Marie's Path

Chapter 42

"We got him," North came in carrying Chase, who wriggled in his arms wanting down. "Whats Marie been feeding him? He has to weigh at least fifty pounds."

"Is he hurt?" Marc asked. 

"No," North said. "When we got to him, he wasn't ready to give up. And I didn't trust him to come with us willingly." He looked down at the dog in his arms. "I thought for a minute, he was going to try to take us down too."

Nathan nodded in agreement. "Then he saw it was us, and he changed. All of a sudden he was his normal, tail wagging self again. We checked him over and he doesn't seem to be hurt."

As soon as the dog was out of North's arms, his nose was to the floor, circling the room. Finding the scent he wanted, Chase darted out the room, checking the first floor. Not finding Marie, he bounded up the stairs. Within seconds, he was coming back down. Stopping at the front door, he whined and scratched.

"Come here, Chase," Axel called to him.

Crestfallen, his tail tucked between his legs, he slowly approached Axel. Sitting at Axel's feet, Chase yawned nervously, avoiding eye contact.

Axel kneeled down. "She's not here, boy, but you'll see her later," he said playing with the scruff of the dog's neck. "Good job, you little shit. You might not have put him down, but you got the bastard out of the house, anyway." Axel held Chase's face. "There's blood on his muzzle and some more on his chest. Good dog, you did do some damage to the bastard."

"He thinks he's in trouble," Jay said.

"Yeah, border collies are herding dogs. He protected his owner, but what he did to the bastard went against his nature," Axel said, as he continued stroking the dog. "We're going to have to watch him. Hopefully, this didn't make him overly protective of Marie. I don't want him thinking every stranger that comes around is a threat."

Chase flopped down, rolling onto his back, exposing his belly to Axel.

Marc grinned. "I think he's telling you he's not going to be a threat."

"And what about Mr.Sorenson?" Mr.B asked, looking at North and Nathan.

"Tail lights," North said. "He'd parked near the diner, away from any street lights. And from what little I could make out, it looked like an older pick-up, a Dodge maybe. Probably blue, and it did have a camper."

"I got the feed up," Victor called out from the dining room.

Sang shrank back, trying to stay out of everyone's way as all the guys went around her and into the dining room. She wasn't sure where her place was. When she first saw Marie on the couch, she had wanted to go to her. Yet every time she attempted it, one of the Toma team inadvertently blocked her from view.

She certainly couldn't ask Mindy if she needed any help with her step mother. Sang could only imagine what her step mother would have to say about that.

She looked in from around the archway at the guys. They were all crowding around Victor, staring intently at the computer screen. She thought it was just as well she couldn't see the screen. She had enough nightmares without adding to them. And besides, she knew Marie well enough to know, that she'd be humiliated if she ever found out she watched the video.

Nathan and Kota both looked over at Sang. Kota stopped Nathan from going to her, choosing to come himself.

"Hey," Kota said walking toward her. He leaned in touching his lips to hers. "Are you okay?"

"All this is so surreal, Kota. Will it ever really be over?"

"Soon, I hope," he said, pulling her in for a hug.