Nyght's Eve (4 page)

“I guess we’ll just have to sit back with a
few beers and watch the show.”

“Damn right.” Hunter chuckled then winced as
he looked at his watch. “Shit. I’m gonna be late. I’m supposed to be at the
center now. Feel like helping out?”

Dare winced. “I was going to go for a run,
but I guess I should. I have to apologize to Evie.”

Hunter’s eyes fired as he pinned Dare with a
glare. “What the fuck did you do?”

Running a hand through his hair, Dare sighed.
“When I showed up I was so tired I couldn’t form complete sentences. You’re
cousin probably thinks I’m fucked in the head.”

Hunter relaxed again. “I wouldn’t worry too
much. Evie’s got a soft spot for the damaged. She does run a rescue center,
after all. What happened?”

Dare gave Hunter a brief rundown of what had
transpired, leaving out the fact that he had been lusting after her when he’d
first thought she was a figment of his imagination. He couldn’t even blame his
friend for laughing at him when he explained how he’d unintentionally insulted
the rescue center when he’d complained about the barking.

“Come on. She’ll forgive you if she sees you cleaning
up piles of shit in the cages.”

“Great,” Dare muttered, then finished his
coffee before getting up.

Once they were outside Dare shot Hunter a
look as the other man walked over to a golf cart that was under an awning located
on the side of the house. “Seriously? Your legs broken or something?”

“Just shut up and get in. It’s too fucking
early to deal with your shit,” Hunter growled as he started the cart up.

With a laugh, Dare hopped into the passenger
seat just as Hunter took off. It felt almost silly driving down the road in the
little vehicle, but hell, it did beat walking. As they got closer to the rescue
center, Dare admired the large pond that was partially shaded by weeping willow
trees. He'd definitely have to take a run on the paved path that wound around
the pond later, but first he had to make amends by helping out a little.

Hunter parked the golf cart outside the
massive, red, barn-like structure that was the size of a warehouse, right under
the large Beaumont Rescue Center sign. The name was painted over a large, black
paw print centered on a white circle. As Dare got out of the cart, he could see
numerous cages set up in rows outside under a shaded awning inside a gated area.
 
He followed Hunter through the gates,
and several of the dogs barked with their tails wagging in greeting.

“What is that?” Dare asked, nodding toward
what looked like a small playground set up in an area past the cages.

“That’s an obstacle course used for agility
training. Besides doing rescues, we also do all kinds of training here. People
can schedule group classes for obedience training or search and rescue.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah, most of us are involved. All the teams
in the area take turns being on call. People are always getting lost in Big
Thicket or in the surrounding areas. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

 
Dare
spent the next few hours helping Hunter clean the kennels. To his surprise, he
didn’t mind the work. Cleaning up shit wasn’t his idea of a good time, but he
enjoyed interacting with the dogs. Most of them seemed happy with the attention,
but a few shied away from any human interaction. Hunter and a few others shared
stories about the dogs, and it was heartbreaking to hear how some of the
animals had come to the center. There were dogs that had been rescued from dog
fighting rings, or those who had simply been dropped off at the center, while
others had been saved from abusive owners.

He didn’t understand how someone could abuse
an animal, and it made him angry to think about all they had suffered. As he
worked, Dare took the time to study the setup of the place. For so many animals
housed in a relatively compact area, it was a clean, well-organized facility.
He could see the care and attention given to every detail. At first he had been
surprised by how many people actually worked at the center, but it made sense,
since there was also a veterinarian’s office located on the premises that was
run by Hunter’s brother, Beckett.

Besides the paid staff, there seemed to be an
abundance of volunteers that seemed to pop in and out throughout the day. Some
of them came in to visit with certain animals, while others simply stopped in
to help out with whatever was needed. Dare found himself settling into the
rhythm of the work, but he was also getting frustrated with his inability to
accomplish what he was there for in the first place.

Throughout the day he saw Evie all over the
place. But she was like the wind—there one minute, gone the next. The woman had
the energy of ten people, and seemed to be in charge of several projects, all
happening in different places at the same damn time. He’d catch a glimpse of her
feeding dogs one minute, but by the time he made it across the room, she was
outside training a class. He kept himself busy while he waited for the class to
end, but by that time she was helping out in the veterinarian clinic.

By late afternoon, he finally gave up.

Hunter had left to meet a client at the
tattoo parlor, and since a whole new set of volunteers stopped by to help out,
Dare decided he was finally free to take his run. However, he was sidetracked
once again as he heard a pain-filled cry as soon as he walked out of the
building. Reacting on instinct, he ran to the little girl sitting on the ground
who holding onto one of her knees. Blood trickled down her leg from beneath her
tiny fingers as she tried to staunch the wound. His stomach rolled at the sight
of the blood, but he forced himself to keep it together.

Get
a grip, man. Focus!

“What happened, honey?”

She raised her tear-streaked face to his. “I
was trying to keep up with my brother and our friends, but they were too fast.”

He glanced up and saw a group of teens
standing near the kennels outside. Whoever he was, the little girl’s brother
was oblivious to the accident. Dare silently promised to have a talk with the
kid was to make sure he took better care of his sister in the future.

“Shh, now, let me see how bad it is,” Dare
said in a low soothing voice as he pried her hands away from her knee. He let
out a relieved sigh after he saw she had only scraped it on the concrete when
she fell.

“It hurts!”

“I know it hurts. Don’t worry. We’ll fix you
right up.” Dare lifted the girl into his arms just as one of the young women
who worked at the rescue center ran over to join them. She must have just
arrived as he hadn’t seen her earlier.

“Carly! Oh my god, what happened? Is she
okay?” she asked, alarm filling her voice. It was difficult to hear the
question since the young girl had wrapped her arms around Dare’s neck and was
currently sobbing against where she had buried her face in the crook of his
neck.

“She’ll be fine,” Dare said. “She just fell
and scratched up her knee a little.”

“Should I get Dr. Savante?”

Dare thought of the veterinarian that ran the
clinic and briefly considered handing over his wailing charge for a second
before he shook his head. “I got this. I’m assuming you have a first aid kit in
there?”

Her gaze trailed toward the front door to the
animal clinic he had just nodded to, but she remained unconvinced. “Sure we do,
but—”

“I’m a doctor. Dr. Daryk Nyght. I’m staying
over at the boarding house while I’m in town,” he said in response to her
skeptical look. He saw the relief on her face and she smiled at him.

“Of course! I’ve heard all about you. Please,
follow me.”

The young woman led them into the clinic,
straight through the waiting area to one of the smaller exam rooms. Dare tried
to pry the girl’s arms from around his neck, but young Carly continued to cling
to him like a little monkey. The woman’s lips twitched as she watched him
struggle with the girl. She set down a large first aid box on the table and backed
out of the room.

“I know Carly’s brother, Miles. I’ll just go
get him.”

“Hey, wait—” Dare scowled as he watched the
woman leave him alone with what he equated to be as dangerous as an incendiary
device strapped to his chest. “Damn it.”

Carly’s head lifted and she sniffed
delicately. “You swore.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

Dare frowned at her. “How could you tell over
the sound of your wailing? I still can’t hear anything in my left ear. In fact,
I don’t think I’ll be able to hear out of it the same ever again.”

She gifted him with a little giggle and he
felt the band of tension in his chest ease a little. He’d never been good with
tears, and this situation was even worse because she was a little girl. Kids
were like some foreign creatures that baffled and confused him. He’d always
done his best to avoid them whenever possible, but he knew this little girl was
depending on him. He just needed to clean her up and send her on her way.

Taking advantage of the break in tears, Dare
pried Carly’s arms from his neck and set her onto the table so he could clean
and bandage her injury. His newfound aversion to blood made him feel foolish,
but the little scrape was nothing compared to the trauma wounds he was used to
dealing with, so the uncomfortable feeling quickly dissipated. He opened the
first aid kit and removed the items he needed, aware of those young eyes
watching his every move.

“Are you really a doctor?”

“I am.”

“You could just be saying you are. How do I
know for real?”

 
He
raised a brow at that. Trusting little bugger. “Why would I lie?”

“I don’t know. Why would you?”

 
Oh, for the love of...

Dare was saved from more questions as two
young men hurried into the room. “Carly! Jesus, what happened to you?” one of
the teens demanded as soon as he saw her bloody knee.

 
“Miles,
I fell,” Carly whimpered as Dare began cleaning the wound. “Ouch!”

Carly’s brother wrapped his arm around his
little sister’s shoulders. “You’re hurting her!”

Dare shot the brother a look that made the
boy shut up, then he let his face soften as he glanced back toward Carly.
 
“Sorry, kid. I just have to clean it before
we bandage you up.”

“I don’t want a shot,” the girl whispered, her
eyes filling with tears again.

“No shots,” Dare promised quickly.

“You’re Dr. Nyght, right? Hammer’s friend?”
the large teenager who was leaning against the door asked.

Dare looked over at him and nodded. He
noticed there was another younger boy standing slightly behind the teen, as if
hiding. Ignoring them for the moment, Dare turned back to Carly’s brother and
pinned the younger man with hard eyes. “You need to watch over your sister
better if you’re going to be bringing her here. She fell and injured herself,
but there are dogs out there that could really hurt her if you aren’t paying
attention.”

“I thought she was right behind us,” Miles said
defensively, but he couldn’t stand the weight of Dare’s censure for more than a
few seconds. The boy’s shoulders slumped and he busied himself with giving his
sister another awkward hug. The girl smiled, preening under her brother’s
attention. “Sorry, Carly. I’ll watch over you better from now on.”

Out of the corner of his eye Dare saw the
young boy at the door peek around the teen to watch him cleaning Carly’s knee. It
wasn’t bad, but he wanted to make sure he removed all the grit before he
bandaged it up. Then he could leave...as fast as his feet would carry him.

“Hammer told me you were a surgeon or
something in the Army,” the teen at the door said. “He also said you were
staying at the boarding house for a while.”

“Hammer seems to be pretty talkative,” Dare
commented in a neutral voice, belying his irritation. Why the hell did it seem
like everyone knew about him? It made him uncomfortable...and slightly panicked.

The teen’s chest puffed out. “I’ve been
training with him at Fight Hard and I also work part-time at Kali’s bakery
after school. I’m Nate, and this is my little brother, Shane. That’s my buddy
Miles and his sister Carly.”

“If you’re training with Hammer, you’re
training with the best,” Dare said as he finished cleaning the wound. He chose
a large bandage from the box. Opening the package, he peeled off the backing
and placed the bandage on her knee. “All done. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“It was.” She looked down at the plain beige
bandage with a little frown, then blinked up at him with big eyes. “My mom
always gives me Hello Kitty ones when I hurt myself.”

“Hurt yourself often, do you?”

“She’s a klutz,” Miles responded with a smile
“We both are, aren’t we Carly?”

“Yep!”

Dare looked around the room for a moment,
then moved to the counter to pick up a permanent marker. Walking back over to
the little girl, Dare pulled off the cap and leaned down to draw a lopsided
happy face on the plain bandage. “There.”