Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Turning back to the door, I saw a man there in a white coat with Dr. Coleman embroidered on it, so he had to be the vet. He was tall, tan, and his blond hair was pulled back into a bun. For some reason, I’d been expecting someone older, like something from a movie, the folksy-country-vet kind of thing, even though we were in Oregon and not some small town in the Deep South where people set pies fresh from the oven on windowsills.
“Vet bouncer?” he asked me with a smirk and an arched eyebrow.
Collapsing the baton, I shrugged. “Stupid questions get stupid answers, yeah?”
“Yes,” he agreed, stepping aside to hold open the door for me as I heard a siren. “Would you like to come back inside, Mr.…”
“Maks,” I answered. “Just Maks.”
“Maks,” he said with a sharp exhale. “Please do come in.”
“And just so you know, it’s Maks with a k and an s, not an x.”
“Oh, okay,” he murmured. “Thank you for the clarification.”
I shrugged, feeling stupid suddenly. “It probably doesn’t even matter or—”
“Of course it matters,” he assured me. “It’s your name.”
It was, and the first one was the only one I still had.
Back in the lobby, I looked to the man with the cat. “Sorry about all the—”
“Oh no,” he said quickly, cutting me off. “I appreciate your taking care of Bruce Berry outside instead of letting him come in. Terrible man, and heaven knows what would have happened if you hadn’t been here to intercede.”
Always a clue to the kind of person someone was when people volunteered that it was a good and needed thing that you kicked the crap out of them.
“I agree,” the lady with the mastiff rushed out. “He might have hurt my sweet bunny, so thank you so much.”
I already knew Bruce was the kind of man who hurt animals and women. Not that her “bunny” would have been one of his victims. Her dog could have eaten Bruce, but I appreciated the support nonetheless.
Linda, who I noted then was the only vet tech in lavender scrubs, rushed over, and I passed her back her baton. “Thank you so much for the assist.”
She took it and smiled. “My husband got this for me for protection, and I even went to classes, but really, you did that much faster than I ever could have. You kept us all safe, and we appreciate it.”
“You’re very welcome,” I told her as we all heard the siren right outside, earsplittingly loud for a moment before there was blessed silence.
Through the glass, we saw a policeman arrive, get out of his cruiser, roll each man over so they were facedown on the sidewalk, and secure them with cable tie handcuffs on the wrists and ankles. Moments later, he walked into the clinic.
My first thought was that he looked like he should have been the one on the recruitment posters for whatever kind of law enforcement he was. The word clean-cut came instantly to mind. Built like a swimmer, tall, maybe six-three, with wide shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs, everything he was wearing clung tightly to his solid, muscular frame. His dirty-blond hair was cut short on the sides, longer on top. He was not at all what I’d been expecting, but again, I had this whole small-town thing going on in my head that was much more Mayberry than Rune.
“Who kicked the crap out of Bruce and his cousins?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but everyone else answered him instead. So much sound happening at once, like a wall of voices hitting him, and I would have yelled again, just as I had earlier, but he took care of it himself by gently clearing his throat. It was a much better way of settling everyone down. Once it was quiet, he turned to Dr. Coleman beside me.
“Doc,” he said, sounding tired.
“Deputy,” Dr. Coleman returned the greeting.
“Care to explain?”
“Well, Maks here,” he began, indicating me with both hands, “found Viola Berry’s two dogs out on the highway near the bend, which I guess is where Bruce threw them and left them to bleed out and die after he cut both. Thankfully, he didn’t cut deep enough to do any real damage to the muscles. I suspect Delilah was probably thrown as well, maybe kicked, because Bruce managed to break her front leg in two places.”
Heavy sigh from the deputy, who glanced at me. “You brought the dogs in, did you?”
“I did.”
“And when Bruce came here, probably to assault Viola, you protected her and everyone else in the office?”
It was an interesting way to phrase my actions. “I couldn’t let him in.”
He tipped his head at the bolt-action rifle in my hand. “Does that belong to one of the men outside?”
“It does,” I replied, passing the weapon to him. “And it’s loaded.”