Page 45 of Rescue Them

“Where was he taking them then?”Red asked.

Lyle took a deep breath.“What I heard made me believe that he was taking them to some friends for use in training.How did he put it?‘My dog trainers can use them as bait.’”

Red’s eyes widened.“Holy shit.”They all turned to where other officers were getting Kevin into a police car.“He’s the leader?”

“I think he’s the organizer,” Lyle said.“Can I get the dogs now?”

“Yes.Please do.”He spoke into the radio, and a police vehicle approached, pulling up right near James’s truck.Lyle let them do their jobs and grabbed leashes from James’s truck before making his way to where Kevin had been stopped.

“I’m here to get my dogs,” Lyle said to the officer trying to calm them down.She looked at him with sheer relief.“Don’t worry.It’s not you.They hate Kevin and Debbie with a passion.”She opened the door, and Lyle leaned inside.

The dogs all gathered around him.Lyle got leashes attached to their collars before petting all three of them as tears ran down his face.He was so relieved that they were okay.“You were good.”Dahlia tried to nestle right against his chest.He lifted her and got the other two down and out of the truck.“Thank you,” he told the officer, returning to James’s truck just as officers led Debbie out of her house in handcuffs, screaming and yelling like she was possessed.

“You don’t have anything on me,” She snapped.

“They will once they look at my place,” Lyle told her.

Debbie stopped struggling and turned to him, eyes blazing with sheer hatred.“None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you.”

Lyle found himself laughing as he put the dogs in the truck.

“What’s so funny?”James asked.

“She’s crazy.She thinks she’s in an episode ofScooby-Doo.” James chuckled right along with him.

Lyle got in the truck with all four dogs, giving them pets and plenty of attention.They were all so good, and he was so happy and relieved that he had them back.Lyle held each of them to his chest in turn, happy they were safe.

James climbed in and closed the driver’s door.“Sometimes I wonder if there’s room for me.”

Lyle put Dahlia on the back seat and leaned over the console.“You have a special place in my heart,” he told James.“Look what you did for me, for us?”He held him tightly, letting the tension of the past hour or so break from around him.He closed his eyes and just let it out.“You’re like our freakin’ hero.I know I get crazy ideas, and maybe it makes you crazy because you go right along with me, but I love you for it.I love knowing that I don’t have to worry if you have my back, because you always seem to.”He blinked, trying to clear his wet vision.

James was quiet for a few seconds, his hand gently rubbing Lyle’s head.“You love me?”

Lyle lifted his gaze.“Yeah, I do.Is it too soon for that?”He blinked again, and James kissed him right there in the truck.The dogs all tried to get in on the act, but Lyle held them back and kissed James in return.

“No.I love you too.Why do you think I go along with your craziness?”He smiled as someone tapped on the window.They both straightened up, and James lowered the glass.

“We need to get a statement from the two of you on what you heard and saw,” the female police officer said.

“Do you want us to go to the station?I suppose you’ll need pictures of the dogs since they were what was taken,” Lyle offered.There was no way in hell he was letting them out of his sight.

“Yes.And any pictures you have to back up your story.”

“No problem,” Lyle told her.“Do you want us to follow you?”She nodded, and James waited until the police car pulled in front of him.Then they followed her to the station, where they spent the next hour going over what they heard and saw.Lyle forwarded the pictures he’d taken of Kevin putting the dogs into his truck.They took pictures of the three dogs that had been taken so they could match them to the ones shown in Lyle’s pictures.Finally, once they had signed their statements, James and Lyle confirmed that they would be willing to testify in court.

“Is there anything else?”James asked once they had answered questions.

She leaned over the table.“I guess I’d like to know how you knew they had taken the dogs?”

Lyle told her the entire story about inheriting the dogs and what Debbie said she planned to do with them.“I don’t think Debbie ever intended for the dogs to be used in fighting.That was Kevin’s idea.Debbie just wanted the dogs because they meant a lot of money and she could sell them for breeding.”

“I see.”She made notes.“In the conversation you overheard, did she seem surprised when Kevin told her what he was going to do?”

Lyle thought a minute.“I don’t know.But he was pretty matter-of-fact.I’d say she knew what her husband was doing.You might be able to use that.If there’s a weak link, it’s her.She’s greedy and she’s motivated by money, if that helps you at all.”

“Maybe she’ll be motived by fewer years in prison.”

Lyle smiled.“As long as I don’t have to see her all the time.”He just wanted to go on with his life and not have the dogs go nuts every day when they took their walk in the park.Lyle still wasn’t sure what they were trying to do, unless it was to get the neighbors to complain about the noise.