But Brooke knew from experience that Ray was fully aware of his surroundings and alert no matter how chill he appeared. If she opened that door to any kind of threat, her fierce protector would spring from his bed and make anyone who dared threaten her sorry as hell.
He’d done it before, and it had saved her life. No one should ever interpret his relaxed posture as apathy or lethargy.
“David,” she said with a genuine smile for the town’s vet and her best friend’s husband. “What are you—” Her gaze immediately landed on the dog lying still in a wagon beside him. His truck sat in her driveway. Her heart sank, and the muffin she’d consumed threatened to reappear. “Oh no, another one?” She pressed a hand to her stomach.
The grim set of David’s mouth said it all. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask before bringing him here. It’s been an insane day, and it slipped my mind. But, he’s stable, and you have more room here than we do in our kennel, so I thought it’d be good for him to stay here a few days.”
“The poor baby.” She rushed forward then dropped to a crouch next to the wagon. “You know you never have to ask. I’ll take whoever you have for me.” If she didn’t have the space to house a dog he needed assistance with, she’d give up her own room. “Where did you find him?”
“A trucker dropped him off pretty late last night. He got lucky. I’d gotten a call from the security company and had to run to the clinic to reset the code. Normally, I would never have been there at that hour on a Saturday. I didn’t even have time to tell the trucker this poor dog’s injuries were more than my clinic could handle before he was hopping back in his truck and speeding off. He yelled through the window that he found the dog on the side of the road real close to here.” David spoke with hatred thickening his voice.
“I didn’t think he’d survive the thirty-minute trip to the closest twenty-four-hour ER, so I called Nance, and she rushed over. We did what we could to save him.” Brooke’s best friend Nancy happened to be her husband’s veterinary assistant. It was how they met eight or so years ago, and their connection had been instant.
The story made her insides ache with sadness. “This is the third one this month,” Brooke whispered as she ran her hand over the injured Cane Corso’s muscular body with the gentlest of touch. He didn’t react to her at all.
“Careful, Brooke. This one’s real aggressive and not a fan of people. Even though he was bleeding out all over my office, he was ready to go to battle with me last night. He’s sedated now, but I’m not sure what to expect when he comes around. I’d like to get him in a kennel before he’s alert enough to take a chunk out of either of us.”
Bite marks and deep scratches littered the poor dog’s body. He would have been a handsome boy when not drugged and injured: shiny black coat, impressive musculature, fierce face. As foolish as it would be, Brooke couldn’t stem the urge to gather the injured dog in her arms and rock him back and forth. How someone could allow this to happen, how someone could use a dog for this very purpose, she’d never understand. Nothing riled her like those who abused innocent animals. If she could put the sadistic bastards down, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
“You had to amputate his leg?” she asked, voice cracking as she stared at the bandage wrapped around what remained of his right front leg.
“I did. It was mangled beyond repair. He’ll suffer much less this way than if I had tried to repair the damage.”
“We need to find these fuckers,” Brooke said, glancing up at her friend. As a popular dog trainer and frequent fur foster parent, she had a close working relationship with many veterinary clinics in the area, but David was by far her favorite. He shared a true and deep love of all the animals he cared for. He was also the type of man who’d spend half the night trying to save a dog he hadn’t planned on treating.
He dragged a hand down his handsome yet weary face. A good few years younger than she was, David and his wife lived in the loving relationship she wished she’d had at their age. But stupid decisions and even stupider actions hadn’t allowed it.
At least you’re settled and happy now.
Yeah, but with thick emotional scars and a personal promise to avoid relationships.
“I’m on my way to file another police report,” David said as he squatted on the other side of the wagon.