Only Her (A K2 Team Novel)(10)

He chuckled as he traced a finger over her bottom lip. “You have no idea how much I wanna, darlin’, but I’d best be heading home.”

“Bye,” she whispered to his retreating back. “Nice butt,” she added as he and his dogs rounded the corner.



The morning was normal, no emergencies, no poisoned animals. Riley breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled off her lab coat before heading for the small kitchen. Her staff of two, an assistant and an office manager, had gone out to lunch, and she welcomed an hour of quiet. After locking the door behind them, she stuck her head inside the refrigerator, eyeing the contents. Slim pickings. A container of lemon yogurt and a half-full package of cheese sticks were about it. That she’d forgotten to stop at the grocery store to restock on her way to work, she blamed on a man with caramel-colored eyes who had sucked all thoughts but those of him from her mind that morning.

“Damn brain-sucking zombies,” she muttered. With her meager lunch in hand, she went to her office. After a few minutes of debate, she picked up the phone and called Maria Buchanan. She had first met Maria when she had brought in her cat, Mouse. After several visits to Riley’s clinic with her cat, Maria and Riley had met for lunch one day and hit it off. They had since made lunch a weekly habit. Maybe Maria could talk her out of setting her sights on a man with a sexy cowboy name, a devastating dimple, and smoldering eyes.

A lunch date set up for the next day with her friend, Riley dug into her yogurt and cheese. She’d just finished when there was banging at the door. She glanced at the clock to see there was another thirty minutes until the clinic opened again, but if a pet owner had an emergency, she couldn’t ignore whoever wanted in.

Someday, she would be able to afford security cameras, but until then, the only way to see who was on the other side was to open the door, which she did. Janie Forester, with a cat wrapped in a towel, and her young daughter, Kellie, at her side, rushed into the waiting room.

“Please, Max is dying,” Kellie said, tears falling down her cheeks.

Riley took the bundle from Janie’s arms. The poor cat was seizing and bleeding from the nose, both signs of poisoning. Riley’s heart fell at knowing the cat was too far gone to save, but she would try, dammit.

“Stay here,” she said, taking Max and running to her exam room. At the moment she set the cat down on the table, he took his last breath. “I’m so sorry, baby.” As tears fell down her cheeks, she stroked the still animal’s fur. “I swear I’ll find out who did this to you. I swear it.” She wet a cloth, and after tidying the cat as well as she could, she went to a storage closet and removed one of the small pine boxes. Little caskets.

When she had been fourteen, the foster family where she lived at the time had had a small terrier. The dog had been the only thing in the world she’d been sure actually loved her. When it got sick and had to be euthanized, the veterinarian had handed her the dead animal to take home and bury. Remembering how callously Cricket had been treated, she had bought a supply of the velvet-lined boxes for small animals shortly after opening her practice. She didn’t charge anything for them. It was her way of trying to ease the pain of losing a beloved pet. Someday, maybe she could afford some bigger ones for the larger animals.

Or maybe the owners were so grieved that it didn’t matter to them. She didn’t know, only knew this was the part of her practice that she hated to the depths of her soul. After putting the cat inside, she returned to the waiting room. The little girl was tucked up under her mother’s arm, and they both gave Riley hopeful looks when she entered the room.

Riley shook her head, and Kellie burst into tears. “I’m so sorry.” Such inadequate words. Taking a seat next to Janie, she said, “I know this is a sad time for you both, but I need to ask you some questions. Would you rather stop back by later?”

“Do you . . . do you know what happened to him?” Kellie asked.

“I think so.” Riley took the girl’s hand.

Kellie hiccupped. “Can-can I see h-him?”

Brooke and Michelle returned from lunch, and when they saw the obviously upset family, they quietly headed for the back. “Brooke,” Riley said to her assistant. “Kellie has the hiccups. Would you take her to the kitchen and get her a glass of water?” She turned to Janie. “Is that all right? I’d like to speak to you privately.”

“Of course.” After Kellie left, Janie brushed her fingers across her cheeks, wiping away her tears. “You said you knew what killed Max. He was perfectly fine this morning.”