Page 64 of Always Been Mine

She looked back at the first car. It had parked at theintersection and the passenger stepped out clearly waiting for her to make a move. She was trapped.

Before she could react, the man in front of her yanked down his ski mask. Rhino immediately went ape-shit and tugged in front of her, growling fiercely. Ski-mask man pulled out a gun and aimed for Rhino.

“No!” Beatrice screamed as Rhino lunged straight for the man’s gun hand, wrenching the leash from her hold. She heard the muted pop of the silencer, but the shot went wide as Rhino brought the man down.

Everything happened simultaneously. She was going for Rhino and making a run for it when the side doors of the van flew open and masked men jumped out. Beatrice didn’t waste time counting how many, her intent was getting herself and Rhino out of there.

Spectators were starting to gather and shout for help.

An arm banded around her waist and she was hauled off the ground, a sweet-smelling substance filled her nose. She kicked out, and heard a grunt, but she was fast losing control of her limbs and her vision was fading into black.

There was yelling, from the crowd or from her assailants, Beatrice didn’t know. She heard another muffled sound and Rhino yelping in agony. More angry shouting.

Noooo . . .

11

Gabe cursedthe car that pulled into a parking spot closer to his house. Thankfully, there was no vehicle behind him, so he backed up to another space a couple of cars down. Exiting his Chevy Silverado, he collected the grocery bags, bumped the door close, and bleeped the locks. Balancing the bags, he took a leisurely pace to his home.

When he turned on his street, he grew alarmed to see a crowd gathering right in front of his house and a smear of red on the pavement.

“What the fuck is going on?” Gabe demanded, shouldering past the throng. What he saw brought him to his knees. He dropped the bags.

Rhino was bloodied, panting hard, and whining softly.

“Buddy?” Gabe whispered, checking quickly for the source of the bleeding.

“He crawled home,” a person in the crowd said. “Some of us tried to help him, but he was growling and snapping at us.”

Gabe found the wound near the neck.

One of the spectators shoved a roll of gauze in front of his face. “Here. I ran home and grabbed this.” Gabe recognized his neighbor next door.

Recovering from the shock of seeing his dog bleeding out on his front stoop, the implication hit him like a ton of bricks.

Beatrice!

While working first aid on Rhino, Gabe asked. “Did anyone see a redhead?”

Everyone started speaking simultaneously. Frustrated, Gabe decided to finish treating Rhino before interrogating any witnesses. When he lifted him, Rhino tried to fight the movement and cried in distress.

“Easy, boy,” Gabe fought the heart-rending emotion of seeing his dog injured. He lifted a chin to the nearest person. “Did you see what went down?”

“Yes, I—”

“Come with me,” Gabe ordered. He wended his way through the assembly, which parted easily before him. “Tell me everything. How many? What car.”

As the details of what happened were revealed, Gabe tried to quell the rising panic in his chest. Beatrice was rendered unconscious and dumped into a white van. There were three men wearing ski-masks—one would be sporting a dog bite on his right arm. Gabe thanked the man for the information and loaded Rhino in the vehicle. Police cruisers turned into the neighborhood, but Gabe had no time to talk to them.

Pulling up emergency veterinary hospitals from his phone, he was relieved that there was one a couple of blocks over. Afterward he called Travis.

“Blake.”

“Travis, it’s Gabe.”

“What do you want?”

“Cut the hostility, Lieutenant,” Gabe snapped. “Beatrice was taken. They shot my dog, and I’m on my way to the emergency vet.”

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