Love's Taming (The Love's Series)

by Maryann Jordan

  A week passed without a word heard from Stoney. Annie kept running their last time together over and over in her mind, searching for clues as to what his words meant. “Got shit in my life. Shit I have to deal with. And I’m trying to keep that from you. But you gotta know that this is real. What we’re doin’. What we’re feelin’. It’s real.”

  If it was so real, why did he leave in the middle of the night? Wanting to hope that he came back and being angry at being left warred inside of her until she was exhausted from sleepless nights.

  “Doc, don’t be offended, but you look like shit,” Leon said as he came back toward the lab, carrying a large fat cat in his arms. Putting the cat on the table, he and Suzanne expertly drew blood from the yowling cat, while Annie looked over from staring at x-rays.

  “Gee thanks, Leon.” She glared at him while knowing he was right. She had seen the evidence this morning when she looked in the bathroom mirror at the dark circles under her eyes.

  “Leon! You know never to tell a lady that she looks bad. Shirley would slap you silly if you ever told her that!” Suzanne admonished.

  He cut his eyes over to Suzanne. “I’m not that big of a fool! You think I’d ever tell my Shirley that? Hell no. I need my balls to stay right where they are!”

  Suzanne and Annie couldn’t help but laugh, knowing that he was exactly right about Shirley. As Leon headed back to the front with the fat cat, Suzanne walked over to Annie and put her hand on her shoulder.

  “Seriously though, Dr. Donavan. You don’t look like you have slept in a week.”

  Barking out a rude noise, Annie confessed, “I haven’t.”

  Suzanne speaking softly, “Is it him? Sarge’s owner? I noticed I haven’t seen him around and well…I just wondered.”

  A pithy reply on her lips, Annie looked at Suzanne’s face. True concern shown and Annie knew that only honesty was worthy of their friendship.

  “Honestly? I don’t know. He said he had some business to take care of and when he got back, things would be even better. But it’s been a week and I’ve heard nothing. So…” she replied.

  “I’m sorry. If you want to talk, just call,” Suzanne said.

  The lab phone rang and Annie picked it up, surprised to see that Reception came on the screen.

  “Dr. Donavan? You’re needed up front.”

  Suzanne and Annie looked at each other in confusion. Usually Leon just yelled to the back since the clinic wasn’t very large.

  “Wow, he’s being very efficient. Must be important,” Annie said as she got off her stool and walked to the front.

  Annie rounded the corner and saw two men, dressed in suits standing at the counter. One was middle aged, with graying hair and a kind face that was lined with what Annie thought looked like fatigue. The other was tall, huge in fact. He looked as though he felt out of place in his suit, although it fit his muscular frame very well. He was younger, with dark hair, slightly mussed as though his hand had been running through it. He had a vicious scar that ran from the middle of his forehead down toward his eye.

  Leon had placed himself between the men and the hallway as though to protect her. Moving to his side, she looked at them curiously.

  “I’m Dr. Annie Donavan. May I help you?”

  “Dr. Donavan,” the shorter of the two men greeted. “I’m Detective Lawrence Carter and this is Detective Matt Dixon.” Both men held out their badges for her to see.

  Annie, not knowing what to say to their introductions just nodded to the two men. Licking her lips, she began to feel the nausea rising as she wondered if these detectives coming into her clinic had anything to do with Stoney. Oh, Jesus. Please don’t let him be in trouble.

  “What can I do for you?” she asked, trying to steady her voice. She felt a presence at her back and realized that Leon and Suzanne has moved forward to flank her, providing her with whatever comfort they could.

  “We have some questions for you and would like you to come down to the station with us.”

  “Questions?” Her voice was definitely shaky now, “Questions about what?”

  Before they could answer, Suzanne piped up from behind. “Do you have a warrant? Is she under arrest? Should she have a lawyer?”

  Turning to shush her tech, Annie couldn’t help but wonder about the answer to those questions herself. Turning back to the detectives, she squared her shoulders and looked them in the eye.

  “Detectives, as you can see, I have a business to run, and as I am the only veterinarian here, my business depends on my being in this clinic. Is this something that can wait? What is this in regards to?”

  “No Dr. Donavan. You are not under arrest, but you are a person of interest in a case. We do need to speak to you and we need you to come with us as soon as possible.”

  A person of interest? What the hell are they talking about? Pulling herself together, she turned to Leon and Suzanne. “I want to get this over with as soon as possible. Please call the afternoon appointments and tell them that we have to reschedule. I’ll be back when I can, please just lock up when you’re finished.”

  Leon put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her in. “Doc, you don’t have to go now. We can find out what is going on and we can call the lawyer that drew up the contract for the business. Don’t know if he is that kind of lawyer, but he can suggest someone.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she whispered. Giving Suzanne a quick hug, she retrieved her purse and turned to the detectives. “Gentlemen? Shall we go?” she said with her most authoritative voice, but even as she spoke she knew the tremors in her voice gave her fear away.

  * * *

  Within the hour, Annie found herself seated at a gray metal table in a gray metal chair in a grey painted room – as uncomfortable to sit in as it was to look at. Detective Carter was seated in front of her with a file folder on the table and Detective Dixon was standing next to the door, arms crossed over his chest. He had ditched the jacket as soon as they had arrived at the police station and she noticed that his biceps were straining the material of his short sleeve dress shirt. I wonder if he busts out of his clothes like the Incredible Hulk. As quickly as that bizarre thought came, she shook her head to clear her thought tangled mind. Focus. Answer their questions and get the hell out of here.

  “Dr. Donavan, have you seen anything like this before?” He pulled a photograph out of his file and pushed it forward to her.

  Looking down at the picture, she was surprised. Certain that she was going to be seeing a picture of Stoney, she was looking instead at a sausage link. Crinkling her brow, she raised her eyes back to Detective Carter. “It’s sausage. A sausage link. It looks like sausage?” She realized that she was babbling, but her surprise over the picture had stolen her ability to think straight. “You brought me here to ask about this?”

  Hearing a growl near the door, she turned her confused look over to Detective Dixon as he peered at her, unsmiling. Licking her lips nervously, she looked back down at the picture.

  “Anything else it reminds you of?” Detective Carter prodded. “Anything recently?”

  “I removed some links like this in two dogs recently. But you have to understand, dogs will eat anything. I’ve removed rocks, baby toys, paper, string, even half a steak with the bone in it… everything you can imagine. A dog swallowing a whole sausage link isn’t that unusual.”

  “What made you decide to remove it?” Detective Carter continued.

  Entering an area that Annie felt confident in, her voice was stronger as she explained. “When an animal eats a foreign object, the best we hope for is that it will pass. If it doesn’t, the animal needs surgery to remove the object. I had a dog dropped off at the clinic about a month ago. It was near death. Some kids in the neighborhood found it and brought it in. They just left it and I couldn’t just let it die, so I did the surgery. After it recuperated, I had it taken to a local pet adoption service.”

  “Where is the…sausage?” Detective Carter asked.

  Crinkling her brow
once again, she asked, “The sausage? That I removed? You want to know where the sausage is?”

  “Yes,” was the only answer she received.

  “I threw it away. Why would I keep a dog ingested sausage?” she asked incredulously.

  “You had another recent case like this?”

  Stoney. She knew this had something to do with Stoney. But what the hell could a dog swallowing a sausage link have to do with the police and Stoney?

  “Yes. It was a week ago. A man came to the clinic late in the evening with his sick dog. I examined the dog, took radiographs, and saw a foreign object. He wanted me to do emergency surgery so I agreed.”

  “Wasn’t it unusual to do surgery late at night, without your assistants?”

  “Yes, but the dog was in a great deal of pain and the owner insisted that we help Sarge.”

  “Sarge?” came a growl from near the door. “And who was the owner?”

  Annie looked over sharply at Detective Dixon, who was stalking toward her, stopping only to place his fists on the table as he leaned it. “I didn’t know him. He said his name was Stoney. He didn’t tell me his last name.” I never knew his last name. I slept with a man wanted by the police and I never knew his name.

  “So what did you do with that sausage?” Detective Dixon asked, interrupting her thoughts.

  “I threw it away also.” Feeling closed in, she felt her fear slide away, replaced by anger. “Look, I don’t know why you are so interested in them, but I don’t keep objects that I pull out of dog intestines! I threw them away. If I could go get them to show you, I would, but I can’t. They went into the garbage and tossed in my dumpster. They are probably buried under a ton of garbage at the dump. I don’t know what this is about. You haven’t told me anything, but your attitude makes me think that maybe I do need a lawyer.”

  At that, Detective Carter opened his file again, pulling out more photographs. Pushing them across the table to her, he lined them up.

  Annie looked at them, first in confusion, then in horror. Radiographs of dogs with numerous packets inside of their stomachs and intestines. The sausage-like packets split open with white powder spilling out. Pictures of knives. Guns. Dogs lying in an open grave, their bodies hacked and stomachs slit. The bile rose in her throat as she looked at the devastation. Bringing her fingers to her lips, she tried to swallow down the nausea. “Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus,” she said, as the sting of tears filled her eyes.

  Lifting her gaze up to the Detectives watching her closely, she shook her head. “What is this?” she whispered, visibly shaken. “What happened here?”

  Watching her reaction, Detective Carter spoke. “Dr. Donavan, this is one of the ways that drugs are trafficked from one area to another. These aren’t sausages. At least not in the traditional sense. They are packets of cocaine, wrapped so that a dog can swallow them. The dogs are then shipped from one area to another and then the drugs are retrieved.”

  “Retrieved?” she asked, her head shaking back and forth as her voice cracked.

  “They are taken, their guts slit open, the drugs removed, and the dog carcasses dumped,” came the growl from Detective Dixon.

  Detective Carter looked at him sharply, then swung his eyes back to Annie.

  “H…How? How c…can someone do this?” she stammered, with her fingers still pressed to her lips. Lifting her eyes from the horrible pictures to their faces, her eyes went wide. “You think I did this? You think I knew about this?” her voice rising.

  “No, Doctor. We don’t think you had anything to do with this. We have been watching you since we got a tip about that surgery a month ago. You have been on our radar and we’ve been including you in our investigation. We don’t think that you had any prior knowledge of what you were operating on and we have no evidence that you had any plans to sell the cocaine.”

  “There was really cocaine in those dogs?” Stoney. Did Stoney know what was happening? Is this what he said he had to take care of? Oh my God – did the detective just say I’ve been watched?

  Leaning back in the uncomfortable chair, she tried to stop her swirling thoughts. “Am I free to go now?”

  “Yes, doctor, you are. You may be called as a witness when this goes to trial, and we would like you to stay in town in case we have more questions. But yes, you may go.”

  Standing on shaky legs, she rose from the table. Nodding to both of them, she walked passed scary Detective Dixon on her way out into the hall.

  “Doctor?”

  She turned to look at Detective Carter as he approached her.

  “I’ll drive you back to your clinic.”

  Nodding numbly, she began to walk down the hall toward the front door of the station. Hearing noises coming from the doors ahead, she looked up to see a familiar figure walking through the doors, entering the station. Though his hair and beard were now close-cropped, she recognized his build. His tight black t-shirt that barely contained his muscles. The faded jeans that were worn in just the right places. The way he held his body. The way he walked as though he commanded all around him.

  Before she could call his name, he turned toward her and she stopped. And stared. His eyes. It was Stoney, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t his eyes. The dark eyes were gone. In their place were eyes as blue as a summer sky. Piercing blue eyes that penetrated hers. For the first time, she could see emotion in them. But hers were too full of tears to read what emotions were in his. Staring at his face that looked so familiar and yet now so different, she glanced down to see a badge hanging on his belt. Police. He’s police. He wasn’t interested in her. He was investigating her.

  And that makes her…used.

  Chapter 8

  “Annie,” the plea came.

  She heard his voice call her name at the same time she felt a hand on her arm. Turning, she saw Detective Carter still standing next to her, kindness in his eyes. And sympathy. Oh Jesus, he knows. Her eyes quickly scanned the room, finding most pairs of curious eyes on the unfolding drama in front of them. Who else knows? Do they all know?

  Her eyes landed back on Stoney as he started walking toward her. She backed up. For every step he took forward she took a step back, until she hit the wall. The air felt thick, as though she couldn’t pull it into her lungs quickly enough.

  “Annie, let me explain.” The voice came again as his blue eyes never wavered from hers. Detective Dixon stepped in, placing his hand on Stoney’s chest holding him in place. “Shane,” he said. “Don’t do this now. She doesn’t need this now.”

  Shane? He called him Shane? I didn’t even know his real name.

  Turning quickly, she scooted around Detective Carter toward the entrance. “I have to go. I have to get out of here. I have to go,” she kept repeating.

  Detective Carter jogged after her. “Dr. Donavan, let me take you back. Please, it’s raining outside. I’ll drive you to your clinic.”

  Shaking her head, not speaking, she picked up her pace trying to run past Stoney/Shane being held by Detective Dixon.

  “Annie, come back,” Shane yelled, then looked at the man holding him and warned, “Matt, get your fuckin’ hands off of me.”

  Suddenly, Annie stopped just as she was almost to the door. Turning slowly, she walked closer to the men, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist as though to protect herself from whatever was coming.

  Looking up into the blue eyes that seemed so different and yet so much more natural than the dark contacts he had obviously been wearing, she thought she saw regret. But regret over what, she didn’t know and didn’t want to know.

  “Shane.” The word sounded strange to her, but she noticed his eyes latched onto hers as she spoke. “You don’t have to explain. There’s…nothing…nothing,” her voice cracked.

  “Baby,” he said softly, his blue eyes full of longing.

  Shaking her head quickly to unclutter her mind, she drew in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Pulling herself up to her full height, which she knew wasn’t very much, but it gave her
a sense of control, she looked straight into his eyes.

  “No. Shane. You don’t get to call me baby. I think I know exactly what happened and can’t believe how gullible I was. You obviously had a job to do, and I get that. I’m just sorry that I was the collateral damage to you doing your job.”

  He started to move forward again, growling as Detective Carter stepped up to stop him if necessary. “Annie, it wasn’t like that. Please, let me explain,” he begged.

  “Do not come near me. If I have to file a restraining order, I will.” Her bravado was fading, and she knew she needed to get out of there.

  Turning quickly, she ran the last few steps to the door and disappeared through it.

  “Fuck!” Shane bit out.

  Matt released his hold on Shane but cautioned him. “You gotta pull your shit together, man. We just scored the biggest hit against these mother-fuckers, got some of their asses in jail, and you cannot fuck up this case ‘cause you couldn’t keep from fuckin’ over some witness while undercover.”

  Shane rounded on his friend, shoving him up against the wall. “You don’t have a fuckin’ clue what you’re talkin’ about. I never meant to fuck her over. She was never that.” Shane let go of Matt and stared at the closed door. “She was never that,” he said softly, to no one in particular.

  Matt and Larry looked at each other, understanding passing between them. Matt clapped Shane on the back and said, “Come on. We gotta get the reports finished. Until this is over, you can’t do anything about the doc anyway or you’ll really fuck up the case.”

  Shane stood, his head hanging for a moment, fighting the urge to run after her. Make her listen. Make her understand. She stopped being a mark the moment she talked and laughed while saving his dog’s life. The moment she opened herself to him, she became more than just a witness. But he knew. He had always known. He’d been buried so deep undercover, letting all that shit touch him for two years. Having to live the life of a drug runner, just to get enough evidence to get them. Right now, he still had to focus on the job. Right now, he had to let her go.