Size matters, p.6
Size Matters, page 6
From the moment the Chaos and Carnage MC had turned up with fifty dogs, he’d been a little less than savory.
Maddie ran her fingers through the cutey pie’s fur. Bull had brought this dog straight to them. The dog was a boy, and it looked like one of his legs was crushed. The vet had already been by to see him, and he was currently taking a call. Then they were going to plan the treatment.
“You’re so beautiful,” Maddie said.
The dog nuzzled her wrist, and she smiled.
“We can take the injured and as many as we can, right?” Maddie said. “We could set up an adoption date.”
“They are going to have to be investigated,” George said.
“Why?”
“They’re vicious dogs.”
She shook her head. “Only because they had to be.”
“Yeah, but there is a chance they could have harmed humans, and that’s not allowed.”
“What makes you think they harmed humans?” Bull asked.
The room had been tense the moment both of these men stepped into the room. She had no idea what was going on, and it kind of worried her a little bit. Bull looked at George as if he was some kind of bug.
“They’re covered in blood. You said you found them at a dogfighting ring, and we don’t know what goes on there,” George said.
“We can do our best to help, right?” Maddie said. “We can’t turn these fur babies away.” She pressed her face against the dog, and he nuzzled her face.
George put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Of course. We will do all that we can.”
The vet returned, and in his hand were some scans. “This guy is going to need an operation. I’m going to need to reset the bones, but he’s pretty young. I want to do some tests to see how he will handle the anesthesia.”
Maddie left the details to George. They decided on tomorrow, and she turned to Bull. “Can I leave early to come and see how he is doing?”
“Of course. I will come with you. I want to know how all these guys are doing.”
“For now, he is going to need some rest, and I will check on some of the other dogs.”
George went to pick him up, but Bull got there first.
“I’ll take you to his room,” Maddie said, leaving the vet clinic. She held open the doors. “You like dogs?”
“Love them. Even my dad loved them when he was around.”
“They’re amazing.”
“That they are,” he said in agreement.
She walked him down the long corridor. Seeing as the dog was going to be in surgery in the morning, he stayed close to the vet clinic. She smiled at a few nurses she passed, but they were more interested in Bull.
After opening the door, they went to a bed in the corner that had a water bowl. She wanted to give him some food, but the vet would organize what to feed him.
Bull lowered him down onto the bed.
“He’s so sweet,” Maddie said. “I hate that anyone could do this.”
“While we let him get some rest, do you want to see the other dogs?” Bull asked.
Maddie nodded. “I’ll be back. I promise.” She wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight worrying about this little guy. If she could have, she’d have taken him home.
With a sigh, she got to her feet and left the main clinic. The sound of barking dogs filled the air.
They were an animal shelter primarily for dogs and cats, but they sometimes took in rabbits, hamsters, and any kind of animal that was often dumped on their front lawn.
“I can’t believe you stumbled onto the dogfighting ring,” Maddie said. “Were you afraid?”
“It takes a lot to make me afraid, Maddie.”
“Of course, it does.” This was awkward. She couldn’t stop thinking about Bull’s proposition last night.
She had done nothing but think about it all day, and if the animals at the shelter could talk to humans, they would have a whole lot to say to Bull about what she’d been talking about.
“We are but I’ve got kind of a proposition for you.”
“What kind of proposition?”
“I can already tell you struggle when it comes to dating, so I’m offering my services.”
“I still don’t get it,” she said.
“I am going to show you how to date.”
“You’re propositioning to teach me to date?” she asked.
He smiled. “Yes, and in return, you have to promise to keep this between us.”
“You’re going to teach me in secret?”
“Exactly.”
Their conversation had been weird. She spent a lot of time last night thinking about it as well.
She wasn’t good on dates or with men, and Bull was now offering her the chance to learn from him.
“Have you thought about what I asked last night?” Bull asked.
Maddie licked her lips. Her mouth felt incredibly dry. “I have.”
“And?”
“I … what will dating entail?” she asked.
“Well, I will teach you how not to be awkward around men. I’m getting the sense you’re not used to it, and seeing as I’m a man, I know what I’m talking about.”
This did make her laugh. “You have a point.”
“There’s no reason to be nervous.”
“I don’t think every thirty-year-old woman is offered dating advice, or even the opportunity to practice.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounds kind of corny.”
“How many dates have you been on?” he asked.
“The ones that turn up, quite a few.” She was mortified by her answer. “Look, I appreciate what you’re offering, I am, but I don’t know. The point of dating is for the guy to want to be there, Bull. The last time…” She gritted her teeth. She hadn’t wanted to tell him what was going on, but seeing as he was kind of being sweet and attempting to offer her sound advice, she had to be honest with him. “The last date that was a no-show. He didn’t want to have sex with me at the end of the night.” She held her hands up in total surrender and mortification. If she told him that, she might as well go the whole mile. “He told me I was too fat and too ugly, and that even though he wanted to get laid, I was going to be too much hard work to get through. There, that’s just him for now, but believe me, this isn’t the first time I’ve been told that.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, feeling even worse than she had moments ago. “So I don’t think I need dating advice. What I need is a strict diet and plastic surgery.”
“No, you don’t,” Bull said.
“Look, I don’t…” She stopped talking as she came to one of the kennels and frowned. The paperwork was attached to the door, and she picked up the file to glance through it.
“What is it?”
“I … I’m sure I recognize this dog,” Maddie said. “She came in last year. She was a stray, but she was rehomed.”
If she was rehomed, there would be a file attached, but there was nothing to it. The dog sat in the corner, wagging her tail, and Maddie frowned. “I must be wrong.” Even though she was doing everything the previous dog had done.
She turned toward Bull, aware of him watching her. “I’m sorry, I need to check on something.” Maddie made her way toward the main reception where they kept files on all their rehomed animals.
“You’re not ugly or fat,” Bull said.
This made her turn toward him, a little shocked about what he was saying. “You don’t need to say that. I’m a big girl, I know the truth.”
“Then clearly people have been lying to you, Maddie, because when I look at you, I don’t see an ugly, fat woman.” He took a step toward her. “I see a very sexy, very desirable woman, and any man she looked at should consider himself grateful.”
She couldn’t believe what was happening when he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in close. His lips were a mere breath away. All it would take was an inch of movement, and then he’d be kissing her, but Maddie froze still, shocked by his actions, unsure what to do.
He was so close.
His rock-hard body was against hers. She knew he was a muscular man, had seen them from a distance in the shop as he unloaded deliveries, but this was new. He held her with those muscles.
Heat flooded her body.
“And I wasn’t offering you dating advice to help you. I was using it as an excuse to get you to myself.”
She stared into his green eyes and had to wonder if she was sleeping. Dreams were strange places and they made people do weird things.
Her mouth was so dry. She tried to ignore what his touch was doing to her, but as he held her tightly, it was hard to ignore.
Maddie opened her mouth, closed it. No sound came out.
“Prez, you got a minute?” Pat asked.
She glanced over at Pat, feeling a little grateful for the reprieve.
Bull slowly let her go, and he looked a little annoyed with the way his brows drew together and the slight pinch of his lips.
Maddie made her escape, going to the main reception.
Hellen, one of the other volunteers, was at the front desk, doing a crossword puzzle.
“Hey, Hellen, where do we keep the rehoming files?” she asked.
“They’re in the back. You’ll see it. It’s labeled.”
“Thanks.”
Disappearing into the back room, Maddie switched on the light and glanced through the cabinets. They were all labeled, and as she came to the rehoming section, she saw they were also categorized by date. She found the ones for last year and started to look through all the details, coming to the one she remembered.
They had named the dog Rose, seeing as she liked to lie out near some of the rose bushes.
Opening the file, Maddie saw the picture of the dog, but there was no other information in the file. She closed it, pushed the cabinet shut, and walked back out to Hellen, but she wasn’t alone. Bull was there.
She had no idea what she was doing when it came to him. Never in her life had she been teased or desired and yet, according to Bull, he wanted her. Or did he?
Shaking off her confusion, she went to Hellen. “One of the dogs at the fighting ring, we had her before. It’s Rose.”
“What?” Hellen got to her feet, taking the file from her.
“What’s going on?” Bull asked.
“We document all adoptions for the safety of the animals. There are times that people try to adopt an animal and they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.”
“Rose is back?” Hellen asked.
Hellen had been in the process of trying to adopt her herself, but George had made her jump through all the necessary channels until one day, they had come in to find Rose was gone. George said a family had taken the dog, and that they’d been in the process of doing it for days.
Maddie hadn’t questioned it, but Hellen had been distraught. They all felt a connection to these dogs, but it was one of the reasons Hellen stopped going into the main kennel. After Rose, she had decided she got too attached and needed to take space.
Hellen asked where Rose was, and Maddie told her.
“What is it?” Bull asked.
She gripped her shoulders and looked back out the door that led to the kennels. “I’m wondering how many of the dogs you brought here were originally taken.”
This wasn’t going to end well. Maddie knew the only person who could allow any of the dogs to be taken was George.
****
“Do you want to talk about it?” Rusty asked, grabbing a chair, spinning it around, and straddling it.
Bull looked up from his beer at his brother. The kennel had taken twenty dogs, leaving him with thirty to house.
Seeing as most of the boys loved dogs, it hadn’t taken them all that long to agree to find a nice space and to start the process of turning it into a kennel. He couldn’t get Maddie out of his mind, not that he wanted to. He’d laid it out pretty fucking clear for her.
When he’d offered her the chance to take dating advice for him, he had cursed himself for being such a fucking pussy. Maddie wasn’t like the women he knew around the club or out of it.
Even with his scar, he was used to women throwing themselves at him. The patch had a lot to answer for, and it helped get him laid. Of course, he didn’t stick his dick in any of the club pussy, and hadn’t for a very long time. Rusty being his case in point, in spreading all kinds of infections and diseases. He had ordered all his men to bag their dicks, and they had complained at the time.
“Talk about what?”
“The dogs. Maddie. Any of it.”
“Last time I checked, you weren’t a trained psychologist,” Bull said. “I’m not going to be telling you jack shit.”
“You break my heart. As the brother that gets most of the pussy around here, I know when I see a guy chasing it. You’re chasing Maddie’s pussy.”
“Watch it.”
“Look, brother, you’re old, but you clearly don’t know how to go chasing what you want.”
“I’m not going to take dating advice from a brother who thinks getting crabs is a weekend of fun.”
Rusty sighed. “When are you going to let me live that down?”
“You’re not, ever. It’s gross.”
“I had no idea the chick was infected.”
“There’s a chance you gave her the crabs that infected the club.”
Rusty groaned. “You’re just making me sound bad now, and I don’t like that. I can help you with Maddie. Believe me, I know the way into every woman’s pants, and, Prez, you haven’t exactly been a very nice guy the past few days.”
“I’ve been organizing kennels, Rusty. I’ve been busy. I don’t have time to play games with you.”
“I’m not playing games, but it’s true what they say about all fun and games make everyone dull people.”
“You’re making that up,” he said.
“Am not. I know what I’m talking about.”
Bull glanced over Rusty’s shoulder and was surprised to see Maddie at the front gate of the clubhouse.
He got to his feet.
“Dude, I’m talking with you here,” Rusty said.
“And I’ve got shit to do.”
He went up to the gates to where Maddie was waiting. It had been a couple of days since he last saw her. Monday was the last day when she’d been worried about the dog going into surgery. The dog had made it. She went to the animal shelter every single night after work.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I’m sorry. Should I go? Is now a bad time?” She looked behind him, and he turned to see a couple of the scantily clad club women smoking and laughing.
“No, I don’t mind you being here at all. It’s not really your scene.”
She smiled. “Not a lot is my scene. I wanted to talk to you … about something.” She nibbled on her lip. “I didn’t know where to go and you brought the dogs in.”
“It’s about the dogs?”
“Yes.”
“Then follow me.” He walked toward the clubhouse, and he glanced toward Rusty, who gave him two thumbs up.
He was going to kill that bastard when he had the chance. Leading the way through the main room, he went to his office, holding open the door.
“What is it about the dogs?” he asked.
“It’s not about the dogs,” Maddie said. “I … er, this is so hard. So, after Rose, you know the dog that I had recognized?”
He nodded and took a seat. Pat was still looking into Marshall Smith of the dogfighting ring, and like he figured, the man didn’t exist. Pat was using some of his contacts in the military to attempt to get a face recognition or anything on the guy.
So far, other than costing him a fortune in land and the kennels, the dogs hadn’t come with a problem, but he knew that wasn’t going to last. His gut told him so.
Maddie sat forward.
“I checked over all the dogs. We have at least five that were rehomed within the last year, but their files are empty. I know you took the dogs to a kennel close by. I was wondering if I could perhaps look over them and see if I recognize any of them.”
Bull put his arms on the desk and looked her in the eye. “What are you telling me here, Maddie? I get the sense you don’t need to go looking through thirty more dogs to see if you can find ones that came from your animal shelter.”
Maddie crossed her arms over her chest, pressed her lips together, and shook her head. “I … I don’t know.”
“Yeah, you do.”
She nibbled on her lip. “I think … no, I know George had to have given those dogs away. Hellen wanted Rose, okay? Then overnight, the dog miraculously is rehomed and we never saw anyone come to see Rose. Hellen was the only one who cared. I never thought about it because I was always a volunteer, but I started to ask around, and they don’t recall any family coming. All of the dogs I found, their rehoming files are empty.” She sat back. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Have you confronted Georgie with this information?”
“No. Just me, Hellen, and now you know about this.”
“Hellen knows.”
“She’s pissed with what I’ve discovered. She had spent a fortune on toys and beds, dog food. She thought she was going to get Rose, and I can’t see why she wasn’t, unless George has something to do with the dogfighting ring, which I don’t get because … he runs an animal shelter.”
Maddie had tears in her eyes.
Bull got to his feet and rounded the desk. He reached out, gripped her chin, and forced her to look at him. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“How did you know?” she asked.
“I know. I can read people. It’s not that hard, and you, you’re hurting because you feel if you had seen the signs, you would’ve been able to protect those dogs.”
“He … how … I can’t even begin to imagine what the hell he was doing,” Maddie said. “I don’t even have proof, but I just know it. When you arrived with the dogs, he looked nervous, and now, he’s freaking out. He’s complaining about funding and being shut down, and upsetting people. He’s never been like this.”
“I’ll look into it,” Bull said.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Maddie, we both know why you came to me.”
She covered her face with her hands. “I know. I know. I feel terrible. No, I shouldn’t have done this.” She got to her feet, but he grabbed her around the waist, pulling her closer to him.
