Ethan Read online

  He pulled out another lead and approached the two dogs. Two was harder than one because they would double-team him if they were well trained. He went down into a nonthreatening crouch. He whistled a high piercing sound. The dogs started to howl. And, with that, their bodies relaxed just slightly.

  The dog behind him howled too. He glanced at her, but she was fine.

  Instincts told Ethan to lunge and to hook on the collars so this pair couldn’t turn on him. But he knew that any heavy-handed approach would bring them instantly into the red zone.

  He took several steps toward the closest one. It turned its gaze on him and curled its lip, dragging its leash with each movement. All Ethan had to do was get a hold of that leash himself.

  He yelled out commands, but the dogs wouldn’t listen. He walked forward, his body ready for the attack he knew was coming. He needed to successfully repeat the first scenario. But this was a big male, and it didn’t look like he would go down easily. Ethan braced himself, but the dog suddenly broke to the left and circled around behind him. Then it barked in front of the female, already down and tied up. Ethan couldn’t keep an eye on both loose dogs, now split up.

  “Very smart,” he said, admiration in his tone as he backed up slightly so he could get a wider view of each one. “Are you also trying to protect her?”

  He knew the officers kept an eye on what was happening. Most of them would agree that a bullet was the only answer in this situation, but Ethan didn’t agree. It wasn’t the animals’ fault they were defending something the good guys needed to stop.

  The big male, still standing in front of the captured female, barked and barked. Ethan studied him, trying to understand what his weakness was. The other male on his right lunged. Ethan deliberately kept his gaze on the second male as he went for him. Still crouched, he raised his arm to give him something to bite on. As soon as he bit, his jaw locked down, he grabbed the leash dragging behind him. With that done, Ethan put another one of his restraining collars on the second male and dropped him until he was flat on the ground. He still had a grip on him and fought. Once he released his jaws, and it would take some time, he could pull free from him. But he surprised him, unlocking his hold before he went down.

  He gave him a moment, safely behind him with his hand on his throat. He talked to him in a calm, quiet voice. “Take it easy. You’ll be fine.”

  When he stopped snarling, he gave him the command to lie down. He did.

  He smiled. “I knew you were well trained.”

  He ordered him to stand and to heel. He stood and took his position just behind Ethan’s right leg. All the while the first male, now even more confused, showed signs of attacking. Ethan was surprised he hadn’t attacked at the same time as the earlier one had. Ethan wondered how much of that was due to the female behind him. Maybe the male dog felt he was the defender of all of them. Animals stayed in packs, and the first male was the alpha male obviously. Now his pack was being split and taken down, but, as long as Ethan held the leash of this second male dog, Ethan had to make sure he kept the other male contained too.

  He looked around for a place to tie him up, but there was only the fence. Using commands, he moved slowly toward it. With the short leash hooked so his head, neck and chest were against the fence, he couldn’t move. After securing him, he headed for the first male, wondering if this was the K9 he was looking for.

  “Hey, boy. I know you don’t understand this, and you’re just fighting for your life. I have no intention of hurting you.”

  He spoke in the same tone he used to work with dogs all the time. Usually he worked with dogs delighted to be working, dogs that loved to learn, dogs that loved to have a job to do every day. But, every once in a while, he came up against animals either wild or badly abused, and those needed the same loving care he’d given his own.

  This one was missing great big chunks of hair along its back and sides. Ethan didn’t know if it was from mange or abuse. Scars and definitely some blood were on his shoulder. Again, who was to say where that came from? There was nothing wrong with the breadth of his jaws. The male looked like it was a good forty pounds heavier than the females, also the norm. But he also had something else about him. He wasn’t a purebred shepherd from the looks of him. Ethan wasn’t sure just what he was though.

  He kept his gaze on the dog, knowing every action would show in the dog’s eyes first. Ethan just had to be ready. He had another restraining leash in his hand and, just in case, a big choke chain. He figured the male would be the hardest to take down.

  He risked a glance up and found he was surrounded by officers. “Is everything else under control?” he asked.

  “Yes. By the way, this is the one that got shot.”

  “Hopefully it’s not bad,” he said. “That explains the blood on his shoulder.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want us to give him a second bullet?”

  Ethan shook his head. “No. Just like the two others, he’s only doing his job.”

  “And how the hell will you win this fight?” Matthew asked. “It looks like he’ll go for your throat.”

  “He will, if I give him that chance. But there can only be one boss. And he has to understand that I mean to be that boss.”

  One of the men snorted.

  That sound set off the big male dog in front of him. Ethan backed up several steps, giving the dog room to run, and he took advantage, seeing his prey as weaker. He lunged for Ethan’s throat. As soon as that jaw opened, Ethan thrust his left arm forward into the dog’s open jaws, as far as he could, forcing the dog’s jaws wide, then flipped him to the ground onto his sore shoulder. The dog yelped but was already locked in place on Ethan’s padded arm.

  One-handed, Ethan calmly disengaged the spikes on the dog’s collar he currently wore and pulled it a bit tighter so the dog wouldn’t completely slip from it. Then Ethan let the dog roll over to his other side, onto his good shoulder, and stepped on the chain leash, all while the big male chomped down firmly on Ethan’s padded arm. In a bold move, Ethan’s free hand removed the glove from his other hand, then shoved his glove into the dog’s mouth, forcing his jaws to open wider. This pushed it past the point where it could apply force to bite down, freeing Ethan’s arm finally. With the dog already weakened, it couldn’t do much. Nor did it try.

  And, just like that, Ethan had the third one secured. While it was down, Ethan used his other leg to hold the jaw and the head firmly on the ground without hurting it and checked out the bullet wound, but it was more of a burn. Ethan studied him. His markings were close to the picture he had of Sentry, the K9:01 dog. He’d have to wait to check his tattoo to confirm his identity. The dog was already stressed; now wasn’t the time to add to it.

  “I don’t know who shot him,” he called out, “but all you did was piss him off.”

  The uniformed men stared at him.

  Ethan looked at the three dogs and then at the policemen and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  They shook their heads. None were apparently concerned about more unfriendlies on the compound, so presumably the place was secure.

  “Damn it. I’d rather take down six gunmen than face one of these dogs,” Matthew snapped. “That was crazy.”

  Ethan smiled. “I used to train these guys to do just what they did. They’re well trained. They did their jobs. They don’t know the difference between good guys and bad guys in this case,” he said. “They don’t deserve a bullet for having had no choice.”

  “Yeah, but now what will you do with them?”

  “It depends what the law will allow me to do,” he said. “I have a place I can take them. I have a vet to get this one treated. I’d like to rehabilitate them, so they’re good protective animals.”

  The officer in charge, Sergeant Mendelsson, walked toward him, his hands on his hips. The male shepherd growled.

  Ethan applied gentle pressure on the dog’s jaw to let him know what was acceptable and what wasn’t. “If you just stand your ground there,” he
said to the sergeant, “the dog will understand that, A, I’m the boss, and, B, he’s not in any danger.”

  The sergeant nodded. “I think I can arrange that. I don’t know what will happen to them long-term.”

  “Destroyed, I would imagine,” said another officer, approaching. “But, if you think you can rehabilitate them—and, after what we’ve seen here today, I think maybe you can—we’ll do our best to give you that chance. But you need a place to move them.”

  Ethan nodded, his mind spinning rapidly. “I have a house at the moment. It is fenced. But I’ll need a better way to train them. Still, I can arrange that.”

  “You got your chance then. What about your truck? You’ll need a canopy or something for them.”

  He considered the options and shook his head. “The canopy would be better, yes, but I can secure them in the back so they’re not going anywhere.”

  The men nodded.

  Matthew said, “As much as I don’t want to get close to them, do you need a hand moving them?”

  Ethan shook his head. “I’ll take them one at a time.”

  He lifted his foot and ordered the male to stand. Struggling with his bad shoulder, the male shepherd rose. Ethan commanded it to heel, and he walked the dog just like that out of the compound. He knew the men were watching, and he knew they didn’t understand. And that was okay because it was what Ethan did. Only he had to stop and think about that because it was not what he did now. What he used to do was train these animals for military scenarios—to sniff out bombs, chemicals and weapons.

  Potentially, in this case, he could rehabilitate these dogs to be used as guard dogs or maybe, once again, chemicals- and weapons-sniffing dogs. He had no clue where this was taking him.

  What he did know was it felt right. What he did was worth it for the animals.

  At his truck, he opened the tailgate and ordered the dog to jump. Instantly he jumped into the back. With the dog in the bed, Ethan secured it to one of the hooks. He couldn’t take it very far like this; it wasn’t safe, but he had limited options at the moment.

  With one dog secured, he walked back to the fence and snagged the other two dogs waiting. With one on either side, he walked them to where the big male was. As soon as they realized where they were going, they were happy to follow. They jumped into the truck without any problem. He secured one across from the big male and then secured the third along the tailgate with it closed. None of them had enough leash that they could jump free, and, short of somebody throwing them over the side of the truck bed, no way they would get hurt.

  He walked back to the sergeant and said, “Here’s my address and phone number. I’ll be there until I find better lodging for all the dogs, a place with kennels.”

  The sergeant shook his hand. “That was a nice job today. How well trained do you think they are?”

  “Very well trained,” he said. “I’ll have to test them further to confirm, but I used to train dogs for bombs, weapons and chemicals missions. I’ll run these dogs through the tests and see what they’ve been trained for.”

  The sergeant nodded and said, “I can’t guarantee it, but you know what? If we can arrange it for you to keep them, and you think you can train them, we can always use dogs on specific jobs. We have almost no K9 Units here. And certainly none as well under control as you have those.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Ethan said with a smile. “I’ve also got a female that came from this property as well. She’s at the vet right now, recovering from surgery. Theoretically that’s four good dogs that could be put to work.”

  “You might need another handler,” one of the men called out.

  Ethan nodded. “I might. First let me see how we do with these dogs.”

  With all the niceties taken care of, Ethan walked back to the truck. With a gloved hand, he reached down and gently stroked the back of the female, then the smaller male. As he approached the alpha male, he could hear the growl in the back of his throat, but he gently touched the dog on the back of his neck, letting him know Ethan was not an enemy. Then he hopped into the truck, turned on the engine and headed home.

  Chapter 7

  When Cinn didn’t hear from Ethan, and she saw no sign of him, she couldn’t settle. She wandered around the house, unable to do much as she waited for news. Dark clouds had moved in overhead, and the atmosphere had an ugly feel about it. The humid static in the air made her sticky at the same time as it made her edgy. What she really wanted was for the storm to break to release all that tension. Instead, it just seemed to sit heavily above the property.

  Finally her phone rang. She picked it up to hear Ethan’s voice on the other end. Overwhelmed with relief, she snapped at him. “Is this really the earliest you could contact me to let me know you are okay?”

  Silence hung like the heavy, dark clouds above her.

  “No,” he said thoughtfully. “I might have called while I was in the middle of gunfire. Or I might have called when I was facing three extremely angry dogs, who were ready to rip out my throat. Or maybe when I was explaining to the sergeant afterward that the dogs were worth saving. Or maybe when I was driving with all three shepherds tied down tight in the bed of my truck.”

  “Okay, so now I feel like a piece of shit,” she said jokingly. “Please tell me all that happened calmly and quietly, and that none of you were hurt.”

  “I have a big male shepherd cross here that’s got a burn on his shoulder from a bullet. But that appears to be the only injury, which is rather remarkable considering a lot of dead bad guys are at that place.”

  She gasped. “Seriously?”

  “They opened fire on the cops.” His tone said he didn’t give a damn about the dead men. “I was more concerned about saving the animals.”

  “So was it a drug lab?”

  “As far as I know it was,” he said. “Did you hear that part about I cared more about the animals? Once I had them calmed down and secured, I didn’t want to leave them there for the cops to change their minds. If Animal Control becomes involved, I figured the animals would be taken to a cage and probably put down as soon as possible. I wanted a chance to rehabilitate them, to see just what they were trained to do.”

  “So now you have four dogs to look after?” she asked incredulously.

  “Apparently four vicious dogs,” he said cheerfully.

  She stared out the window. “Why?”

  His voice gentled as he answered, “Because I can.”

  She sagged into the kitchen chair and thought about that. “It won’t be an easy job,” she warned. “I thought you were looking for something different or some sort of new start.”

  “Can you really think of any better start than helping some animal with no future? Or, in this case, four?”

  She sighed. “You know who you’re talking to. I’m the one who moves hell on earth to get animals in desperate situations moved to new countries where they can have a chance.”

  “Exactly.” His voice was quiet and pensive. “I saw those dogs and the guns pointed at their heads, and I realized how much I could do to help them. They have really good useful lives ahead of them. They were doing a job. It’s not their fault that job has now been taken away from them.”

  “Do you think you can retrain them to do what you want them to do?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “That process is already in progress. Whether they like it or not, they now see me as their new leader. We’ll have to do some heavy training and come to an agreement of sorts. But I’m pretty sure we’re well in hand.”

  “But you need a place suited for these animals,” she stated.

  “Yes. That’s a bit of an issue. I’m at the house I rented here in town where I’m staying,” he said thoughtfully. “I might look for a place with kennels, or at least a big enough spot for kennels I can pull together fast for them.”

  “That won’t be cheap,” she warned. “You don’t just need kennels but you also need a training space.” She could almost see him nod i
n agreement. “This is rather sudden, isn’t it?”

  “Sure, but necessity is what drives a lot in our lives,” he said. “I have to try.”

  She nodded. “I understand. The thought of having three killer dogs at your place is enough to terrify almost anybody. And a fourth to join them soon.”

  “What if I said they follow my commands and listen to the orders I give?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, absolutely. Give us a few days, and we’ll have a completely different relationship.”

  “But how will they view the rest of the world?” she asked. “You don’t live on an island. You look after dogs ready to kill at a moment’s notice. That won’t sit easy with the townsfolk in general.”

  “No, but it’s not that bad,” he said. “It’s not about dogs that will kill at a moment’s notice because every animal has that potential. But it’s knowing a dog will attack when instructed. And not just attack but attack properly. These dogs need some more training. No doubt about it. That male would go for my throat. He needs to learn to disable, not to kill.”

  All the horrible scenarios ran through her head, and she couldn’t believe what she had heard. “This is so much above what most of us deal with.”

  “Which is why I have to do this,” he exclaimed. “And I get it if that makes me something you don’t want to be around …”

  “No, that’s not what I meant at all.” She groaned. “I guess I’m shocked at how fast this all happened. You went up there to hopefully help these dogs, but I didn’t expect you to take them away with you.”

  “I did,” he said calmly. “There really wasn’t much else in the way of options. They could have been put down on the spot, or Animal Control might have come and taken them, but the end would have probably been the same. But did Animal Control have the ability to remove these dogs safely? I doubt it. I was the best option.”