by Laurie Roma
“What happened to the mother?”
“She took off before the police showed up and the boyfriend was arrested.”
“What a bitch.”
She couldn’t help but agree. Now, to get to the point. “Anna told me the therapist she’s consulted with said it was good for Shane to be here, but he’s still pretty timid around the bigger dogs. We’ve been taking turns spending time with him, but there are only so many of us on each shift and I can’t trust him to just anyone.”
“Ah, shit.”
Evie tried not to grin as she heard the resignation in Dare’s voice. “Don’t be scared, he’s only a twelve year old little boy. I just want you to let him help you when you’re working with some of the dogs.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Good,” she said as she beamed a smile at him. “They should be here any minute.”
“Now? He’s coming here now? Christ, Eve!”
She wagged a finger at him and couldn’t help but laugh. “You weren’t going to run off before he got here, were you?”
Dare scowled at her because that was exactly what he was going to do. He and Evie turned as someone approached the open doorway to the break room. Dare recognized Anna as the woman he met at the bakery as she walked towards them with a nervous smile on her face. She was carrying a large box with the Sinfully Sweet logo on it and was holding the hand of a young boy with her other. Dare remembered him as the boy who hid behind his big brother as they had watched him patch up Carly’s knee from the doorway in the clinic the other day.
“Here we are, reporting for duty,” Anna said cheerfully.
Evie greeted both Anna and Shane with a hug. She kept her hand on Shane’s shoulder as she turned back to address Dare. “Shane, this is my friend, Dr. Nyght. He’s the one who helped your friend Carly, remember? Dare, this is one of our best volunteers at the center, Shane Diaz.”
“Hi, Shane,” Dare said, smiling at the young boy who held tight to his aunt’s hand. Dare wanted to flinch as he saw the wounded expression in Shane’s dark eyes when the young boy stared up at him.
It was a look he recognized every time he looked in the mirror.
“Shane, you’re going to be helping Dr. Nyght for a little bit today. Does that sound okay with you?”
Shane smiled shyly at Evie as he nodded his head and she responded with a smile of her own. “Good! What do you have there, Anna?”
Anna glance down at her nephew as Shane let go of her hand. For a moment she looked lost before she cleared her throat. “Oh, Shane and I picked out some cookies for everyone.” She turned to give Dare a watery smile. “Dr. Nyght, thank you for letting Shane help you today.”
“Please, call me Dare. And it’s nothing. Really.”
“Anna, I could use your help in the puppy room today.”
Anna smiled at Evie, then she brushed a hand over Shane’s head, the gesture filled with affection as she bent down so she was eye to eye with him. “I’ll just be in the back, helping with the puppies. You know where that is, right honey?”
Anna waited until he nodded, then she reluctantly left the room.
Evie saw the curiosity in Shane’s gaze as he stared at Dare, and smiled at the look of unease the man gave the boy in return. She had asked Dare to watch over Shane for several reasons. He was a trauma doctor and might know of some way to help Shane after all he’d suffered, but Dare was also a strong man, just like the father Shane have loved and lost. In her gut she knew it would be a good match. Both Dare and Shane were fighting to heal, and this way Dare would have to be the one to reach out to connect. She moved to Dare’s side and lightly touched his arm. “I’ll be around if you need me.”
“We’ll be talking about that need soon. Real soon,” Dare muttered under his breath so only she could hear him.
She bit her lip to stop from laughing, then raised up on her toes and pressed a kiss on the corner of his mouth, whispering, “Thank you.”
“Oh, you’ll be thanking me later. You can bet on it.”
Evie chuckled at his murmured threat, then she ruffled the boy’s hair before walking away, leaving Dare and Shane alone.
Dare stare down at the young boy, wishing he was anywhere but where he was. Resigned, he washed his hands, stalked to the small refrigerator and took out two Cokes, then opened the box Anna brought in from the bakery. Feeling a little better breathing in the sugary scent, he grabbed two big cookies and gestured to the door with his head.
“Come on, kid. I’m about due for a break. We can eat these outside.”
Dare led the way out of the building, looking back a few times to make sure Shane was following him. He stopped at a bench near the pond and sat down. After Shane took his place next to him, Dare handed the kid a Coke and one of the cookies. Shit, should he have grabbed a juice box or something instead of a Coke for the kid? Did they even have juice boxes at the center? Fuck! And Shane’s aunt wouldn’t have brought the cookies if the kid couldn’t eat those, right?
This was a bad idea...like Titanic meets iceberg type bad.
What the hell did he know about kids, besides they were to be avoided at all costs? Not that he had that option at the moment. Eve was going to pay for putting him in this position.
“Okay, here’s the thing, kid. I heard about what you’ve been through lately. I’m not going to bullshit you and pretend like I don’t know. That would just be insulting to both of us. Damn it, I shouldn’t have said bullshit in front of you, should I? Hell...I knew I was going to suck at this.”
Dare glanced over at Shane’s giggle. The young boy hid a smile behind his can of Coke that he held in front of his face, and Dare found himself relaxing for the first time since being in the kid’s presence. He took a big bite of the chocolate chip cookie and almost grinned as the boy copied him.
“I was a soldier, like your dad was. There’s a lot of us ex-soldiers here in town, and we take care of our own. I’m not going to say that I know what you’ve been through, because I don’t. Not really. And I’m not going to try and make you talk to me. I’m sure you’ve had enough of that from other people. I’ve had my own nightmares to deal with, and I know it takes time to heal. No one can force you until you’re ready.” He turned toward Shane and saw the boy watching him intently. “But you’re gonna help me out around here, so we need a way to communicate. I’ll try to ask you yes or no questions, that way you can nod or shake your head for me to answer. And if I tell you to do something, I expect you to do it. Got it?”
Shane solemnly nodded his head, then Dare looked down as the boy held out his hand. For a moment, Dare thought Shane wanted him to hold his hand until he realized the boy was offering it to him to shake. Taking the tiny hand in his, Dare carefully shook it and smiled.
“Alright, let’s get to work.”
Chapter Eight
Dare and Shane worked together over the next few hours.
After Dare’s initial panic faded, he was surprised at how easy it was to work with the kid. Perhaps it was because Shane didn’t constantly bombard him with questions that he was able to relax and just focus on what they were doing.
In a way, he though it was almost like having one of the dogs following him around all day, like a silent companion. At first, Dare was uncomfortable talking to the kid as they cleaned out the cages. He didn’t know what to say so he simply told Shane what he was doing and why. But Dare quickly realized that the boy picked up on everything he said and saw Shane was applying the advice to the work they did.
From then on, it got easier.
The kid might not have responded with words, but Dare noticed that every time he forgot himself and swore or said something that was probably inappropriate, Shane giggled. Because he liked the happy sound, Dare found himself saying stupid stuff just to make Shane laugh as they continued to work. After they were done cleaning the cages, Dare took a few of the dogs out for a walk around the pond. He let Shane hold the leash to one of the smaller dogs, and Shane seemed to l
ove the interaction with the animals.
When Anna came to fetch Shane to take him home, Dare breathed out a sigh of relief, but the young boy seemed hesitant to leave. He silently tugged on Dare’s hand before he let Anna lead him out of the building. Taking a guess at what the boy wanted, Dare tousled the boy’s hair and said, “You did good today, kid. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Shane gifted him with a brilliant smile, showing him that he had been right. Anna’s eyes filled with tears as she thanked Dare, making him shift uncomfortably on his feet. When they were finally gone, Dare went in search of Evie. She damn well owed him for springing the babysitting gig on him, even if it wasn’t as bad as he originally thought it would be.
He just spotted her when one of the male staff members ran up to her. Dare couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he could see that something was obviously wrong. Evie broke into a run, barking out orders as she moved.
“Russ, go grab Mark and Tim if they’re still here. Audrey, call the sheriff and tell him to meet us about a half a mile in the woods behind Tenne Conroy’s place, right off Clearwater Road. He’s keeping his dogs hidden out there.” Evie grabbed a large duffle bag and a backpack from a shelf and hurried towards the main entrance.
“What the hell is going on?” Dare asked as he followed her outside.
She opened the back door to a large van and shoved the bags inside. “We just got a call in from a couple of hikers. They found some dogs chained up in the woods out back from this bastard’s house that we’ve suspected is part of a dog fighting ring. Sheriff Wyatt and his men have looked around his property before, but they’ve never found anything. Now we know he’s been hiding them in the woods.”
“Boss, Mark already left, but Tim is still here. We’ll follow you in the truck.”
Evie turned toward Russ as she slammed the back door to the van shut. “Good. We don’t know how many dogs Conroy has back there.”
Two women ran up to join them. “Sheriff Wyatt will meet you there. Do you want us to go with, boss?”
“No. Leanne, I need you to get things ready in the vet’s office. Amelia, call Beckett at the clinic in town and tell him we need him back here, then I need to you to take charge of the rest of the staff and volunteers until we get back.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything,” Amelia promised.
Evie opened the driver’s side door of the van and got in, then looked over as Dare got in the passenger side. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Going with you. Don’t bother arguing, you’ll just waste time.”
Evie didn’t bother responding as she started the van up. She pulled out onto the road, driving fast and glanced in the rearview mirror to see the large black truck pull out after her a second before her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and turned on speaker. “Hello?”
“Boss, Claudette and Eugene are in the truck. They insisted on coming with.”
“Damn it, Tim! They’re volunteers. We can’t risk bringing into a dangerous situation like this!”
“Hold the fuck up,” Dare growled. “What do you mean, dangerous?”
Evie shot him an irritated look. “Do you think Conroy is just going to let us take the dogs if he’s there? And we don’t know what condition the animals are in. Never mind. I’ll speak to them when we get there.”
“Fine, but Evie? They know the risks and signed the waivers. They wanted me to remind you of that.”
Evie saw that Tim had disconnected the call on the other end of the line, and pushed harder on the gas so they all but flew down the back roads toward the Conroy property that was located in a swampy area close to the edge of town. When they got close, she slowed the van down and parked on the side of the road. The truck parked behind them and everyone got out.
“I’m sorry, Evie. We wanted to come help,” Claudette said as soon as she saw Evie.
“That’s alright. I appreciate you and Eugene coming along,” Evie said, holding back a sigh. Claudette and Eugene were two of her best volunteers, but they were fairly new and didn’t have much experience going out on rescues yet. Both of them were studying to be veterinarians and spent nearly all of their free time at the rescue center. Evie felt uneasy taking them out on this particular rescue since she didn’t want anything to happen to them, and Tenne Conroy was a mean son of a bitch. “I need you two to wait here near the vehicles while we assess the situation. You haven’t been on a rescue like this yet, and things could get complicated.”
“Got it,” Eugene said, pulling his girlfriend closer as he leaned against the side of the van. “Just let us know what you want us to do and we’ll do it.”
“Everyone, phones on vibrate.”
Russ pulled a bag out of the truck and Tim picked up bolt cutters while Evie went to the back of the van and opened it. She took the backpack out and put it on. Inside the bag were essentials she needed for any rescue that she kept packed for situations like this. Included were dog treats, several ropes to collar the dogs, bottles of water and a tranquilizer gun, just in case.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Sheriff Wyatt?” Tim asked nervously as he pushed his glasses back up onto his nose. “Old man Conroy is crazy.”
“The hikers are staying with the dogs and would have called to warn us if he was there,” Russ said as he put on his own backpack. “Leanne said that the sheriff was on the other side of town handling a traffic accident. He was heading out as soon as we called, but it might take him a while to get here.”
“We need to try and get the dogs out now before Conroy comes looking and before we lose the light,” Evie said. “Let’s go.”
Dare kept pace with Evie as she headed further into the woods. He’d kept quiet, learning as he watched the others since he didn’t know what to expect. He wanted to stop her. Wanted to make her wait back in the van, but he knew she’d never do it. Russ was ex-military, and seemed like he could handle himself, but Tim was beanpole thin and looked like a strong wind might blow him over. There was a sense of danger in the air, and Dare didn’t like it. He silently cursed, wishing he had stopped by the boarding house and gotten his gun before they left.
Several long minutes later, they came to a small clearing where two young men were holding hands. They turned as Dare and the others broke through the trees. “Miss Beaumont?”
“Yes, that’s me. Please, call me Evie. Thank you for calling us,” Evie said, striding forward to greet the couple.
“Of course. God! It was...we were just walking, you know? And when we saw...” The young man started weeping softly.
His partner put his arm around him in comfort. “There are seven dogs. I think...I don’t know if any of them are still alive,” he said softly. “They’re chained right over there through those trees.”
Dare’s head turned in the direction the young man pointed and for a moment he didn’t see anything. Then he did. Dare realized there were several thick metal poles stuck into the ground, and attached to each was a heavy chain almost as thick as a woman’s wrist. His body went rigid with raw fury as he saw that the end of each chain was the body of a dog.
It was like looking at some sort of horrible graveyard.
Evie thanked the couple who had made the call and asked them if they wanted to wait by the vehicles back by the road. They seemed like they couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. Handing the keys over to Tim, Evie whispered, “Take them back to the road. Go get the other bolt cutter from the van and bring back a few of the carriers.”
“Got it. Damn, Evie. This is bad...”
“I know. You can bring the others with you. Warn them before they get here.”
Tim nodded, then took off back the way they came leading the hikers away from the scene. Evie walked a little closer to the animals, then took off her backpack, setting it on the ground. She pulled out a quart size Ziploc bag filled with dog treats and a bottle of water with a few small plastic bowls. Dare watched as Russ followed suit, pulling similar item
s from his own backpack. When Evie looked up at Dare he could see the tears, but they were also filled with a fierce light of fury that made her eyes glitter like sapphires.
“Eve...they’re gone.”
She shook her head in a jerky movement, then looked back over toward the dogs. “We’ve been on rescues like this before. People who breed dogs or keep them for dog fighting don’t care for them properly, because they simply don’t care. They aren’t living, breathing animals to them. They only represent the money they can make the bastards who do this kind of thing. Dogs are resilient animals. They might be injured, but we still have to check to see if we can save them.”
“Looks like these are bait dogs, boss,” Russ said, his voice rough with emotion.
Before Dare could asked, Evie explained, “Bait dogs are used to test the skill and aggressiveness of other fighting dogs. Sometimes the owners will chain a bait dog up or confine them and let the other dogs attack them.”
Evie tried to keep her voice calm and steady even though all she wanted to do was scream out in horror at what she was seeing. Every time she came across a situation like this it broke her heart...literally smashed it to fucking pieces. To witness such cruelty to animals who simply wanted to be loved and cared for was beyond reprehensible.
It was evil.
She was aware of Dare beside her as she checked the first two dogs. When she realized they weren’t breathing, she laid her hand on their necks and hoped they were finally at peace. From the various scars and wounds over their bodies, she knew they were right when they had guessed the dogs had been used for baiting. She let the tears fall, feeling no shame to mourn the loss of the animals. No, the shame belonged to the man that had put the dogs out there and left them to die. She blinked rapidly to clear her eyes so she could continue to do what needed to be done. As she approached the third dog, her heart began to pound as she heard a low growl off to her right.
“Eve, stop!” Dare hissed. “Back away, slowly.”
Evie ignored him and turned her head to see a fawn colored boxer was struggling to get to his feet. The poor dog was covered with mud and other filth, and she could see the wounds all over its body. He was severely malnourished, but he growled again as he limped to stand between them and the small dog Evie had been moving to check next.
