Chapter 34

34

F ranzi was very, very quiet as she and Tabby packed up all of her things into her suitcases to move her into Tabby's house that afternoon.

Tabby had no idea how long Logan was going to be in horse-limbo, and she wanted Franzi in the house with her, not sleeping across the yard and up a flight of stairs. She considered moving into Logan's bedroom, but knew it would be too lonely without him, and the apartment was inconveniently small and all of her own things were in her house; it seemed infinitely simpler to move Franzi in with her rather than the other way around.

But Tabby second guessed that decision when she saw how uncertain and unsettled Franzi was, and how unnaturally silent she got. Tabby hadn't realized how constantly she talked until she wasn't saying a word.

"It's your very own horsey room," Tabby said. She'd moved the more valuable models up high out of reach, and left enough down to play with that she thought Franzi would be entertained. Her wooden rocking horse, sanded safe but not yet finished, was in one corner and Tabby had emptied the desk for her to use.

Did this make Franzi think of moving around through the foster care system? Did she believe that she was going to be abandoned again?

"Are you okay, Franzi? You know that Uncle Logan loves you and he isn't going to leave, right?"

Franzi was holding a stuffy and she pressed her face down into it.

Tabby's heart gave a twang. "I'm not going to leave, either," she promised, sitting down on the edge of Franzi's bed. "Even if Uncle Logan stays a horsey forever, you've got me, okay?" To her surprise, she meant it. If she'd fallen hard for Logan, she'd fallen even harder for Franzi, who was sweet and stubborn and fragile and needed love more than air.

Franzi squeezed her stuffy harder and didn't say a word.

Why was this so impossible? Tabby didn't have the right words to comfort her and it only made her realize her own despair. "I miss him as a human, too," she said sadly. "At least we still have him as a horse."

Franzi's head suddenly popped up and swiveled towards the window, just as Tabby realized she was hearing a car in the drive. She wasn't expecting anyone, and for a moment she was cross, and then she was alarmed. Was it someone coming looking for Logan?

"Stay here, sweetheart," she told Franzi. "Shut the door and don't let anyone in, okay? Promise you'll stay here?"

She didn't want Franzi to watch them haul Logan away if they caught him, and she hoped that Logan had enough sense to be somewhere else when he heard the car coming in .

It was, at least, just a car, not a truck with a trailer, but Tabby's moment of relief was short-lived. Clancy Kennedy got out of the SUV.

"Ms. Swiftwater!" he called, as he rounded the fancy black vehicle. Two big goons got out with him, one from the passenger seat, and one from behind.

"Can I help you?" Tabby knew she sounded hostile and didn't care. Was it Clancy's fault that Logan was trapped as a horse? Logan was nowhere to be seen, and she desperately hoped that he'd seen Clancy coming and hidden himself.

Tabby noticed at once that Clancy was doing a masterful job of looking around without looking like he was looking around, and she remembered Logan's laughing lessons on subterfuge. It was a lot less funny with Clancy than it was with Logan.

"Is Logan around? I thought we might drink to a successful transaction!" Clancy raised a bottle of wine.

As if it was perfectly normal to bring bodyguard goons to a business toast. Were they there to guard Clancy or to keep him in line?

Tabby crossed her arms in front of herself. "The bastard skipped out on me!" she said at the spur of the moment. "Never came back, left me high and dry with months of back rent due!"

If she hadn't been watching carefully for it, she wouldn't have seen the flash of delight in Clancy's face. Tabby might not have magical instinct, but she was a good read of character, and she could tell that Clancy had not been coming to celebrate with Logan.

Clancy quickly masked his reaction with a look of shock. "He didn't! What about that sweet niece of ours?"

Tabby wanted to reach for the dinner bell clanger hanging on her porch and clock him over the head. "I wasn't going to keep the kid," she scoffed. "Logan Kennedy wasn't paying me enough to be a nanny. Child services came and got her yesterday."

Clancy's eyes flashed briefly in anger and Tabby's resolve hardened. There was no way she was letting him get his mitts on Franzi.

"You don't mind if we look around, do you?"

"Let me give you a tour," Tabby said acidly, mindful of Logan's advice to always stay in control of the situation. "You can take the deadbeat's stuff with you and save me the refuse fees."

The apartment was so sparsely furnished and Logan had so few possessions that it was believable he would skip out in that state. Tabby opened the refrigerator door to point out the food that had been left there since before the championship. "You're welcome to take the science experiments with you," she said.

Franzi's room was stripped. None of her toys or clothing remained behind, and Tabby pulled out the empty drawers to make a point. She had no regrets now that she'd moved the little girl into the house, and she hoped as hard as she could that Franzi wouldn't get bored and come out. Would instinct keep her hidden? Her understanding of instinct was vague at best, but Logan had said he thought it was stronger in younger shifters to keep them safe.

Right now, it might be the only thing keeping her safe.

They went down to the barn after that, and Tabby was not surprised that they peered in every stall. Her boarders greeted the visitors according to their personality, begging for treats or staying snottily out of reach. It was clear that Logan was not here. One of the big men went and poked into the hay, as if he might be hiding underneath it .

"That's Logan's bike," Clancy observed, looking into one of the stalls.

"I plan to sell that to recoup some of the rent he owes me," Tabby said flippantly. She'd forgotten it was there; Logan hadn't worked on it since they parked it there the day he moved in. "His truck, too."

"Satisfied?" Tabby asked, when they had gone through the big barn and she had opened the garden shed to prove that Logan couldn't possibly be in there. They didn't ask to come in the house, as if Clancy knew that he wouldn't be there as a man, and Tabby was deeply relieved; Clancy's flash of anger when he thought Tabby had sent Franzi away suggested that the little girl had been his ultimate goal. She had no idea where Logan actually was, but she was glad he had the sense to stay away. "If you find that bastard, you call me, because he owes me a lot more than money."

They would assume she was a jilted lover, Tabby realized as she heard her own words. That was probably in character for Logan, and he'd said that the best way to do a con was to play to your strengths. So she channeled all her leftover anger about her ex-husband and hoped she looked properly betrayed. Mostly, she was surprised to discover how little she cared about Hank any more.

Clancy was all smoothness and charm again as they went back to his car and his goons got in. "I hope you won't hold any of this against me, Ms. Swiftwater," he said, offering to shake her hand and then fawning over it. "I genuinely thought that we'd be setting things right. I had no idea that Logan would leave us high and dry like this."

"Call me if you track him down," Tabby said loftily, taking her hand back. She looked beyond him towards the house and realized that Franzi's car seat was in plain view in the passenger seat of her truck. There was absolutely no reason to have Franzi's car seat still if she had given the girl over to child services.

Tabby hoped her face hadn't done anything awful at the realization and scowled.

"We'll be in touch," Clancy promised. If he suspected anything, he didn't give any indication, and Tabby was glad to see the last of his SUV. She walked to the end of the drive behind him to close the gate, noticing a second vehicle with a horse trailer down the highway that might have been waiting along the road. She locked the gate.

Then she turned and sprinted back to the house, bursting into Franzi's room with a frantic, "Franzi, honey, are you okay?"

All of the model horses had been spread out on the floor, and several fell over when Tabby opened the door. Franzi, looking guilty, was sitting in the middle of them holding the two most expensive. "I was playing," she said angelically.

"How did you get those down?" Tabby choked, willing her heart to stop thumping so hard.

"I climbed," Franzi said with a hopeful smile. "Am I in trouble?"

Tabby moved two horses and lowered herself down to the floor very slowly and carefully. "No, honey," she said in relief. "You're not in trouble. You're home."