Page 48 of Immortal By Morning
Abril glanced over her shoulder to see the conflict taking place on Crispin’s face. Meeting her gaze, he managed a smile and then said, “We will just guard her better. I should have stayed with her rather than go outside to work on the—”
“We were just outside the sliding glass door, Crispin,” Lucian pointed out. “And yet this rogue wasbold enough to break into the house and take her out anyway, even with a dog in the house.”
Abril’s mind latched on to the mention of a dog, and she suddenly realized she didn’t know where Lilith was.
“Where is Lilith?” she asked with concern. The men immediately ended the glaring war they’d been holding and focused on her again as she continued, “It’s past her dinnertime now, and I swear Lilith has an internal clock about food. She should be here bugging me for her supper.”
“I saw her sleeping in front of the couch in the living room as I passed through on the way to the pool room,” Crispin said reassuringly. “I am sure she is still there.”
Bricker stood and headed for the kitchen door, saying, “I’ll go wake her.”
“Thank you,” Abril called after him, and then stood to collect the dog bowl and carry it over to the refrigerator to retrieve Lilith’s homemade dog food. She had just set the food and bowl on the island, and was about to go get a large spoon to start dishing it out when Bricker called from the other room, “Something’s wrong! I can’t wake her up!”
Concern rushing through her, Abril hurried out of the room, aware that the men were following. Bricker was kneeling next to where Lilith slept in front of the couch, shaking the dog and getting no response.
“She’s breathing but won’t wake up,” he said with a frown when Abril knelt next to him to look at Lilith herself. “I think she’s been drugged.”
Abril ran a hand down the Labrador’s back. She could feel that she was warm, and when she leaneddown and rested her cheek against Lilith’s side, she could hear that she was breathing as Bricker had said. She straightened and sat back on her heels though when Lucian knelt on Lilith’s other side and lifted her eyelids to reveal her eyes. Abril had no idea what he was looking for, but whatever it was, he appeared to find it. Releasing the lid and allowing it to close again, he glanced to Decker, who had remained out of the way by the indoor garden, and said, “Call Anders’s wife. I think Bricker is right and she has been drugged, but better to be safe than sorry. I want Valorie to check her out.”
“Anders’s wife, Valorie, is a vet,” Crispin explained reassuringly as he knelt on her other side.
“Did someone forget to clean up and track dirt in here from the excavation site?” Cassius asked suddenly.
Abril glanced around to see that he was standing on the other side of the couch, peering down at the floor with an annoyed frown.
“There’s dirt here on the carpet,” he added when no one responded.
Abril made a mental note to have the carpet cleaned before Gina returned, but other than that didn’t really care and turned her attention back to Lilith.
The pup looked so sweet and peaceful. She really was a good dog, Abril thought and listened as Decker began murmuring somewhere behind her. He was telling someone that Lilith appeared to be asleep but wasn’t waking up and Lucian wanted her checked out. She heard him give Lilith’s breed and say he wasn’t sure of her age. Realizing he must be talking to this vet, Valorie, Abril said, “She’s two years old.”
She listened to him relay the information, and then instinctively glanced to Lucian to ask, “Will she be all right?”
“We shall have to wait and see,” he said grimly rather than offer a platitude.
It was Decker who said, “Valorie will see to her. She said she will head down right away.”
She turned to offer him a grateful smile, but he wasn’t looking her way. He was putting his phone away and frowning slightly as he toed at the ceramic tile around the indoor garden. “There is some dirt here too.”
Lucian straightened. His expression was grim. “Is the dirt in the garden disturbed?”
Decker raised an eyebrow and then bent to move aside a large frond of one of the umbrella plants behind the Naked-man orchids. “Yeah. There is a footprint here and some obvious digging. It looks like somebody either started to dig and stopped, or dug and filled it back in.”
“Get a shovel and start digging,” Lucian ordered.
Cassius moved over to examine the garden, and then glanced to Abril and asked, “Will digging up the indoor garden be a problem?”
Abril shook her head. “The gardens are going to be removed anyway, and the hole filled in with gravel then concrete. It’s going to be carpeted and made part of the living room,” she told them solemnly. “Do what you need to.”
She didn’t really care if they dug up the garden. She just had no idea why they would. But then she had no idea what was going on right now. Why had she been outside? Why couldn’t she remember gettingthere? Why had Lilith been drugged? If she had been. And why were the men suddenly so on edge and acting weird? She had all these questions and no answers. Worse yet, though, was that she still felt a little fuzzy. Her memory was hazy with some holes in it, and she just didn’t feel right.
“Where would I find a shovel?” Decker asked, straightening from the garden.
“There are some in the garden shed,” Abril answered quietly.
“You will not go to the shed to get shovels,” Lucian said at once. “I do not want whoever is watching the house to know we have discovered what they are looking for if they didn’t manage to dig it up.”
“You think it was something in the garden and not Abril they were after?” Bricker asked with interest.
