Chapter Fourteen
A fter work Friday afternoon, Holden was pulling into Gabe’s driveway. The guy’s wife had asked him to stop by to check on the foster Chihuahua’s progress. She had also asked for some pointers on how to handle dogs like the frightened Zena. He didn’t believe Lyndsey needed many pointers, given her history of fostering, healing, and sometimes performing illegal rescues.
A smile twitched his lips. He still couldn’t believe Gabe had arrested his own wife. Granted, from what Carter and Dex had told him, the couple hadn’t been married at the time, or even dating, but it must’ve been interesting, especially since both were undeniably headstrong.
And he needed his former SEAL-buddy-turned-sheriff to use that quality to track down the person responsible for vandalizing Emily’s car.
Right under Holden’s nose.
His chest tightened and he gritted his teeth, hating that he hadn’t seen anything or stopped it.
Hated that he hadn’t caught Perez red-handed.
It’d only been two days, but Gabe was a persistent, thorough, formidable guy. If there was a way to prove Perez painted Bitch on Emily’s car, then Gabe would find it.
And if not him, then Carter would, because Holden had asked him to check traffic cams for that day, which wasn’t exactly legal but it was doable, and his buddy was capable of hacking in. They started combing through them, but their workload got a little tighter since they were a man down now that Mac’s son was born yesterday. Dex was in charge while Mac took some time off to stay home with his wife and newborn.
From what he could tell by the photos Mac had sent them in a text, the tiny dude was born with a patch of dark hair on his head. He looked like a McCall, for sure.
Squinting against the late afternoon sun, he got out of his car and was headed to the backyard where he was supposed to meet Lyndsey when Gabe pulled up.
“Hey, Holden,” he said, getting out of his Tahoe with Chief on his six. A flicker of envy tightened his chest, but he pushed aside the toxic emotion. “Are we supposed to have dinner with you and Emily tonight?”
He shook his head. “Not that I’m aware. Lyndsey asked me to stop by after work to check on Zena and give her a few pointers.”
His buddy snorted. “Is that right?”
Holden scratched his temple, wondering if it was just a fishing expedition about her friend. “Does smell a little funny.”
When they entered the backyard, Lyndsey was there, working with Zena, but their sudden appearance spooked the Chihuahua. She ran behind a tree in the far corner of the fenced-in yard and barked incessantly.
“Sorry,” Gabe said. “Didn’t know you were back here.”
Lyndsey sighed, rising to her feet. “It’s okay. I didn’t know you were going to come in this way, or I would’ve warned you.” She smiled at Holden. “You, I knew about. Thanks for coming. As you can see, she still needs a lot of help.”
“But you’re making progress,” he said. “The fact you were able to get her out here and in the middle of the yard is a good sign.”
And the fact Chief wasn’t reacting to the unstable Chihuahua was a sign that he was a balanced dog with calm, confident pack leaders.
“Uh, guys,” Gabe said, voice low. “She’s making her way here, following the perimeter. Should we do something specific?”
Okay, so maybe his wife was the pack leader.
“Yeah, don’t spook her again,” Lyndsey said. “That’d be helpful.”
His buddy shrugged. “Didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I know, hon. You’re just big and…big.”
Holden snorted at the women’s description of his buddy’s large frame and authoritative personality.
“So, what do we do not to spook her?” Gabe asked, his gaze on the barking dog.
“Don’t make any sudden movements,” Lyndsey replied. “And stop looking at her. It’s best not to acknowledge her presence.”
“Can I breathe?” Gabe asked through a smirk.
Lyndsey looked as if she wanted to swat him, but she glanced at Zena making her way closer, so his buddy got a reprieve. “Let’s put Chief inside with Buster and the others, then sit down out here and talk for a bit. It will be good for Zena to be exposed to humans and voices.”
Holden set a hand on Gabe’s arm. “Wait. Keep Chief out here. He’s balanced and a good example for her to follow. And if your other dogs are the same way, then you should bring them out here, too. She would feel better with a balanced pack, and they will teach her that humans can be trusted.”
“Oh.” Lyndsey lifted a brow. “Good idea. I’ll get them. You two take a seat. I made some lemonade. It’s already on the table, so help yourselves.”
He nodded and followed Gabe to the patio and sat down. As expected, Chief followed and plopped onto the ground by his human until Lyndsey opened the door and the mastiff and one-eyed dog walked out.
Two things happened then.
One: The pit bull rushed over and eagerly greeted his buddies with a round of tail-wagging-butt-sniffing. Two: Zena stopped barking and ambled closer to the dogs, then allowed them to sniff her before she did the same.
“That’s what always happens,” Lyndsey said, sitting next to her husband. “I think Zena has a crush on Buster.”
Gabe snickered. “They all love Buster. He’s a great dog. Lyndsey did good rescuing him.”
Lyndsey elbowed the guy. “Yeah, and you arrested me.”
“Hey, charges were dropped, remember?” Gabe frowned, rubbing his side.
She snorted. “I remember a lot of things.”
Between the couple’s banter and watching the dogs interacting playfully, Holden was thoroughly entertained. “Do you have any leashes nearby?”
Lyndsey frowned but nodded. “Yeah, inside the house and the foster building.”
“Can you get me one that doesn’t have a chain?” he asked, continuing to observe all the dogs quietly socializing.
He was encouraged to see Zena taking part with her tail up and body relaxed.
“Sure.” Lyndsey disappeared into the house and when she returned with the leash, all the dogs rushed over to her with their tails wagging and a few excited barks.
Holden took the leash Lyndsey offered and set it on his lap, motioning for her to retake her seat. “They’re too excited. We’ll let them settle down.”
“Okay.” Nodding, she poured everyone a glass of lemonade and handed them out. “I bring her out here with them at least once a day. I think they relax her.”
He sipped his drink then set it on the table. “Yes, because they’re balanced. If they were unstable like her, the barking wouldn’t stop, and aggression would escalate.”
“So, she kind of mirrors emotions from dogs and humans,” Gabe said, more to himself than to them.
Lyndsey grinned and set her hand on her husband’s arm. “Aw, look at you, hon. The perfect example of teaching an old dog a new trick. I’m proud of you, Seadog.”
Holden huffed into his drink, enjoying the front row seat of the big, bad squid and the woman who’d tamed him.
Gabe grunted. “If you try to give me one of their biscuits, I might bite you.”
Her grin grew wicked. “Promise?”
“Only if you beg.” Now Gabe was grinning.
“You know I’m not above begging when there’s an incentive,” his wife stated with a raised brow.
During the exchange, Holden looped both ends of the leash and held it next to him beside the chair, allowing the dogs to sniff. Even Zena ventured over after she stopped barking.
“Do you two need me to leave?” he asked, fighting a grin.
Gabe chuckled. “No, this is our typical, everyday conversation.”
“And if you’d have told me yes, you’d get an elbow to the ribs.” Holden grinned.
“Affirmative.” Gabe nodded and received an elbow to his ribs anyway.
Smiling, he nonchalantly slipped one end of the leash around Zena then the other end around Buster. As he expected, the Chihuahua panicked and tried to run but couldn’t because Buster stood still.
“Good boy.” He petted the dog. “Let’s move around the yard and interact with the dogs, except for Zena. Ignore her. Buster will bring her to us and by interacting with him, he is going to teach her that she can trust us.”
“That seems a little cruel,” Lyndsey said as they began to walk around. “Ignoring her, I mean.”
He nodded. “I know, but if you pity her, she’ill see it as a weakness and respond with aggression. She needs calm. And if you interact while she’s nervous or barking, you’re only encouraging that behavior.”
“You have to remember she isn’t human, Lyndsey. She’s a dog,” Gabe said, bending once in a while to pet Chief on the head as the pit bull walked by his side.
“I know and I need to remember that,” she said. “But it’s hard to push their past out of my head sometimes.”
Gabe slid an arm around his wife and kissed her head. “That’s because you have a big heart, hon.”
Buster came over to Holden. “Good boy,” he murmured, petting the mastiff’s head. And when the dog laid down and exposed his belly, Holden knelt down and rubbed him. “Good boy,” he repeated.
All the while he showered the dog with attention, he noticed Zena watching. She inched close enough to sniff his knee, and soon her tail began to wag. Holden took the opportunity to reach out and touch Zena, being careful to come at her from the side. From the front could seem aggressive to a dog and provoke an attack. “Good girl,” he crooned as he stroked. She wiggled closer, accepting the contact, and soon she was on her back, and he was rubbing her belly too. “Good girl, Zena.”
“That is amazing,” Lyndsey said, rubbing Wink’s ear. “Thanks for helping her.”
“My pleasure,” he said, and they spent the next five minutes taking turns petting Zena, including Gabe.
Holden removed the leash from the dogs, and he was pleased to see the Chihuahua no longer kept her distance from them. When they returned to the patio, she followed along with the rest of the pack.
“Emily told me you were able to put a leash on Queenie and pet her too,” Lyndsey said, sitting back down in her chair.
He nodded. “Yes. Just like Zena, it was important to forget about her past and treat her in the now. She responded well, considering her previous owner.”
Her gaze shot to his. “Oh, so you know.”
Gabe frowned. “Know what?”
“That Emily adopted Perez’s dog,” he replied.
His buddy muttered an oath.
“It’s not a big deal.” Lindsey shrugged, but Holden didn’t see it that way. “The guy doesn’t know and now Queenie—a.k.a. Hera—has a caring human for an owner.”
“That doesn’t mean Perez won’t find out,” Gabe said, his gaze dark with concern.
Holden agreed with a grumble as he reached for his lemonade to swallow down a few expletives. He glanced at Zena sniffing at the fence, happy to note she hadn’t picked up on the change of mood. Yet.
“Speaking of Emily,” Lyndsey said with a smile splitting across her face. “How are things going?”
Gabe groaned. “ Lynds …” He met Holdens gaze. “Sorry, buddy. You were definitely duped.”
“What?” Lyndsey arched a brow. “I’m just engaging in conversation. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you didn’t answer yet, Holden.”
He raised his hands and shook his head. “About what?”
“Emily,” she replied. “Do you like her?”
“Lynds,” Gabe muttered again.
“What?” she repeated. “She’s been hurt before. The last guy was all sunshine and roses the first few months, then his true colors came through. He tried to control her, complained about what she wore, her curls, her car, spending too much time with animals. Jerk used to scroll through her call log and messages on her phone until she caught him. That spurred him to sneak a tracking app on her phone.”
Holden inhaled and clenched his jaw, working to relax his shoulders that were suddenly so taut they were ready to snap.
“Sounds like a bastard to me,” Gabe remarked.
He swallowed a mouthful of lemonade but still couldn’t completely relax. “This guy got a name?”
Both Lyndsey and Gabe snapped their attention to him. He held their gazes.
“Um…why?” Lyndsey asked cautiously
Holden shrugged. “He could be the person harassing her.” He doubted it, but if it got him a name, he could get an address and pay the jerk a visit.
Lyndsey frowned. “I thought it was the Perez guy.”
“It probably is,” he said, but he hated that they didn’t have tangible proof. “Doesn’t mean it’s not her ex.”
“True.” Gabe set his glass on the table and nodded. “There wasn’t any evidence to implicate Perez.”
“So, calling her a bitch and painting in on her car isn’t enough?” Lyndsey asked, her tone rising enough to lower Zena’s tail.
“We don’t have any eyewitnesses to the latter,” Gabe said, reaching for his glass. “Not yet. I’m still digging.”
He caught her attention and motioned toward the slightly nervous dog with his head.
Lyndsey winced and mouthed, “Sorry,” then exhaled and turned to pat her husband’s free hand. “You’ll find evidence. If anyone can, it’s you.” Then she told them the name of Emily’s ex-boyfriend.
“Thanks,” Gabe said, hitting Holden with a warning in his serious gaze. “I’ll check into him.”
Good. So would Holden, with Carter’s help. But they didn’t need to know.
“Now, let’s circle back to your intentions toward my friend,” Lyndsey said. “Of course, they’re honorable, right?”
He chuckled. “I can see why the two of you are such good friends. You have more in common than your love of animals. Tenacity, for instance.”
“Bullheadedness,” Gabe added.
She grinned. “Aw, thanks for the compliments, but changing the subject won’t get you off the hook.”
He shrugged. “Not trying to get off the hook. I have no problem admitting that I like Emily. A lot.”
“Holy shit, you slept with her,” Gabe muttered.
Lyndsey snorted. “That’s old news, hon. Get with the program. That was so two days ago.”
Shock rippled through Holden. Emily had told her friend? Not that it was a secret, it was just that she didn’t seem the type to broadcast her personal life.
She laughed. “Relax. Emily didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to, not with the way she came to work yesterday humming to herself and wearing a smile almost too big for her face.”
Ah, kind of like him yesterday. Apparently, he’d walked into ESI with a spring in his step or something, because the guys immediately picked up on the fact he and Emily had slept together.
A smile tugged at his lips as pride puffed out his chest. “Good to know.”
He loved that he could make her so happy others noticed.
“Just so you know,” he said. “I would never try to control her or change her. She’s perfect.”
Lyndsey smiled. “Well, okay then. I just need to have my girl’s back. I’m sure you understand.”
He nodded. “Absolutely. Wouldn’t be here without someone watching mine.”
An image of Braddock’s face as he clamped down on Holden’s uniform near his shoulder and tugged him behind a rusted-out car while bullets pinged all around them flashed through his head. His stomach and chest both tightened.
“That’s what friends are for,” Gabe said, and Holden could tell by the look in his buddy’s eyes that he knew he’d been talking about Braddock.
Not that his human buddies hadn’t saved his ass, and vice versa during active duty.
His phone vibrated. As he dug it out of his pocket, his pulse increased, and he wondered if it was an alert for Emily’s place. It wasn’t an alert, it was a text from Emily.
“I’m heading home to take a long shower. Care to join me?”
“Roger that.” He texted her back, then surged to his feet. Zena barked and stepped backward a few steps. He immediately exhaled and reset his calm. “Sorry,” he said. “Got to go.”
Lyndsey chuckled. “That’s got to be Emily. Give her my love.”
Oh, he was going to give the woman some love all right. But not the kind from a friend.