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Her smile was soft, betraying a weakness that Gabe regretted exposing. “Therapists don’t always have all the answers.” The therapy she got after the insider attack had done nothing but encourage her to have PTSD, which she really didn’t have.

“Still. I want to.” Lori took a long drink of her coffee. “If I’d known the conversation was going to go down this path, I might’ve suggested a bar instead.”

Gabe thumbed over her shoulder. “We passed an Irish bar on the way here if you want to relocate.”

Lori waved her hand. “No, no. I have to drive home in,” she checked her watch, “less than an hour. I should do this without the aid of alcohol anyway. But I need to ease into it and give you the whole backstory, if that’s okay.”

“If you’re sure,” Gabe said.

Lori placed her hand over Gabe’s briefly. “I’m sure. My family received a phone call from a lawyer nearly eight years ago about the Sanctuary. Except it wasn’t called that. It was just a farm owned by an old guy who’d died. He had no relatives, and he didn’t leave a will. But over the years, he’d collected a whole host of animals, some that were okay to own and some that he shouldn’t have had. No one knew what to do with the place. The state was set to take the assets, and they were planning to euthanize or sell all the animals.”

“That’s harsh. What kind of animals did the old geezer have?”

“Cows, chickens, and horses—all fine if a little neglected. But also a pair of mountain lions, three snow leopards, and five bears.”

Gabe shook her head. “That’s unbelievable. What the hell was he doing with all of those? And where did he get them?”

“No one had any idea,” Lori said. “Apparently, he was a virtual recluse and never allowed visitors.” She smiled. “Thanks for asking questions. It’s making it easier.”

“It’d be hard not to. Do you have any photos or video?”

“I do, but I’ll have to show you another time because it’s all on my laptop at home.”

“Awesome.”

“Anyway, the lawyer reached out to us because we’ve done extensive work both here and outside the US, often handling exotic animals and endangered species. Mom and I had just done a piece with National Geographic, and the lawyer had read it.”

Gabe whistled. “Wow, that’s something. When Toni told me about you, I had no idea how impressive you were.”

Lori shrugged and blushed slightly. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“You don’t have to. I’ll bet there are plenty of other people who’ll say it for you.”

“Anyway, I came over from New York to check it out, and I fell in love with the place. I’d just read a piece by Madison Ford in Time magazine about how many service horses and dogs were still being euthanized even after Robby’s Law nearly two decades before, and that gave me the idea to start a whole new place, using the infrastructure already available.”

“This is sounding like a great story so far,” Gabe said. “But it has me rooting for a happy ending I already know doesn’t exist.”

Lori tapped her finger on the table. “That’s not strictly true. We’ve rescued nearly two hundred animals since we opened, including Max.”

The mention of her canine colleague made Gabe smile. “Good point. And I get to see him tomorrow. That’s still okay, right?”

“Of course it is,” Lori said. “He’s looking forward to it.”

“Me too.” And not only to see Max but also to spend more time with Lori if Gabe could convince her to walk with them again. “So you were saying that you had an awesome idea.”

“Right. So I put together a proposal, which the board promptly approved, and we bought the whole property, including everything in it?—”

“Like the rust bucket? Or did that come later?”

“Including the rust bucket, yes.” Lori sighed. “And the lawyer made sure everything went through as smoothly as possible.”

“The lawyer who contacted you originally, not your family robot lawyer?”

“Yes. That lawyer.”

Gabe sensed that this was where it got dark and complicated, though the sadness in Lori’s eyes was a pretty obvious clue too.

“There was an instant attraction for both of us,” Lori said. “And when we started spending so much time together working through the legalities and red tape for us to secure the property and handle all the animals etcetera, that exploded…” She stopped to empty her cup.