Up by Five (18 page)

“Eddie?” she called, sliding the door open. “It’s Gabby. And the ambulance.”

There was no answer for a moment. Gabby stepped in through the door. The interior of the warehouse was dim, the sunlight not potent enough to penetrate the years of dust and dirt on the high window.

“Eddie?”

“Over here.” Eddie had a distinctive low, rough voice.

Gabby called out, “We’re all coming in.”

The four of them headed to the left, Gabby leading the way with Sierra right behind her.

Eddie was kneeling on the floor on a pile of blankets. “I think she’s dying,” he said, lifting his head when Gabby stepped around a stack of wooden crates.

Gabby approached slowly. Eddie had never done anything threatening to her, but he was often agitated, and the first time they’d met he’d grabbed her arm unexpectedly. She wanted to help the man and had no reason to expect him to do anything aggressive, but she wasn’t stupid—Eddie lived on the streets and had some mental illness. They’d never found drugs in his system, but alcohol was a regular part of his bloodstream. She needed to be careful.

“Who’s dying, Eddie?” Gabby had never heard the man refer to a female companion.

“Doug.”

Gabby stopped about eight feet from the pile of blankets. “Doug? Doug is dying?”

Eddie nodded, clearly upset. “I think so.”

“Doug is a girl?”

He nodded again.

Oookaaay. Gabby glanced at Sierra. Sierra shrugged.

“Did you call us about Doug?” Gabby asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you know where Doug is now?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, Eddie, we’ll do whatever we can to help her. Can you tell us where she is?”

“Right here.” Eddie moved out of the way and Gabby saw a dog lying on the blankets. She was on her side, her breathing was shallow. She barely lifted her head.

“Oh.” Damn. It was a dog.

Gabby looked at her team.

Conner nodded toward the animal, silently communicating that she should get closer.

“Eddie, can I come check on Doug?” Gabby asked.

He nodded and stood.

“Did you find her?” Gabby asked, approaching the animal slowly. Just like the man, the animal lived on the streets. She’d be wary of people, especially strangers.

“She found me,” Eddie said.

Oh, that was nice. She gave the man a smile. “Are you okay?”

“Okay,” he said with a shrug. “Do you have any soup?”

Gabby glanced at Ryan, who was already handing a small plastic bag of supplies over to Eddie. They’d become accustomed to carrying nonperishable food items in the rig since meeting Eddie and his friends. They passed the food out to other homeless as well. The four of them had all shown up the day after their first trip to the warehouse with food. They’d simply smiled at one another and stored the stuff in a plastic bin. Ever since, they all helped keep it stocked.

Gabby felt something tap her arm. She glanced to find a pair of heavy work gloves in Sierra’s hand. She gave her friend a smile. The gloves might not fully prevent a dog bite, but they’d lessen the chances of deep penetration. She pulled the gloves on as she knelt by Doug, the dog.

“Hey, Doug,” she crooned, reaching out slowly and letting the dog sniff her as she visually scanned the big body. Doug looked like a golden lab mixed with…something else.

“So, why Doug?” she asked Eddie. She had to know.

“You seen the movie
Up
?”

“The movie with the house with the balloons?” Gabby asked.

“Yeah.”

“No.” But she’d seen the commercials.

“The dog in that movie is Doug. That might be my favorite Disney movie.”

Gabby must have shown her surprise because Eddie said, “They show movies at the shelter sometimes.”

Okay, the homeless guy knew Disney movies. And didn’t care that Doug was a fairly gender-specific name. “What about Lassie?” Gabby asked, running her hand over the dog’s head, then down her side. “Or what are some other famous girl dogs?”

“I like Doug,” Eddie said.

Gabby smiled at him. “You’re right. Naming her after the dog from your favorite movie is special.”

“The dog in the movie is Dug, actually,” Sierra said. “D-U-G.”

Gabby looked at her. Sierra shrugged again. “I like Disney too.”

“She’s dying,” Eddie said again.

Well, Gabby didn’t know about that. But she didn’t know much about dogs. She did, however, have an uncle who was a veterinarian.

“Why do you think she’s dying, Ed?” Conner asked, moving in closer.

“Because she’s sick,” Eddie said with a frown. He really didn’t like Conner.

Gabby gave Conner a back-off look, which he fully understood because he shook his head no.

She sighed.

“Tell me how she’s been acting,” Gabby said to Eddie, still running her hand over the dog, simultaneously working to soothe and examine the animal.

“Sick.”

Right.

The dog whimpered as Gabby stroked toward her back leg. Gabby frowned and did it again slowly. Doug pulled her leg away and gave a soft growl this time.

“Back left leg,” she said to Conner.

Conner knelt at the dog’s head. “Hey girl,” he crooned, stroking her head. “You’re a beauty, huh?”

Gabby watched him for a moment. God, that voice. Even when he was talking to a dog.

“She doesn’t like that,” Eddie said, frowning at Conner.

Doug hadn’t gotten the memo about not liking Conner, however. She lifted her head for him to better access her neck and looked up at him adoringly.

“See, girls always look at you like that,” she said, turning her attention back to Doug’s leg.

“Except you,” he reminded her.

She smiled but kept her eyes on Doug. “Right, except me.”

He chuckled softly.

The examination of Doug pulled her focus from Conner a moment later though. “Eddie, did Doug fall?” She remembered Ryan saying the call had reported a fall with injuries.

“She was up there.” Eddie pointed toward the corner of the warehouse.

There was a narrow metal staircase leading to a loft area with a walled-in room that might have been used as an office at one time.

Ryan and Sierra were already moving in that direction.

“She was comin’ down the steps and fell,” Eddie said.

Gabby was fairly certain the poor animal was dehydrated, possibly starving…and she’d just had puppies. Not to mention broken her leg in her fall.

Her uncle was going to have to take a look at this.

“Eddie, my uncle is a veterinarian. I’m going to take Doug to see him, okay?”

“No!” Eddie took two steps forward. “Doug’s mine.”

“I know,” Gabby said gently. “I just want to make her better.”

“She stays here,” Eddie said firmly.

“Dude,” Conner said, keeping his voice calm and continuing to pet the dog’s head, “if you care about Doug, you need to let Gabby help her.”

“Help her here,” Eddie said. He frowned at Conner. “Gabby can help her here.”

“I don’t think so, Eddie,” Gabby said. “She needs a dog doctor.”

“Um, so do these three,” Ryan said as he came across the floor. He held three puppies in his arms.

Eddie looked stunned. “Those are Doug’s?”

“Yes,” Gabby said, stretching to her feet.

The puppies whined and Doug’s head came up.

“Easy, girl,” Conner said.

But Doug was focused on Ryan. She growled in the back of her throat.

“She doesn’t like you,” Eddie informed Conner.

Doug wasn’t even looking at Conner.

“She’s just worried about her puppies,” Gabby said, stepping toward Eddie. “We need to take care of all of them. You trust me, right?”

Eddie looked at the dog, his face taut with anxiety. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“I promise she’ll be okay. But if we don’t take her, she won’t get better,” Gabby said, stepping closer again.

Eddie started shaking his head and reached behind him, pulling a knife from his waistband.

Whoa. Gabby came up short, hands up. “Hey now, it’s okay.”

“Put the knife away, Eddie,” Conner said firmly.

He also got to his feet and stepped in close to Gabby. He seemed calm, but as his shoulder contacted hers, it was as if she could feel tension humming in him.

“No. You can’t take my dog.”

“She’s hurt. We’re going to help her,” Conner said.

Gabby felt his hands on her upper arms. He squeezed her, then quickly shifted her back behind him.

Hey.

“Eddie, you called us for help.”

Eddie’s eyes darted from Conner to Gabby and back. “I called Gabby.”

She started to move around Conner to calm Eddie, but Conner stepped in her way, blocking her from the other man.

“You know we all come,” Conner said. “We’re Gabby’s friends. We come to help her.”

“I just want Gabby,” Eddie said, his voice rising. He still held the knife out in front of him.

Conner spread his arms wide, hands up in surrender. “Dude, I know. I get it. She’s awesome. But you have to let her do her job and you can’t pull knives out or we’re not going to let her come back to see you.”

Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t do that. She has to come if I call.”

“Nope,” Conner said. “Next time you’ll just get me and Ryan.”

“I want to see Gabby,” Eddie insisted.

“I know. I don’t blame you. I like seeing her too.”

Gabby rested her hands on Conner’s waist, then pinched him and tried to shove him out of the way.

He held firm. In fact, he started backing up, pushing her with him. She tried to dig in and resist, but he was bigger—and more determined—than she was.

What the hell was he doing? He knew she could talk Eddie down. She’d done it before.

“Conner,” she hissed. “Knock it off.”

“No way,” he said back.

“Hey, you can’t leave,” Eddie said, realizing they were moving. He started forward.

Gabby felt a rumble from Conner, almost a growl.

“Put the damned knife down and we’ll stay and help,” Conner said, his voice harder now. “Otherwise, we’re out of here.”

“Doug’s still hurt,” Eddie said,
not
putting the knife down.

“I know. And I want to help her. Gabby’s gonna be pissed if I make her leave without helping Doug—” Conner said.

He was right about that.

“—but we’re not staying if you’re going to be an asshole,” Conner told him.

Gabby gasped. They always talked gently to Eddie. They wanted to help the guy and riling him up was not the way to get him to cooperate. “Dixon—” she started.

“Stop it,” he told her firmly, eyes still on Eddie.

Stop it? Seriously? She shoved him harder this time, knocking him enough off balance to get a step around him. But he wrapped an arm around her waist before she could get far and hauled her up against him.

“No,” he said in her ear. “I mean it.”

He meant it? He was bossing her around? Manhandling her? No way.

She pushed against his arm. “Let go, Dixon.”

“No fucking way.”

“Dammit—”

“Let her go,” Eddie said, raising the knife. “She said she wants you to let go.”

“Put the knife down, Eddie,” Conner said.

Gabby kicked her heel into Conner’s shin, but his hold only tightened around her.

Doug noticed that the man who’d been feeding her was getting worked up. A growl sounded from her throat. The puppies, hearing their mom, started whining louder and squirming in Ryan’s arms. Sierra showed up with another one just then, her eyes widening as she took in the sight.

“What the hell’s going on?”

Eddie turned toward her voice and Conner lunged, hitting Eddie’s arm and sending the knife skittering across the cement floor.

Conner let go of Gabby to grab for the knife, Gabby caught her balance against a short stack of boxes, Doug started barking and Eddie started swearing. The boxes, precariously stacked in the first place, began to tip. Gabby shoved Conner out of the way of the falling crates. His foot hit the knife, sending it sliding, and Eddie dove for it. The boxes hit the cement with loud
crack
s, the dog’s barking got louder and Gabby saw Ryan trying to unload three puppies into Sierra’s arms.

The next thing she heard was “Son of a bitch!” from Conner.

Conner and Eddie were wrestling on the floor, the knife in Eddie’s hand, Conner’s hand wrapped tightly around Eddie’s wrist.

Gabby went for the supply bag Ryan had dropped. She pulled out a syringe and stalked to where Conner and Eddie were tangled together. Conner saw her and managed to flip Eddie so the man was on top—and his leg was clear for Gabby to jab with the needle containing the sedative medication.

Eddie’s fighting slowed and Conner flipped him again, then pushed back off of him.

Eddie’s eyes started to close as he passed out.

But not before he took a swipe at Conner with the knife.

The blade punctured Conner’s thigh and the six-inch gash immediately began bleeding through his pants.

“Fuck!” Conner swore, flopping back onto the floor.

“Dammit!” Gabby sank to her knees next to him, shucked off the dirty work gloves, and immediately pressed her palms flat against the wound. “Ryan!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ryan had been holding on to Doug. He let go of the dog to scramble for the bag.

The dog got to her feet shakily, growling and looking less impressed with Conner now.

Sierra moved toward the new mother. “It’s okay. Take it easy.”

“Be careful,” Ryan snapped.

“No shit,” Sierra shot back. Then she gentled her voice and knelt with the puppies, letting them scramble from her arms to their mom.

That seemed to placate Doug a bit.

Gabby worked on keeping her breathing calm. Having Conner’s hard, warm leg under her hands was one thing. Having his warm blood seeping out of that hard leg and onto her hands was something else. Blood, even big amounts, didn’t bother her.
Conner’s
blood did.

She didn’t like it when any of her crewmates got hurt, of course, but it happened. Cuts and bruises and sprains and burns—they were part of the job.

This felt different. And that pissed her off.

“You’re an idiot, by the way,” she told Conner.

He didn’t ask what she was referring to. He didn’t argue. He just sighed.