Right into the muzzle.

Jessie moved like lightning. She was up over the big dog, fastening the leather thong at the back of his neck and then hauling the dog from his hiding place and gathering the collie to her like a frightened child. She held him immobile and rigid against her, pulling him down to her and talking and talking as if there was absolutely no threat…

The dog could do nothing.

Normally Jess would have to fight for control of a big dog but, muzzled, Harry was helpless.

He sagged against Jess and the fight left him. The collie lay limply on her knee and the huge eyes looked up pleadingly.

I don’t know what to do, the eyes seemed to say. Help me.

‘Hey, Harry…’

The dog whimpered in pain.

There was no longer a threat from those razor-sharp teeth so Jess removed the muzzle. Now that Harry was in the open she could control him and the muzzle would only distress him more than he already was.

Jess put her hand on the big dog’s matted coat and felt the beginnings of tears prick behind her eyes as she saw the extent of his injuries.

There was little she could do here-except put the dog out of his misery.

The trap was still in place, cruelly cutting the foot between wrist and toe. The wound on the dog’s leg had turned into a festering mess. The tissue was necrotic, Jess thought grimly, her nose wrinkling at the unmistakable smell. She could see bone-the metacarpals-through the torn flesh. They must be broken.

Heaven knew how the dog had managed to get this far with the trap still cutting into him-and heaven knew how he’d survived this long with a wound like this.

‘Oh, Harry…’

She stroked the dog’s head with a hand that trembled and then took a deep breath. Emotion would help nothing. What had to be done should be done quickly.

‘Hand me my bag,’ she told Niall Mountmarche as she came to her hard decision-but the tremor in her voice was unmistakable.