Just like I wanted.
CHAPTER THIRTY
JETT
“I don’t get it,” I muttered as I watched Apollo restlessly pace his enclosure. The dog was whining endlessly and scratching at the chain link fence, much like he’d done when he’d first arrived. That had been more than six weeks ago.
“He’s going to have bad days,” Sawyer said as he leaned into me. I automatically put my arm around him.
A lot had changed in the four weeks since Marcus had been arrested. For starters, the man was still in jail since he’d been denied bail. That, in itself, had been a huge relief for all of us, and while Sawyer and Theo were doing well after the trauma, Riley was still struggling with what had happened. Sawyer carried a great deal of guilt about that but was coming to accept that there was no way he could have predicted what Marcus would do.
Our work with Apollo had been a good distraction for Sawyer, especially since the dog had begun to respond to him. The dog had undergone a dramatic change in the past month, both physically and mentally. Amazingly enough, we’d gotten to a point where Apollo was actually excited to see anyone he already knew. Once that trust had been established, Apollo had behaved like a normal dog and we’d been able to handle him with relative ease. Sawyer and I had even managed to give the Belgian Malinois a bath. The animal’s coat shone with health and he'd filled out considerably. The one thing that hadn’t changed was Apollo’s energy level. While that stamina was why the military often used the breed for more intense kinds of work, it was something that had initially worked against us as we’d rehabilitated the dog.
Things had changed in the past couple of weeks as my own physical recovery improved. I’d pushed myself hard when it had come to my physical therapy and learning to use the prosthetics, but the payoff had been worth it on so many levels. The freedom to move around easier would have been enough on its own but when my prosthetist had suggested I try running prosthetics, it had been a game changer not only for me but Apollo as well.
While we were still hesitant to let Apollo off his leash, when I took him running with me, the dog experienced the same freedom I did despite still being physically connected to me via a long lead line. I was working up to running longer distances every day and was already up to three miles at least once a day, if not twice. Apollo loved every second of it. The dog had improved so much that he spent every night in the house with us, usually in our room. We only put him in his enclosure during the times no one was able to watch him since we still didn’t trust him not to leave the property.
“I’m going to take him for a run,” I said. “See if that helps.”
“Okay, be careful,” Sawyer said before kissing me softly. He said the same words to me every time I went for a run. The sanctuary had major highways running on two sides of it, so the traffic was often flying by us as we ran and it made Sawyer understandably nervous.
“I will,” I said. I made my way to the house to swap out my prosthetics and within a matter of minutes, Apollo and I were on the road. Unfortunately, my hope that the dog would calm down died a quick death as Apollo struggled against the leash. When we reached the spot where the two highways intersected, I turned to the right with the intent of running away from town rather than toward it like I did every day, but this time Apollo wasn’t having it. The dog put the brakes on and tried to rip the leash out of my hand as he fought to go the other way.
“Hey, come here, buddy,” I said as I crouched down. Despite knowing the dog couldn’t hear us, we all still spoke to him as if he could. Surprisingly, Apollo came to me instead of continuing to struggle. He nuzzled my hands and whined.
“If a dog ever needed the ability to talk it would be you right now, wouldn’t it?” I asked. “Okay, lead the way,” I said as I rose. Apollo immediately darted toward town. Downtown Pelican Bay was a good ten miles away so we wouldn’t actually make it to the town itself, but I was hoping Apollo would settle long before then.
Instead of calming down the more we ran, the more hyper Apollo became. He began barking frantically as he dragged on the leash. I was about to force him to stop because he was threatening to pull me off my feet but then my eyes caught on a flash of light in front of us. It looked like sunlight bouncing off metal.