“There’s a crazy man threatening Emily in the parking lot!” she exclaimed. “I called the sheriff. He’s on his way, but Emily needs help. Hurry!”
Holden’s heart lurched and before it returned to his chest, he was rounding the building, his boots eating up the pavementas he raced to the front of the shelter with Sinjin and Kade on his six.
Alarm gripped his spine and he forced himself to hold onto his control as he neared the front. He could hear an angry man raising his voice, then Emily’s even-keeled response, but he couldn’t make out what she said, only her calm, confident tone.
Rushing around the corner, he spotted them near the entrance. The angry man was a few inches taller and easily a foot wider than Emily, but she stood with her arms down at her side, feet slightly apart, chin up, and gaze on the man spewing profanities as he ranted in front of her. The woman didn’t cower, nor did she feed the jerk’s anger.
Admiration rushed through Holden as he slowed his pace and stopped behind her. “Is there a problem?” he asked, wanting to offer his help but not overstep her authority.
“No,” she answered, keeping her attention on the angry man. “Mr. Perez was just about to leave.”
The guy’s head jerked back, and he frowned at Emily. “Are you loco? I told you, I’m not leaving without my dog, bitch.”
Holden’s back stiffened and his hands curled into fists, as anger, hot and swift, rushed through him so fast he barely recognized it. He was about to step forward and punch out what was left of the bastard’s teeth when a hand clamped on his shoulder.
“Easy,” Sinjin urged in a low voice.
Kade flanked his other side, his gaze on the confrontation. “Emily can handle it. Gabe doesn’t need to make two arrests,” he told him, in a barely audible tone.
“It’s Officer Harrison to you.” Her chin lifted. “And you no longer own a dog. You gave up that right in Houston, when you ignored the notices about leaving her chained in the yard without water or shelter from the hundred-degree temperaturesandthat she needed to gain weight.”
“Hera was fine,” the man insisted.
“A forty-six-pound Rottweiler is not fine, Mr. Perez,” she stated. “She was woefully underweight and needed medical attention, which was clearly defined in the notice and the voicemails I repeatedly left you. You had more than a week to comply. When you didn’t, she was seized by the Houston PD and Humane Society.”
Jesus…forty-six pounds?
Holden’s blood pressure shot up again. An adult female Rottie weighed nearly double that.
“You can’t just trespass into my yard and take my property,” the guy muttered as if he hadn’t heard a word she’d just said. “I want Hera back now.”
“You violated the law, ignored notices, and were cited for animal cruelty. You can’t get her back,” she stated calmly. “The violation took place inHouston. If you have a complaint, you need to file it against the Houston Humane Society. I no longer work there. That’s a different jurisdiction. I work here now. Harassing me is pointless.”
The man’s face darkened, and he appeared ready to step forward, so Holden straightened his shoulders and glared at the guy while slowly shaking his head. From his peripheral vision, he noted Sinjin and Kade doing the same.
Don’t do it, pal, he silently urged. Although, if he did, it would give Holden the green-light to rearrange the dickhead’s face.
The sound of a siren echoed in the distance.
Holden wasn’t sure if it was his silent warning, the siren, or Emily telling the guy he should leave before the sheriff arrived, but the man backed off and stepped toward a nearby late model Bronco.
“This isn’t over, bitch,” Perez growled, wrenching his door open. “You’re gonna get me my dog.”
As much as he wanted to pound the guy into the ground, press a knee into his back, and hold him immobile until Gabe arrived, Holden knew the police wouldn’t arrest Perez. Technically, he hadn’t broken the law.
Not yet.
He didn’t like the man’s parting words or the hatred in his eyes.
Alarm continued to grip Holden’s spine as he watched the Bronco peel out of the parking lot, nearly clipping the sheriff’s Tahoe.
“You okay?” he asked Emily, gently turning her to face him.
She sighed. “Yeah. That’s one of my least favorite parts of the job.”
“Does it happen a lot?” The thought of people harassing her, especially because she’d saved an animal, didn’t sit well in his already knotted stomach.
“Not really.” She shrugged. “No one’s ever tracked me down to complain before. Especially nearly three months after the incident.”
