Darke Heat (6 page)

“Bryce, not now,” she shouted at him from her front step.

“Shut up, Paige, just shut up,” he said while slowly exiting the vehicle. “I’ve been driving for over an hour, worried about you, and having my leg cramp up on me, so just can it. We need to talk about a few things, and we are going to do it now!”

His tone said he was not going to be talked out of it, but Paige knew she could out stubborn the best of them. Having grown up with her brothers, it was a survival skill.

“Bryce, come back tomorrow morning when we are both cooled off and the adrenaline isn’t spiking. I’ve had a crappy day and I need some think time, and if you push, I will start blubbering, and you know how uncomfortable that will make you, and we won’t be able to have that talk anyway.” Okay, she was using sneaky tactics, because she never cried, but she knew he couldn’t handle it.

“Okay, you get your way tonight, but tomorrow we are going to have that talk.”

“Fine, tomorrow.” She opened the front door and let it slam behind her. She needed to eat, then she could take care of Sheba. It was late by the time she’d eaten and gotten through all her mail and calls, all the while keeping tabs on Sheba.

Before getting ready for bed, she grabbed Sheba and her eight babies. She’d only had to put Sheba’s carrying case in the SUV and the dog did the rest, moving each and every baby to the case. Once they were all inside, she carried them into the house and put them in the front room.

They were big puppies. She’d train them to be great security dogs. There were six boys and only two girls. Her family was expanding. She loved them all already. She had so much love stored up, and only the dogs in her life for an outlet. But they gave back in full without question. They were loyal, and trustworthy. She took another look at the babies, as Sheba moved them onto the blanket in the front room. Momma curled up with her little ones nestled up close to her body and slept. Paige decided to do the same.

Paige woke thinking something was wrong and then she remembered, she and Bryce were going to have that long overdue talk. She quickly dressed so she could check on Sheba and the puppies, and the other dogs, before Bryce showed up for their show down. Hours dragged by and still no Bryce.

“Sheba, I am so not going to call him. He’s blown every chance to make things right with me. It’s time for me to stop giving him these opportunities to blow me off and hurt me.” She finished filling Sheba’s bowls with water and food, before going out to do more training with the other dogs. It was painfully obvious Bryce wasn’t coming. She spent the day taking the dogs through their paces. Then she took the back seats out of the rental car, hosed them off, cleaned them, and left them in the sun to dry. After that, she needed another shower, so she went back in the house.

Paige had stepped out of the shower and quickly dressed when the dogs in the back kennel started putting up a racket. By their bark, she knew it wasn’t another animal. It was a person, and they were a threat to the dogs in some way. Vandals? Great! Just what she needed after the day she had yesterday. She would prosecute to the hilt for this. She was so on edge after all she’d been dealing with, that she couldn’t trust herself not to overreact and hurt somebody. With the sound of another crash, she barely had time to glance in the direction of the living room to check on Sheba. Someone was breaking into her kennel. She picked up her cell phone from the charger and dialed nine-one-one.

“This is nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”

“Someone is breaking into my kennel. My name is Paige Conner. I live at two twenty County Road.” She didn’t wait to verify all the information. She headed out the door. Just then, she heard a car drive up. What now? Oh yeah, Bryce was due to come have that talk. And where was Samson? Why had he come back last night without him?

She ran out the front of the house, and over to the barn, where the driveway led as Bryce got out of his truck.

“Bryce, where’s my dog?”
I sound like a broken record.
“Where is Samson? You were supposed to bring him back.” She barely got the question out, when the dogs began barking in earnest.

“Someone is breaking into the kennel,” she said when he gave her an eyebrow raised in question. At her comment, he pulled his revolver out, and walked in front of her to the side of the barn. He looked around the corner where the kennel was. Paige followed close behind.

As another window broke, he shoved her behind him, up against the wall,

In anticipation of gunshot?

Sure enough, several bullets sprayed the ground next to where they stood. Several more shots rang out, and the smell of cordite filled the air.

“So, Paige, when were you going to tell me you were having a spot of trouble?”

He spoke with false calm as he aimed his pistol around the corner of the dilapidated barn. He fired several shots in succession, which were returned with extreme prejudice.

“What? I guess now would work. Agent Bryce Prescott, I’m having a little trouble around the farm lately, with people vandalizing the place, dead bodies showing up on my training field, and now some jerk is shooting at me. But that’s just current events. Yesterday morning I almost got blown up at your house, you stole another one of my dogs, I found a pit-bull holding area, and my dog had eight mixed breed puppies in a rented SUV. Does that about sum it up for you, big guy?”

She saw Bryce do a quick double-take at her words. She spoke in the most annoyingly, sweet voice, that in no way sounded like her usual tough-as-nails Paige. Sirens sounded in the distance. She saw him breathe a sigh of relief that back-up would arrive soon.

“Bryce, the dogs are getting worked up from all the gunfire. Let me go in...”

With one hand, he pushed her farther behind him. “Right now, Paige, I’d like you to be a little more worked up about the fact that your butt is getting shot at, or that a dead body was found on your property.
That
is what you need to get worked up over.”

Yeah, a
mong other things
, but she kept that thought to herself.

“You make it sound like it’s my fault. This isn’t my fault. How was I to know we’d have a crime wave here in Darke County, Ohio? My realtor forgot to mention it to me before I signed the contract.”

Another chunk of the siding splintered, the bullet grazing Bryce’s arm, but he barely flinched. His gaze remained focused on the tree line at the edge of the parking lot. Sirens were coming closer. This round would soon be over.

“I knew your moving back here was going to mean trouble,” he muttered.

“Need I remind you that you are newly back to town as well,” she squeaked.

“But you’re the one getting shot at,” he said. “Leave it to you to get the locals all fired up.”

“Don’t you dare blame this on me! I’ve put up with enough of this crap. I’ll be carrying my twenty-two, and the next time someone shoots, I’ll be returning the favor.”

Seeing the blood seep from the gash on Bryce’s arm, brought back too many bad memories. Here was another great man, putting himself in harm’s way for her. It made her angry at the injustice of it.

“Listen, little girl, you are not to move a muscle until I say so. Are we clear?” he said while his hand reached back to push her against the side of the building.

“I’m not a little girl, and I can take care of myself.”

“Paige, I’m not going to get into a discussion of that while the natives are trying to put some lead into you.”

His words were said in all seriousness.

“What the heck are you talking about, Prescott?” she asked in angry confusion.

“Nothing I can do a dang thing about right now. So, shut your fresh mouth before I shut it for you.”

She could think of one very satisfying way she’d like for him to shut it, then open it again with his tongue sliding over her lips. But she’d have to wait until he could get them to safety.

Finally, the backup arrived. The perpetrators ran into the woods toward the lake. Bryce explained the situation to the Sheriff and Deputy.

“Sheriff, they ran off toward Locke one, should we get the dogs and go search?” asked the deputy from last night.

“You can take Deeogee and Patch,” Paige offered. “I’ll go get their leashes. And if you don’t bring them back, I will tear the flesh off your hide. Understood?” she demanded.

“Yes, ma’am,” the Sheriff’s deputy responded. He obediently followed her into the kennel, where she pulled down two leashes and harnessed the two dogs.

“What’ll they need to get the scent of the intruder?” he asked.

“Nothing, the intruder came in, they already have his scent.”

He nodded at that assessment.

Other officers were gathering evidence. Since the location was the scene of another crime, they were on high alert. Once she had done what she could, and given her statement, she headed toward the house. Bryce broke away from the police officer he was talking to and cut her off, but was waylaid by another officer.

Soon the officers with her dogs were returning.

“The perps took off in a black pick-up on the other side of the lake. The plates were covered in mud so no ID.” They handed the dogs back to Paige, so that she could put them in their kennels. One of the officers escorted her to the kennel.

“Is Deeogee an Asian name?” he asked.

“No, it’s a spelling. D-O-G.” she replied.

The officer chuckled in response. “Clever.”

“He’s a very smart dog who descended from my first dog.” Once the dogs were back in their sleeping quarters, she inspected the damage to the building. She’d had the kennel designed to protect the dogs. The broken glass would need replacing. Why had they broken a window? The only thing of value was her dogs. The police had searched everything, so anything suspicious would have been taken as evidence.

“Bryce, what did they want? Why destroy my kennels?” she asked, when he finally came over to talk to her.

“I’m not sure, but since they went for the kennels, I’d say one of your dogs.”

“Why?” Today’s vandalism had her totally perplexed.

“I don’t know, but it’s not safe for you to be here.” He stood tall and straight, with his hands on hips, as if trying to intimidate her into doing his will.

“Yeah, well I’m not leaving my dogs for some weirdo to come and take.”

“Okay, Paige. I want you to get new locks, and I think you should stay in town until we know it’s safe.”

“I’ve got several dogs here to be trained, plus Sheba and her babies. I won’t just leave them here. I’m going to get back to work as soon as the police finish.”

“For tonight, just stay in town until they have more time to search your property thoroughly.”

“Can you take all my dogs to your place for the night? Then I’ll go stay at the Rose. But only for tonight,” she countered.

“Sheriff Markham, can you have all the dogs transported to my place?” Bryce yelled over to the Sheriff who was taking photos.

Paige saw Officer George Spencer staring at her. It made her skin crawl. She remembered him. She doubted he’d be one of the ones to take her dogs over to Bryce’s. He’d once been at the receiving end of her dog’s protect mode and probably still had the scar to prove it.

“That’s sounds the safest,” the Sheriff answered. The different deputies and officers each grabbed a dog and herded them to different cars. As predicted, Officer Spencer stayed away from the dogs. Paige secretly smiled.

Bryce called the Millers, who were caretakers for his place, to let them know the dogs would be coming and to make ready for them.

“I’m going along with this tonight, Bryce, but tomorrow I’m going to be back to get things moving on the house and the dog training. And in addition to the renovations, I now have to replace several windows in the kennel. I can’t afford to be anywhere else.”

“I’ll fight that battle tomorrow then,” he said with a grin. “I’ll drive you to the Rose and have one of the men follow in my car.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll get my stuff.” Paige didn’t wait for an answer. She went inside, threw the essentials into a duffel bag, and grabbed her purse and keys. She stood on her front porch looking at the chaos around her and shuddered—the violence so at odds with such a bucolic setting. What was happening? She’d worked so hard to get away from the violence of her childhood, and yet she’d come home to find trouble all around her. She walked over to her van and Bryce opened the door for her. She threw her purse and duffel bag onto the front seat. “I need to get Sheba and the pups.” She went back into the house and opened the door to the carrier. The carrier was padded so Sheba only had to move the pups into it. Once Sheba and her litter were in, Paige rolled it out to the porch.

“Bryce, could you help me get her in the van?”

“Sure.” He lifted the dog carrier and hauled it to her van where Paige had opened the door for him to place it in the back.

He closed the door. “Paige, I’ll be right back.”

“Fine.” Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she felt exhausted. She climbed into the passenger seat, laid her head back against the headrest, and didn’t awaken until Bryce pulled up at the Rose.

Bryce stared at the woman next to him and felt a supreme wave of tenderness. Paige had never had it easy, but she never complained either. She was such a contradiction to all he’d believed her to be over the years. He gently shook her awake.