She inhaled the treat.
He added, “We’ll work hard to make sure you don’t have to come across them again.”
And he carefully held out his hand and dropped a few more treats, close by, in front of him. She crouched on her belly to get a little closer to them. And then he held out a couple in his hand, while he held the asshole on the ground. She leaned forward delicately, and his heart damn-near broke when she nibbled the treat off his palm. He smiled, feeling something inside swell with sheer joy. Trust was something earned, and it was hard to come by, but when you got it? Man, oh man, it was a dream come true.
She stepped a little bit closer, and he continued to offer a couple more treats, hoping that the supply in his pocket didn’t run out anytime soon. He’d left the leash and the collar in his truck. Groaning and hating to, he pulled out his phone and contacted the same damn detective. When Amos answered, Kurt explained, “So I don’t know what you want me to do with this guy, but he was trying to shoot my War Dog.”
“And you killed him?” the detective asked with a snarl.
“No, he’s here unconscious,” he said. “He’s the one mentoring your gang members.”
“You got Slippery Simon?” His voice rose in shock.
“I don’t know,” Kurt said. “I’ll send you a pic.” He ended the call and rolled over the gunman. Even that act caused Sabine to growl. Kurt looked over at her. “He’s still out cold. It’s okay, sweetie.” He quickly took a pic, rolled the asshole back over again, and sent it to Amos.
The cop called him a few minutes later. “Don’t move,” he said. “I’m on my way.”
“Is it him?”
“Yeah, that’s Slippery Simon. We’ve been after him for a long time.”
“Well, you better get here fast,” Kurt said and hung up.
He sat down on the guy’s back, as close as he could to Sabine. “It’s been a tough go, hasn’t it, baby?”
She whimpered a little bit and snuggled a bit closer. He desperately wanted to reach out and touch her. She wanted that connection, that human contact too. But she was so afraid, and so was he because he didn’t want to break that tenuous bond. He didn’t want to break that little bit of trust growing between them.
She was too special to lose into this chaos again, but what the hell would he do with her now that the detective was coming? The last thing Kurt wanted was for her to attack the detective, although Kurt certainly understood the sentiment. He needed to make sure that she was safe when Amos appeared. Because, sure enough, the cops would be here soon and then what?
“I don’t suppose you’d come with me, would you?” he whispered. He didn’t have anything on him that he could use to wrap around her neck as a leash. Everything was in the truck. Yet he couldn’t leave asshole here unattended. Kurt would have to wait until the detective came and went before Kurt could deal with Sabine. Just then he heard sirens in the distance. She backed up, staring in fear in the direction of the noise.
“It’s all right. I’ll be here when they’re gone,” he said. “Go hide.”
Something about the term hide had Sabine swinging her head hard to him, and then she disappeared into the trees and melted into the background, but he could feel her gaze staring out the entire time.
Sabine was something special, but also her training was something damn creepy. She was very good at what she did. He wondered if he could keep her working, just in the civilian sector now, because she obviously had spent so much time and energy in her military career that it seemed a waste to not use it now. He didn’t know if any work was around for somebody like him and her. He also didn’t know if he had any right to even keep her. She wasn’t free to be donated to somebody like him. But then what did he know? He’d gotten further than he had expected because he found her, after all these weeks where she had been lost.
At that thought, he sent Badger a message and a photo of the Slippery Simon dude. When that was done, Kurt heard the cops calling out. He yelled back, and they headed in his direction. He kept talking to them so they could find his location. When they neared the clearing and saw him sitting there, still atop Slippery Simon, the detective walked over and asked, “What the hell is with the gun?” He pointed to the weapon on the ground, not far from the unconscious man.
“It’s not mine. It’s his,” Kurt said.
“And you just left it there?”
“Why not? Just the two of us were out here,” he said. “I don’t really care to use one, and I certainly didn’t need it.”
“So how does that work?” Amos asked. “He had a gun, and he came after you, and then what?”
Kurt decided that honesty would be best here. “I was working on gaining the War Dog’s trust, so that I could get her under my control. I have spent a lot of time today with her back and forth. When this guy showed up, trying to shoot her, Simon was pissed that I had interrupted him, so he turned the gun on me, and Sabine attacked Simon.” Kurt pointed to Simon’s shoulder. “As a trained military dog, she attacked the shoulder of the hand holding the gun and brought Simon down.”
The detective stared in surprise. “So you found her?”
“Yes,” he said. “I found her, and, if you guys can get this asshole out of here, I might get her to trust me enough to get a rope on her and get her back to my place.”
“But she bit him, that makes her dangerous.”
“No, she attacked upon my orders,” he said, “because, once again, I was under attack, and I was forced to defend myself.”
“Says you.”
“Yep, says me,” Kurt said, taking a long slow breath. “Are you now doubting this story too?” Kurt looked over at the other cops who had arrived. He didn’t recognize most of them, but he could tell from their attitude that a lot of news about Kurt had been shared between them.
The cops looked at Kurt curiously and then back at the man on the ground.
As if realizing he was making another spectacle and causing even more talk, the detective glared. “You don’t have to make life difficult all the time for me,” he said.
“Believe me. I’ve made enough trouble elsewhere too.”
“You were a pain in the ass back then,” he said, walking forward, as Kurt stood and rolled the guy over and added, “Why the hell should I think you’re anything different now?”
“You don’t want to see that I’m different,” Kurt said quietly. “That’s the problem. I’m obviously different. I have a very different set of friends and have earned their respect through the work I’ve done. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. You just don’t want to cut me any slack and see that I’ve changed.”
“A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
“A leopard doesn’t have to,” he snapped back, “because a leopard is, and always will be, a leopard. I may have been misguided and arrogant back then, but I’m certainly not that person now. The military made me a better man.”
The detective looked at him, but there was no give in his clear gaze.
“Are you dealing with this guy or not?”
“Well, we’ll take him to the station and see what he says.”