Page 25 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

K at was going through the tack, looking for anything that needed fixing and replacement. The cool interior of the equipment room and the familiar scent of leather and horse was soothing, and it was a relief to not keep up the pretense that he wasn’t upset and hurt.

“Hey.” Javier strolled in, then came over to give him a slap on the back. “Garreth wants to see you in the office.”

Kat had an irrational fear that he had done something wrong, even though he hadn’t, and Garreth wasn’t the kind of boss who ordered his employees to come to his office like a school principal. He would have sought Kat out himself if it was anything bad.

“What did I do?” he asked anyway.

Javier laughed. “You’re not in trouble, bro. He needs you to meet a VIP who wants to donate to the ranch.”

“Oh, okay.” Kat wiped his hands on his jeans. “I’ll head over now, then.”

“I can finish going through the equipment,” Javier offered. “So, you and Lyall, huh?”

Javier was an inveterate gossip, although not a malicious one.

His nosiness didn’t typically bother Kat, but the last thing he needed was another mention of his latest bad-boy disaster.

He had been clingy and emotional, and Lyall hadn’t even been able to say he had enjoyed the sex, which had been wonderful—until that moment.

What did Kat expect? The definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Kat had jumped into bed with a bad boy who only wanted a fling and had his feelings crushed. Again.

“He’s staying with me as a bodyguard.” Kat knew he had to give Javier something to tell everyone else, and he didn’t want the gossip to focus on his and Lyall’s nonexistent relationship.

He dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper to add to the drama.

“Keep this under your hat, but Lyall and I were attacked by a riftperson near the rift.” Kat didn’t want Javier to tell anyone that he had gone through the rift and into the military base.

If his family heard he had done that, he’d be screwed.

“The species are called hoppers. This one was like a giant fighting frog, but he could take a human form and function outside the rift.”

“Whoa.” Javier’s eyes grew wide. “Well, it’s good that you had a badass like Lyall by your side. I all but peed my pants when he turned into that werewolf thing.”

Kat thought Lyall looked majestic in his true Riftworld form, rather than scary, but he nodded and accepted the other wrangler’s fist bump before leaving.

A slight queasiness about the message to go to Garreth’s office remained as Kat knocked on the door. Garreth’s cheerful voice telling him to come on in was a welcome relief.

The sight of the man sitting in a chair in Garreth’s office was not so welcome.

Paul stood up, extending his hand to Kat for a businesslike shake. “Kat, it’s good to see you again. Garreth was telling me all about the ranch. Fascinating place.”

“Good to see you too.” Kat did his best to put warmth into those words. He didn’t want to see Paul at work, and even worse, this would make it more difficult to blow him off Sunday night.

“Mr. Cicero has made a generous donation to our rescue and rehabilitation program, and I understand I have you to thank.” Garreth beamed at Kat, who tried not to show how confused he was.

“You were so inspiring and enthusiastic about your work on the ranch.” Paul said this to Kat without looking at him. His focus was on Garreth. “I felt I needed to contribute to the cause.”

Kat had barely gotten a word in during his one and only date with Paul, so he wasn’t sure where this philanthropic surprise was coming from. He reminded himself that people like Paul gave money to a lot of causes, and the ranch’s programs with both Earth and Riftworld species deserved the support.

Still, Paul showing up where Kat worked was weird.

“Paul asked if you could show him a few of our animal ambassadors and explain the Riftworld education we do here at the ranch.” Garreth gestured to the venture capitalist. “I told him I couldn’t think of a more passionate supporter of the program than you, with the exception of Kaveh.”

“I know how busy you and your staff are, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to hear from an expert on the health needs of alien species.” Paul gave Garreth a quick goodbye handshake and was pulling Kat toward the door before Kat could even respond.

“I asked Javier to cover for you, so take as long as you want,” Garreth called after him, and Kat had little choice but be dragged away by the last guy in the world he wanted to hang out with.

Paul could walk quickly when he wanted to.

He was already through the great room and headed outside by the time Kat disengaged himself from his grip.

Kat moved in front of him, put his hat back on, and held the door open to make his escape from Paul’s violation of his personal space look like politeness.

“Thank you.” Paul stepped into the bright sunshine of the outer patio, where the dinner bell stood near the rift storm gong. “So gallant of you. And I love your cowboy hat.”

He said it like what Kat was wearing was a costume, not the same work attire everyone else wore. “I was, uh, surprised to see you here.”

“I’m a spontaneous person.” Paul admired the metal gong. “My, that looks loud. Can I ring it?”

“Not unless you want to see the entire ranch go into lockdown.” Kat stepped in between Paul and the gong. “It’s a warning device for when a rift storm is blowing in. There’s no advanced human technology involved, and the sound carries for a good distance.”

“This lets you hunker down when monsters attack.” Paul was assessing the metal structure like an auction item, and Kat decided he needed to get this tour over with.

“I’ll show you the petting zoo.” Kat pointed away from the gong, then remembered he was supposed to check in with Kaveh if anything unusual happened or his routine changed.

The two of them were going to catch up over lunch, but that was a few hours away.

“Oh, I forgot. Kaveh’s here today, and I’m sure he’d be interested in meeting you.

Plus, he can tell you everything about our rehabilitation program for injured Riftworld species. ”

Paul smiled. “Garreth already set that up and asked him to meet us there. I’m so excited to shake hands with an actual dragon!”

It was odd that Garreth hadn’t mentioned this, but the thought that Kat wouldn’t be alone with the venture capitalist droning on for hours cheered him immensely.

It was a short walk to the petting zoo, which was quiet this early in the morning. Ranch visitors tended to stop by later in the day.

Since the phantom attack several months ago, the damage to the outer fence had been repaired and new guardweed planted.

Scorch marks on the compact building that housed a mini-clinic and various living spaces for the animal ambassadors were no longer visible under a new coat of cheerful sunshine-yellow paint.

It was amazing to think he had come close to dying here a few months ago, trying to save two children who had snuck into the petting zoo and had been left unprotected when the phantoms attacked.

Thank goodness Lyall, Remi, and Kaveh had been able to drive them away.

His family didn’t know about his brush with death, and he didn’t want to share those memories with Paul.

“We have a weekly lecture series here.” Kat pointed at the rebuilt stage where they did their animal ambassador demonstrations as he scanned the area for any sign of Kaveh. He could be inside the building. Or maybe he was running late.

One of the juvenile phoenixes, colorful flying reptiles from the Riftworld who could create and manipulate fire, fluttered down to perch on the stage, cocking her head in their direction.

Paul’s eyes sharpened. He stepped forward to open the fence door without asking and approached the phoenix. “Is that one for sale?”

“Bad guy.” Snow, the half-phoenix, half-cockatoo hybrid, landed next to the phoenix and fluffed his feathers in Paul’s direction. Orange sparks began to glow along their tips. “Go away.”

Kat was surprised and alarmed. Surprised because Snow was the definition of chaotic good, and he had never seen him show this type of hostility toward anyone. Alarmed, because Snow had almost lit the rodeo corral on fire during his one and only full phoenix manifestation.

“That’s not nice, Snow.” Kat moved in between the parrot and the venture capitalist. Garreth would not be happy if his latest big donor had his eyebrows singed off. “This is Paul, and he’s a guest visiting the ranch.”

“Bad guy, bad guy.” Snow opened his beak, and a spurt of fire came out.

Not a diplomatic thing for an animal ambassador to do.

“Is this one a hybrid?” Paul wisely took a step back from Snow. “I’ve read articles trying to explain how aliens can mate with Earth species. It didn’t sound like science has come up with a satisfying answer.”

“We don’t understand the natural laws of the Riftworld well enough to do that type of analysis.

” Kat loved to chat about interesting biology topics, but at this moment he was more focused on stopping a Snow inferno.

“Maybe it would be best if you let the bird simmer down while I grab the fire extinguisher.”

After making sure that Paul wasn’t going to do something stupid, like try to pet Snow, Kat walked over to the small building inside the fence that surrounded the petting zoo.

He gave a quick knock on the door and was disappointed when Kaveh didn’t appear to open it.

The door wasn’t locked, though, as it should have been if Kaveh wasn’t inside.

He stepped inside the clinic room, which held a few cages for smaller animals to recover in after procedures, an examining table, and storage cabinets for supplies.

There was a small closet in the back which held emergency items, and Kat opened the door and grabbed a fire extinguisher.

It was strange for Kaveh to be late if Garreth had already asked him to come to the petting zoo to meet Paul, but he certainly wasn’t here.

Not wanting to leave the devilish parrot alone with a VIP donor for long, Kat hurried back to the entrance and stepped outside.

Snow and the phoenix sat next to each other on the fence post, fire dancing around both of them. The hybrid parrot was sexually mature, so he might be overprotective of the female phoenix, even if she was twice his size.

There was no sign of Paul.

That was odd. Maybe Snow had scared him off.

Paul hadn’t seemed nervous around the bird, but he might not have wanted to admit that to Kat.

In that case, the misbehaving parrot had spared him hours of dealing with the venture capitalist’s long-winded discussions about buying anything and everything in sight.

He owed Snow a few treats for that favor.

He turned around to go back into the clinic to look for some but stopped as a voice called out behind him.

“Hello, gatito.”

Kat wondered for a second why the voice was so familiar and then felt his stomach clench in fear when he realized who it was. He turned around and immediately put his hands up.

Teo stood, grinning, in between the Pouch Twins.

The two giant ratkind enforcers looked every bit as nasty and intimidating as they had when they tried to kidnap Kat months ago.

Fable loomed to Teo’s right, carrying a metal-tipped baseball bat.

Mabel had the gun this time, a rifle he recognized as the one they kept in the emergency closet.

That explained why the door was unlocked.

They must have been here before his arrival and taken the weapon, then waited to ambush him.

He could scream for help, but it was unlikely any of the wranglers would be close enough to hear him, and Mabel had the rifle pointed right at him.

“No guard dog this time?” Teo, standing fully clothed in a relaxed pose between the two hulking ratkind, didn’t look dangerous at all.

The dark-haired hopper had no visible weapons, and there was no sign of anything amphibian about him.

If Teo had walked into the ranch happy hour, half of the wranglers and guests would have asked Kat if he was single.

“Lyall’s around.” Kat did his best to sound nonchalant.

The truth was that Lyall wasn’t going to come and save him.

The hellhound thought Kat was safe with Kaveh, whose absence must be due to a diversion the mafia enforcers had created.

Not a direct attack, since the ratkind knew better than to take on a drakone.

The ranch’s VIP guest might be in trouble, though.

“Where’s Paul?” Kat demanded and wasn’t happy when both Pouch Twins burst into laughter.

What had they done with him? He hoped the venture capitalist wasn’t hurt, but he was in no position to push them on the subject.

Mabel was sloppy and careless with the rifle, but her smaller clawed fingers could pull the trigger well enough.

They were outside the rift, and the gun would work just fine against Kat.

“Don’t worry about Paul.” Teo held out his hand. “Worry about Arimanius. He wants to have a chat with you. Come along, and I’ll make the twins here behave.”

Kat didn’t want to go quietly to meet the terrifying boss of the ratkind mafia, but he also didn’t want to get shot. “I don’t think Kaveh or Lyall are going to be okay with you kidnapping me. Do you want to take on a hellhound and a drakone?”

He caught the quick glance of worry between Fable and Mabel, but Teo shrugged. “The Azdaha won’t get here in time, and Lyall thinks you’re safe and is long gone. Don’t do anything stupid, little gatito. You’re coming with us.”