Thanksgiving Night (Angel Paws Holiday) Read online

  Elijah sobbed, shaking, cowering back in the seat.

  Michelle grabbed his arm also. “It’s okay, sweetheart. The cops will be here in just a minute. Everything’s okay. Those men were just burglars. They’re gone now.”

  But were they? Where was the man from upstairs? Had it just been one after all? If so, how had he gotten away from Night to fall down the stairs and run for his van? If there was another, where was he? With the fight out front, had he slipped out the back?

  And where was Night? If that man was still in the house, if he also had a gun.…

  “Mom, what if Night’s hurt?” Lucas shook just as hard as his brother, looking toward the house with wide, terrified eyes.

  “I’m sure he’s okay.” Michelle took a deep breath, fighting to speak around her racing heart pounding against her throat. “He’s fine. The shot must have missed him. He’s just checking out the house.”

  They waited, listening for a siren. Instead, they heard barking: fast, insistent barks. The kind Night used when the cat was under the bed, only louder, more forceful, more aggressive.

  Michelle saw again the big dog lunching himself across the yard to sink his teeth into that man’s leg. Jacob had assured her Night was completely safe to have in the family: a softy. He never even had any real protection training, never got through the first weeks of assessment and basic with the military. Then, the way he went for that man’s hand with the gun. As if he knew … knew about guns. Had Jacob lied to her? Or had the trainers lied to him about the dog? Had Night received formal protection training after all?

  The barks inside the house went on and on. Now sirens screamed in the distance. Lights flashed on in windows up and down the cul-de-sac.

  The sirens grew louder, closer. The barks faster, more urgent, more frustrated. Then Michelle saw a flashing glow of red and blue lights coming down the street.

  She pointed her finger in Lucas’s face. “You stay here. Do you understand? Both of you. I’m going to talk to the cops. Everything will be fine. Just stay here. I’ll be right outside.”

  Lucas nodded, gripping Elijah’s hand, leaning back in his seat.

  She climbed from the Forester, waving down the approaching cars, two of them. As she ran forward, gasping the story out as fast as she could to explain that there might be another man, possibly armed, inside, she could still hear barking.

  “Is that your dog, ma’am?” A female officer rested her hand on Michelle’s shoulders as Michelle trembled and nodded.

  “He chased one man off in a van. Please don’t hurt him.”

  The two men she faced had guns in their hands. A vision of Night catching sight of these new intruders sneaking into his house in the dark, weapons ready, shook Michelle.

  “We’ll check the perimeter first. Is there a gate on each side?”

  “Yes. Latches at the top.” Michelle took a deep, shuddering breath. “Let me come with you to get the dog. Please.”

  “Can you call him from out here?”

  “Maybe from the door.”

  Three officers checked outside and returned to the front where Michelle and the fourth waited. Michelle opened the car door to reassure the boys. Then all four cops and Michelle approached the front door.

  “He’s in the kitchen,” Michelle breathed, listening from the front steps.

  The officers checked around just inside, then gave Michelle the go-ahead to call her dog before they proceeded.

  “Night!” She tried to whistle but her lips were dry. He continued barking. She had to mean it. Night always listened to Jacob. Making her voice as strong and clear as she could, she shouted, “Night, come!”

  A few more barks, as if parting shots, and Night’s claws clattered down the hall, into the foyer. His tongue dangled out the side of his mouth as he ran up to her, tail up, fur standing on end in a ridge down his back. Michelle caught his collar in the doorway and pulled him out.

  A moment later, there was a great deal of shouting, crashing, flashing lights. No shots were fired.

  When the officers emerged only a few minutes later, they had a young man handcuffed between them. Pale and averting his eyes from the lights, he tripped and nearly fell over in his haste to avoid going anywhere near Night, whom Michelle still gripped by the collar with both hands.

  Michelle looked up to see one of the officers grinning at her. “Your dog had this fellow on top of the refrigerator, ma’am. Looks like he was trying to get out the back door when the dog reached him.”

  Michelle pressed her face into Night’s black ruff as the young man was loaded into one of the squad cars and the rest of the house was given a check by the officers to make sure all was clear and restore power. The fuse box had simply been switched off.

  With the lights on, inside and out, the cops relaxed and asking questions, and the boys out of the car, hugging their dog, Michelle tried to keep a hand on all three at once.

  “He’s okay, Mom,” Lucas said, looking up at her. “That guy didn’t even get him.”

  Michelle wasn’t convinced that the dog really was all right. He flinched and pulled away when the boys hugged him, still wagging his tail. She remembered the horrible image of that van door banging into his shoulder and ribs again and again while he had his teeth set in that man’s hand.

  Now she knew what they would be doing tomorrow: a vet visit first, then a new security system. The electric kind.

  ~ ~ ~

  No brass bands or TV crews. No crowds lining the streets or speech from the mayor. Yet Michelle felt that the whole world held its breath with her as she waited, watching the stream of people coming past security toward them. The boys’ hands were clammy in hers, clutching her just as hard as she squeezed them. Her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her mouth and she wished she could shed her winter coat.

  Two days before Christmas: a civilian airport for his last leg of the journey. A journey ending not a moment too soon.

  And there he was, dusty uniform and bulging kit bag, moving with the fast, purposeful step she knew so well. Always in a hurry—the better to reach home.

  He saw them almost as soon as they saw him, brown eyes dancing, mouth wide in a grin. He dropped the bag, arms going around her. She heard the brass bands and cheering crowds as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  Time became strange after that: fast and slow, then fast again. One moment, they where in the airport, then in the car, then waiting to get out of the lot and pay, then halfway home.

  It was then that, among the other stories, they came back to the story Jacob already knew of the attempted robbery on Thanksgiving night.

  “How’s Night doing?” he asked, looking across to Michelle in the driver’s seat.

  “Good as new. He just had bad bruising. You wouldn’t think anything had happened.”

  She had to ask now, while they were on the subject. She hadn’t brought it up in the rushed and infrequent Skype conversations, but she couldn’t wait another second.

  “Jacob, are you sure Night didn’t have protection training before he came to us? He knew about that gun. Even though it didn’t hit him. He knew he had to get rid of it.”

  “Instinct,” Jacob said. “He never had any training like that with us. And he was too young to have done it before he came here.”

  Michelle shook her head. “I can’t get over what he did, especially without being trained for it.”

  “It’s lucky for the robbers he wasn’t trained,” Jacob said, chuckling.

  “Why’s that?”

  “We work on all kinds of obstacles. If he’d had the training, Night would have jumped onto the counter and followed that man onto the refrigerator.”

  Shrieks of laughter burst from the backseats.

  Michelle smiled weakly. She was glad the boys could laugh about it. She couldn’t. Not yet. Although, with both men caught and facing convictions for armed robbery, a new security system, new banister, and new locks installed, Night safe and just as loving as ever, and Jacob here beside her,
the whole holiday season, indeed, the whole world, seemed brighter today. Yes, there was plenty to laugh about. Plenty of blessings showering her. Not least of which, one big, black dog—waiting for them all by the front door with his tail swinging.

  Michelle pulled into the driveway and grinned at Jacob. “One more boy needs to say hi.”

  Lucas and Elijah ran to open the door. Michelle picked up her phone to film the moment. Jacob climbed from the car. The front door opened.

  “Daddy’s home!” Lucas called.

  The big shepherd bounded outside. His gaze fell on Jacob. He burst past the boys. In that moment, Michelle had no doubt that Night was fully, wholly, intensely aware of—and thankful for—his blessings.

  About the Author

  Jordan Taylor has been a professional dog trainer for over ten years, working in a variety of areas from private consultations to agility and entertainment—training dogs for film, advertising, and live theater. Her first book, Wonder Dogs: 101 German Shepherd Dog Films, traces the history of German Shepherd Dogs in movies from the 1920s to modern times. Jordan continues to merge her love for writing and dogs at home in the Pacific Northwest.

  Stories in the Angel Paws and Angel Paws Holiday series celebrate the unique bond between canines and humans with heartfelt, moving, and insightful tales for anyone who has ever loved a dog.

  If you enjoyed Thanksgiving Night, please leave a review on Amazon and find more Angel Paws and Angel Paws Holiday stories on Jordan’s author page: https://amazon.com/author/jordantaylor.

  You can find Jordan tweeting on twitter.com/JordanTaylorLit, updating her website at www.jordantaylorbooks.com, and being delighted to hear from readers through [email protected].

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Start

  About the Author