Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (25 page)

Bobby stared at her in disbelief for a
moment before he scowled at her. “The longer you stay way out here
by yourself, the crazier you get. You know that? Whether you like
it or not, this is a wild animal and you can’t keep
him.”

Alaina glared at him. “I’m not your
girlfriend anymore. I don’t have to take orders from you. I don’t
doubt in the least that you thought this was some kind of ploy just
to get you out here, you conceited asshole, but it wasn’t. I called
you because you’re a vet. Now, take care of him and earn your pay,
or get the hell off my place!”

His lips tightened. She could see from
his expression that she’d hit the nail on the head. He had thought
she was just trying to get him out to her place. “It’s going to be
a healthy bill. Surgery’s always expensive and I’ll have to charge
you more for hazard.”

“
Fine!”

His eyes narrowed but after studying
her a couple of minutes he got his bag and moved closer to the
panther again. Alaina looked down at the cat. He wasn’t asleep, but
she could tell that the sedative had knocked him for a loop,
probably because he was already weak from the blood
loss.

Stroking him, she watched Bobby as he
shaved the area, deadened it, and then began to fish around in the
hole for the bullet. The cat tensed, but allowed her to hold him
still.

She was feeling woozy and downright
sick to her stomach by the time Bobby extracted the bullet,
cleansed the wound and pulled out another bottle.

“
What’s that?”

“
Antibiotics. I’m guessing
he must be somewhere between two and three hundred pounds, but it’s
just a guess. I don’t know how much good it’ll do him. I’ll give
you a bottle to dose him with,” he said absently as he injected the
panther with the medicine and then placed a couple of sutures in it
to close the wound, which was still bleeding sluggishly.

When he’d finished, he tossed his
supplies back into his bag. “I’ll bill you,” he said shortly,
pushing himself up and leaving the building with the air of
somebody shaking the dust.

Alaina stared after him speculatively.
“Asshole,” she muttered, looking down at the cat and stroking him.
“He’s going to go straight to animal control. If there’s one thing
I’ve learned to count on with Bobby, it’s that he can always be
counted on to be a total jerk about everything.”