Chapter Fourteen
“Ishould think not,”Grady drawled to himself as he stared at Linx’s text message commanding him to meet her at another roadsideinn.
Since she told him to get lost, he’d gone back to San Francisco to hand Sam off to the dog trainer. Placing dogs with veterans wasn’t as easy as hethought.
Some of them had night frights, and others were liable to snap in anger at the drop of a pin. Some had disabilities, partial paralysis, traumatic brain injuries, or were wheelchair bound. Others suffered from addiction or had abusivetendencies.
He made his best guess on rescuing a dog, and then he worked with the trainer to assess the dog as well as the veteran they were trying tomatch.
He typed a quick messageback.
No go. Meet me in SF and we’lltalk.
Before she could text back, he silenced his phone and rang Vanessa Ransom’sdoorbell.
Two dogs were already barking from behind the door, excitedly yipping and scratching. Sam stayed calm. He stood at attention, ready for anything, but completelysilent.
“Okay, okay, you two,” Nessa scolded her mutts, Randi and Ronni. She opened the door and grabbed her two little rascals by the collars to keep theminside.
Randi was black and white, had an upright tail and wiry fur, a rat terrier sheltie mix, and Ronni had short, but soft brown hair with black tips, floppy ears and a bushier tail—a shepherd terriermix.
“Got another dog for me?” Nessa stepped back to let Grady in. “Let me put these two in the bedroom. Be rightback.”
She half-dragged, half-carried the two yappers down the hallway while Grady crossed thethreshold.
Vanessa was a psychotherapist specializing in post traumatic stress disorder, suicide prevention, and sexual abuse recovery. In addition to seeing patients, she trained dogs for the Dogs for Vets program on a volunteerbasis.
She came back from her bedroom with a big smile breaking over her pretty face. She was tall and slim, a black woman with long straight hair, large expressive eyes, and a wide, friendly mouth—and she was too much of a goody-two-shoes for him to mess with in his “hate them and leave them” state ofmind.
Without coming too close, since she didn’t want to appear threatening to the dog, she stood still until Sam approached and sniffedher.
“He’s a very calm one. Unruffled,” Grady said. “I think he’ll be perfect forZulu.”
Zulu was a former Army officer who’d been held as a sex slave by terrorists before coming back to the United States. She was living at a residential rehab center for female veterans suffering from PTSD, but had recently gotten a small apartment with her sister, a victim of humantrafficking.
Both of them were Vanessa’s patients, and she worked with them during the day, learning and practicing coping strategies. At the moment, a male friend of theirs stayed with them on “guard” duty, but conditions were strained since he wanted a relationship with Zulu and she was not ready to go down thatroad.
“He’s a beautiful dog.” Nessa reached out and rubbed the dog’s back. “Strong too. How old do you think heis?”
“Younger than three,” Grady replied. “He was surrendered because his owner had to deploy to the MiddleEast.”
“Ah, so he had a soldier train him,” Nessa said. “Still, I’ll keep him separated from Ronni and Randi for the first few days, not that I think he’ll tear them up, but they can beannoying.”
“That’s because they’re so playful.” Grady cracked a grin. “By the way, the lady at the rescue says she has two retrievers for the husband and wifeveterans.”
“Will she let them go without an interview?” Nessaasked.
Grady rubbed his chin. “Let’s see how it goes with Sam. She’s bending the rules, letting me bring himhere.”
“Hope it goes well with Sam,” Nessa said. “Oh, where are my manners? Would you like to stay for coffee ortea?”
“Actually, I have to get going.” He patted his pocket where his cell phone had been vibrating. “Bye, Sam. Be a goodboy.”
The dog gave Grady a doleful look and walked away, not caring who he wentwith.
“He knows we’re all temporary people,” Vanessa said. “And this is not his foreverhome.”
“Hopefully Zulu will take a liking tohim.”
