Basia grinned. “Well. Ginger returns to her person, Lexi, the animal magnet.”
I tried to roll my eyes, but my voice came out soft and a little shaky. “Very funny, Basia.”
She chuckled, but we didn’t waste any more time. I clipped the leash onto her collar and we jogged the rest of the way toward Gray’s car. Ginger followed tight on my heels. Gwen got to the car first and opened the door. Ginger hopped in instantly, as if she already knew our escape plan. Maybe she did, but more likely, she just enjoyed riding in a car.
“You found her!” Gray exclaimed, looking over her shoulder. “That’s great.”
“Lexi called her and she came,” Basia said, shutting the door. “It’s like magic.”
“It’s recall,” I corrected her. “And she looks okay as far as I can tell.” I buckled in and looked over my shoulder. “You’re sure we’re clear and no one followed you?”
“As sure as I can be,” Gray said. “But where do you want to go? It’s almost midnight. We can’t go back to the casino tonight in case they’re waiting for us there.”
“No,” I agreed, as Gray pulled away from the curb. “We have to go somewhere safe. Then we figure out how to keep Ginger out of that lab’s hands until we can make sure it’s safe or at least that the lab is treating her humanely.”
“I’m all for that, but first, if I’m going to be driving at this hour, I need some coffee.” Gray zoomed down the boulevard. “I’m going to find a drive-through, and we can take a few minutes to reorganize and strategize.”
“I am totally on board for that plan,” Basia said. “The baby wants some French fries.”
Gwen, Ginger, and I didn’t have any objections, so Gray drove around looking for an easy place to get food and coffee and park in a lot where we’d be away from the main road.
In the meantime, Ginger planted half her body on my lap. The tape the vet had quickly applied was catching on her fur and looked uncomfortable. I loosened the tape that wrapped under her belly, and she seemed satisfied. I then pulled out the rest of the foil from my pocket and began smoothing it down over her shoulder blades, making sure we kept the GPS nice and blocked. Ginger didn’t seem to mind what I was doing. She had to be scared, cold, and exhausted. Her eyes closed and her breathing stayed warm and steady. It was unusual for me to have a calm animal on my lap (okay, any animal), but strangely, I didn’t mind, and in fact, I almost liked it.
I finished securing the rest of the foil around her and she opened her eyes, looking up at me, trusting, tired, and incredibly aware. I stroked her soft fur and admitted to myself it felt relaxing and comforting.
“We’re going to figure this out, girl,” I whispered, stroking her head. “You can rest now.”
Her tail thumped once, and for the first time that night, I felt hope spark in the dark.
Chapter Nineteen
Lexi
Crazy tired and bewildered by an animal that actually liked me, I did the only sensible thing I could think of in the moment: I called Slash and put him on speaker.
“Cara?” His voice cut through a background hum of voices, clinking bottles, and music. “It’s after midnight. Are you okay?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “We’re in a situation.”
“Define ‘situation,’” he said, suddenly alert.
There was no easy way to summarize, so I briefly told him everything about our initial encounter with Ginger and that she came from a lab and could seemingly communicate with us. I glossed over that part a bit, because it still seemed a bit crazy and I needed to process it further. I explained the advanced GPS technology and how I blocked it and about the mysterious man trying to get into our penthouse to take the dog. I finished off with the encounter at the emergency vet and the guys trying to take the dog back.
“We don’t want to go back to the hotel,” I finished. “They know where we’re staying.”
“Agreed,” Slash said. “Where are you now?”
“In Gray’s car behind a McDonald’s,” I said. “We’re eating fries, drinking coffee, and wondering how we suddenly became the Scooby-Doo gang.”
“If we’re the Scooby-Doo gang, I’m Daphne,” Basia called out. “I love, love her outfits. I bet we can all guess who Lexi is.”
I rolled my eyes as Slash spoke again. “What was the name of the lab, cara?”
“Tango Bio Research Solutions,” I said. “We did a cursory Google search on the phone, but there is very little online transparency.”
“Not a problem,” Slash said. “Hold on a sec.” I heard him call out. “Hey, guys. Stop right there. Just because I’m on the phone doesn’t mean I’m not calling that bet. However, we need to stop for a few minutes since the ladies have a problem.”
The noise in the background immediately stalled and Slash came back on the phone. “Lexi? You guys stay where you are. Give me a few minutes to update the guys and do a little digging of our own. I’ll call back in a few, okay?”
