Chapter 11
D AVID
Kissing her had been a fucking mistake. The last few days had gone smoothly, she was coming around, and then I went and fucking kissed her! Nothing like giving her mixed signals.
I paced the kitchen, trying to find something to keep me busy while she soaked in the tub. Fucking her hadn’t been the plan either when I took her outside, but after seeing how playful she was, how sweetly submissive she’d been, I changed course.
Wasn’t that exactly the way it seemed to go with Gabby?
My phone rang, distracting me from my self-condemnation.
“Hey, David. I know you’re not due to come in until tomorrow, but Scott just called.
Scrappy isn’t doing so hot, so he’s bringing him in.
He wanted to bring him back up to your place, but I figured you’d want to meet him down here,” Cherise, the office manager at the clinic, explained.
“Do you want me to call him and tell him to go up to you?”
“No. If the dog’s still having trouble, I want an X-ray of his chest. Can you get that done if he gets there before I do?” I went to the bedroom to grab a fresh set of clothes.
“Yeah, no problem.”
I tossed the phone on the bed and changed into clean jeans and a collared shirt. The slosh of water in the bathroom drew my attention. I’d be gone at least two hours, more if Scrappy was more ill than I thought. If I left Gabby in the house by herself, she’d be too tempted to find a way out.
I glanced at the crate and internally cringed. I could use the large kennel in the cellar, but the memory of finding her curled up in the corner, dirty and scared, canceled that idea. I wouldn’t put her back down there.
“Are you leaving?” Gabby appeared in the doorway; a towel wrapped around her torso. It was the first time in days that I hadn’t been given a full view of her naked body.
“The dog that was here the other day isn’t getting better. I have to go to the clinic.” I finished tying my boot.
“Oh.” She stood there, holding the towel around her.
“You’re coming with me.” I decided it a split second before I said it.
Opening the bottom drawer of my dresser, I pulled out a soft lavender summer dress that had been left behind by an old flame.
The girls I trained were never given clothing, and I never saw a need to keep anything for them.
I’d only kept the dress because I’d meant to mail it to Sandra when she settled in New York, but I’d forgotten the dress and her immediately after she’d left.
I tossed the dress onto the bed.
“Put that on, we have to hurry.”
“I need shoes, David.” She picked up the dress.
Sandra hadn’t left any of those, but I had a pair of tennis shoes I’d never worn. I grabbed them from the closet and dropped them at her feet. “They’re probably too big, but it’s all I have. Now hurry.”
I left her in the bedroom while I gathered my wallet and the keys to my truck. Gabby met me in the living room, my shoes clomping against the floor as she walked through the kitchen.
I remembered the dress when Sandra wore it.
It had been too tight on her, stretching the cotton material over her breasts and hips.
But Gabby was slimmer, more petite, the dress fit perfectly.
I’d had the woman naked this entire time, but with the soft cotton clinging to her skin, the skirt swishing around her knees as she walked, she stole my breath away.
“Let’s go,” I said, diverting my gaze and gesturing for her to go out the front door.
One of my shoes fell off as she climbed down the front porch steps. I grabbed the shoe and urged her toward the truck. “We’ll get you something else,” I muttered as I shut the cabin door when she was settled in the seat.
“You want to go shoe shopping?” she asked with a light tone as I maneuvered my truck down the gravel road toward the main strip.
“Yeah, that would be great. Take a barefoot woman into a shoe store in this tiny ass town, I’m sure no one would notice.”
“Then I guess I’ll go barefoot into the animal hospital?” She pushed off the other shoe and tucked her feet beneath her in her seat.
“I’ll figure something out.”
“Can I ask you something?” she asked, turning to face me.
“What?”
“Why do you do this? I mean, what do you get out of it.”
“Being a vet?”
“No. Your other job.”
“Money,” I answered abruptly. “A lot of money.”
“Don’t you make good money with owning an animal hospital?” she asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“I don’t own it,” I corrected her. “Yet.”
“Is that why you do this? With women like me? You want to own the hospital? You couldn’t just sell your property? You have a lot of it, I bet you could get a good amount for it.”
I glanced over at her. “That land is all I have left of my family. It’s been in our family for three generations. I’m not giving it up.”
“So you’d rather just sell women into sick slavery?”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I don’t mistreat the girls that come to me.”
“Do you know what happens to them when they leave?”
“I learned to mind my own business in that regard.”
“How much are you getting for me?” she asked, surprising me.
“What?”
“How much are you getting to train me to be a little puppy for some sick fucker who will probably rape me over and over and over again until he’s sick of me and then kills me?”
“No one’s going to do that to you,” I said, blocking out the reality that she was completely right to be worried about it. I had no idea what happened to the girls once they left my property. I’d never allowed myself to think about it.
She turned to look out the window.
“Gabby, that’s not going to happen.” I’d have to make a few calls to track down who the buyer was.
It wasn’t something I’d ever concerned myself with before, but I wouldn’t allow her to be handed over to anyone that would mistreat her.
Just thinking of handing her over at all made my insides twist together.
“If it doesn’t to me, it will to the next girl or the next,” she said softly, leaning her head against the window.
I flipped on the radio, turning the volume up. There wasn’t any reason to continue the conversation the way it was headed. She’d only get more worried and tense and there wasn’t shit I could do about it anyway.
I parked in the back lot of the clinic and turned off the ignition. “Before we go in there.”
“I know. I know.” She put her hand up. “Don’t try to do anything that might actually get me out of this mess, or you’ll do something awful to me.”
I grabbed her wrist and put it back in her lap. “I’m serious, Gabby. I’ve never brought a girl here with me before, Cherise—the manager—will probably be all over you with questions. Be good.” I pointed a finger at her, pressing the tip to her nose.
“I won’t say a word,” she whispered. Her shoulders dropped. “I promise.”
I pressed a kiss to her cheek, then released her.
Cherise greeted us at the back entrance to the clinic. The sharp barks of the dogs in the boarding kennels echoed behind her.
“Thank you for coming down,” Cherise said. “Oh, lord, did I interrupt something?” she asked, glancing at Gabby.
“Cherise, this is Gabriella. An old friend.”
“You don’t have on any shoes!” Cherise pointed at Gabby’s bare feet. “You can’t walk around this place barefoot. Let’s find you something.” She pulled on Gabby’s arm. “Scott’s in exam two.” She waved a hand in the air at me as she took Gabby into the staff room.
I watched them go, unsure of what to expect next.
Cherise would probably think Gabby was out of her mind if Gabby decided to tell her the truth of what was going on.
But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t believe her.
I’d lived here for five years and had no real friends to speak of, for such a small town that was strange.
“David, thank god you’re here!” Scott waved at me from the exam room he’d been stashed in to wait for me.
I gave another quick look down the hall, waiting to hear a scream of alarm or something telling me Gabby was making a run for it. Laughter floated into the hallway. Whatever they were talking about, it wasn’t me.
Or it was.
“Okay, Okay, Scott. Let me look at the X-ray.” I focused on getting Scrappy back to health so I could get my puppy back home and safe, tucked away in the cabin.
I shouldn’t have been so reckless bringing her down to the office. She could get away. It could cost me, but it wasn’t the cash I worried about anymore.