made their way down to the water, and as they walked along the shore, she said, “Can I ask you about tonight?”
He was hoping she’d let it go. “Yeah,” he said tightly.
“Do you do that kind of thing a lot?”
“No. Thankfully there aren’t many dogfighting rings around here. This one was about an hour away.”
“Why did you guys go? Isn’t that what the police are for? Aren’t there shelters or groups that deal with that type of thing?”
“Situations like this are exactly what Gunner’s rescue is for.”
“Gunner?”
“Dwayne, sorry. Gunner is his road name.” Chloe and her friends had met Dwayne around the time they’d met Justin. Since they were outside of the biker community, they knew them by their given names. “Dwayne opened Wicked Animal Rescue because of this type of thing and because there are assholes out there who abuse the hell out of animals in other ways, too.”
“But aren’t there laws about animal abuse?”
“Yeah, and the police do all they can, but they can only go so far. Abusers know that. But the abusers don’t know what the hell to expect from a bunch of rough-looking bikers. When Gunner and a bunch of us guys show up at their house, they get scared, and that’s okay because their animals are goddamn scared, too. I know you don’t like violence, Chloe, but in those cases we usually don’t have to do much more than talk to get abusers to give up their animals. Tonight was a whole different ball game.” He stopped walking and looked out at the water, trying to calm the ire inside him. “We weren’t just dealing with some nutjob leaving his pet chained in the yard twenty-four hours a day, or a hoarder with seventeen cats. Dogfighting is a felony, and a vicious, short life for the animals. A lot of shelters don’t have the resources to help dogs that come from those environments. There are security risks involved. Dogfighting is a lucrative business, and the guys who run them have been known to try to steal the dogs back. Dwayne’s facilities are gated, with top-of-the-line security systems, and he and Baz live on site. Last year we picked up more than fifty dogs from a single ring out in Plymouth, and it took months to get some of them ready for adoption. Most shelters would have no idea how to handle that.”
“Fifty? That’s terrible.”
“Yeah. That’s why Dwayne has the rescue, because he fucking cares. With the support of the Dark Knights, he and Baz have the resources to not only shelter dogs like the ones we picked up tonight, but to care for them medically and rehabilitate them so they can be adopted into families who will love them and treat them well. And tonight?” He scoffed, wishing he could have killed the men he’d rumbled with, and began pacing. “The conditions those dogs lived in makes me sick. They’re malnourished, chained to cages, covered in scars and festering wounds. Some had broken bones.” He swallowed against the venom eating away at him as he wore a path in the sand. “One of them is going to lose his eye. Half of his ear looked like it had been bitten off, and when I picked him up, I could feel his bones. I swear, Chloe, that dog put his arms on my shoulders like a kid, as if he wanted to stay there forever. We rescued thirteen dogs. One is pregnant, so I guess that’s a win if her pups survive. There was a dumpster full of dead dogs. Two of the dogs that were chained in the yard were dead when we got there, and another…” He looked away, clenching his teeth. “Another dog, the one they probably used as bait to train the fighters, died in my arms on the way to the rescue.”
“Oh, Justin…” She looked as tortured as he felt. “No wonder you guys look like you’d been to war.”
She reached for him, but he took a step back. “I can’t. I’m too mad, Chloe. I’m sorry. Those dogs know nothing but abuse. They’re in pain, and hungry. They should despise humans, but they still have love toward us. And they’re so fucking scared. You should see their eyes. But they’re not afraid of us. They’re taught to kill other dogs. It’s just so messed up and so fucking sad.”
He sank down to the sand and pulled his knees up, crossing his arms over them. He gazed out at the