Darke Heat (7 page)

“Paige, we’re here.”

“Oh, right. Well, thanks, Bryce.”

She looked mussed and he wanted nothing so much as to kiss her.

“Paige, about your place, I think you need to stay away from there until we round up these punks.”

“Bryce, that isn’t going to happen.”

“Yeah, I figured as much, but I felt I should try and talk some sense into you.”

“Could you bring Sheba’s carrier up the steps? I’ll be able to take her from there,” she said indicating Sheba in the dog carrier.

“Sure.” Once again, he hauled the dog cage and lifted it up onto the top step of the hotel.

“Night, Bryce,” she said.

Paige grabbed the handle and rolled her dogs into the lobby of the hotel. She walked straight inside The Rose, never once looking back. Bryce climbed behind the wheel of his vehicle and drove off frustrated in more ways than one. He’d hoped that by offering to keep the dogs, she’d come too, and they’d have a chance to talk things through. Instead, she’d insisted on bedding down at a hotel.

He entered his house and heard the click of nails on the hardwood floors. The Millers must have put the dogs in his house. There were six dogs in all. Deeogee was the first to approach him. He was the alpha dog in Paige’s pack. The German Shepherd was huge. He came right up to him and stuck his nose in Bryce’s crotch.

“Hey, you’re getting a little personal don’t you think?” He tried to step around the dog, but the others also tried to put their noses in his crotch, each vying for position. One of them went behind him and sniffed his bottom.

“Cut it out before I lose my balance and crush the lot of you. If that happened, your mama would skin my hide,” he said. They all sat down and watched him. “You know, normally when I meet a girl’s family they don’t go around sniffing my privates,” he said in good humor. “Look guys, I need a shower and then we’ll see about getting you all fed. I hope someone remembered to bring the dog food.” He walked through to his room and stripped along the way then jumped in the shower to clean up. When he came out one of the dogs was in his bed.

“Get out of my bed,” he ordered. The dog eyed him solemnly and got up only to follow him around. In his living room, there were dogs lounging on his couch and one sprawled in his favorite chair. It looked like the remnants of a furry frat party. Bryce shook his head.
Why couldn’t I find a woman with a normal family?
But then he thought of Paige, all silken skin and flaming hair, and he wouldn’t trade her for anyone else. In the kitchen, he looked to see if he could find the dog food. The dog from his bedroom was still following him. This one was Patch, if he got the coloring right. He kept trying to put his nose in every cupboard. Then he went and stood in front of the fridge.

“Oh, you know where the goodies are kept,” Bryce said to the dog. “I don’t know if Paige feeds you stuff from the fridge, but not in my house. Here you will eat dog food.”

He opened the pantry and there was the hundred-pound bag of dog food. He looked over at the dog standing in front of the fridge and wondered how long the bag would last.
Maybe one meal with these guys
, he mused. He dragged it out to the counter and found plastic bowls. He filled a big pot with water, and then his plastic bowls with food. The dogs all came at the sound of the bowls being filled. They lined up with perfect manners waiting for him to let them know it was okay to proceed. Patch was looking at the bowls but kept his stance at the fridge. As soon as he stepped away from the bowls, Deeogee came forward to choose his bowl and the rest followed suit. Patch finally left his spot at the fridge and took the last bowl, but kept watch on the fridge. Bryce wondered what about the fridge held the dog’s attention. Curious, he opened the door to the fridge, but the dog just stood there. Curiosity peaking, he opened the freezer drawer and the dog bounded over, reached in, grabbed the ice-cream container, and ran from the kitchen before Bryce could stop him.

“Hey, that’s my ice cream! You can’t eat that. It’ll make you sick!” He ran into the living room where he found Patch, the carton between his front paws, tearing the lid off with his teeth. As Bryce approached, he heard the dog growl at him.

“Okay, mister, it’s your ice-cream. But don’t say I didn’t warn you when you have an upset stomach tomorrow.” He finished getting ready for bed, and shooed the dogs out of his room. He found two of the dogs in the bathroom drinking from the toilet. He felt like he was back in college with a bunch of frat boys. He shut his bedroom door and lay down to get some sleep.

Bryce woke in the night to the sound of a dog whimpering. He raised himself on one elbow and glanced down at the end of his bed. He couldn’t discern what dog it was, but one of them had its face on his bed and there was a foul odor in the room. Apparently, the door latch hadn’t clicked into place. Bryce switched on the lamp on his bedside table and sat up in bed to see over the side. Patches had had an accident…correction, make that lots of accidents.

“So you’re lactose intolerant. Great, just great!” Bryce threw back the covers and got out of bed, taking care to sidestep the globby mess as he made his way to the bathroom. He glanced back to see that Patches hadn’t moved, except to lie down on the floor beside the bed.
Poor dog. He must be in agony
, Bryce empathized.

“Well, come on. We have to get you cleaned up. Jump into the tub, and I’ll run some water.”

The dog moved to obey, but as soon as he rose to his feet, a rip-roaring fart rent the air.

“Geesh, Patches! No more ice cream for you. I’ll never be able to sleep in here tonight,” Bryce said, as he went to open the window.

While waiting for the tub to fill with water, he brought out paper towels to clean up the worst of the mess, valiantly trying not to spew his own dinner. He grabbed some old towels to clean up the residue, disposed of the paper towels, and then immediately threw the towels into the washer.

Patches was too weak to get in the tub by himself, so when the tub was ready, he lifted Patches into it and cleaned him off. He figured, if the dog tried to clean himself, he’d only get sick again. After washing the dog, Bryce emptied the tub and toweled him off before lifting him out. He only looked slightly better, so Bryce called the vet and got the answering machine.

“Hi, this is Bryce Prescott. I’m watching Paige’s dogs. One of them ate ice cream and appears to be lactose intolerant. He’s been ill and seems listless. Could you call me if there is something I should do for him? Thanks.” He left his number and hung up, then looked over at the pathetic dog still lying on the bathroom floor. Bryce dragged out some blankets and put them on the floor next to his bed and called Patches over to sleep next to him. On his way over, the dog gave a mighty shake sending water everywhere.

As Bryce stood there dripping, he noticed the bed had gotten wet too. “Thanks you ungrateful mutt.”

For an answer, Patches promptly farted again.

Bryce groaned and tried to cover his nose as he stripped the bed and remade it. He collapsed between the clean sheets, pulling the top one over his head to ward off the smell.

His phone rang as he was dozing off. “Hello.”

“Hi, Bryce. It’s Shelby Tenmen, Paige’s vet. You called about Patches. Just so you know, he’ll be fine. He’s done this more than once. I have space here if you want to bring the dogs over. I could examine Patches and then the others. Paige and I were going to find time for me to do it anyway. This just speeds up the time table.”

“That would be awesome.” Happy about getting the dogs out of his house, he was so tired he didn’t think he sounded as enthusiastic as he felt.

“Great, just have them brought over sometime today.”

“Will do.” After he hung up, he lay there wondering how to let Paige know about her dog.

First thing in the morning, Paige checked on Sheba and her babies, all of which seemed none the worse for all the moving around. She needed to get the other dogs from Bryce’s place and put them through their paces, but first she needed coffee. She called Jamie to give him the run down for the day.
“Hi, Jamie. It’s me, Paige.”

“Hi, Paige. What time do you want me to come in?”

“I sent the dogs to Bryce’s place, so I’d like you to go out there and get them fed and exercised. I need to take care of some things before I transport them back to the kennels. If you could go over there around eleven this morning, I’ll call Bryce and let him know. Then I can get things taken care of at my place, and we can resume training tomorrow if all goes well.” No need to let him know how dangerous the place was at the moment. What with dead bodies and gunshots and all. He’d probably already figured it out anyway.

“Okay, Paige. I’ll let you know how things are going.”

“Great, and thanks for being flexible. I have Sheba and the pups with me. Sorry about yesterday.”

“It’s okay. There wasn’t anything you could have done.”

“I appreciate all your help,” she said before hanging up. Now that the dogs were covered, except for Sheba and her brood, she grabbed the carrier, minus Sheba, and put it in the van. She opened the door and Sheba jumped in to lay down with her puppies. With mama and babies secured, Paige left for her farm.

Fog rolled in off the man-made lake, making the grounds appear creepy. Though it was chilly, she knew from past experience that by noon it would be a sweltering eighty-five degrees, with the humidity up in the ninety percent range. Now was the time of day to get all the hard, physical work done. She let Sheba out for a run as she lugged the carrier inside and left the doors open so Sheba could join them, then she went back outside.

First off, all the yellow crime scene tape needed to come down. The officers had gotten a little carried away in their excitement. Ripping down the tape over the entrance to the barn, she went in to check on the kennel.

It needed a new window in the door and several windows needed to be replaced on the north side. She was turning the back half into an office. It was most likely a building that had been used for tack and gardening equipment, but it offered enough space for her to do the occasional paper work. Being attached to the kennel kept her accessible to the dogs.

Bill had told her he’d be over this morning with a crew to help her get the work moving along, but yesterday’s encounter had her toting her shotgun just in case she had any unwanted visitors. She’d only bought the property a few months ago, instinctively knowing that this was the right place for her to resume her dog training school. The house was livable, but it needed a lot of work. It was a good thing she hadn’t scheduled the repairmen for yesterday. Today was going to be busy, and still in the back of her mind she remembered that Bryce once again had avoided any discussion about that night.

She needed to let it go. She was like a dog with a bone when it came to him. She wasn’t weak, so why allow herself to get so attached? Did she still feel the need to prove herself worthy of being loved? Good lord, she hoped she wasn’t that pathetic. She wasn’t the lonely little girl who went to live with Libby when her dad went to jail. She shook off the thought and grabbed the broom, sweeping up all the broken glass from last night’s shooting spree. The sooner she had the kennels repaired, the sooner she could bring her dogs home.

She had almost finished the general cleanup of the kennel, when she heard a vehicle coming up the gravel drive. Crossing to glance out the barn door, she saw the contractor’s truck with Bill and his crew. Paige felt the first real smile in a long time stretch across her face.

She quickly explained to Bill that the kennel needed to be repaired first, and left him and his crew to get started, then went to the house to wait for the furniture movers.

Soon her brothers would come home for a visit. She’d worked so hard to give them a haven to come to when their jobs gave them breaks. The land had a large man-made lake full of fish, lots of wooded area, trails for hiking, and no neighbors for miles.

She’d even bought bedroom furniture with her brothers in mind. When it arrived, she worked with the movers until all the furniture and boxes were in the right rooms, then waved them off and went out to see what Bill and his crew were working on.

“Paige, there is something in the barn you need to see,” Bill said. His weathered face showed concern.

“Okay, Bill, what do you want me to look at?”

He pulled up a piece of plywood siding from the barn’s dirt floor and she walked closer to see what was there. Underneath was a pit deep enough for a man to stand up in.

“Bill, is that a dog fighting pit?” she asked.

“It sure looks that way.”

The sides and floor of the pit had dark brown spots she recognized as dried blood.

“Okay, let me call the police.” She pulled out her cell and dialed the number.

“Hello, this is Paige Conner at the old Slater place. I just found a dog fighting pit in my barn.”

“One moment, Ms. Conner.” The female voice didn’t recognize her, which Paige appreciated.

“Paige, this is Sheriff Markham. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t touch anything.”

“Right,” she said.

“You know, Bill, it used to be that the only trouble in Darke County was caused by my family. I must say the whole area seems to have outdone the Conners.”