Love's Taming(73)
“So if you haven’t been grieving over someone, what has you brooding?”
“Baby, it’s you I am worried about. I wanna make sure you’re safe. I wanna make sure that nothin’ happens to you.”
She sat on his lap staring into the blue eyes that reached inside her, his love wrapping around her as tightly as his arms wrapped around her body.
“Sunshine, those family pictures you’re puttin’ up on the mantel – Baby, that’s what I want you thinkin’ about. Decorating in family. I don’t want you worryin’ about all this. That’s the man I am. I wanna take this away so you can focus on just being sunshine.”
Bringing both hands up to his face, she kissed him softly. “What bothers you, bothers me. What concerns you, concerns me. Shane, I can’t be sunshine if I am worried about you.”
She leaned in to kiss him again but soon found that he took over the kiss. Even so, it was slow. Soft. Full of promise. Full of love. Full of light.
* * *
Shane and Matt were driving to one of the animal shelters on the outskirts of the city, checking more leads about puppy-mills in the area. So far their efforts were coming to dead-ends. The registered breeders went into great detail about their disgust of the amateur breeders and especially the cruel treatment of the people running puppy-mills. And while they were able to get some names to follow up on, they still had not found what they were looking for. So now they were checking out the animal shelters, both registered and some that were a lot less reputable.
“Somebody at one of these places has got to know something. How can you have a facility that has a shit-ton of dogs running around and no one knows about it?” Shane growled in frustration.
Matt looked over, “How are you and Annie doin’?”
Shane grunted in response. “House is great. Timing is shit.”
Matt said nothing, letting Shane have some space.
Sighing, Shane continued, “Love the new house. It’s got room for Sarge and her cats. With the holidays coming on, Annie is already planning on decoratin’. We’ve got the furniture in and I should be fuckin’ happy but with everything that has been goin’ on, I feel like somethin’ is always draggin’ me down.
“We had an argument the other day about it all. She thought I was broodin’ over Rochelle when all I can think about is makin’ sure she is safe.”
Matt asked, “Have you been able to find out more about why Rocky thought Annie was in danger?”
“Nah. Said she’d overheard someone talkin’ about a vet who had worked on a couple of the dogs and she made the assumption they were talkin’ about Annie. But there was no overt threat. Problem is, when Rochelle came to the clinic just because she was fuckin’ curious about who I was with, she brought that shit right back to Annie’s door.”
“What did you tell Annie about Rocky?”
“Told her the truth. She knew Rocky was in my past, was nothin’ more than a way to pass the time to hold up our cover. Makes me sound like a dick, but Rocky and I were up front with each other. There were no promises of anything other than physical. And she was fuckin’ married at the time. I had no idea she’d gotten it in her mind that we coulda been more.” Rubbing his hand through his hair, he shook his head. “We were fuckin’ livin’ wild then just to survive. I got out and glad of it.”
They pulled up to the animal shelter, seeing the concrete buildings holding the dogs’ runs. A middle-age woman walked up to them smiling. “Howdy! How can I help you?”
Introducing themselves to Maude, they began to question her about her facilities and what she may know about any other facilities in the area.
“Well, I run this facility with mostly funds I get through charity work. Lots of people like to give, but my books are clean. Lordy, with all the red tape I have to jump through with the county to keep this kennel going, believe me, every penny is accounted for!”
They wandered through the area looking at the dogs running in the clean area. “What we are really lookin’ for is any information you may know, or even have heard of, about non-reputable facilities. Like puppy-mills.”
“Come on in detectives and I’ll get us something cold to drink and we can talk.”
Following her into a crowded but neat office, they settled into folding chairs next to her desk as she handed them sodas.
“I’ve been doing this for years. My late husband and I started our first rescue kennel about thirty-five years ago. It didn’t take long for us to grow, but we realized that we needed the backing from the county. We became licensed and took care of the animals that came to us the best we could. Herbert died four years ago, but I keep going.” She looked out of the window for a moment before bringing her gaze back to them. “I’ll never get rich doing this, but these dogs are my family.”