Chapter 39 Cami
CAMI
Kyle pulled his black pick-up truck into a spot in the Fourth Street parking lot.
He hopped out of the driver’s side door, clipped on Bella’s leash, and let her hop down to the macadam.
He bent down and removed the tracker from her collar, pressed it quickly to turn it off, and slid it into his pocket.
“No need for Pasco to keep tabs on her anymore,” he said. “We can do that.”
The threat to our little town and the people in it whom I loved was over.
Unfortunately, Kyle and his team’s pursuit of the higher-up players in the drug ring wasn’t.
He couldn’t tell me any details beyond the fact that the man at the top of the crime ring was wealthy and well-connected, and would be hard to take down.
But I knew if anyone could do it, it would be the HEAT team.
Kyle and I wrapped our arms around each other as we walked toward the pet supply store. People watched us as we passed.
“We must make a striking couple,” I said. “Unless... Am I glowing again?”
He grinned down at me. “Always. But I think the news of your heroics at the clinic has hit the internet.”
The details had been hidden, of course, but even X hadn’t been able to keep the local news outlets from following the police to clinic and demanding information about had occurred there.
They’d received a deep-scrubbed and HEAT-approved version of events.
I hadn’t expected the news to go viral quite so fast.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I glanced down at my dark blue work outfit. “I would have changed into something cute.”
“You’re always cute,” he said. “ And think of all the access I have when you dress in scrubs.”
“Hold that thought,” I said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
At the entrance to the pet supply store, Bella hesitated.
I worried she might remember this place, the smells, the man who’d abused her and brought her here.
Kyle must have been thinking the same thoughts because he kissed me, told me to say hi to Ally, and walked Bella across the street to a green metal bench.
Ally noticed me the minute I stepped into the shop. I smiled, and she did, too.
“We saved him,” I told her. I showed her the picture of Rocky in his recovery crate, with Gina kneeling beside him, giving the thumbs up.
Ally led me to the backroom where I’d hidden on the day I’d liberated Bella. I gave Ally the abridged version of the events of the last several hours, stressing that Scott was now in custody, was going away for a very long time, and couldn’t terrorize us any longer.
Then I had to tell her the worst part about Doc working with Scott.
“Those poor animals,” she said. “And your practice. He was writing fraudulent scripts. Will you be in trouble, too?”
“Luckily, I have some friends who are going to help me out,” I told her.
X had declared I wouldn’t be implicated in any of Doc’s crimes and was going to personally inform the FBI of that. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being absolved, since if it hadn’t been for me, Doc never would have met Scott.
“He did it to protect me,” I told Ally. “His heart was in the right place.”
“I feel sorry for him,” she said. “I mean, I love Doc. We all love him. But...” She shook her head. “I can’t forgive him. I don’t care what his excuse is.”
I didn’t press her. She had to make that decision for herself.
We talked for a few more minutes, which gave Ally a chance to cry, then recover. I was sure she—and we who’d been in the clinic that day—would do that a lot of that in the coming days and weeks.
Afterward, she walked me to the door. “Thanks again, Dr. V., for telling me in person. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Will you?” I hadn’t wanted to push her to return to the clinic.
“I need to do it,” she said. “I can’t be afraid forever.”
I wasn’t worried that she would be. She was strong. She was resilient. She had people to lean on and she wasn’t afraid to do it. I wished I’d learned that valuable lesson when I was her age.
Ally waved to Kyle as he approached. “Nice to see you, hero.” She winked, and I wondered how much she suspected about him and his teammates who had rescued her Saturday night, the supposed personal security firm who ran around in tactical gear with military-style weapons.
Kyle put his arm around me again as we walked back to the truck. “What’s next, Dr. Vaughn?”
I leaned against him, the exhaustion of what my team and I had survived, as well as the grief over learning about Doc, finally catching up with me. “Let’s take Bella home.”
He stopped and looked down at me. “Your place or mine?”
“Either one works for me. If you're there, it's home. Tonight, maybe we should stay at the apartment and set up Rocky in the guest room.”
“As long as you tell him the house rule: always lock the bathroom door when you’re taking a shower.”
“Oh.” I shot him a sad face. “Is that what you’re going to do from now on, lock me out so I can’t see your big, hard—”
“Hi, Mrs. Alvarez!” Kyle said loudly as the elderly woman whose chihuahua was one of my patients walked past me.
“Thanks,” I whispered to him as we exchanged waves with her.
Kyle resumed our conversation as we started walking again. “To answer your question, I’m not going to lock you out of anywhere. But speaking of Rocky, are you sure he’s a boy? I understand these things can be tricky.”
“First of all, girls can be named Rocky. And second, I checked under his tail.” I grinned up at Kyle, the man I loved, the hero I was going to keep. “And if you're a very good boy, later tonight, I'll check under yours."