Ryland by Kathi S. Barton Page B

when he’d had to discipline Bronwyn, he’d come every day
just watching the whip strike her back. Christ, she’d been so good for him.
Then she’d gotten away.
    Eli tossed the file down. She’d
been unconscious when he’d left for the day. Her most recent beating was on a
thumb drive to use at home and her file, the one he had now to go over, was in
his brief case. He was just about to shoot his load when his alarm had gone off,
telling him that he was needed at the lab. But by the time he’d gotten there it
was gone. And so was she.
    It had taken him nearly a
month to figure out that she hadn’t been in the place when it went up. The fire
marshal had said it was a gas leak and had been filling the building nearly all
day. Not likely since there had been about a dozen cats in the building all
during that time frame and they would have smelled it first. It had been her. She’d
gotten loose and had blown his building and all his work to hell and back. Just
another thing to hold over her head when he found her. And he would too. It was
just a matter of time.
    He picked up his cell when
it rang and he cringed. His ex-wife. He had better things to do than to listen
to her complain about one of his brats again. He set the cell down again and
let her tell her woes to the voicemail. He sent her more money in one month
than a small country could use in two years. He closed his eyes and thought
about Bronwyn when he heard the beep that he had new mail. He ignored it. Later,
he told himself. When hell froze over, he’d get back to her. Grinning, he went
to find some lunch, then he might go and see if that building was still gone.
    ~~~
    “Do you know what this is?” Keith
handed Ryland a picture as he explained where he’d found it. “When we were
being shot up by those guys while trying to save Bronwyn one of the men I was
chasing dropped it. I’ve been working on a recognition program, but it doesn’t
seem to get it.”
    Ryland even tried to turn it
sideways and then upside down and he didn’t know what it was either. It was
sort of blurry, but that wasn’t it. It seemed to be of a person, but it was
hard to tell. He leaned over to Bronwyn and handed it to her. He realized she
knew the moment she stood up.
    “Where did you get this?” He
told her that he’d gotten it from his brother. “I thought that it’d been
destroyed. I did it; all of it was gone.”
    She left the dining room
only to return and sit down. She looked around the room and then at Sindy. The
two of them were talking and he wasn’t happy to be left out. When he touched
her arm she looked at him.
    “I need a map.”
    Nodding, he took her to the
office and pulled out one of his dad’s county maps. She stood over it with the
picture, moving in different directions until she looked at Keith.
    “I can’t find…is there a way
for you to see if there have been any building permits issued in the last…I
would say, in the last year. It would be for a big building, a lab.” He nodded
and she watched him sit at his laptop. “It might be under a different guise. Maybe
foods or additives.”
    “There are two. One is now
defunct called Better Future . They had a horrible fire fifteen years ago
and…” He looked at her. “You know this one. And one that is under the name of C
& C Enterprises. It specializes in enhancement formulas.”
    She nodded and looked at
him. “I’m sure they do. It’s the same place. Different name, but the same
place. Ryland, I need to talk to you. There’s something you should know.”
    “We all want to know.” She
looked at Sandra when she spoke. “If it involves you and something that might
get you hurt, then I think we all want to know. If Ryland doesn’t mind letting
us in on it, that is. But you’re a part of our family now and—”
    “If what I think is going on
again is, there might not be a family.” Bronwyn looked at him again. “He’s
experimenting on cats. Not just cats, but all species. When I was