Completely loose, no leash in sight.
The animal ran straight for Dallas as the sheriff yelled. I actually saw the man go for his gun and was about to call out a warning when another voice said, “Don’t even think about it, Sheriff.”
Another cop was standing next to Maddox. Several people began talking at once, so I tuned them out and let my eyes drift back to Maddox’s. I flinched, and not in a bad way, when his green eyes met mine.
God, it just wasn’t fair that someone so beautiful was also a dick.
Oh, and straight.
There was another person behind Maddox who I didn’t recognize. He was gorgeous, though not quite as striking as Maddox. But unlike the walking wall, the other guy had an easygoing way about him. He wasn’t exactly smiling, but he was so relaxed that it actually put me at ease. Like he somehow knew everything would be okay.
Maddox patted Dallas’s shoulder as he walked past and stopped in the front of the room, along with the cop and the good-looking man. The head of the committee gave Maddox permission to address the room. Maddox called Loki to him, then to my surprise, he found me and Newt. His gaze zeroed in on my little brother.
“Newt, do you think you can help me with something?”
When just about everyone turned to look at us, I couldn’t help but jump a little. It was basically one of my worst nightmares come to life. I absolutely did not want these people to notice us. Newt seemed unfazed and only had eyes for Maddox.
“Are you still mad, Mad?” he asked as he scrutinized the big man at the front of the room.
For once, Maddox looked completely taken aback. Several people laughed. Maddox finally relaxed and actually smiled.
He smiled.
Like with his lips and everything.
Okay, so maybe Pelican Bay really was the entryway to the underworld, because it seemed like hell had just frozen over.
“No, I’m not,” Maddox responded, his voice a low purr that had my dick taking notice.
Yeah, right, like it hadn’t jumped to attention the second the man had walked into the room. Newt turned to me and said, “I gotta go help Loki, ’kay?”
His voice was so matter-of-fact, I felt my chest swell with pride. There was no hesitation whatsoever, either in approaching a man who had frightened him just yesterday, or in the fact that he was about to do something completely unknown and in front of a roomful of strangers.
To Newt, he was just protecting his new friend, Loki.
I ruffled his hair and with a thick voice said, “Go get ’em, kiddo.”
Newt turned on his heel and walked straight to Maddox. He threw his arms around Loki’s neck, which caused a few people in the crowd to make some tsking sounds, but otherwise the room was so silent, you could hear a pin drop.
I listened to Maddox explain to the crowd that Loki had been removed from Dallas’s care because he’d bitten a passerby. To my surprise, he asked the cop next to him, a man named Miller, if he thought the accusation that Loki bit someone was true. I waited for the man to deny it, but my stomach dropped out when he said, “Yes, I do.”
Gasps erupted, and my gaze shifted to a very shaken-looking Nolan and Dallas.
Miller continued without being prompted.
“Three weeks ago, when the man helped Jimmy Cornell and another man break into the center and attack a bear that lives on the property.”
There was only one bear at the sanctuary–the one Newt was so enamored with.
Gentry.
I’d seen the huge animal myself when Nolan had taken me on a tour of the place when Dallas had been lying down earlier in the day. The animal had been restlessly pacing one side of his enclosure and I’d instantly felt sorry for him. It wasn’t until Nolan had explained that the bear had recently been through a trauma that I’d realized the behavior wasn’t normal for the animal. To know several men had purposefully attacked the animal broke my heart.
I watched the back and forth between Sheriff Tulley and his deputy, along with one of the council members. From what I was able to take in, the man Loki had bitten during the attack on Gentry had been pressured into filing a complaint against the wolf hybrid, giving the sheriff cause to remove the animal. However, the man hadn’t been an innocent passerby but one of Gentry’s assailants. The whole thing had been an elaborate scheme the sheriff had come up with, along with one of Gentry’s other attackers.
The council member, Jeb, managed to quiet the room down after a minute, and that was when Maddox motioned to the good-looking man next to him. “Can you tell everyone who you are, please?”
“My name is Sawyer Brower. I’m a vet specializing in the care of large animals and wildlife. I treated Gentry, the bear who lives on Dallas’s property, after he was shot repeatedly with a BB gun and burned with cattle prods.”