, dousing every visible surface in gasoline.

“Stop that,” I called, startling him. He jumped back and looked up at me with fear and surprise in his eyes. It only took a split-second for that look to darken, though, replaced by something much more frightening. “The police will be here any minute,” I lied. “Get the hell off my property, Garrick.”