desk, he pulls against the leash around his neck and drags the guy behind him toward us.
“You scared us so badly.” I get down on my knees and wrap my arms around his big furry neck as he licks my face and wiggles in happiness against me. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” I stand back up, and Tyler takes over, giving him attention, and then he orders him to sit, and he does.
“If you guys didn’t come to pick him up, I was going to take him home with me,” the guy announces, still holding the leash attached to Bruce. “He’s a great fricking dog. You really need to make sure he’s got a collar and a tag.”
At his statement, I glance down and see his collar is missing. “He has a collar. Or he had one.”
“I’m the one who picked him up after we got a call about him. He didn’t have a collar on when I got him. If he did, I would’ve called the number on the collar.”
“Where did you pick him up?” Tyler questions, and the guy rattles off our street name and then describes my house. “You said someone called about him?”
“Yeah, they said there was a dog that seemed unstable, and they were worried he might hurt someone. When I got there, I found him and brought him back here.”
“We’ll make sure to keep a better eye on him from now on,” Tyler says through clenched teeth. “He’s also chipped. Did that come up in the system when you scanned him?”
“Don’t have a reader in my truck, and I was going to do a scan this morning when I came in. You called before I got to that.”
“Thank you.” I grab Tyler’s hand and give it a squeeze. “We really appreciate you taking care of him last night.”
“No problem, and like I said, he’s a great dog—friendly and well trained.”
“Do you need anything from us before we go?”
“Nope, you’re good. Just get him a collar and make sure he’s always got it on. You can keep that leash.” He hands it over to me. “We’ve got a stockpile of them.”
“Thanks.” I tug on Tyler’s hand and get him to follow me outside, and when we reach his truck, he takes it from me. He helps me in before slamming my door and opening the back door for Bruce to hop in. When he’s behind the wheel and backing out, I ask, “Are you okay?”
“Not real happy about one of our neighbors calling animal control on my dog, especially when they all know he belongs to me. Everyone around us has spent time with him, and they all seemed cool.” I reach over, touching my hand to his, and he flips his over, lacing our fingers together. “If they weren’t okay with Bruce being out, they could have said something to me instead of having him picked up.”
“Maybe it wasn’t one of them. Maybe it was someone else,” I suggest.
“Yeah, maybe. But what the fuck happened to his collar?”
“I don’t know.” I look back at Bruce, who’s lying down on the bench seat. “The important thing is he’s okay.”
“You’re right, but I need to have a fence put in and do it quickly. I don’t want something like this happening again.”
“I know you’re busy with work, so I can make some calls today if you want. I know a few people in our neighborhood have had fencing put in recently. I can find out who they used and set up a time for them to give you an estimate.”
“Better and fucking better,” he mutters, looking at the windshield.
“What?”
“You.” He glances at me quickly. “You just keep getting better and better.” My heart thumps hard, and my hand in his spasms. “I’d really appreciate you doing that, baby.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
He makes an mmm-hmm sound but doesn’t say more.
When we get to his house, we take Bruce in, give him some food and water, and then track down Mouse, who decided to fall asleep in the top of Tyler’s closet on a stack of his shirts. After I gather my stuff from last night, Tyler walks me over to my house, carrying Mouse for me with Bruce coming along. He leaves me at my front door with a swift kiss and a promise to see me later—most likely much later, because he’s going to have to make up the hours from this morning. I reassure him that it’s okay and that I’ll take Bruce home,