Love's Taming (The Love's Series) (31 page)

Friday afternoon could
not come soon enough for Annie. Regardless of Shane’s warnings, she could not help but look at the websites touting the horrors of the puppy-mills. Suzanne looked over her shoulder as Annie scrolled through pictures.

Shaking her head she said, “Doc, you’ve got to stop making yourself crazy over this. I know it’s upsetting, but what can you do? You’ve talked to Shane and he is going to follow up on some of the rumors. Don’t you think that might be enough?”

Annie tossed her copper hair over her shoulder as she looked up at her friend. “I seem to remember you on the phone the other day with Dr. Ketchum arguing with him about a dog being attacked.”

“That’s different. That affected one of our clients and I swear that doctor is hiding something.”

Annie raised her eyebrows in response and Suzanne hustled off to answer the phone. Leon was taking a rare day off to celebrate his anniversary with Shirley.

“So what’s Dr. Nancy Drew up to this weekend?” Carl joked as he walked into the room.

“Shane is tied up with a case and is working tomorrow, so I thought I would take the opportunity to visit a couple of farmer’s markets outside of town to see if I can find anyone selling pets that look ill.”

Carl and Suzanne shot each other a look of concern over Annie’s head. “Do you think that is wise?” Carl asked. “You going alone?”

Laughing, she turned in her seat to look at her friends. “Guys! What do you think I’m going to do? I just want to see for myself what is out there. I’m not going to attack anyone!”

“I wish I could go with you, but I am going to visit my parents this weekend. I’d go home on a different weekend if I could, but this is the only one that works for me.”

Annie swung her gaze to Suzanne. “The only one?”

Her face hardening for a moment, a flash of pain sliced through Suzanne’s eyes before being quickly replaced by a steely gaze. “I have someone from my hometown that I don’t wish to run into so my parents let me know when it is safe to come visit.”

Annie realized that Suzanne had just given more information about her personal life than she had ever in all the time that Annie had known her. She wanted to question further, find out what had Suzanne so closed off, especially about men, but knew that it wasn’t the right time or place with Carl standing there.

Nodding, she agreed, “No, you go home. I don’t need a babysitter.”

Carl looked between the two women sighing loudly. “Look, I’ve got tomorrow morning off, I’ll go with you Annie.”

Beaming, she announced, “Perfect! I won’t have to drive out there alone and you can make sure I don’t go all bad-ass on some poor puppy-mill owner.”

“You going to tell Shane what you are doing?” Carl asked.

Sucking her lips in, Annie averted her eyes. “Well, I think I will tell him that I am going shopping. There’s no reason to worry him.”

Carl and Suzanne shared another look over Annie’s head and Carl just shook his head as Suzanne rolled her eyes.

*     *     *

Shane left the
next morning to go to the station and Annie was ready to leave as soon as he did.
Thank goodness he didn’t think anything about me going shopping early on a Saturday morning.
Feeling slightly guilty that she was doing some snooping without telling him, she knew that he would have had a fit if she had confessed her intent.

Within a half an hour she had picked up Carl and they were driving out of town.

“Where’s our first stop?” he asked yawning loudly.

“I’ve got three I want to check out based on the emails from my vet friends in the county. The first one is on the north side of town and is the closest. Then we will hit two on the west side of the city, toward Jefferstown.”

Arriving at the first market, they were greeted by a hive of activity. Colorful tents were set up, each filled with produce overflowing with locally grown vegetables, berries, and plants for sale. They started on one end of the market and wandered along the aisle. Carl couldn’t help but stop and buy some produce as they were looking.

“Come on, Annie. Don’t tell me you aren’t tempted by these berries.”

She had to admit that they looked scrumptious and found herself buying some as well. “You know I’m here for dogs and you are tempting me with food,” she jokingly accused. By the time they finished walking the entire market, they finally found one older gentleman sitting on the tailgate of his ancient, beat-up pickup truck. He had a large, clean crate with four bloodhound puppies in it, all clambering for attention.

Annie immediately went over to the truck to look at the dogs. The puppies were clean and healthy, their coats shining and eyes bright.

“They are gorgeous,” she exclaimed as the dogs immediately jumped and bayed for her attention. Carl had to laugh at the antics of the puppies as he examined them also.

“Did you breed them?” Annie asked.

The old farmer puffed up proudly as he answered, “Yep. My old gal, Sallie’s their momma. Thought she was beyond breedin’ years, but she went huntin’ with my son and his dogs. All hounds, just like her.” He chuckled in telling his story. “Didn’t know Sallie could still have any more puppies, but this here is her last. As soon as I could, I got her spayed.” Looking down in the crate, he gazed fondly at the last of his dog’s brood.

“They are beautiful animals. I can see they are well kept,” Annie said sincerely.

The old man’s clear gaze met hers as he announced, “Young woman, I love my farm, I love my family.” Smiling, he added, “I’ve loved one woman and she is still the light of my life. And I love my dog. I’m a lucky man.”

Carl came up behind Annie as she stood smiling back. “Then I think they are very lucky as well.”

Saying goodbye to the puppies and the old farmer, they made their way back to the car. Carl looked over to her as she was quietly pulling back onto the highway.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I guess I had gotten it into my head that anyone who sold dogs out of a crate was some kind of a money-grubbing dog peddler.”

“Do you still want to check out some others?” he asked while popping fresh berries in his mouth.

“Absolutely! Why? Are you tired already?”

“Nope. Drive on, doc. I may need refilling my berry basket by the time we get to the next one.”

Smiling, she kept driving until they pulled into the next market. Their experience there was very similar to the first one they had visited. At this market, they found several dog owners with puppies for sale. The puppies looked healthy and she found nothing suspicious about the families that were selling.

Piling back into the car again, they drove to the next market, the one farthest from town. At the end of the produce section was a panel van with the sounds of barking coming from inside. Approaching cautiously, they walked toward the noise.

A young man stepped out of the first van, throwing open the back door to show a crate crowded with puppies. The puppies were skinny with runny eyes. The man eyed them as he said, “You interested in pure-bred dogs, lady?”

Annie could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise as she realized that several other men got out of their van and had circled behind her and Carl as they looked at the dogs.

“Doc,” Carl said under his breath, trying not to move his lips as he whispered. “We need to get out of here.”

Annie felt his fear as strongly as she felt hers. Turning quickly, she smiled broadly as she said in a sing-song voice, “Awww, these puppies are darling! What kind are they?”

She forced herself to make eye contact with the young man even though his very appearance made her fearful. From his shaved head to his tattoos that ran down his neck under his dirty t-shirt, he exuded danger. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at her blatantly, his gaze dropping to her breasts.

“They’re pure-bred German Shepherds, lady. They got papers and everything.”

Pure-bred, my ass. Jesus, these dogs look horrible.
“Really? They look a little skinny to me. Do their papers include visits to the veterinarian and their immunizations? I am assuming that they have that included in their papers?”

The smile left the man’s face as his eyes shot back up to hers and he stepped menacingly toward her.

Glancing backing at the young man, she forced herself to smile as she turned to Carl, noticing his uncomfortable stance. “Oh honey,” she said brightly, “Do you want a puppy?”

“No,” he choked out. “Come on,
dear
.” He took her arm just as one of the puppies began to whimper.

Annie moved over closer and noticed how young the pups were.
There is no way they should be weaned by now.
“Do you sell many puppies at these markets?” she asked, trying not looking at the men who had closed the circle around them. “I mean, you can’t sell that many pure-bred dogs at a little market, can you?”

“We sell enough. Got people who always come buy our dogs,” he said with a sneer.

“Marco!” barked out one of the other men. “Shut the fuck up!”

Chastised, the man closest to her scowled, but turned away.

“Lady, if you don’t want a dog then move on. We’ve got other business to do,” came a voice from right behind them, causing Carl to grab her arm.

“Come on, dear. These men don’t need you playing with their dogs,” Carl said, pulling her back through the men toward the market.

Without glancing back, they walked to the car and began driving away as quickly as possible. Not a word was spoken between them for a few minutes. Finally, Carl slumped down in his seat rubbing his hand over his face. “Oh, Jesus, Annie. That scared the fuck out of me!”

The adrenaline rush was still causing her hands to shake on the steering wheel, but she was trying to put on a brave face. “I’m sorry, Carl. That was not what I expected.” She was silent for a moment. “I wanted to help the puppies so much.”

Carl looked over at her, seeing tears in her eyes. “I know, doc. I did too, but no joke…I just wanted to get out alive. Promise me you won’t try anything stupid. Shane’s going to have a shit fit as it is.” Turning back to her, he asked, “You are going to tell him aren’t you?”

By this time they were a few miles down the road and she pulled over at a mom-and-pop gas station. Sighing deeply, she said, “Yeah. In fact I really need to call him now so that he can decide if he wants to come check them out himself.”

Carl threw his head back on the seat in frustration. “Oh my god, I am going to get eaten alive by your boyfriend. He is going to kill both of us.”

For once, Annie couldn’t disagree.

*     *     *

“Okay, thanks,” Shane
said, hanging up his phone. Matt looked over, waiting for his very angry partner to speak.

Shane looked up and said, “The county sheriff said that by the time they got to the market the vans were gone. They talked to some of the regulars at the market, but they said that when the vans come, they always stay off to the side. No one had any idea where they come from or when they show up.”

Matt said nothing for a moment, letting Shane get a handle on his anger. “She coming here?”

Shane’s eyes snapped back up. “Oh yeah. Oh, fuck yeah. And so is Carl. I can’t believe that she went out after we
discussed
her not getting involved and that crazy-ass vet went with her instead of talking her out of it! Jesus, when I think of what could have happened! Well, she’s going to be talking to one of the investigators here and I’ve made sure they know to put the fear of God into her.”

Just then he saw her coming down the hall. As angry as he was, he couldn’t help himself from jumping up and going over to her.

She immediately put her hand up and was going to tell him not to fuss, when he grabbed her in a bear hug. Wrapping her arms around him, she buried her face in his neck and found herself unable to hold back the tears.

“I know you’re mad. I’m sorry,” she hiccupped out. “I just wanted to see what these dogs might look like.”

Shane held her tightly for a moment, not allowing his thoughts to travel to the what-ifs. He looked behind her, seeing Carl appearing discomfited. Setting Annie back down, he looked into her big green eyes, saying, “Sunshine, we are going to
discuss
this later. But for now, you’ve gotta talk to Detective Carter again.” Looking up, she saw the detective that had interviewed her earlier. Sighing, she just nodded as she started to walk away with him.