“Hi. I’m Luke Tanner. You must be Miss Winters. I’m here for your safety.”
“He has a gun,” Stella blurted.
“Miss Winters,” Luke said kindly. “Everyone in this town has a gun.”
“I need the peroxide!” Jace yelled and Stella was snapped back to focus solely on Jace and Jimmy.
“Let me, Miss Winters.” Luke grabbed the bottle and ran far faster than Stella could on her wobbly legs. She stumbled over and watched as Jace measured out a certain amount and then poured it into Jimmy’s mouth. He held her dog’s snout up and rubbed his throat. She saw when Jimmy finally swallowed, but the relief didn’t last. He didn’t throw up instantly like she thought he would. Instead, he just laid there as Jace listened to his heart.
Two headlights turned into the lot and then Katelyn shot out of the car, clad in a tank top, sleep shorts, and barefoot. Her blonde hair was up in a messy bun, and regardless of being in her sixties, she still looked as if she has just stepped off the set of a photo shoot. “Get him inside.”
Jace lifted Jimmy as Katelyn opened the door and flipped on the light. Jace followed her with Jimmy in his arms as Luke helped escort Stella. Stella couldn’t tell anything about the clinic as her eyes were glued to Jace and Jimmy as they made their way through an exam room and into the back.
“Put him here,” Katelyn ordered and Stella looked strangely at what looked to be an elevated shallow metal bathtub with a wire baking rack over it.
Jace stretched Jimmy out on the rack as Katelyn slipped her feet into rubber shoes and slapped some gloves on her hands. She opened Jimmy’s mouth and pressed her fingers to his gums. “See how my finger indentation doesn’t turn that much whiter and see how long it takes for color to fill in after I remover my finger?”
Stella nodded as Jace moved to stand by her. He wrapped his arm around her for support.
“It means he’s low on oxygen. What’s his name again?”
“Jimmy,” Stella said through the lump in her throat.
Katelyn shoved her face in Jimmy’s mouth. She pulled back his lips and examined his teeth. “Certain poisons have a scent. I don’t smell them here. I’m going to hook him up to an IV and start him on fluids while I draw blood and run some tests.”
Stella nodded again and watched numbly as Katelyn worked to save her dog. After a patch of hair on his leg was shaved and Katelyn had drawn blood from the dog’s neck, she inserted the IV. “I’ll be right back. Yell if anything happens.”
Katelyn rushed off and Stella stepped forward slowly. She reached a shaking hand out to rub over Jimmy’s head. “Fight, please. I love you. I’m so sorry this happened. Come back to me, Jimmy.”
The tears broke free then as Stella placed her forehead on Jimmy’s and cried. Jimmy suddenly jerked and Jace pulled Stella back. “He’s throwing up,” he told her and she held her. Stella gripped Jace’s arm hard as she watched her dog battle for his life.
“He’s throwing up!” Jace yelled.
“Good. I’ll be right there,” Katelyn called back from the depth of the clinic.
Jimmy heaved and heaved and finally threw up. He didn’t respond even as he vomited. Jace leaned forward and stroked Jimmy’s head. He talked calmly to him as he looked down into the metal tub beneath Jimmy. The wire rack now made sense.
“What did Jimmy eat tonight?” Jace asked Stella as Katelyn rushed back into the room and looked into the tub.
“He hasn’t eaten yet. I was going to feed him when I got home,” Stella answered as she stepped forward to rub Jimmy’s neck.
However, she did notice the frown that passed between Jace and Katelyn.
“Do you ever feed him human food?” Katelyn asked.
“Maybe some cooked meat if it’s not overly seasoned, but not normally.”
“What about dessert foods?” Katelyn asked again.
“Of course not. Those are dangerous,” Stella said, pissed she was being interrogated over how she took care of her dog.
“It’s what I thought. Luke, you’ll want this for evidence,” Katelyn said. Stella had forgotten about the deputy and looked over her shoulder to find him half in the room and half out. He’d been guarding the entrance.
“What’s going on?” Stella wanted to know as Katelyn scooped some dark brown sludge into a specimen cup and handed it to Luke before doing the same with the sample she’d taken.
“I think someone fed your dog chocolate. Not just chocolate, but sugar-free chocolate,” Katelyn told her before turning into the cabinet and pulling out another IV bag.
“How do you know that?” Stella asked curiously. “Will he live?”
“He’s hypoglycemic. You know how people can go into a diabetic coma? He’s not quite there, but that’s what made him pass out. His blood sugar plummeted suddenly, leaving him unconscious. I’m giving him IV dextrose to try to stabilize him.” Katelyn hooked up the new bag as she explained. “The number one thing that causes these symptoms is xylitol poisoning.”
“What’s that?” Stella asked looked to see Jace nodding in understanding.
“Xylitol is a sugar substitute. It used to just be found in sugar-free gums and such, but now people are baking with it as they try to make everything sugar-free. I think someone baked brownies or a cake and stuffed it full of xylitol for the sole purpose of hurting your dog.”
That got Luke’s attention. “Why do you say that?”
“His blood sugar was so low that a small amount shouldn’t have caused such a bad reaction for a dog of his size. Even if it were just a bad reaction, someone still fed your dog chocolate with poison in it when they could have slipped the dog a sedative to get into your house. Or opened the door and let him run off. Maybe it’s because I’m married to the former sheriff, but this whole thing seems to have been done with malicious intent to me.”
“Would your ex-boyfriend do this?” Luke asked Stella as he head spun.
“He wasn’t Jimmy’s biggest fan, but he knew how much I loved him and just kind of ignored him. I think he sometimes felt like he was second fiddle to Jimmy, which should have been a warning sign for our relationship. But he never was mean to Jimmy. He never swatted at him or pushed him away,” Stella told the deputy.
“You don’t have to keep defending him.” Stella could tell Jace was angry. She was, too, but she just couldn’t see Rick doing this.
“I’m just being honest.”
Luke nodded, but Jace just clenched his jaw.
“Jimmy is waking up.” With that, all of Stella’s thoughts turned away from Rick and focused on her sweet boy. “I’m going to move him to a kennel,” Katelyn said. “I’ll stay with him for a couple more hours. Our night nurse will be in soon to take over.”
“Can I stay with him?” Stella asked as Jace picked Jimmy gently up.
“Of course,” Katelyn told her as she grabbed the IV bags.
Jimmy looked up at Jace and his tongue darted out to lick his chin. “You’re welcome, buddy. You’re such a good boy.” Jimmy’s tail barely wagged, but it was a wag and that let Stella finally take a deep breath. He was going to make it. She just knew it. Not only that, but talk about signs. Jace was giving his everything to protect her and her dog. That was a good man. She’d already known he was a good guy, but the sight of Jimmy licking Jace’s chin as he carried her dog. Then, too, the memory of Jace holding April and the two of them laughing, well, it shifted something deep inside her. It felt like a warm blanket wrapped itself around her and she wanted to snuggle into it. She was in love with Jace Davies.