Page 33 of Summer Ride

In less than six days, she and Carter would be enjoying the house on the water a couple hours’ drive from there. The first time they’d gone down to the house in St. George, they’d sailed down there on Damion’s boat along with a large group of coworkers. She had immediately fallen in love with the vacation spot and the home.

River Camps was an amazing place filled with fun, adventure, and entertainment. But the St. George Island home, dubbed the Hideaway, was the place that she felt she could just… be.

It was the perfect spot to be close to nature and to think. The home had its own private beach and swimming pool. Every time that they’d been there, they’d stocked up on premade meals from Isaac, the head chef at River Camps, so that they didn’t have to cook while on vacation.

The house was professionally cleaned after each rental session, which meant that when they left, they didn’t have to do laundry or even take out the trash.

The mundane tasks of normal life just melted away so that all you had to do was enjoy yourself.

As she drifted off to sleep in Carter’s arms, she dreamed of being there again soon and what life would be like for her and Carter years from now.

She woke from a dream of playing in a pool with three kids and Carter when his cell phone rang.

He answered it quickly. “Hello?” He sat up. “Where?” He was quiet again while he listened. “How many crates?” He paused again and then said, “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Another rescue?” she asked, wishing she could roll over and go back to her perfect dream.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I hate to ask, but I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

She sat up. “I’m up anyway.”

He pulled her into his arms. “You can stay in the car if you want?”

“No, I like helping.” She winced when she looked at the clock. “I will sleep on the way there though.”

Having helped Carter before on these rescues, she knew better than to dress in anything she liked. Most likely, when they were done, they’d return home dirty and covered in something smelly.

She pulled on an old pair of sweats and a T-shirt, then followed Carter outside. She pulled on a jacket to ward off the cold morning air. There was still a light rain falling, but most likely it would stop by sunup.

It was still dark out, and a thick fog made it almost impossible to see more than a few yards in front of them as Carter drove.

She had hoped to sleep a little on the drive but ended up being too concerned with helping him see the lines on the road to relax.

By the time they reached the farm on the outskirts of god knows where, she was fully awake and ready to work and could tell that Carter was as well.

The smell is what hit her first when she stepped out of the truck—the stench of death and animals covered in feces. It always shocked her how bad someone would let things get before asking for help.

“Oh god,” she groaned.

“Yeah, it’s bad.” Leslie, one of the women that Carter worked with at Alaqua, stepped forward holding a cage. “How many crates did you bring?” she asked Carter.

“I fit a dozen in my truck,” he said, jumping into action.

For the first five minutes, Kara stood around listening to the crew talk, plotting out how best to gather all the animals on site.

They figured there were more than thirty chickens, geese, and turkeys in a small pen that needed to be rounded up. There were several cattle and horses in a pasture somewhere, which would have to be gathered up after daybreak.

Then, about ten minutes after they had arrived, someone pointed to an outbuilding they had just come back from exploring.

“Dogs. Hundreds of them.” The man shook his head. “We’ll need more crates for the live ones.” She could see the man turning green as he talked and before anyone could help him, he hunched over and puked into the dirt.

Thankfully, Kara didn’t have to go inside that building. Whenever they brought out a crate filled with yapping dogs of all shapes and sizes, she helped cart them to an open space until Carter and a few other veterinarians could do an emergency assessment on them.

All the animals would undergo more detailed assessments in the coming days, but this first pass helped find the ones in dire need of attention.

Most of the animals were seriously emaciated and covered in their own fluids. Some of them had fur that was stuck to the cages they were in. She helped release them by pouring clean warm water over the animals and working the dried feces until their fur broke free. In some cases she had to cut the fur free, leaving bald spots on the animals.

The worst of the animals were immediately put down humanely. The ones that were given a good chance of survival were put into clean crates and placed into trucks to be taken to the sanctuary or to the clinic in town for more medical attention.