as it always did when I saw Danger act like that.
I’d never hurt a dog in my life, not even by stepping on their tails. And there she was, acting like I would beat her at any second. The poor girl.
“We’re sorry,” the woman called out.
I waved her off. “No worries.”
I opened the back door and Croft looked down at the dog who was slinking her way inside of his truck.
He frowned hard, not looking happy in the least.
The dog meekly got into the truck and laid down at the back of the seats, making my heart ache even more when she curled into as small of a ball as she could.
I pressed a hand to my chest as I closed the back door and rounded the truck to the driver’s side.
When I got inside, it was to see Croft practically crawling into the truck one slow step at a time.
I reached for his prescriptions and got the pain pill, happy that he’d gotten something a little more heavy-duty than the one he’d gotten from the nurse last night.
“Here,” I said as I handed him the pill.
He took it, swallowing it dry yet again.
I grimaced and slowly started out of the parking lot, taking a peek at the pup in the back seat just before I pulled into traffic.
“Do you know any of her backstory?” he asked, reaching awkwardly into the back seat and slowly petting Danger’s head with his good hand.
I froze for a second, wondering what she would do, but she stayed perfectly still.
“The first time that I tried to touch her, she bit my wrist.” I showed him the scars. “Please be very careful. The last thing you need is a dog bite on top of a bullet hole.”
He wrinkled his nose. “She doesn’t look like she’ll bite.”
“I didn’t think so back then either,” I admitted. “And to answer your earlier question, I only have the house that we pulled her out of. The occupants had moved out, leaving her tied up in the basement. The new homeowner found her after they moved in two weeks after closing. She was almost starved to death. Luckily the air conditioner was down there, and she drank out of the pan from the condensation.”
“Bitches,” he said. “Did you ever find the old occupants?”
“No,” I sighed. “They tried to, but they moved to California, never to be seen again.”
“People suck,” he muttered.
I agreed wholeheartedly.
“We got her out. Had to tranq her, though. She was seriously a fighter. Scared to death, too. When we finally got her into a pen, she freaked out even more. I had to let her run free in my back yard for the longest of times before she would even let me come close to her.” I shook my head. “I think it was being outside that made her so… amenable. It was only when she came back inside with me that she started to kind of go back into hiding.”
“Sounds like a mess,” Croft murmured, his hand falling still on Danger’s head. “Alaskan Malamutes are fuckin’ heavy coated breeds, too. She’ll get hot outside.”
I scrubbed my face. “I know. I put her a pool out at my house. Her and Francis turned out to be friends of a sort. Shared their food and their pool. I think Francis is mad at me that I found Danger a home.”
“Why didn’t you keep her?” he asked quietly, his words sounding slightly slurred.
His pain pill was finally kicking in.
“Because I have too many dogs that need my help. And I thought Danger was going to love it there,” I admitted.
But there was no reply.
Nor was there an easing of my guilt.
I shouldn’t have given her away.
He was right. I should’ve kept her. But I’d honestly thought that she would love that family. I’d just been trying to do what was best for Danger.
And look how that turned out.
CHAPTER 10
As long as I have a face, you’ll always have somewhere to sit.
-Text from Croft to Carmichael
CROFT
I was lying in my bed alone the next morning, and I really, really fuckin’ wished that I’d told the judge that I wouldn’t be coming in today.
Only, I’d misspoke, and now I was going to be forced to go in whether I wanted to or not.
Easing out of the bed, I kept myself distracted by thinking of Carmichael.
She’d left last night around nine, and she’d taken my dog with her.
Why?
Because Danger and Lion had really hit it off, and Danger had needed a friend.