home, had needed to talk to someone. She didn’t tell Barb about Virgil’s threat. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know because she had to work past it. Gods, did she have to work past it or she’d be a wreck before she’d been on the job a week.
“Look,” she said. “If Virgil or Tolya thinks Maddie is in any kind of danger from neighbors, even if it’s just people acting too curious or asking too many questions, they’ll take the girl away.”
“You mean relocate the family?”
Jana shook her head. “The other children would be relocated, separately or together. The dads wouldn’t survive.”
Barb stared straight ahead. “Someone will figure it out.”
Jana nodded. “But I don’t want the blame for that landing on our doorstep. Okay?”
“Okay. But … Abby is really nice.”
“Burch is her married name, right?”
“Yes.”
“Who was she before she married Kelley?”
“I don’t know.”
“And that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Jana glanced at Barb. “This is a fresh start, a new beginning, call it whatever you want. But that means we don’t know who people were before they arrived in Bennett.”
Barb slumped in the seat. “I don’t want to think like that. I don’t want to talk to people and wonder what they’re hiding.”
“I know. I’m sorry. And you don’t have to wonder. Just don’t tell anyone about Maddie.”
“Did you think being a police officer would be like this? I used to tease Michael about running background checks on my dates, but now I wonder if he did.”
Probably, Jana thought.
“So did you think it would be like this?”
I will tear out the throats of those two humans—and then I’ll tear out yours.
“No,” Jana said. “I really didn’t think it would be like this.”
* * *
* * *
Standing at the gate of the fenced-in yard that held the dogs to be adopted, Tobias scratched and petted the dogs who came up to greet him while he waited for the almost-vet who was taking care of the animals.
“I appreciate you giving me a job. I learn fast,” Edna “Ed” Tilman said.
Everything he’d sensed about this new hand indicated that she wanted to be one of the boys, but Tobias still gave her a smile that said clear enough that he was the boss and she was one of his men—and he hoped he wasn’t wrong about her and would end up actually having to say he wasn’t going to allow them to be anything more. His mother hadn’t voiced any concerns about the girl when he’d introduced them. Ed wanted to work on a ranch as one of the hands and not as household help. She’d been real clear about that. She’d demonstrated her ability to ride a horse and lasso animals in a corral. Whether she’d really thought about what it was like to spend a day in the saddle was anyone’s guess.
Then again, working with someone who wasn’t an Intuit was like learning a different language, so maybe he had been hearing flirting where there was only nerves and enthusiasm. They’d all find out soon enough, and Ellen Garcia, who took care of the Prairie Gold ranch house and the accounts, would take the girl in hand—one way or another.
Funny how he understood the Wolves who were in charge of the terra indigene settlement near Prairie Gold better than he understood other kinds of humans. He understood Virgil Wolfgard too, and Morgan Wolfgard had told him enough about Virgil and Kane for him to appreciate why they were an asset to Tolya Sanguinati and a danger to the humans settling in Bennett.
As a sheriff’s department vehicle pulled up, Tobias and Ed turned away from the enclosed yard full of barking, excited dogs. The passenger hopped out and rushed toward them.
“Tobias Walker? I’m Barb Debany. Tolya said you wanted to adopt some dogs and cats?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He looked at the other woman getting out of the vehicle. Glossy brown hair pulled back in a tail. Brown eyes that held friendliness and wariness in equal measure. Trim figure. And the gun attached to her belt and the badge pinned to her shirt made her that much more interesting. Since she wasn’t the sheriff … “Deputy … ?”
“Jana Paniccia.”
“Mr. Walker is going to adopt some of the dogs and cats and take them to the ranches,” Barb said, pulling a set of keys out of her purse. “Hush up all of you and look adorable.”
Since she’d raised her voice, he assumed she was talking to the dogs and not the people. Even so, he was
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