Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
“ H ey, baby,” Leo hugged Torres tight as soon as he pulled up to Owen’s place and got out of the car.
“Hey,” Torres kissed his cheek. “Let me get Gabe. He’s still asleep.” He easily pulled his son out of the back seat, not even unbuckling him woke him up. The kid could sleep through anything. He eased Gabe’s head onto his shoulder and settled Gabe’s legs around his waist as he headed for the door.
“Hey Leo,” a young man waved as he came around the house.
“Hey Owen,” Leo hugged the man warmly as Torres stood back.
Torres studied the man, young probably around his age with sandy blonde hair and warm green eyes. The warm smile put him at ease.
“This is Torres, and the one we’re here for is Gabe.” He gestured to the boy in Torres’ arms.
Owen smiled widely at the sleeping boy. “I’m happy to give you any help I can. What exactly are you looking for?”
Torres looked at Leo. “You would probably know more than me.” He shrugged sheepishly.
Leo chuckled. “Gabe is dealing with the aftermath of being kidnapped and almost trafficked.” He didn’t want to give Owen the details, but he needed to be specific enough that they would get the right dog.
“Jesus, so you’re looking for a protective dog or a companion or a service dog?” Owen asked.
“Um, maybe all three?” Torres asked, unsure. “I want him to feel safe, but I know you can’t have a Service Dog that shows aggressive behaviors or guarding, right?”
Owen smiled. “Yes, that is correct. God forbid, you have a Service Dog that also protects, and someone bumps into him in the mall or something and then gets attacked by his Service Dog. Yeah, that’s a liability.”
Torres chuckled. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“I have two dogs available. Artax is a Belgian Malinois. He’s a retired bomb dog who was trained as a personal protection dog before his owners decided he was too much to deal with. Falkor is a German Shepard, he’s a fully task-trained service dog whose handler died of a heart attack last year.” Owen told them as he led the way into his kennels.
The one thing Torres noted immediately was the lack of noise. All the dogs sat patiently at the door to their runs, waiting to be told what to do. “Wow.”
Owen chuckled. “Yeah, I get really overstimulated with loud noises, so that’s one of the first things I train.” He led them further down the row until he stopped at two runs. One held a Belgian Malinois, his pointy ears forward as his head cocked to the side as he studied them.
Torres chuckled. If you looked closely, the dog had crossed eyes.
“Yes, he is cross-eyed, which is why he retired early.” Owen snickered. “But he can see perfectly fine. He’s just a dork. This is Artax, don't let his goofy face fool you, the second you put his vest on he’ll throw himself in front of a car to protect you.” Owen warned. “He’s extremely protective of those he considers his, but he has a solid off switch so he’s not a danger. He is just a high-energy dog. He needs a lot of exercise and stimulation to be happy. A couch potato he is not.” He pointed to the German Shepard that was laying down in his run, his massive head between his paws as he watched them. “This is Falkor. He may be more your speed, he’s a fully task-trained Psychiatric Service Dog, his owner was a military veteran with PTSD when he sadly died, his family didn’t want to keep Falkor.”
Torres winced. “Wow.”
Owen sighed. “Yes, it’s kinda shitty, but I’m happy to take care of the big baby. Would you like to pet him?”
“Yes, please,” Torres said immediately.
Owen nodded. “Absolutely. I can bring both out to let you see which one fits better.”
“Thank you.” As Torres turned, he came face to face with a massive beast who just sat there, staring at him. “Uhh…”
“Oh, that’s Tut, he’s the whole reason I opened this place. He’s my breeding male.” Owen sat patting the dog’s massive head as he passed.
“What kind of dog is he?” Leo asked, smiling.
“He’s a Cane Corso. He’s imported from Italy.” Owen said, grinning.
“Would he happen to be Sheriff’s dad?” Leo asked with a chuckle.
Owen laughed. “Yes, Sheriff is his, and this is his momma, Tiye.” He pointed to a beautiful black dog. Her head was smaller than Tut’s, but she looked just as powerful with her cropped ears and her almost reddish eyes.
“Holy shit.” Torres muttered, looking back and forth between the two. Tut was a big boy probably closing in on two hundred pounds if not having already passed that, and his coat was a beautiful bluish-gray color, and his calculating eyes were a solid cloudy gray and he wanted to hug the baby…even if it killed him.
Owen snorted. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Tut go back to bed buddy.” Tut snorted at him and seemed to roll his eyes, but got up and settled on what looked like a twin-size mattress in the corner. “Here, head out there and I’ll grab Artax and Falkor.” He pointed towards a door that led out to his fenced-in meeting yard.
“Thanks, Owen.” Leo said as he followed Torres out. They sat down on one of the benches and Leo gazed at Gabe as the boy slept wrapped tightly in his father’s arms. If he had been a woman, his ovaries would have been all ready for some of that hunky meat, he still was ready to rip the man’s clothes off, but at least he didn’t want the man to get him pregnant. He laughed at himself. He should totally write a story about them but make it in the Alpha and Omega universe.
“Hey, buddy,” Torres gently shook Gabe as he talked to him.
Gabe shifted, turning his head over and settling back down into Torres’ chest.
“Gabriel, I have a present for you.” Torres said in a singsong voice.
“Tired, daddy, wanna…sleep.” Gabe mumbled, smacking his lips.
Leo chuckled. He could agree with the kid, he always slept well wrapped in Torres’ arms.
“Here we go.” Owen muttered as he brought both dogs out, and they each rushed to Torres to sniff at Gabe.
Leo could see the exact moment Gabe came fully awake. A cold nose on the lower back would do that to even the most oblivious dead sleeper.
“Wha…” Gabe turned around in his father’s arms and immediately had a lap full of fur and a cold nose.
Owen grinned as Falkor immediately set out to soothe the boy and Artax sat at his feet on the lookout for any threat. “The one trying to crawl in your lap is Falkor, and the one guarding you is Artax.”
“Puppies,” Gabe said happily.
Even his son’s voice sounded tired. Torres looked over at Leo. He really hoped this worked.
“Daddy, look puppies,” Gabe said, trying to wiggle out of his lap.
“I see that, buddy. Remember how you had a talk with Doc earlier?” Torres asked, letting Gabe go so he could pet the dogs better.
Gabe’s bottom lip wobbled as tears filled his eyes. “Yeah,” he grunted as Falkor crawled into his lap, taking him down on his butt and pressing his furry body fully onto Gabe’s.
“Well, this is something I wanted to try and see if it would help you before we went the medication route. Falkor is a service dog, you know what that is, right?” Torres asked, leaning forward and propping his elbow up on his thighs.
“Yeah, they help people who are sick.” Gabe said knowingly, and Leo had to hide his smirk.
“That’s true,” Owen said, jumping in when Torres looked a little lost. “Your dad is here to see if Falkor or Artax would be a good fit to help you feel safe.”
Gabe studied both dogs. Falkor wouldn’t leave his lap and Artax was pressed up against his back, and he had to admit he hadn’t felt this safe outside of his dad’s arms in a long time. He opened his mouth to speak and snapped his shut. Would he have to pick just one? How could he leave the other?
Torres could see Gabe was having trouble choosing. “Owen, can we take them out and see how they act with Gabe?”
“Absolutely, but if you take both of them, you need to take them to a pet-friendly place. Only Falkor has the training and ability to go with Gabe to not pet-friendly places. Let me grab their vests.” Owen rushed off, and Torres looked over at Leo.
“Can you explain more?” Torres asked.
“Yeah, service dogs are considered medical equipment per the ADA in the constitution. They have the training and the temperament to be around large crowds of people and all sorts of situations. Personal protection dogs are strictly used for protection, not service dogs. Service Dogs are not allowed to show any aggression, so having a protective service dog is kinda counterproductive.” Leo ran his fingers through Torres’ beard as he spoke. “You can take a personal protection dog to any place that’s pet friendly, but they are usually used to guard houses and people walking at night.”
Torres nodded and looked at his son, who was currently playing with both of the dogs and how gentle the dogs were with his son cemented his decision. “I want to get both of them.”
Leo snickered. “Sucker. But I agree. Look at Gabe, he looks so happy.” It was true the boy’s laughter rang through the air and made Leo happy. Gabe would survive this and he couldn’t wait to see what this kid would go on to do.
“So, what do I need to do?” Torres asked Leo, gazing at the man he loved so much.
Leo pursed his lips as he thought. “Well, Artax is going to be a lot, but since you’re so active, I don’t see that being a problem. We’ll just have to get him used to guarding the house and go from there. I think having Falkor out in public will help Gabe be able to process things, and having Artax at home for when he sleeps or is relaxing will help him start to feel safe.”
Torres nodded. “Yeah, I think that will help him.”
Leo snuggled into his side. “You can always ask Ram or hell, even Kade, about the day-to-day stuff that you would need.”
Torres nodded. “Yeah, I will. We need to go get some crates and supplies.”
Leo chuckled. “Owen usually gives about a week’s worth of supplies when he re-homes a dog, so we’ll wait and see.”
Seeing his son running around and happy meant more to Torres than he could express, but things wouldn’t be easy. “Catherine and my parents have already stated they won’t allow him to have dogs. My parents are assholes, but I don’t think Catherine can have animals where she lives now.”
Leo nodded. “Service dogs are protected by law. The landlord will have no choice but to allow Falkor. Now, Artax is a different story and I can understand that, but service dogs can go pretty much anywhere, except places like a surgery room or something like that.”
Torres breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good.” he pulled Leo closer to his side.
“Do you really think she’ll deny him?” Leo asked. He didn’t really want to know the answer, but it had to be asked.
“I honestly don’t know. Paul said he’ll fight for custody if they don’t back off.” Torres grumbled, looking out over the yard. He hated that his family was this way and for them to make things harder for Gabe did nothing but piss him off.
“Would he win?” Leo asked, shocked.
Torres shrugged. “Probably, he pays for everything to do with Gabe.” Before he could continue, his phone rang. Leo leaned back as Torres pulled out of his pocket. “Hello?”
“Hey, when can you meet me at the courthouse?” Paul asked breathlessly.
Torres looked at Leo, confused. “For what?”
“I’m signing over my rights to you and you’re taking emergency custody of Gabe. I’ve already called the police, and they are going to be there to make sure this happens.” Paul said as he sucked in a deep breath.
“What happened, Paul?” Torres demanded, jumping to his feet, but calming slightly when Leo grabbed his arm.
“Overheard Dad telling Catherine she needed to take Gabe somewhere until things blow over, there’s more but I’m not ready to talk about that just yet. But seeing as he was just kidnapped and almost hurt and Dad is over here talking about her taking him somewhere else, I won’t stand for it so I need you to get to the courthouse as soon as you can. I called your friend Kade, and he made things move quickly. I thought this would take forever…he’s really scary by the way.” Paul muttered.
Torres snorted at the awe in his brother’s voice. “Yeah, he is. He probably called in some favors. Are you sure about this, Paul?”
“Are you going to keep him from me?” Paul demanded.
“No,” Torres assured him. He would never do that. It would not only hurt Paul, but would hurt Gabe as well, and that was something he was not going to do.
“Then, yes, I’m sure. At this point, I don’t see another way to get our parents to understand that they can’t control everything anymore. They don’t care that Gabe is suffering. It’s just a ploy to make them look bad and I won’t allow them to make his life hell like they did ours.” Paul sniffed hard.
“I understand. Do I need to bring Gabe?” Torres asked, meeting Leo’s questioning gaze.
“No, I’m not sure if they are going to show or not and I don’t want to put any more stress on him. I’m heading that way now. Just meet me there when you can.” Paul said before he hung up.
“What’s going on?” Leo asked when Torres just stared at his phone in disbelief.
“Um…Paul wants me to meet him at the courthouse he’s signing over his rights, and apparently called Kade to get me awarded emergency custody.” Torres swallowed hard. “I need to go…”
Leo nodded, cupping Torres’ cheeks to meet his eyes. “Go, I’ll take Gabe and the pups out for a bit. Just call me when you’re done, ok?”
Torres nodded, gently kissing Leo’s lips before he turned to say goodbye to Gabe. “Hey, buddy, I gotta run and see Paul for a few minutes. Are you ok with staying with Leo to take the dogs out walking?”
Gabe paused and looked worriedly from Torres to Leo, then down at the dogs and smiled. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”
“Good,” Torres hugged Gabe, swinging him around and making him laugh. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Ok,” Gabe muttered and went back to playing with the dogs.
“I have their gear.” Owen said as he rejoined them and held up two vests.
“Awesome, is it ok if you show Leo everything? I have to run to the court house really quickly, then I’ll be back?” Torres asked.
Owen nodded, smiling. “Yeah, it’s all good. There’s a park down the street that I’m going to take them to.”
“Awesome, thank you, man.” Torres clapped his shoulder and headed off to his car.
Leo grinned and shook his head. “You ready for this wildness, Owen?”
Owen chuckled. “Born ready.” He showed both Leo and Gabe how to dress both dogs and Leo had to admit the change in their demeanor amazed him. Both were on alert and standing still, no running around or trying to play, and both were still locked in on Gabe. Falkor was on his left in a perfect heel, brushing up against Gabe’s leg every few steps as a reminder that he was there. Artax was on his right in a perfect heel as well, although his focus was more on the scenery around them as he scanned the walkway as Owen opened the gate before he even allowed Gabe to walk out. Leo grinned as he and Owen walked a few paces behind Gabe, it was so good to see the kid smile again.