Dogfights Pt. 2

     “They sure do like to scream a lot, don’t they?” Jake said as he stared down at the gory mess of guts and limbs that used to be full humans.
     “Yeah, it was starting to give me a headache, especially from him.” Sarah nodded toward the man in the corner as she wiped blood and thicker things off her claws with a discarded rag. The man in question had his arms bound behind his back. He was gagged with a sock that was splattered with the blood of its previous owner. His pale face stared at what was left of his fellow ring runners. “Seriously, it’s not like he hasn’t seen this kind of thing before, considering his line of work.”
     “You know how full humans are. They get weak stomachs whenever it’s their own kind. Funny how they don’t get sick when it happens to one of us.” Ambling over to the man, Jake said, “We’d better head back. Don’t want the brass getting on our case for taking too long.” He grabbed the man by the shoulder and lifted him to his feet. The full human tried to pull away, tried to fight his out of the wolf’s tight grip. Jake’s patience had long been spent, so he ploughed his fist into the human’s gut and flung his body over his shoulder. Motioning to the door, he said, “Ladies first.”
     Sarah smirked. “Well, aren’t you the gentleman?”
     As they made their way back down the hall and past the fighting ring, Jake said, “Ring up Smith and tell her to send over her clean-up crew. We don’t want the cops stumbling on all of this in the morning.”
     Sarah’s lip curled in disgust. “I don’t know where she found those hyenas. I wish she’d just left them in whatever pit they crawled out of.”
     “At least they get the job done. Besides, it works out for everyone. We have our own personal clean-up crew that’s always on call, and they don’t need to spend as much on groceries.”
     “I’m pretty sure they’d eat their own shit if they thought no one was looking.”
     “Would you just call her already?” Jake growled.
     Sarah rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she groaned as she pulled out her phone and searched through her contacts.
     The full human started groaning, so Jake knocked his head against the exit door’s frame as they walked outside to shut him up. Unfortunately, all it did was turn the man’s pained groaning into whimpering. That made Jake frown. This human didn’t have the right to cry over anything, not after what he and the rest of his friends had done to those hybrids. But, it wasn’t Jake’s place to decide what happened to the man, his and Sarah’s job now was to bring him in so someone else could question him. He did take some solace in knowing the brass had something special in mind for this one, after they got what they needed out of him, of course.
     Sarah slipped her phone back into her pocket as they approached the car. “Smith’s sending them over now.”
     “Good, then our job is done. Pop the trunk for me, will ya’?”
     Frowning, Sarah asked, “Would you like me to warm up the car for you, too, while I’m at it?”
     Jake frowned right back at her. “Hey, I had to carry this guy out myself. You’ve barely done anything all night besides stare at that phone of yours.” He pulled out his keys and tossed them to her with his free hand before she had the chance to argue. With an annoyed sigh, the cat unlocked the front door and pulled the lever to release the back hatch. Once Jake finished stuffing the full human into the trunk, he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. As they drove toward The Group’s head office, Jake asked, “So, you up for drinks tonight?”
     Sarah grinned. “Why? You want to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me?” She chuckled when Jake gave her another hard frown, then sobered a little when she said, “Yeah, I could use one right about now.”
     “We both need something to take our minds off of what we saw back there. Where do you wanna go?”
     “I heard the karaoke club serves up a mean-“
     “No,” Jake said flatly before she could finish.
     “Why not?”
     “I’d rather avoid having my ears bleed tonight if that’s all right with you.” Jake still cringed whenever he thought about the last time he stepped foot into that place. He didn’t think he could ever listen to Duran Duran again after hearing that African wild dog’s rendition of “Hungry Like the Wolf”.
     Sarah pouted. “Spoil sport.”
     “Let’s just go to the Kingston Arms. I need to talk to Reid about something while I’m there anyway.”
     “Fine.” They both perked up when they heard the full human start to kick around in the back. When Jake glanced at Sarah, the cat frowned and said, “Don’t look at me, it’s your turn this time.”
     Jake rolled his eyes as he slowed down and pulled into an empty alley, away from any prying eyes and ears. He unlocked the trunk and got out of the car. Sarah reached over and turned up the radio the moment the wolf shut the door behind him. She then pulled out her phone and proceeded to text her boyfriend, all the while trying her best to ignore the muffled screaming and the sound of bones snapping.
     When Jake got back into the car, he said, “That idiot put shoe prints all over my trunk.”
     “At least now we don’t have to listen to him kicking around back there anymore,” Sarah said as she continued to click away at her phone.
     “Are you on that thing again?”
     “Don’t get mad at me for having a social life, Wolf.” After sending off one more message, she asked, “So why do you need to talk to Reid? Hoping to score a good seat for the Carnivores’s next game?”
     “Nah, I need to get his autograph for my cousin.”
     That caused Sarah to finally put down her phone. “He wants that idiot Reid’s autograph?”
     “Actually, he wants Novikov’s, but there’s no way I’m getting anywhere near that hybrid. He threw a chair at the last fan who asked him for something.”
     “So?”
     “The chair was bolted to the floor, Sarah.”
     “Why do they even keep that maniac on the team? He starts more fights with his teammates and fans than he does with the other team.”
     “They’ll tolerate him as long as he keeps winning.”
     After driving for twenty more minutes, they finally arrived at The Group’s head office. They pulled into the underground parking lot where a lion and another wolf waited for them. Once they were parked, Jake popped the trunk and got out.
     “Another dead end?” the other wolf asked.
     “Not quite.” Jake led the two other shifters to the back of the car before lifting the hatch. “We caught this one and a few of his friends trying to clear out one of the offices.”
     Both shifters winced when they saw the full human’s condition. The lion asked, “Jesus, Jake, did you really have to do that to his legs?”
     “He was putting prints all over the inside of my trunk, I just had the damn thing washed! Besides, he won’t be needing ‘em where he’s going.”
     “Yeah, but it’s going to make getting anything out of him harder.”
     Jake frowned. “We’re lucky we even got him at all. A few more minutes and he would have been in the wind like the rest of them.”
     The lion merely groaned as he pulled the human out of the trunk and threw him over his shoulder. As the big cat headed toward the elevator, the other wolf asked, “Was there anything important on those documents these guys were trying to pack up?”
     Jake shrugged. “We didn’t stick around long enough to find out. We left everything where we found it, so once Smith’s clean-up crew is done there you can send someone over to grab ‘em.”
     The other wolf nodded. “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow, Jake.”
     “Give my best to the missus.” Jake waited for the other wolf to join the lion in the elevator. When the doors slid closed he shut the trunk and climbed back into the car. Turning to Sarah, he asked, “You ready for that drink?”