Nyght's Eve (14 page)

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.”

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 love 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 items
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.