Now rested, Caleb assessed several other people coming in and out of the gas station. An older man walked a small dachshund over to the trees. Stashing the weapon in the bushes and keeping Beowulf close to his side, knowing he didn’t have a leash but holding him on orders to stay, Caleb approached the older man.
The man looked at him in surprise and looked at the dog. “Wow, that’s a good-size animal,” he said. “Old pudgy here, he would not be anything but a tiny morsel for him.”
“Well, the good news is,” Caleb said, “Beowulf doesn’t eat morsels like that.”
The old man nodded, and a little bit of relief passed over his face. “I’m sure he needs to lift the leg just as much as mine does.”
“That he does,” he said. “We’re a little bit lost too.”
“Oh, well, you’re only about ten miles out of El Paso,” he said. “The city limits are probably only about eight miles from here.” He pointed at the highway. “Just drive on down there, and you can’t miss it, biggest damn city around,” he muttered. “My wife, she insisted on coming here and living close to her relatives, whereas I’d rather be a long way off,” he said, shaking his head.
From the far corner, somebody, a woman, yelled, “Henry!”
He rolled his eyes and said, “Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t be a long way away from her too.” But tugging his little dog, he moved in the direction of his wife.
With that information, Caleb quickly sent a message to Laysha, telling her where he was. He barely sent off those text messages when Badger called him. “Are you at the gas station just outside El Paso?” he asked. “We’ve got your phone at that location.”
“Yes, I’m sitting in the parking lot now,” he said. “I just sent Laysha a message to come my way.”
“How’s the dog?”
“He’s holding. Needs to see a vet. It looks like he’s been shot along the back, starting at his haunch. It’s a deep gouge, and it’s ugly. I don’t know if it’s too late for stitches or not,” he said, “but I’ll get him to a vet here pretty quick. Under the circumstances …” Caleb filled in Badger with the ugly details. “I’m pretty damn sure they murdered the guy and then fed him to the dogs.”
“Oh, God,” Badger said. “I wonder how often that happens on that property.”
“Probably often. The dogs are all so badly treated,” he said, “but not as bad as anybody who works for this asshole.”
“So we’ll have to take a look at that too,” he said. “We can’t just rescue the one dog and leave the rest.”
“I’m not sure if they’ll be salvageable or not,” he warned.
“No, I hear you,” he said. “It’s one of the things that we’ll have to figure out. But I’ve got calls into the cops now,” he said. “I’ll follow-up right now with that information.”
“Good enough.” As he hung up, Caleb heard a honk, and he looked over to see Laysha driving toward him in the rental. He lifted a hand, realizing he’d never seen anything quite so nice as the smile on her face when she caught sight of him.
Life was damn good. He could only hope now that maybe there was some hope of a future for them both. Because he didn’t want to lose any of what he just now had finally gained. His brother be damned. Jackson could have Caleb’s ex-wife. Laysha was on Caleb’s horizon. And she was worth waiting for.
Chapter 14
Laysha drove straight toward him, overwhelmed to see him safe and sound. She studied the dog as she drove into the parking lot. He looked like he’d been through a rough couple months. But she also saw something so majestic within him that her heart broke when she thought about what he must have gone through at the hands of that asshole.
She pulled in to the side and parked. She let the dogs out, hoping that was okay, managing to clip the leash on her three rather excited ones, whereas Graynor was always well behaved. Graynor walked up wearily to the side of Caleb, studying the other dog lying at Caleb’s side.
Beowulf’s ears were up, and he studied Graynor with interest. Obviously recognizing a kindred soul of some kind. When Graynor arrived with the three yappy things, Beowulf seemed to accept that they were part of the pack. Graynor walked over, and the two big dogs sniffed. No animosity, no anger. As if one old soldier recognized a wounded one. Laysha walked over, and Caleb stood and opened his arms. She raced into them, and, when they closed around her, she whispered, “I was so scared for you.”
“For me?” he said. “How do you think I felt, knowing some asshole followed you?”
She smiled. “I got rid of him though,” she said, “but it took the cops and the other guys to do it.”
“I’m just sorry it had to happen that way at all,” he said gruffly. “Not very good on my part.”
“Why do you figure?” She looked up at him carefully. “You can’t protect everyone all the time.”
He squeezed her and tugged her back into his arms. “Maybe not,” he said, “but I sure as hell don’t want to see you going through that again.”
“Hey, I’m right with you there on that one,” she said. She stopped, crouched in front of the War Dog, and gently offered the back of her hand for the dog to staff. He sniffed, and his tail wagged ever-so-slightly. “How’s he been?”
“Well, he’s sore. He’s tired. He needs a vet to make sure that that hindquarter will be okay. I think it’s infected. Maybe a bullet burned through the muscle,” he said. “I’ve checked it out as much as I can, but it needs a good wash. We might have to sedate him for that.”
“Poor thing,” she murmured. “You sure it’s him?”
“Yes, while I was sitting here, I sent images of the tattoos to Badger, and it’s Beowulf. The vet should check the microchip on him, but, as far as I’m concerned, this is Beowulf.”
The dog lifted his head in their direction at his name.
“Even his markings are fairly identifiable,” she said, studying the irregular brown-black pattern on his ears. “I feel so bad for him,” she murmured. “And for the other dogs.”
“I know,” he said. He stared at Beowulf. “Do you have a vet?”
She nodded. “And he does house calls.”
Caleb frowned at that and said, “I don’t know if we can knock him out and do whatever is needed on a house call, can we?”
“Let’s phone and ask,” she said. She pulled out her phone and phoned her favorite vet. When Sandy the receptionist answered, Laysha explained what the problem was.
“As long as it’s not major surgery, then the vet can come fully equipped, yes,” she said, “but, if we’ve got to give him general anesthesia and knock him out, then we need to keep him here.”
“Maybe it’d be better to run him down there right now,” she said, “if you guys have time to take a look at him.”
“That would probably be best. Let me check the schedule.” She came back and said, “We can squeeze you in at the end of the day.”