Come Home

Chapter 21

"Are you okay?" Luke asked as he helped Alice walk into the house. "Do you need a moment?"

"I'm fine," she said through clenched teeth and squeezed his hand tightly.

"The couch is ready," Gabe said as he held up a blanket.

"We'll be there in a moment," Luke said nodding. Alice took another step and he just waited patiently.

Eventually she made it to the couch, and he helped her lay down on her stomach. "Can I look please?" Sean asked gently. "We need to check the bandage, Dr. Roberts said we might need to change it once we get home."

"Okay," she breathed as she felt him lift her shirt slightly. "Ouch," she groaned as she felt the tape being pulled back slowly and gently.

"Sorry," Sean said softly. "I'm trying to be gentle."

"I know," she groaned, "it just hurts."

"Well, it looks good," he said as Kota took the bandage from Sean. "I'm going to go ahead and put a new bandage on your back."

"Fine," she groaned.

"Here you go," Axel said crouching down and held out a pill. "This will help with your pain."

"Here's a drink," Victor said holding the water bottle with straw out for her to sip.

She took her meds and then there was a knock on the door. "I'll go see who that is," Silas said. "Can I help you?"

"I'm here to see the boss," a man said and she lifted her head.

"Rome?" she asked hopefully.

"Hey Boss Lady, I heard you had quite an adventure," he said walking over to her. "Damn," he let out a low whistle.

"Yeah," she smiled softly. "I can't believe you are here."

"Well, I am to see how you are and to also discuss with you the next steps," he said sitting on the floor. "What's with the goon squad?"

"My exes," she explained.

"Damn, you got some good looking exes, Boss," he chuckled.

"Yeah, until they cheated," she admitted, "then they didn't look so good."

"Wow," he sighed, "so anyway, what do you want me to do, Boss Lady?"

"Dakota can show you where the office and kennels are," she sighed. "I need to go pick out the dogs and start planning out how to get them out here so I can start training them."

"You are still going to go through with it?" Luke asked shocked. "Even after what happened?"

"Why would she punish the prisoners that applied and got approved for just because of some bad prisoners?" Officer Romeo asked. "It's not their fault, they didn't stab her, so why would she quit bringing the dogs for them when they did nothing wrong?"

"Yeah, I get that," Luke admitted. "I just don't want her getting hurt again."

"It's a risk I knew would happen," Alice said. "This isn't the first time I've experienced a lockdown. It just happens sometimes. But it's not the good prisoners' fault so I'm going to keep rewarding them and the puppies deserve to have a good home."

"Alright, I can show you," Kota nodded, "when you are ready."

"Where's your man?" Alice asked.

"He stayed back to run the office for me," Romeo explained. "I'm just here for a bit then I'm heading back so I can start figuring things out for you. I know you pick the dogs out better than I can. I can't read the temperaments as well as you can so I can figure out the traveling and setting things up for you that way when you are ready you can just pick the dogs and not have to worry about the rest."

"Thank you," Alice smiled. "I really appreciate everything you do. And tell your man I said thank you too, I know this is interfering with his business, so I really appreciate him helping."

"Of course," Romeo nodded. "Get to healing, Boss, and I'll go check things out."

"Don't let Jack scare you away," She smiled. "He's really a sweet boy."

"Who's Jack?" Romeo asked.

"You see that horse right there?" Kota pointed to Jack who was pacing the fence while neighing and bobbing his head. "That's Jack and he doesn't like men. He only listens to her."

"Hey," Romeo asked turning to look at Alice, "he's not going to like knock me down or anything is he?"

"No," she shook her head. "He'll leave you be. He's a good boy." He nodded and Kota opened the door, "Jack, let Romeo go to the office," she called out. "Be nice to him, Sweet Boy." Jack neighed and she smiled softly. "I miss you too."

Romeo let out a low whistle and shook his head. "Animal whisperer, Boss Lady, I'm telling you."

"Thank you, Romeo," she smiled as she laid her head back down.

He followed Kota outside and Jack pawed the ground but remained still as they headed over to the buildings the guys had set up for her. He checked out what he needed to do and made notes then saw she was asleep on the couch and left. Max jumped up and laid on her legs then fell asleep on top of her while the guys went to take care of some chores.