by Mark Nolan
“I’m still at my clinic, working late.”
“I heard on the police radio that some vigilantes took a few shots at Jake. A witness stated that they may have hit his dog. I hope they’re both okay.”
“I hope so too. Thanks for the info. If I see Jake and Cody, I’ll give you a call.”
“Please do. Be sure to call me directly on this mobile number instead of calling police HQ, the FBI or anyone else okay?”
“Okay, thanks again Beth. Goodbye.”
Just as Sarah said goodbye and ended the call, Cody let out an impatient bark at Jake. Beth heard the bark before the call ended. She smiled a rueful smile and wondered how Sarah could know that Jake’s dog was named Cody. Beth hadn’t mentioned the dog’s name.
Beth remembered the video that Terrell had shown to her, where Jake’s fiancée Gwen had threatened to file a false police complaint against him. Jake had ended his engagement to Gwen, and it looked like he wasn’t wasting any time meeting someone new, namely Sarah Chance.
Terrell had once told Beth that Jake Wolfe was known to be a silver-tongued devil. He had a way with words and a way with women. Just some kind of gift. Beth thought it was true. Jake was a charming rogue, she had to give him credit for that. Right now he was probably working his charm on the warm-hearted and emotional veterinarian. The question was, what should Beth do about it? It was her job to go and arrest Jake—but instead, she made a call to Terrell.
Chapter 90
Sarah ended her call with Beth Cushman. She put her phone in her pocket and tucked her pistol into the holster in the back waistband of her slacks. “Lucky for you, your alibi checks out mister fugitive. Now step aside and let me see how badly you’ve botched this medical procedure.
“Thank you, I owe you a big favor,” Jake said, and he stepped aside.
“Sure, that’s what all the fugitives say.”
Jake said to Cody, “Out Cody; lay still. This is a Navy Corpsman. She’s going to treat your wound.”
Cody barked once and watched Sarah with his intelligent eyes.
Jake respected the Navy Corpsmen. They ran into combat alongside the Marines and heroically worked to save their lives when they were injured. The Corpsmen could perform medical miracles in the middle of a firefight with bullets flying past them. They were warrior doctors who were as good with a rifle as they were with a medical kit. They could fight and heal in equal measure.
The Navy “Doc” in Jake’s platoon had gone through Marine Corps boot camp just like any other Marine. He’d carried a rifle on foot patrol outside the wire, right alongside his Marine brothers.
Cody knew who the Corpsmen were too. Although Sarah was not one of them, Jake used the word “Corpsman” to tell Cody she was a “doctor.” That was the word Cody understood.
Sarah bravely scratched the military dog behind his ears and under his chin, studied his wound and spoke comforting words to him. “You’re going to be okay Cody. You’re such a brave dog aren’t you boy?”
Cody’s tail wagged and thumped on the metal table a couple of times. He instinctively understood that his Alpha considered this person a friend and equal, and respected her skills. She’d fought hard with his Alpha. Now they’d made peace with each other. There were a lot of male and female human pheromones swirling around in the room. Cody could sense their attraction to each other by his highly evolved sense of smell.
Sarah put on her black horn-rimmed glasses, and she looked in Cody’s ears and saw the military ID tattooed in one ear. Jake knew she was checking to see if he’d told her the truth. He got his wallet out of his back pocket, removed a photo and showed it to her. Sarah glanced at the picture and saw a somewhat younger-looking Jake, wearing desert combat camo clothing and boots. He was standing in front of an armored military vehicle near some desolate sand dunes. A dog was standing next to Jake. On the other side of the dog was a rugged Marine with a cigarette in his mouth and a frown on his face. He was holding a dangerous looking rifle.
“That’s me and my buddy, Terrell Hayes. Along with my former Marine Corps war dog… His name was Duke.”
Sarah nodded her head and made a point of not asking about Duke. The way Jake had said the dog’s name seemed to expose some buried emotions. She focused her full attention on suturing up the part of Cody’s wound that Jake had not worked on yet. It was a long cut on the surface of the skin. One inch closer and the bullet would have killed him.
When Jake saw Sarah caring for his dog, looking like an angel of mercy and wearing those glasses, he felt a pressure in his chest. He was impressed with her deft hands, talent and skills. It was obvious she loved animals. She was the best veterinarian he’d ever seen. His blood pressure started to rise, and he took a deep breath. Sarah felt his eyes on her, and she glanced up at him over the top of her glasses. Jake was mesmerized.
“What?” Sarah said.
“I’m just… impressed with your work. I have a lot of respect for you.”
Sarah felt flustered by his gaze and compliments. It pleased her and bothered her for reasons she didn’t clearly understand at the moment. Until now, no man had ever said that he had a lot of respect for her. Why was that so hard to say? This man seemed to find it easy and natural.
Cody also watched Sarah, and his eyes twinkled with affection as he looked at her face. Cody seemed to breathe easier now, somehow knowing that this woman would take good care of him and keep him alive. She was better at this medical work than his Alpha was.
“And… I like your tattoo,” Jake said, to fill the silence.
Sarah just nodded and remained focused on her work. She had a tattoo on her left arm. It was a goddess carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows, accompanied by two hunting dogs. Many people commented on it. Few understood it.
“That looks like Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, heroine and protector of life.”
She glanced up in surprise. “Yes it’s Artemis. She was also the protector of animals.”
“Good archetype for a veterinary doctor.”
“How do you know about Artemis?”
“I’ve studied some Greek mythology. She’s one of my favorites.”
“Where did you study, what college?”
“I self-studied in the military, reading books on my phone when I was in a hospital bed recovering from injuries. Nowadays when I can’t sleep at night I study law and stoic philosophy.”
Sarah was surprised, and she wondered why he couldn’t sleep at night. It might have something to do with his past. After a few more minutes she was done treating Cody’s wound. She tied off the suture and removed the IV needle. Then stepped back and nodded her head, satisfied with her work.
Jake was impressed. “You did that incredibly fast, and the work is perfect.”
The third of the stitches that Jake had worked on for so long were messy, and the two-thirds Sarah had completed in minutes were obviously done by a professional.
Sarah shrugged modestly. “Years of practice. By the way, where did you get your knowledge of medical procedures? Please tell me it was not on the internet.”
“I volunteered to be an IED dog handler in the Marines. Part of my training was in canine first aid.”
“You were doing okay here. He would have been fine, but don’t quit your day job.”
“I owe you for your help. Did I leave enough money there?” Jake said, and he pointed at the pile of twenty dollar bills he’d left for her.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sarah said. This time, she didn’t turn her head or look in that direction.
Sarah gently applied some salve onto Cody’s stitched up wound and then taped clean bandages over it. “Once I get this taped up you two should probably get out of here.”
“Cody is pretty weak from the loss of blood. Could I pay you to keep him here in a kennel for a day or two. Until he heals up some?”
Cody barked twice, shook his head and growled at Jake.
“He definitely needs to rest and recuperate. Don’t you two have s
omewhere to go?”
“No, I’m sure all of my family and friends are under twenty-four-hour surveillance. I don’t want to cause them any trouble.”
“But you made an exception for me. I feel really special.”
“I didn’t think anyone was here. I was just going to leave the money and a note of apology. If I’d waited five more minutes to break in here, none of this would have happened. But Cody was bleeding and time was short.”
“Where were you planning to sleep tonight?” Sarah’s cheeks colored slightly when she said that, and she looked down at Cody rather than at Jake.
“I don’t know. Every dog-friendly motel probably has a copy of my wanted photo. Last night we slept in a dumpster full of recycled cardboard.”
Sarah shook her head. “A dumpster?”
“It wasn’t so bad. When I was deployed overseas, I often slept on the ground in a mud hut.”
Cody growled at Jake and pawed the table.
“Cody you’ve lost blood and you need to rest, not go running through alleys and bushes,” Jake said. “Your stitches could pull loose. I’ll be back for you in the morning, I promise. Come on, be reasonable.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows when Jake talked to the dog as if it was a human who could understand his words. Cody growled and whimpered and made a move to climb off the table. He was loyal down to the bone, and war dogs have never been known for being reasonable.
Sarah and Jake both reached out for Cody to make sure he didn’t jump off the table and possibly rip open his fresh stitches. They were shoulder to shoulder, pressing against each other, and their hands were touching under the dog’s belly as they both held Cody and lowered him to the floor.
Sarah thought that Jake let his hands linger against hers for a moment longer than necessary. His touch and body heat made her heart beat faster. She felt that he wasn’t what she would consider handsome, but he had plenty of that powerful aphrodisiac known as self-confidence. And she could not deny the fact that Jake brought out a desire in her to be close to him.
This was what it could be like if she had a partner in life. Not that she was considering present company to be in the running for that. No way, this guy was nothing but trouble, although he was a six-foot tall hunk of bad-boy trouble. But that was the last thing she needed in her life now, right?
Jake noticed that after they set Cody down safely, Sarah looked slightly flustered for some reason. But she took a deep breath and spoke in a businesslike tone of voice. “I have a large walk-in kennel down the hall. When I rented this space I noticed that it had a good sized storage closet. So we added a horizontally split door with a window in the top half and made it into a sleepover area for the large dogs. Let me show you.”
“Okay let me grab a clean shirt out of my pack,” Jake said, “Once Cody is situated I’m going to take a minute to get cleaned up in the bathroom.”
The shirt Jake was wearing still had Cody’s blood on the front of it from when he’d carried him in his arms. Jake reached into his backpack and took out a clean shirt and carried it with him as they all went out the door. Sarah took them down the hall to a kennel room with a thick dog bed on the floor, a bowl of water and a chew bone.
Cody walked slowly and carefully due to his wound. He sniffed around the den and then drank some of the water from the bowl.
Jake looked at Cody and he felt a weight on his heart. “I don’t suppose you have any dog food on hand do you?”
“Yes I’ve got some right here.”
Sarah opened a cupboard and took out a plastic storage tub of dry kibble, along with a glass canning jar full of wet dog food.
“What kind of dog food is that?”
“The dry food is a grain-free brand, and the jar of wet food is homemade chicken and vegetable stew.”
Sarah poured some of the dry kibbles into a metal dog bowl and then added the jar of stew and stirred it around. Cody growled in hunger when he smelled the food.
“Say please, Cody,” Jake said.
Cody made a growly sound in his throat and pressed his head against Sarah.
“Such good manners,” Sarah said, and she placed the bowl of food on the floor by the water bowl.
Cody attacked the food and gobbled it quickly.
“Thank you, he was really hungry,” Jake said.
“How long has it been since you two ate?”
Jake thought about it. “I can’t remember. It’s been a nightmare. Everyone in the city seems to be against us, except my two police friends Terrell and Beth. Maybe my FBI friend Knight too. And you Sarah.”
“Well it goes against my better judgment, but I’m willing to keep Cody here for a few days while you get your problems straightened out. You have to sign this medical care consent form to give me legal authorization to be the caregiver for your pet and be in charge of him when you’re not present.”
Sarah took a paper out of a drawer. Jake scribbled his signature on the form. Sarah folded the paper several times into a small square and put it in her back pocket.
“After all of the legal hell you’ve been through, I understand the paperwork formalities,” Jake said. “And thank you, I can’t tell you how much this means to me.” He looked at Cody like a parent looks at their child.
“You really love that dog, don’t you?”
“He’s family to me, I’d do anything for him. I had a black Lab but she died recently. So when Cody was bleeding, I just…”
Jake stopped talking and went down on one knee and patted the dog bed. Cody stretched out on it and let out a tired sigh. Jake scratched Cody behind his ears and petted him, then kissed him on the top of his head.
Sarah got a warm feeling when she saw how much Jake loved dogs. “Why don’t you hide out at your girlfriend’s place? Weren’t you on the news hugging someone who looked like Barbie?”
After Sarah said that, she looked at Cody and avoided eye contact with Jake, feeling embarrassed that she had verbalized her thoughts.
Jake noticed it, and he smiled. What a great personality she had. “I was engaged, but I broke up with my fiancée. I’m not dating anyone right now. The woman you saw me with on the news is just a friend. She was in trouble, and I was helping her out. She’s looking for a wealthy trophy husband, but that’s not me.”
“Relationships are so superficial these days,” Sarah said, almost as if she was talking to herself. “Why did you break up with your fiancée? Never mind, it’s none of my business, I’m sorry for asking.”
“It’s okay to ask. We just weren’t right for each other, and now we’re both free to find the person who is.”
“That’s a positive way to look at it.”
“How about you. Since we’re on the subject. Do you have family nearby, are you married, do you have kids? I should probably let you go home now.”
“I have family here in the city. My father is an optometrist, and my mother owns a website that sells wedding favor gifts.”
Jake burst out laughing, thinking of his fight with Gwen over wedding favor trinkets. Sarah raised her eyebrows as if to ask what was so amusing.
“Recently I was thinking that wedding favor gifts might be a profitable business to be in. It’s a long story. What about your boyfriend, isn’t he worried about you right now?”
“I’m single, and I’ve been seeing a non-commitment kind of guy on and off. He’s emotionally unavailable to me, and he spends every waking minute glued to his phone. The relationship is going nowhere.”
“If he hasn’t claimed you as his exclusive girlfriend by now then maybe you should get back into dating rotation, meet other people and make him realize you are a catch and are easy to lose.”
“I kept on thinking he would change, but I might just give up on him.”
“That would be his loss. You deserve a man with a plan who will take you out on fun dates, wine you and dine you and sixty-nine you.”
Jake laughed when he said that, and Sarah did too, but when the two of them looked at each other Sa
rah saw a sexy animal magnetism in Jake’s eyes and it made her shiver in a good way. She felt awkward all of a sudden and didn’t know what to do with her hands, so she picked up the empty jar of stew and put it in the sink and ran the faucet to rinse it out.
“Dating takes a lot of time and effort. I’m trying to focus on getting my business going. I don’t have time for any complications, and I refuse to sacrifice my goals for someone else’s agenda.”
Standing close to Sarah made Jake realize she was not plain looking at all. She was beautiful in a wholesome natural way. He’d failed to see it clearly before. Simply because she didn’t advertise it. She wasn’t wearing a lot of makeup. Her hair wasn’t in a fancy style. It was pulled into a simple ponytail. She didn’t wear sky-high heels or tight clothes. And she only wore a few pieces of jewelry. Gold earrings and a gold chain necklace with a green jade stone.
Jake had thought that Sarah was very cute and he’d felt attracted to her, but now he saw her as smoking hot and gorgeous. He felt a powerful urge to put his arms around her, pull her close and kiss her. However after the breaking and entering, pointing guns at each other and fighting with martial arts, it didn’t exactly seem like the right moment to be romantic.
Sarah appeared to sense what Jake might be thinking, and she gave him a look that he thought was both curious and challenging. It was as if her eyes were saying, “Are you up for something serious? Are you a strong enough man to handle a woman like me? Or are you just all talk and no walk, like most of the shallow players I seem to meet?”
“Can I ask you a question, Sarah?”
“I think you just did.”
“When was the last time you went out on a real date that involved reservations at a romantic restaurant?”
“A real date… it has been a while. Nowadays everybody is just hanging out in groups, having drinks and hooking up if they are in the mood. The only dates I’ve been on lately are couch dates with a pizza and a movie.”
“Once this manhunt is over, and I’m no longer a fugitive, you and I are going out to dinner at an exclusive restaurant. One that I’ll bet you’ve never been to before.”
