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“What crawled up your keister today?” Lydia jokes as I’m pouring coffee into my mug.
“Your husband ruined my night.”
“I heard. My attorney is getting paperwork together today. He’ll be served tomorrow morning and will also be informed that the children are being kept away for their safety.” She sighs as she leans against the counter.
“I never expected him to be like this,” I say.
“He’s changed so much in the last couple years. I didn’t tell you, but ever since he got the job with Kant Holding International, he’s been more aggressive and demanding. He’s also been less present. At first, I blamed it on the fact the job is based in Dallas and he was having to travel so much.”
“Why didn’t you move?” I ask the obvious question.
“I didn’t want to give up my job. This is my dream position working here, and he said he would only have to travel every couple of weeks. Then it turned into him being gone for weeks at a time or even a month. I should have known he was cheating on me.”
“You couldn’t know.” I try to make her feel better.
“But the crazy thing is I did know. He didn’t want to have sex with me anymore.”
“Hello, ladies.” A deep voice comes from the entrance to the breakroom. “Sorry to interrupt. I’m looking for Dr. Rorke,” the tall good-looking man in a state police uniform says.
“That’s me,” Lydia says.
“I’m Sergeant Whitlock. I was told to seek you out. I have a brown bear cub in the back of my truck.”
“What?” we both exclaim, and he chuckles at us.
“I don’t stutter, ladies. By the way, not meaning to eavesdrop, but you were talking fairly loud.” His eyes roam up and down Lydia’s body. “Any man who turns you down isn’t a real man.” With those words he turns and walks out, leaving us both stunned.
“Um, did he just say that to me?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Okay, before I forget, and the reason I came down here, the Zimbabwe Elephant Rescue is here today. They are meeting with the president of the board right now. They want to follow you and the team around today to talk about elephant conservation, but they want to talk to you mostly about the rhino exhibit.”
“Okay. I’m around, but I’ll be busy.” I hope I’m too busy to talk to them.
“Are you coming or not?” Sergeant Whitlock steps back into the room.
“Excuse me, I was giving her an update for the day. I’ll be with you in a moment. If you are in such a rush, I’m fairly sure the vets would be able to help you.”
“I was told you are a bear expert and I’ve decided I like pissing you off.” He chuckles, his eyes moving up and down her body again.
I laugh and get to work.
* * *
“And this is Sydney Parrish. She’s our rhino and elephant expert.” I hear the president of the zoo association say. “She was once in your lovely country doing management and filming, from what I understand.” I turn to see him walking up the boardwalk toward me where I’m doing some point training with Umi. Behind him are a few faces I recognize from Zimbabwe. I met with them a few times for a couple of assignments in Botswana. When they see me, their eyes flare wide, and I understand. After the court case was settled, their government went with the rumor that I died during surgery.
I move over to them and hold out my hand. “Hello again.”
Abasi pulls me into his arms and greets me with kisses on the cheek. “They told us you died.”
“I know. It was to protect me from the Brigade,” I say.
“Retaliation?” he asks, and I nod. “The zoo must be happy to have someone with your knowledge.”
“We are very excited to have her on staff.” The president laughs.
For a few hours we work with Umi and then I show them to our elephant exhibit, where we just had a new calf born. I learn their conservation center is in danger of losing funding and they’ve struggled with poachers getting on to the property a few times. It brings back the memories of my last assignment and I try to push them down, not willing to go through that all here now.
