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Ronan didn’t move away from where he was sitting next to me but he didn’t try to touch me after that. Minutes could have been hours for all I knew before the vet came out. I’d known Dr. Anna White for many years, ever since Ronan had given Bullet to me. She’d been one of the few vets who’d been willing to make house calls to give Bullet his yearly exam and shots. I’d explained to Dr. White that Bullet was too afraid of the car to make the trip each year, but I suspected she knew even before I did that it wasn’t Bullet who’d been afraid.
“He’s going to be okay,” Dr. White said even before she’d closed the door to the back room behind her. Ronan and I were the only ones in the office since it was after hours.
I sucked in a breath and felt my body sway in relief. I didn’t even remember standing up. Ronan’s fingers closed around my elbow but I was too unsure of my ability to stay upright to shake him off the way I wanted.
“The bullet damaged his spleen so I had to remove it but he’ll make a full recovery.”
I couldn’t stop the hoarse cry that erupted from my throat and if Dr. White was surprised by the hug I gave her, she was kind enough not to show it.
“Thank you,” I whispered against her shoulder.
“You’re welcome,” she said with a small, gentle pat to my back and then she was pushing me back so that I could focus on her. “I need to keep him here overnight but you can take him home tomorrow. He’ll need to take it easy for a while…”
I nodded. “I…I’m supposed to fly to New York in a couple of weeks. I was going to take him with me. It’s a chartered jet so he wouldn’t be in a crate or anything. But I can cancel…”
The vet shook her head. “That should be fine,” she said. “He’s a strong dog, Seth. He’ll be back to his old self in no time.”
I swallowed hard. “Thank you, Dr. White.”
She nodded and gave me a pat on the arm. “You can come see him in a few minutes.”
As the vet turned to go, Ronan said, “Doctor, were you able to extract the bullet?”
Dr. White gave Ronan a strange look and then glanced at me but I had no idea why Ronan had asked the question.
“Um, no, the wound was a through and through,” the vet said.
“Can you tell what kind of weapon it might have been? The caliber?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t really know much about that kind of thing.”
Ronan nodded. “Thank you.”
The vet gave him another confused look and then disappeared through the door leading to the back of the building.
“Why did you ask that?” I asked.
“Just hoping to get a better idea of who hurt Bullet,” Ronan responded as he returned to his seat.
“It was probably a hunter,” I said. “They show up once in a while. My parents posted No Trespassing signs but they ignore them.”
Ronan only nodded and I was too exhausted to pursue the subject. Dr. White returned about a half an hour later and I got to spend several minutes with Bullet who was still heavily sedated.
Ronan drove home and I was too tired to argue with him when he followed me into the house. I assumed Hawke had been the one to pull Ronan’s car into the driveway, but he wasn’t around when we entered the house and I hadn’t seen his car at all.
I hadn’t made any effort to get to know Hawke the morning I found him sitting in my kitchen because I’d been too raw and hurt from discovering that Ronan had walked out on me yet again. I hadn’t cared why Hawke was there or what his relationship with Ronan was. I’d simply asked him to leave and had gone to hide out in my room for the rest of the weekend. It wasn’t until Sunday night as I’d forced myself out of bed so I could ready myself for work the next day that I’d finally conceded that my love for Ronan was slowly destroying me. I knew changing the codes on the door and the gate wouldn’t keep Ronan out but I’d hoped it would send a message.
Clearly, it hadn’t.
“I’m going to go get cleaned up,” I heard Ronan say behind me as he closed the front door and locked it. The sound of the lock engaging pissed me off and I turned to face him. I hesitated at the sight of Bullet’s dried blood on the front of Ronan’s shirt but I shoved my emotions back down where they belonged.
“Do it someplace else,” I said quietly. “You’re no longer welcome here.”
