Page 18 of Zane

“I-I don’t know to be honest.My mom died about five years ago, just as I was starting college.He sold their tiny house and just disappeared.He called a few times for money and I refused.I didn’t hear from him at all after that.”

“He wants something from you,” said AJ.

“Should I call him back?” she asked.From behind AJ and Tanner, she heard a chorus of ‘yes’.Ham, Cowboy, and Gator stared at her.Blake only nodded as Tanner pushed the call back button.

“Hello?”said the tired voice on the other end of the line.

“Josh?It’s Blake.You’ve been calling me.”

“Fuck yeah, I have.Why didn’t you answer?”

“I’ve been busy,” she said.“I’m working and doing some traveling.”The others nodded at her quick thinking and waited.

“Where?Where are you and where are you working?”

“That’s none of your business, Josh.I’m an adult and I have my own life.I don’t know what you want but I’m not interested.”

“You need to get interested.I helped raise your redheaded ass you need to do me a favor.”

“I hardly think what you did was ‘raise’ me.You were there and helped mom pay bills but you definitely were not a father to me.I don’t owe you anything,” she said firmly.Zane gave her free hand a squeeze, nodding his appreciation to her response.

“Listen to me, Blake.You need to do me a favor.You owe me whether you think you do or not.I want to know where you are and I’ll come and meet you there.I’m desperate, kid.I need this.”

Blake stared at the others, watching as Ham wrote something on a piece of paper and held it up.

Tell him u will txt him a location.

“Fine.I’ll text you a location and time.”

“Great.Thanks kid.”

The call ended and Blake looked at the men inside the cottage.She took a seat at the kitchen table and shook her head.

“This makes no sense to me at all.Why is he calling me?I haven’t seen him since I left for college.”

“He wants something from you,” said Zane, “and I don’t know why I feel this way but I have a feeling it has something to do with you being able to speak to animals.”

“Why would he want that?I can’t do anything with that skill.I won’t show anyone the skill, outside of all of you.I have no inheritance, no trust fund, no money of any kind other than what I’ve personally earned.His name was on the house and property, which he sold the minute my mom died.I just don’t understand.”Ham stared at the young woman, feeling her confusion in the room of testosterone.

“Well, we’re going to find out what it is he wants and you won’t be alone.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Josh first noticed something strange about Blake on a wet spring afternoon when she was eight years old, crouched beneath the crooked porch steps with a muddy calico cat staring straight into her face. He had gone outside to call her in for dinner, annoyed that she had ignored him twice already, but the words died in his throat when he heard her whisper.

“I know it hurts, but if you scratch, it’ll bleed again.”The cat seemed to answer with a sharp little chirrup, not quite a meow, and Blake nodded as if she understood every sound.

At first Josh told himself children were strange, especially children who spent more time with strays than with people, but then Blake slipped one small hand under the cat’s chin and said.

“I’m sorry the fence got you.”

She looked up, startled to find Josh watching from the porch, and the color drained from her face. The cat pressed its injured leg into the dirt and blinked at him with accusing yellow eyes.

“What do you mean?How do you know that?” Josh asked, stepping down into the yard.

Blake tucked her chin and gathered the cat against her chest, careful of the bleeding paw. She was a quiet child, pale and watchful, with her mother’s red hair and a stubbornness Josh had never learned how to soften.

“Nothing,” she said.“I was just pretending.”