To Love Someone (Baytown Boys #14) - Maryann Jordan Page 0,84

know what I hoped to accomplish with this, but seeing this barn with these dogs kept completely separate from his breeding setup, it makes me suspicious. I just don’t know if we have enough to go to Liam to see if they can open an investigation.”

Her cheeks puffed out as she exhaled loudly. “I still say someone other than Jim is the leader of this… he gets too much money and too much recognition to ever risk it on illegally owning an exotic animal or breeding it.”

“Lionel or Alejandro?”

“That’d be my guess. How far away from the house is this barn?”

“It’s at the far end, near the Maryland border and near one of the inlets. He’s got close to thirty acres, he said, and it’s mostly thick woods. This barn is a couple of miles from the house and buried deep in the woods.”

She jumped as another thought slammed into her. “What about the wild dog sightings? Could one of these hybrid animals have escaped? They’d have to let it go, not willing to be found looking for something that they should have never had to begin with.”

“What about the dog that was brought to you by that man and his son? The one you were a little suspicious of?”

“I have no proof that it was anything other than just a full-blooded dog. I’d have to have genetic testing done to see if it was part wolf.”

“Can you do that?”

She snorted. “Yeah, I can do a blood test to send off. But genetic testing isn’t cheap.” She caught the roll of his eyes. “Oh, is this going to be one of the times where you tell me that you’ve got the money?”

“Yep. I’ve got the money, so if you can get the blood work, send it in, I’ll cover the cost.”

Not used to someone offering money, for an instant she hesitated. Then she thought of getting the proof to see if someone really did have a wolf or hybrid in the area. A slow grin curved her lips, and she said, “All right. I’ll do it.”

Two days later, with Bosco muzzled, she drew a blood sample from his leg. Mr. Tolson rubbed his whiskered chin as he watched carefully, an anxious expression on his face.

“I didn’t tell Jonny what we were doing today, figuring he was in school and wouldn’t know. But you tellin’ me that this dog might be part wolf makes me nervous. He’s been real good around us, but that don’t mean nothing if he’s got some wild in him.”

“We’ll get the results back in about two weeks, Mr. Tolson. As soon as I do, I promise to let you know what I find out. Until then, I would just continue to treat Bosco the way you have, with a lot of love. But, to be extra cautious, you might make sure that Jonny is never alone with him. I have no way of knowing if Bosco would react negatively to certain stimuli, even if he is a full-blooded dog. Puppies can be very rambunctious, so it’s hard to tell.”

Mr. Tolson’s shoulders slumped, and he nodded as he gently rubbed Bosco’s head. “Okay, Dr. Collins.”

With Bosco’s leash snapped back onto his collar, Mr. Tolson turned to leave. Samantha placed her hand on his arm, drawing his attention back to her. “I know this is difficult, but I want to thank you. If there’s any chance at all that Bosco could have been bred as a wolf-hybrid, that’s illegal in this area. And we need to know that.”

Ducking his chin in response, Mr. Tolson and Bosco left the examining room. Samantha closed the door behind them, staying in the empty room for a moment. She slumped back against the door and dropped her chin, sighing heavily. This sucks. This just sucks. Inhaling deeply to re-center her mind, she left the room and walked to the back workroom. Labeling the blood work, she packaged it up just in time for it to go out with the mail.

At the end of the day, she walked into the workroom, seeing Annette, Brentley, Tonya, and Susan. “Wow, we aren’t usually all here at the same time.”

“We want the scoop, Doc,” Tonya ordered, cocking her hip and tapping her foot.

Not knowing what she was referring to, Samantha’s gaze darted from one to the other. “Scoop? What scoop?”

“The scoop on the shelter’s new management,” Susan said, a wide grin on her face.

Hiding her sigh of relief, she lifted her brow. “Oh? I thought you