Chapter 6 Kyle #2
As the staff dispersed to close down the practice for the night, I turned to Darla. “I’ll be with you in a minute. I’d like to check on Bella before she goes into surgery.”
Cami raised her eyebrows. “Bella?”
I shrugged. “I think it suits her. You don’t like it?”
Cami smiled as we walked toward the exam room.
Her dimples were adorable. I made a note to myself to make her smile as often as possible.
Her shoulders had dropped a few inches, further proof that she was recovering from her run-in with Scott.
I would have to tread lightly when it came time to ask questions about him.
“I like the name Bella,” she said. “I think it suits her much better than Spike.”
“All right, first of all, there’s no reason a girl can’t be named Spike. And second, I didn’t want to be rude and look under her tail.”
When Cami laughed, her eyes crinkled and her dimples deepened.
Her beauty, brains, devotion to animals had all drawn me in, but that laugh—loud and unapologetic and hypnotically musical—sent me over the edge.
It was a damn good thing this wasn’t a honey-trap situation, because all the money the government had spent on my resistance training was useless against her.
“That’s adorable,” she said.
Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you. Out loud, I said, “I was going for macho. Or at least hunky.”
She bit her pink lower lip. I stared at her mouth. My conscious thoughts were temporarily suspended as the blood required for peak brain function flowed to other parts of my body.
“How about hero?” she asked in a near whisper.
It took me a few beats to process that. By the time I did, I couldn’t protest. I couldn’t explain that I was the guy behind the scenes, not the one kicking ass, taking names, and saving the day, because she’d turned to open the exam room door.
I rested my hand on hers. I was in no hurry to stop touching her soft skin.
“Cami,” I said quietly, “one more thing.” I dropped my hand and leaned against the wall, playing it cool, hoping to keep her at ease so she’d feel safe to open up to me. “Why were you so insistent that no one else help you with Bella’s surgery?”
The quick downturn of her lips proved I’d hit home. Something was up.
“I just want to keep everyone safe,” she replied, matching my muted tone. “The fewer people involved, the better.”
“They’re already involved and there’s more to this than you’re telling me.” I said it as gently as possible. Her guard was slowly coming back up, and I needed her to trust me. “Cami, I want to keep all of you safe, and I can’t do that unless you tell me what you’re hiding.”
She stared at the door handle. “I haven’t even hired you.”
“And you’re not going to.” For one thing, she couldn’t do that if she wanted to.
That’s not how our covert operation worked.
But even if we’d been a run-of-the-mill, non-governmental security company, I wouldn’t let her do it.
“I’m using my own free time, here. And I’m not leaving until I know you and that sweet girl”—I nodded my head toward the exam room to indicate Bella—“are okay.”
“I think I’d better show you.” She led me into the exam room.
Bella was stretched out on the metal table. At first, I thought she was already under anesthesia, but when I stepped closer, she wagged her tail ever so slightly.
“Hi, girl,” I said.
Cami touched Gina’s shoulder and the vet tech stepped back. She’d shaved Bella’s abdomen for the surgery. The dog’s pink belly looked even more distended than it had when covered with hair. And there was something else.
“Here,” Cami said, pointing to two small bulges above the swollen area.
The lumps under the skin and had dark threads crisscrossed over top of them. Stitches. Awkward, unprofessional stitches.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
“I have my suspicions,” Cami said. “We’ll remove them while she’s under. I think they might be pouches with drugs. I’ve heard of it and I’ve seen pictures, but I’ve never had a case myself.”
No wonder Cami had wanted to keep a close hold on this.
“If there are drugs, I have connections who can analyze them and get them to the proper authorities very discreetly.” I looked at Bella’s belly more closely. “Those stitches weren’t done by a vet, were they?”
She shook her head. “She wasn’t even shaved. I have no way of knowing if the area was cleaned properly, but there’s definitely an infection now.” She squinted as she stared at the threads. “Not totally unprofessional though. It could be someone who’s worked in a vet office, or...”
“Someone who’s been doing this for a while and has a lot of practice,” I finished her thought. We could be looking at an established drug smuggling operation, right here in our little town of Bluewater Bay, Maryland. “What do you know about Scott?”
“Scott and drug smuggling? I don’t know. He was definitely a shitty boyfriend, as Gina tried to warn me.”
So, he wasn’t an acquaintance. He was an ex. I hated him even more.
“I only said bad things about him out of love for you,” Gina said. “Best friends and dogs. They always know.”
Best friends. That explained why Cami trusted Gina with all of this.
“There was the incident that led to the break-up,” Gina continued. “This shines a whole new light on it.”
“Yes,” Cami said. “That was concerning.”
I glanced at them and waited for one of them to spill. Cami, in particular, seemed reticent.
“Some drugs went missing from the locked cabinet,” Gina finally admitted. “We found the inventory discrepancy during our routine weekly check. The only non-employee who’d been anywhere near the area had been Scott. But he was alone for less than a minute or two, and the lock wasn’t even broken.”
“What kind of lock?”
“The kind that’s probably not difficult to pick if you know what you’re doing,” Cami answered. “And the missing meds were the kinds we use to sedate animals and to numb the skin. Not to put them under completely, though.”
A lump rose in my throat. I stroked the dog’s head, picturing the horrors she’d been through.
“It’s okay, Bella,” I whispered. “You’re safe now, and these ladies are going to take extra good care of you.”
“Bella?” Gina asked.
Bella thumped her tail a few times, signally her approval.
“That’s her name now,” Cami said.
As I turned to leave, Cami touched my arm. Her warm hand lingered on my skin. “Do you think someone working here could be involved?”
I laid my hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
What I did know was both Cami and Bella were in serious danger, and I wasn’t letting either of them out of my sight. When the operation was over, they were coming home with me.