The dog watched everymove she made and sat surprisingly still while Rooney gave her an injection.
"You need to giveher small meals to start with. I would suggest home-made or the brand I haveout in reception. It doesn't have fillers, just good ingredients."
"I'll ask Essie tomake something up for her. Can I get a collar and lead rope from you for herplease?"
"Sure, go andchoose whatever you want." Rooney lifted the dog down from the table andwatched her follow Cade from the room, glancing back once as if she couldn'tbelieve she hadn't been hurt.
Cade chose a plain redcollar and lead, dropping them on the counter. "Give me an invoice please,Rhian. I may be able to claim this one day."
"Cade, you don'thave to pay for those." Rooney came up behind him.
"Yeah, I do. Thisis your business, love. You need the money as much as anyone else."
"But youdon't..."
"Did Russ tell youthat? Figures. Mr Perfect can't keep his mouth shut."
Rooney felt for him.Cade had always been the big spender in the family, never a saver like she andRuss were. "Look, I know things aren't exactly going the way you plannedbut hell’s teeth, you should have always had a backup plan."
"Yeah well, shithappens. Listen, enough about my problems. Care to share a coffee with mebefore I go while Rhian sorts out the video."
"Give me anotherten minutes or so and you can have your phone back. It's downloading now buttaking forever," Rhian said glancing up.
"Of course." Rooneywalked into the kitchen with Cade and his dog close behind her. He shut thedoor and took a seat at the tiny kitchen table. "Look I'm sorry, I didn'tmean to rouse on you. It's just that I worry about you and what’s going tohappen if your leg doesn't come good."
"I know. I haven'ttold anyone this before but if it will put your mind at rest, I'll share alittle secret promise I made to Mother."
She nodded her head andwaited.
"You know Fatheralways wanted us to follow in his footsteps? Well, the only way to keep thepeace between him and Mother when I left was if I promised her I would come andwork at home if I never made it playing football." He gave a bitter laughand Rooney watched the dog nudge at his hand with her nose. "Looks likethe old bastard will get his way sooner than I thought. After my gallant actionthe other day when I thought Kate was going to get stomped by that stupid colt,I seriously doubt I'll ever get on the field again."
"I'm sorry, Cade.I know how much your career means to you." Rooney made him a coffee andsat down beside him.
"Yeah well, that'show it goes sometimes. At least I have somewhere to live and a female thatloves me." He smiled and stroked the dog’s head.
"And she's not theonly one either." Rooney grinned and took a sip of her coffee.
"What are youtalking about?" The puzzled look on his face made her smile.
"Haven't younoticed how beautiful Kate has turned out?"
"Yeah, fierylittle thing too. She hates me. I can tell."
"Nah-ah. Not a chancebrother. That girl has loved you since she was twelve years old. It's time youopened your eyes to a real woman and not those fancy floozies you hang aroundwith."
Cade laughed and shookhis head. "No, you have it wrong."
Rooney smiled toherself, watching her brother’s face as his mind worked. She could almostimagine what was running through his brain. Kate was a stunner and Cade wouldbe stupid to ignore what was in front of his nose.
When Cade left, Rooneysat at the desk to watch the video Rhian had downloaded. It broke her heart tosee what those poor dogs were going through. She made a phone call and spoke tothe manager at the RSPCA. He requested a written statement and a copy of thevideo be forwarded to him so he could see for himself what conditions werelike.
After filling in andemailing the forms to him, she sent Rhian home. It was four o'clock and shedoubted they would get any other clients today. Rooney cleaned her treatmentroom and spent some time with the puppy. It was looking so much better todayand she thought about taking it home for Tam tonight.
A car door slammed andshe shut the cage door, ignoring the whine from the pup. Straightening up,Rooney walked out to the reception room in time to see Stevie walking in thedoor.
"Rooney."
"What are youdoing here?" She tried to keep her voice even but struggled seeing himwithin arm's reach again. He still did something to herheart and now she knew he had taken a beating too, she was feeling a little bitkinder towards him. Maybe today would be a good time to talk to him about Tambefore it got too hard.
"What are youdoing messing with Stubbs?" His anger was palpable and she took a stepbackward, shocked by the verbal attack.
"What do youmean?"
"I've just had acall from Dean over at the RSPCA. He wants me to co-ordinate a raid on Stubbs'farm in a couple of days based on video evidence you supplied along with aformal complaint."
"Hell yes, Icomplained. The guy is an arse and deserves to be shot." She grabbed hisarm and pulled him into the treatment room. "Look at that pup. He broughtit in and when he found out it was going to cost him a good amount of money tofix, he wanted to take it home and shoot it." She looked up at him,pleading with every inch of her being for him to understand.
"Jesus, Rooney.You could get seriously hurt here. He has a reputation and I don't want youinvolved with him." Stevie grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes.
He looked at her withtender passion and a fierce possessiveness in his eyes that melted her heart.She’d been his whole world then and that was why Rooney had never understoodthe way he'd left her to take the blame for being caught in the barn. "Ididn't take the video. Cade did, and he has a
