The Leaving Road, page 10
My heart thundered in my chest. I knew that poaching was constantly battled out here—that, and illegal fishing. But I never put much thought into the smuggling of animals or any kind of fight ring. It made my stomach roll.
“I thought we had taken care of that nonsense last year.” Ben’s voice was eerily low.
“What nonsense?”
“There was this group of men that moved into the area and set up some nasty business—a lot dealing with importing illegal animals through the docks here. A few got loose and injured, and we were called in. The cops stepped in once we realized that those kinds of animals would have needed to be imported illegally. I believe around six or so guys were arrested, and we thought that was the end of it.”
“Apparently not,” Louise said.
“We’d better pack up the truck and head out together, Ben. Grab your shotgun and tranquilizer guns, but we should have the rest in the vet truck. Louise, as the appointments this afternoon are non-emergent, please call them to reschedule…”
“Uh, you aren’t going out to play cowboy with that hand and risk getting an infection, Doc. You’ll stay here while Ben and Magnolia deal with this.”
He floundered for only a second. “Absolutely not, we are not sending Magnolia out there to do this. Have you completely lost your mind? It’s her first day! And she’s…she’s…”
“You’d better not say it’s because I’m a girl, Dr. Lewis.”
He looked aghast. “What? No! I just meant that the last time we ended up having to euthanize an enraged animal on sight, it wasn’t easy. I wanted to spare you from that, that’s all.”
“While I appreciate the sentiment, I know this job isn’t always sunshine and roses, and that in life, usually the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. So, please do as Louise says; stay here, see these patients, and let me and Ben handle this. I can take care of myself.”
He sighed in defeat. “Fine, but I’m just stating for the record that I don’t like this.”
“Duly noted.”
The ride to our destination was quiet, as though Ben and I were both mentally preparing ourselves for the worst. I’ve come to find out that, in my profession, you ended up seeing the worst in humanity. We were greeted with one SUV that clearly belonged to the DNR and two squad cars with the lights going but thankfully, no sirens. I bristled at the idiocy; they needed to turn off those flashing lights.
We were met by the DNR officer and two police officers. “Hi there, I’m Mike, that’s Jon and Nancy.” the DNR officer said, pointing to the two next to him.
“I’m Ben and this is Magnolia. We are both veterinarians and we work for Dr. Lewis. What is it we are dealing with here?”
“Whoever was here was either spooked into leaving or something happened to em’, but they haven’t been back for at least a few days. Someone was hiking and they must have stumbled upon it, then called us immediately. Seems like they were running some kind of animal fight club: dogs vs. dogs, cats…whatever kind of animal they could find.”
I couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling of nausea that was creeping in. We had a few neglect cases at the clinic I worked at before, but nothing even remotely on this level. I had to do everything I could possibly do to ease anything’s suffering.
“There seems to be quite a few dogs here, a few goats, sheep, chickens… They are all in very bad shape with many wounds. Another reason we called you…there’s two bear cubs here, with significant lacerations, as though they’ve been whipped.”
I couldn’t help the tears that escaped. Ben looked at me and placed his hand on my shoulder and whispered, “You got this, they need us.”
“No sign of the mother, right?” Ben asked.
“I hate to tell you this,” the officer said, “but it would appear the remains of the mother is in a large dump pile in the back. It seems they skinned her for her coat.” His face paled as he delivered the news.
I couldn’t help but empty the contents of my stomach onto the gravel around me. They all gave me a few minutes to collect my bearings before we made our way toward the barn.
The next few hours passed by in a blur of hard work and barely concealed tears, lots of coaxing and trying not to cry when the animals cried out in pain just at the mere thought of us touching them. We had the van secured for us once we got everything, and we could put them in cages to bring back to the clinic to treat the best we could tonight. Then, they would be transferred to larger, specialty clinics in the morning throughout the state. Ben had called Dr. Lewis and gave him the update as soon as we were driving back; however, with it being a small town, the news had already broken out around town.
A quick glance at the clock told me it was eight-fifteen, and I had officially stood up Sloan, but I honestly couldn’t find it in me to care. My entire focus and heart was riding with these poor animals and what they had to endure. I shot off a quick text to Lexie telling her I had no idea when I’d be home and not to wait up, then I slid my phone back into my pocket and stared out the window, wishing for a miracle.
It was another hour or so of somewhat organized chaos once we made it back to the clinic. We immediately began sedating and treating the most critical animals. While I was addressing one of the goat’s injuries and thinking how best to go about cleaning some of the burn wounds on him, a voice spooked me enough to cause me to jump.
“Hi.”
Shit!
“You scared me, Sloan!” My hand rested on my beating heart as I tried to catch my breath.
“Shit, Magnolia. I’m so sorry.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Word had spread about twenty minutes after our talk was supposed to take place. I knew there was no way you wouldn’t be out there helping, and since you’re a stubborn woman and didn’t give me your number, or even bother to ask for mine, there was no way for you to contact me and vice versa.”
“That still begs the question, what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help.”
“What?”
“I brought food for everyone: burgers, salad, sandwiches, coffee, water, and tea. I would have been here sooner, but it took forever to cook it all. I’m also here to help you guys with whatever else you might need. Clean up, take out the trash…put me to work.”
“So, if I asked you to go clean up the poop from the dog kennels, you would?”
“Just point me to the bag, sweetheart.”
We spent the next few hours working and taking a few bites of food when we had a minute. Sloan was surprisingly helpful, cleaning everything around us and offering to grab anything we needed. He kept asking what I needed and how he could help me, and I hated to admit how nice it was. By two-thirty in the morning, we had treated what we could, and many were in stable condition. We lost a few—one of the goats was too badly burned, a few chickens, and a puppy. My heart was broken, but it was also extremely full with how many we were able to save. It was humbling and crushing at the same time. I wanted to go home and sleep for the next ten hours.
Louise was coordinating the pickup times and moving of the animals for tomorrow with the DNR so there wasn’t anything left to do but go home. Dr. Lewis was staying overnight to oversee the rest, and Ben had gone home a few hours ago since he had kids.
“I’m following you home tonight, Magnolia. If I thought you’d let me drive you home, I’d do it in a heartbeat. You’re exhausted, I can tell. I can’t let you drive home in that condition without at least following you. Please.”
I looked at him, he was serious. He kept looking at me and at my truck in concern, as if trying to figure out how to disable the battery, so I had no choice but to ride with him. He was right; I was exhausted, and I was too exhausted to argue with him.
“Fine, let’s go. I need to sleep.”
True to his word, he followed me the whole way back to my house and pulled up behind me, getting out of his truck before I even had the chance to turn mine off. He opened my door and held a hand for me to get out.
“Being a gentleman won’t make me forgive you.” I couldn’t help the yawn that escaped.
Despite the jab, he looked at me with soft eyes. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you to bed.”
“Uh, no thanks. I don’t need your help.”
“I just meant, let’s get you inside and in bed. I’m not leaving until I see you’re safely behind that door.”
Before I could make my escape inside, he tugged on my hand and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. I couldn’t help the sigh that escaped. After this god-awful day, I just wanted to melt into his embrace. I wanted to cry while he held me and told me that everything would be okay. Before I did something stupid and invited him in, I pulled away and had my back to him, unlocking the front door.
While wrestling with getting the key into the lock with no porch light, I felt how close Sloan was behind me—his body heat giving way to his closeness, even though he wasn’t touching his body to mine.
“I still don’t forgive you, you know.”
“I know. I see it every time you look at me.”
I wanted to lean back into him and tell him that while I might not forgive him, but tonight helped.
“I still want that dinner, Magnolia.” Since we still weren’t facing each other, he couldn’t see the small smile that splayed over my lips.
“Give me your number.”
“No.”
“Fine, take mine.”
I heard what must have been him pulling out his wallet and fishing out a business card, which he slipped into my back pocket. His fingers seemed to pause a little over the curvature of my ass, and I was so glad I wasn’t facing him because his closeness was frying any brain cells I had left.
“Call me. Text me. Whatever. Just contact me,” he said as he backed away.
He waited until I was inside with the door closed and locked before he exited the porch and headed back to his car. His headlights shone in the darkness, and I knew he was pulling away. I felt like I could finally let out the breath that seemed stuck in my throat for the past ten minutes.
Try as I might, even after one of the hardest days of my career, I couldn’t help but fall asleep with a smile on my face.
Chapter 21
Sloan
Dropping Magnolia off and saying goodnight was one of the hardest things I had to do. After sitting at Montgomery’s, thinking she had stood me up, I couldn’t even help but smile when I thought she did. She was confident, and no one was going to tell her what to do. My cock twitched thinking about her attitude and defiance. I thought about going to hunt her down when Jason, the town drunk, stumbled in, ranting and raving about the bust that was going on right outside of town at the old mill station. After hearing some details, I knew Magnolia would be there, and without a second thought, I made my way into the kitchen and started prepping some food to take to the clinic. If the stubborn woman would have given me her phone number, I could have given her a heads-up on my plan.
Since the news had spread, it appeared that half the town was out and about for dinner and the latest gossip, meaning the kitchen was slammed so it ended up taking me a bit longer than I had originally anticipated.
It was hard to handle the look of utter devastation that rested firmly on her face when I got to the clinic, but despite all that, she was extraordinarily caring and kind. She never lost her patience with any of the animals, even though they were aggressively scared, and rightfully so.
She thought she held her tears at bay, but I noticed every single one that escaped, and I wish there was something, anything, I could do that would ease her pain. I did the only thing I could do, and made myself available for whatever she needed, no questions asked.
Seeing her work and the kindness that seemed to seep out of her without even trying just reaffirmed the fact that she was too good for me, that she had always been too good for me. It was like a knife to the chest. It was at that moment that I made a promise to the universe to try to be someone Magnolia would be proud of every day, someone she could maybe even see herself with.
I knew I had a long way to go to prove to her that I wasn’t that young, dumb, eighteen-year-old kid anymore. I knew that who I was now didn’t absolve me of my past, and I would do anything to go back and change it. I just hoped she had room in her heart to look at who I was now, but even if she didn’t, I still wouldn’t blame her.
Following her car was probably the most stressful thing for me that evening. Thoughts spun in my head: What if she falls asleep at the wheel? What if an animal darts out in front of her car, and she’s too tired to avoid it? I white-knuckled the steering wheel the entire time.
Much to my pleasure, the drive to her house was quick and uneventful. I had barely managed to throw my car into park before I swung the door open so I could reach her before she tried climbing out of her truck by herself.
I was met with a tired gaze. She was still so damn pretty that my mouth watered, and I felt all my anxiety from this night and the drive melt away just from one look.
“Come on sweetheart. Let’s get you to bed.”
“Uh, no thanks. I don’t need your help.”
If she were mine, I would have thrown her over my shoulder for that remark, use my shirt to tie her to the bed, and give her a spanking until she was begging for me. I didn’t think telling her that would go over well, so I stuck with being a gentleman.
I’d be whatever she needed me to be, though I couldn’t help myself from pulling her into a hug. She looked so tired and so sad, and the beast inside my chest was thundering for me to make it better, to make her feel better. I wanted to wrap her up and take her inside, never let her leave and protect her from the harshness of the world. I felt her body melt into mine and I inhaled her scent deeply. Even after this hellish day, she still smelled divine, like jasmine and coconut. I released her before my conviction of acting like a gentleman went out the damn window.
We finally made it to her door, and she kept her back to me. I might not have had a relationship with her for the last eight years, but whether she wants to admit it or not, I know her. I knew she kept her back to me so I couldn’t see the emotions playing out in her eyes. I wanted to beg her to turn around. I would beg and worship at her feet if she gave me even an inkling that’s what she wanted.
I couldn’t help myself from sliding my business card with my cell phone number into her back pocket. I knew the light touch I gave her while sliding my card into the pocket was affecting her because I saw her skin break out in goosebumps. And while she might not have realized it, she had let out a breathy sigh—and that had me almost picking her up, throwing her over my shoulder, and showing her exactly what I felt for her.
I needed to leave before I did something she clearly wasn’t ready for.
“Call me. Text me. Whatever. Just contact me,” I said, backing away to give her space to go inside.
I waited until I knew she was safe with the door locked before I made my way to my vehicle. Tonight only reaffirmed what I had been working through since she came back into town.
Magnolia’s mine, always has been. And I will burn the world down proving myself to her.
Chapter 22
Magnolia
Despite how tired I was, I didn’t sleep well. I kept tossing and turning, wondering if I should just give up and head back to the clinic. Eventually, I decided better of it as Dr. Lewis would promptly tell me to go back home and to bed. When my alarm finally did go off, I was wide awake, looking at the ceiling with my heart still in turmoil from yesterday’s events. I pulled myself out of bed and forced my way to the hot shower while my muscles protested my movements.
I didn’t process much of my usual morning routine, other than the fact that I did it. My main and only goal at this time was getting to the clinic as soon as possible to be of help.
Stepping out into the fresh air with a hint of salt from the sea was jolting me awake more than my coffee ever could, but a truck idling next to mine had me stopping on my front steps. Then I realized exactly who that truck belonged to.
Sloan.
The door to his truck popped open, signaling he was indeed getting out. I had to admit, I was a bit shocked to see him at such an early hour. I had assumed he would still be in bed, fast asleep, not here, walking over to me with what looked like a latte from one of those artsy coffee shops in town. The way too expensive kind, but oh so good kind.
“Hey there, gorgeous. You’re a sight for sore eyes this morning.”
I couldn’t help the befuddled look I’m sure was clouding my features. “What are you doing here?”
My tone sounded even a little harsh to my ears, and I saw him wince as he took a step back, as if for the first time he was second guessing his actions.
“I figured you’d be heading back in as early as you could, and I wanted to be ready with some coffee…although, it might be cold now. I had it nestled on the passenger’s seat with the heated seat option on…”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. “The heated seat option, huh?” I held out my hand. “Well, since you went through all the trouble…”
Sloan placed the drink in my hand, and I couldn’t help the grimace that took over. It might have been good, but it was positively cold.
“It’s delicious,” I choked out.
Now it was his turn to laugh and he shrugged. “I should have gone with the ice coffee version; I’ll remember that for next time.”
“Pretty ballsy for you to assume there’d be a next time.” I took a second sip of the cold coffee. Even though it was cold, it was still caffeine, and I’ll be damned if I let that go to waste.
“Won’t there be?” He posed the question to me, effectively leaving the ball in my court.
Instead of opening that can of worms, I went with a subject change instead. “So, just the coffee this morning? Or is there something else I can do to help you with this morning, Sloan?” For some reason, every time I spoke his name, goosebumps erupted over my skin—it was becoming a real problem.
